American responses to the Vietnam War and domestic political division

U.S. involvement in Vietnam remains one of the most controversial actions the U.S. government has ever undertaken. It has divided the country like never before. The divisions took place along political, class, and racial lines. Partly because of the inability of the U.S. To win the war and partly because many thought the war was wrong and even immoral, politicians sharply divided over the war. Many Americans resisted the draft, refusing to sacrifice their lives for a cause they did not believe in and members of racial minorities thought the war was the extension of domestic race conflict. Sharp divisions over the decisions related to the war led to massive demonstrations and frequent clashes between supporters of the war and peace movements (The anti-war movement, n.d.).

America began to get involved in the war by supporting the French in the latter's attempt to re-colonize Indochina after World War II. When the French withdrew, the United States continued to support anti-Communist forces stationed in the South, initially by sending arms and military advisers. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy sent advisers to train South Vietnamese troops in their war against Vietnamese Communists in the South who were receiving aid from North Vietnam. So, at the beginning American involvement was limited. As the American-backed Vietnamese forces were unable to protect the South from the Viet Cong, the Administration of Lyndon Johnson used the Gulf of Tonkin incident to send massive levels of American troops to Vietnam (Anderson, 1999).

The full-scale war took place under the leadership of General William Westmoreland. Westmoreland advocated the use of air power and the search-and-destroy missions, with the use of regular troops. By the year 1967, the number of U.S. troops reached almost half a million. Westmoreland claimed the war was going well but a year later the Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, forcing officials in Washington that the military tactics needed to change. The United States began to disengage, encouraging South Vietnam to take matters into their own hands. President Nixon initiated the "Vietnamization" policy by further decreasing the number of U.S. troops. The military also began to rely more on counterinsurgency and air power to compensate for the decrease of the troop level (Anderson, 1999).

While the conduct of the war and its outcomes affected American response to war in Washington, domestic concerns were no less important. For the first time in American history, the country was swept with massive demonstrations, involving especially students who demanded an end to the war. The war was diverting money to a foreign cause when the country was concerned with building the Great Society. The war hurt the economy, brought many troops back in coffins, and many Americans questioned the morality of the war. Some American peace activists likened U.S. Presidents to Nazi war criminals. And Presidents and presidential candidates interested in getting American votes had to address all these issues and change the course of war (Sitkoff, 1999).