...2014 The Causes of the Vietnam War The Vietnam War is now considered as one of the most distressing moments during the 20th Century. The Vietnam War was caused by many factors that contributed to the war in Vietnam during the years of 1959 to April 30, 1975. This war just prolonged the struggles between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam. Most of the factors that contribute to the war were the beliefs by a lot of people who wanted to prevent Vietnam of becoming an Independent Country. There are many people who suffered a lot due to this war going on and still due to this day people still picturing how they fought the war. What were the causes of the Vietnam War? Why did the United States become involved in this war? Why did the Vietnam War have such a huge impact both on the Vietnam and the United States? What was the impact that Ho Chi Minh had during the War? One of the most important features when describing the Vietnam War was why the United States became involved in the war, and their reasons for conflict amongst the Vietnamese in the North of the 17th Parallel. It is known that the US was involved for many reasons, particularly their belief in the Domino theory where if one country fell to Communism, the rest of South-East Asia would fall along with it. There are many other reasons why the United States became involved in this war. There are many reasons why the United States became involved was them being concerned with Vietnam and that would...
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...“War, what is it good for.” These words, sung by Edwin Starr, characterized American youth during the 70’s. The Vietnam war had been raging since 1955 and most Americans were sick and tired of reasons behind the conflict. As Muhammad Ali, who refused to engage in the Vietnam War, was immortalized with his quote “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.” However, wars have existed in some form or other since the dawn of human history. Why do societies go to war, and what is the best explanation for this behavior? The answer lies inside the history of war, throughout all of its incarnations and propagators. First, humans are not the only species to engage in warfare. Ants and bees are both seen engaging in large scale aggression against...
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...The ultimate cause of the Vietnam War was that America was against communism and was threatened that communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia. However, prior into America entering the war, the French was fighting against the North Vietnam. Why? Because Vietnam had wanted their independence from France. President Harry S. Truman had supplied the French with military equipment, however, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu results in the French defeat and the peace talk in Geneva. The Geneva Accords ends the French Indochina War. As a result, Vietnam signed the Geneva Accords, and divides Vietnam into Communist North and supported by the US, South at the 17th parallel. Yet, North Vietnam tried to infiltrate South Vietnam by joining with Viet Cong...
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...Can WAR ever be just? Can there be rules about war so that fair play is possible? Has there ever been a war with a just cause? This has been a debate for ages. It depends on who you are asking if you ask a Christian they will tell you any war is unjust because god would not want you to kill others. He would want you to turn the cheek. Others may say it is just if it’s in defense. In this paper, I will explain why the Vietnam War was just. The United States got involved in the Vietnam War from 1954 -1964 to prevent and contain communism. In Vietnam, an independence movement under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh rose to challenge French rule. The United States helped France by giving financial and military aid. The US had moral and ethical reasons to stand up and face unethical leaders that oppressed other weaker people and to contain the spread of communism. Communism is horrible because the government controls every move you make and you have no say in what happens in your life. Such as no right to vote, no freedom of speech, no right to a fair trial, etc. This is what the United States was trying to protect South Vietnam from. Communists used terrorism, murdered and subversion to destabilize countries. Just this alone was a just cause for the United States to get involved in the Vietnam War. Many feel that this wasn’t a good enough reason for the United States to get involved and was immoral unjust war, or that communism is not that bad. According to Aquinas four things...
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...The Vietnam War between USA with South Vietnam and North Vietnam with Viet Cong had lasted about 10 years and had many significant consequences. Therefore, it’s one of the most important wars in the recent years and has possessed many resonances so far. It is an unforgettable war for the USA because it has unexpectedly lost the war. The USA has lost the war against a fragile,undeveloped country which is North Vietnam. USA has lost the war against a fragile,undeveloped country which is North Vietnam. There has been a lot of controversies about this war so far. These controversies are concentrated on the moral dimension of the war. In other words, the experts and the analysts are concerned about whether this war is just or not. The Vietnam War can’t be considered as just war when we evaluate it with the aid of the Jus Ad Bellum critters. It doesn’t meet the 6 critters such as just cause, comparative justice, legitimate authority, right intention, probability of success and last resort. First of all, the USA doesn’t have a just cause to declare a war against North Vietnam and Viet Cong. In this war, USA struggles against communism and wants to terminate the so-called dangerous activities of the North Vietnam and Viet Cong founded by Ho Min Cinh in South Vietnam. USA doesn’t correct a suffered wrong here although it regards communism as great public evil. Western countries which adopt liberalism disapprove communism and they think that communism have to be removed. In this war, USA...
