Vietnam: Letters From America Dear

¶ … Vietnam: Letters from America

Dear President Lyndon B. Johnson

The American commitment in the Vietnam War has grown by leaps and bounds over your administration, from the few thousand observers that President Kennedy had in the country, to now your buildup of tens of thousands of Americans. The Cold War strategy of Containment worked well enough in Korea to give it a shot in Vietnam, but the political climate within the country is far less favorable to the Americans. First, South Vietnam does not have stability, and the people do not believe that the government is capable of governing Vietnam from Saigon. Second, the reverence for Ho Chi Minh is very strong even in South Vietnam, and his choice to pursue Communism is based on his own political reasoning for what direction he wants to take his people. It should not be thought of as a choice made against America, but rather one made for practicality, as China is Vietnam's greatest ally in the region, not the Soviet Union.

I am shocked that America so easily will go to war over ideology, compared to its isolationism before World War II. The American public is not ultimately a war faring people, and did not hold many colonial possessions, even during the height of colonialism by the Europeans. Public support for the war, especially by the unwillingly drafted youth, will wither away after the cost of the war in human lives keeps rising and rising. There is no easy victory, either, as involvement in Vietnam will stretch on for years in Vietnam to a poor conclusion in the end.

America cannot win with its Vietnam strategy of protecting South Vietnam, if it does not intend on invading North Vietnam as well. The Northerners are better prepared, better led, and more respected, and deserve a chance to govern their country with any political system they see fit. The war in Vietnam to them is about decolonization, and the removal of Japanese, French, and American forces from Vietnamese shores. The choice of communism is in order to receive military support from other communist countries, but the expansion of communism in Vietnam is not dangerous to American strategic interests, in my humble opinion.

The use of the draft in this war has forced many young American boys to leave for war when they are needed in the States. The draft is a tool that should only be used in a last resort situation, when the homeland is under threat from external forces. It should not be used to fight wars of choice, or wars of simple strategy, like the Vietnam War is for America. The devastation of World War II and the Korean War are ever present on the mind of American politicians, but these generations of Americans deserve to have a chance to go to college, rather than be randomly selected for war.