Vietnam War
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- Category: History: American
- Date Submitted: 02/26/2016 08:08 AM
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The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principle ally, the United States. The war began in 1954, after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam. It was continued against of the backdrop an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union.
After French was defeated by Viet Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu and left Vietnam, United States came in. They did not want to see Southeast Asia to fall into the hand of Communist. They believed in Domino Theory, which stated that if one nation became Communist, its neighbors were likely to turn Communist as well, falling like a row of the dominoes. Truman’s successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated about this in his speech.
Despite the decades of resolve, billions and billions of dollars, nearly 60,000 American lives and many more injuries, the United States failed to achieve its objectives.
One factor that influenced the failure of United States in the Vietnam was lack of public support. This is because Vietnam War was the first war to have full media coverage in the US so citizens were able to witness at first hand, what was occurring on the front line. This played a massive role in the war because they lost the support of the public through the TV coverage of the war. These protests and the media coverage did not help with the general moral for the war. The morale of Americans soldiers was so slow that some of them took drugs, shot their officers and deserted.
In its eagerness to battle Communism, the United States essentially ended up assuming the hated role of imperial master in Vietnam. As a result, when the United States sent troops into the territory, they found a far different situation than any other they had faced up to that point in the Cold War. Instead of its usual tentative...
After French was defeated by Viet Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu and left Vietnam, United States came in. They did not want to see Southeast Asia to fall into the hand of Communist. They believed in Domino Theory, which stated that if one nation became Communist, its neighbors were likely to turn Communist as well, falling like a row of the dominoes. Truman’s successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated about this in his speech.
Despite the decades of resolve, billions and billions of dollars, nearly 60,000 American lives and many more injuries, the United States failed to achieve its objectives.
One factor that influenced the failure of United States in the Vietnam was lack of public support. This is because Vietnam War was the first war to have full media coverage in the US so citizens were able to witness at first hand, what was occurring on the front line. This played a massive role in the war because they lost the support of the public through the TV coverage of the war. These protests and the media coverage did not help with the general moral for the war. The morale of Americans soldiers was so slow that some of them took drugs, shot their officers and deserted.
In its eagerness to battle Communism, the United States essentially ended up assuming the hated role of imperial master in Vietnam. As a result, when the United States sent troops into the territory, they found a far different situation than any other they had faced up to that point in the Cold War. Instead of its usual tentative...