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...The Vietnam War The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was hard on all countries; one in particular was the United States. As Americans thought the end was near they soon found out that it all was going to begin with the Vietnam War. This particular war caused hardships for not only the financial aspect of the country, but for the citizens of it as well. To put it simply it divided much of the country. Student Unrest One of the main groups of people that the Vietnam War affected was college students. As the war escalated, the draft began. College students were affected by this mostly because of the military’s rules for joining. The poor and underclass usually could not pass the tests to get in the war and many others had jobs, such as teaching or engineering that was cause for the military to not draft them. This is when student unrest began. As time went on and the war continued to drag on, students all over the country began to question the war. Students began to question the president’s decisions when it came to the war, as well as began questioning what they were fighting for. Martina Bexte 2002 wrote that “People realized that the glowing reviews of the war effort their government had been releasing were “sanitized” and far from the truth.” Students all over the country began protesting against the war. They were angry at the president for what he was doing to the Vietcong’s, as well as the fact that Americans were fighting for a cause that no one believed in anymore...
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...2016 North Vietnam and the French “It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me.” --Ho Chi Minh Ho Chi Minh declared independence from France on September 2 1945 for Vietnam. As a response, France asserted its colonial dominance and this caused a war between them and the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh was a group of nationalists who were communist. By 1954 the Viet Minh almost conquered most areas of Vietnam. The French were defeated and the negotiation of the Geneva Accord stopped the war between the French and the Viet Minh. Vietnam was soon divided into North Vietnam and South Vietnam along the 17th parallel in 1956. While the Viet Minh and the French were fighting, the Cold War between the U.S and the Soviet Union began to take form. The U.S tried to prevent communism from spreading...
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...War photographers had profound effects on the Vietnam war. The Vietnam War raged roughly two decades’ worth of bloody and world-changing years. On television screens and magazine pages around the world, massive photographs showed the most searing and painful images of the Vietnam War era. The pictures from that period helped illuminated the “demons” of Vietnam, revealing the brutality of the war. A perfect example is the infamous picture of general Loan executed a Vietcong fighter on the street of Saigon, fired a bullet into his head. The picture taken by Eddie Adams gave Americans a stark glimpse of the brutality of the Vietnam War and helped fuel a decisive shift in public opinion. It was a shocking sight for Americans because this image...
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...often manipulate its nation’s people into false patriotic beliefs, such as fighting in wars through eulogization of those who have given their lives for their nation. For example, there is the war between the northern Democratic Republic -a communist state- and the Republic of South Vietnam, known most commonly as the Vietnam war. The American government presented communism as an atrocity in need of eradication, and thus when the war first arose in 1954, the US supported the Republic of South Vietnam. US president, Dwight D. Eisenhower used posters, charismatic speeches, and shiny memorials and ceremonies to allure American citizens into fighting the war. Such mesmerizing propaganda...
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...United States pulls out of Vietnam Nkiruka Bridget Ofunne Chamberlain College of Nursing Identification of Vietnam War Between 1858-1884, France invades Vietnam and makes Vietnam a colony. The United States pledges $15 million worth of military aid to France to help them fight in Vietnam. South Vietnam declares itself the Republic of Vietnam, with newly elected Ngo Dinh Diem as president. South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is executed during a coup. Cause of Vietnam war In 1964, North Vietnamese attack two U.S. destroyers sitting in international waters (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident). In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. A sustained U.S. aerial bombing campaign of North Vietnam begins (Operation Rolling Thunder). In March 1965, the first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam. Historical Interpretation of the war Why did the United States government finally decide to leave Vietnam? What was our exit strategy? What happened to the troops that came home? What happened to those we left behind? No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. "Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic." (Nixon) Nixon and Kissinger quickly agreed upon two premises about American policy in Vietnam. First, the war in Vietnam was not "winnable" in any conventional...
