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1. Explain why the Vietnam conflict was an episode of the cold war.
The United States became involved in the Vietnam conflict due to fears that communism was going to spread throughout Asia, potentially upsetting the global balance of power. When Ho Chi Minh showed an interest in developing a communist form of government for the nation newly liberated from France, the United States became involved as one of the earliest but most significant episodes in the Cold War. Losing in both Korea and Vietnam caused the United States to become even more vigilant and paranoid throughout the Cold War.
2. Then discuss the chronology of United States involvement in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975.
American involvement in Vietnam represented a long and unnecessarily drawn-out conflict that lasted roughly from 1955 to 1975. In 1955, Vietnam had already been divided into north and south, with Eisenhower warning about a potential domino effect related to the...
Ho Chi Minh had in fact already started to rally for support among peasants even beyond the border of Vietnam, into Laos and Cambodia. America never formally declared war by by the middle of the 1960s, had sent troops and was well involved in helping the South oust the communists.
3. What factors led much of the American public to become disillusioned with American participation in the conflict?
Whereas at first anti-communist sentiments were fairly well established in the United States, by the time Kennedy was assassinated a general cynicism started to settle in, impacting attitudes towards the federal government. That cynicism reached a peak during the Nixon administration. In the meantime, the counterculture movement became instrumental for altering the values, ideals, and beliefs of Americans who preferred peace to war, and began to see the futility of sending soldiers to their death. The less likely…
American Involvement in Vietnam There were a number of reasons for America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and none of them are easy or give the entire picture of the situation. The War was so contentious and so costly to young American's fighting overseas that it continues to cause contention and argument even today. The remnants of Vietnam, the Vietnam Vets homeless and aged, are a constant reminder that sometimes intervention
FDR and WWII involvement American involvement in armed conflict is a messy topic; since the Civil War the nation has a history of being divided about wars. Today, many Americans question our nation's involvement in the Middle East; in the 1960s and 70s, the Vietnam war created a huge schism in the country. What many do not realize, however, is that disputes over American involvement in overseas wars dates back much
Vietnam Diplomatic Negotiation: Since the end of World War II, the United States and some of the other western countries were agreed that Communism was the greatest scourge and danger to the free world that was currently in existence. Following the creation of the Truman Doctrine and the heightened fear of Communism in the 1950s and early 1960s, the United States made it clear that they would do whatever was necessary to
South Vietnam, it believed, could be a base for the desired ability to mount military and economic operations throughout the globe and regardless of the insidious presence of communist influence, a premise which stood in direct contrast to Ho Chi Minh's dream. Indeed, as an official policy, leaders in Washington considered that the fall of South Vietnam to communism would be a pathway to the prevalence of communism in other
Given the prevailing view today, though, that the war was an error and achieved nothing except to destroy a lot of lives on both sides, Lind's belief that his view will one day prevail seems disingenuous at best. The biases of the time are not as strong today as they were 30 years ago, and yet no real change in how the war is viewed has taken place. The
Vietnam Lessons learned from the American experience of the Vietnam War. Vietnam has been called America's first and only completely 'lost' war, even though it was never officially declared to be a war at all. The clumsy diplomatic relations which characterized American involvement in Vietnam from the beginning were a harbinger of troubles to come. The roots of the conflict can be traced to the aftermath of World War II, when French-backed