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...No, the U.S Media did not cause the loss of the war because the American strategy from the start would have inevitably caused the loss of the war anyway; the U.S media just helped to speed up that defeat. The Vietnam War was the first televised war. According to the now retired Lt. Gen. Phillip B. Davidson "The war was literally piped into the living room, bedroom, and kitchen of most Americans”. Furthermore the former U.S. Commander in South Vietnam, General William C. Westmoreland noted that Modern technology "provided the press a means of indirectly involving the American public with the war on an almost hourly basis." Despite initially positive media coverage of the war, it soon became increasingly negative, in some cases falsely so. It has been suggested that the media coverage of the Tet Offensive was an exaggeration of the true course of events that helped shock the American Public. But did the media coverage of this major battle really change public perception leading to America withdrawing from the Vietnam War? With the outbreak of the Tet Offensive the Vietnam War had hit the urban areas and had subsequently become more reported on than at any other point previous in the war. Many of the Journalists had not experienced war at first hand to such a scale and were shocked by what they were seeing and the ferocity of the attacks. The surprise nature of the attack coupled with the warfare inexperience of many journalists present in Vietnam saw many of them change their...
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...War on Terror On September 11, 2001, two planes ultimately hijacked by members of Al-Qaeda crashed into the World Trade Towers, New York City, New York. Many different generations became glued to the television in awe as news stations showed live video of New Yorkers running for their lives while down came the “Twins Towers”. Declaring war on whomever was behind this became emanate as Americans wanted revenge for the wrongful deaths of many innocent lives. It was not until May 2, 2011, that the man behind the attacks, Osama bin Laden, finally got what he deserved…death. Two years later, American troops are still fighting in Afghanistan, dying every day. The mission President Bush set out to accomplish had been completed, so it is time to bring the troops home and stop dying for the sake of other countries. The fight against terrorism will forever be an ongoing process, that much is understood. It is the goal of Presidents to come to keep the fight off American soil, something which can be checked off the list for the past 12 years. Like previously stated, war on whomever committed the 9/11 attacks was at the top of many American’s agenda, but who is to say that after 12 long years priorities have not changed. Once the death of bin Laden had been confirmed, the process of sending American troops home should have gone into effect immediately. Granted many troops have already landed safely on American soil, one troop still in Afghanistan is one too many. According to CBSNews...
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...United States did more damage going into the Vietnam War than just staying away and letting them handle it. The Vietnam War was a long and confusion war, it had many causes, a huge cost, and difficulty on the home front. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a big cause in the US joining the Vietnam War because this pushed the president to join and send American troops to fight. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred when the US destroyer Maddox had gotten attacked by a Vietnamese torpedo boat. Two days later another destroyer reported the exact same thing. Later proved by historians that the second attack never actually happened, it was just to help push the US into the war (). President Lyndon B. Johnson had later ordered an air strike and by...
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...Heroes of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement One of the great things about America is freedom of speech. If you are opposed to something, speak out and people will listen. If it’s a good enough cause people may even begin to follow you. This is what happened with the anti-war movement. It was a domino affect that quickly spread all over the country. I do not agree with some logic behind the movements ideas or even some actions. However I believe any individual who stood up for the value of human life and spoke out against Vietnam was a hero. The U.S. war in Vietnam triggered the most tenacious anti-war movement in U.S. history, beginning with the bombing of North Vietnam in 1964. Over the next decade, hundreds of thousands of young people become radicalized in a largely sometimes nonviolent and sometimes violent demonstrations.This anti-war movement started mostly on college campuses. At these campuses “teach-ins” were being held by the SDS, or commonly known as the Students for a Democratic Society. The first “teach-in” was at University of Michigan. This “teach-in” was the first major university-based anti-war demonstration in the United States. Soon after that the first large-scale student movement, Students for a...
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...mid 1900’s. In Asia, China had a communist government and it spread to Vietnam in 1975 because of the domino theory. The domino theory is the theory that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries. Indo-China consisted of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. These countries were in jeopardy of falling to communism because of their location and the domino effect. The U.S. tried to contain communism in Europe and after 45 years, they ended up containing it. They contained it by keeping communism in one country and not letting it spread. It makes it easier to contain if it is in one country. Communism spread to Asia and the U.S. has to be try and contain...
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