Was the US Justified in First Committing Military Personnel and Later Escalating Involvement in Vietnam?

U.S. WAR IN VIETNAM UNJUSTIFIED

US IN VIETNAM WAR UNJUSTIFIED

intervention in Vietnam was utterly unjustifiable and uncalled for action. It all began when an otherwise peaceful country resorted in civil war that was orchestrated by the spread of communism. Vietnam, which was a colony of French, had fallen into the offensive communist movement led by Ho Chi Minh and his communist rebels. This event occurred immediately after World War II in 1945. The Northern Vietnam had readily embraced communism, but greater resistance was from the South. In 1949, the Chinese communist forces successful triumphed in the war thus converting China into a communist state. America, under President Truman, and its western allies became wary of the advances of communism in Asia. They feared that this movement may gradually spread into south East Asia into countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. Already the Northern part of Vietnam had fallen victim. The French army was overpowered and sought the help of America through NATO to stop the spread of communism (Gettleman, 1995). This was the beginning of the greatly criticized the war in the American history. This study seeks to show why the American choice to commit its military personnel in Vietnam and its later involvement in the war was unjustifiable.

America is a nation that was founded on certain values and principles that are clearly enshrined in the constitution. These values include the moral responsibility to treat all men with equality regardless of race, gender, religion, place of origin, or social status. Similarly, in pursuit of national interests, the American values advocate for justice and equality based on the internationally recognized laws (Davis & Shapiro, 2003). The spread of communism in Asia, and more so Vietnam, was more of a civil war. America choice to invade Vietnam was majorly anchored on the fear posed by communism as well as Domino Theory, which neither of them was legally justifiable. In my opinion, the aspect that communism was a threat to the globe was simply a scapegoat to conceal the imperialistic intentions of the then leaders. The Southern and the Northern Vietnamese engaged in a civil war seeking to determine the fate of the country's system of governance. The choice of America to intervene was clearly an obstruction to rule of the state of nature as presented by Hobbes of a country charting its mode of governance.

Secondly, U.S. invasion of Vietnam is unjustified as there was no any clear benefit of the war to United States of America. For instance, Vietnam was a colony of France before and after the World War II. Therefore, is there is a country that was supposed to contain the spread of communism in Vietnam is France as their interests were evidently at hand. The request by the French to the U.S. government seeking help to contain the spread of communism did not warrant the U.S. To commit is labor and military equipment on the war. The events that unfolded in the war was that French army stood at the back cheering up the U.S. military as they make the offensive attacks on the Vietnamese. From a critical perspective, it is very illogical for an individual to a fight a war whose victory does not guarantee any benefits. This is exactly what United States was doing in the Vietnamese war. It was simply helping the French, who had already been defeated, to protect their territories from the communist wave that was then sweeping south East Asia.

Thirdly, from a personal perspective, Vietnam and its people desired the same independence that America had already gained several years back. As such, it was the greatest duty of the America to assist the colonized nations gain their independence from the colonial masters rather than supporting the colonists. It is unfortunate that the United States chose to go the opposite way. It fully supported and met an estimated 80% of the expense French army needed to defend Vietnam as their colony (Gettleman, 1995). As a country that was once colonized, United States opted to join hands with the colonial masters to deny Ho the opportunity to unite the nation that had been divided into the North and South.

Fourthly, U.S. decision to send additional military personnel continuously leading to an escalated war was completely unjustified. This is the case as far as the dimension of a majority of innocent peasant Vietnamese is concerned. It is unfortunate that the U.S. army engaged itself in a battle that could have resulted in few casualties if they had not participated. The peasant watched in dismay as America supported Premier Diem, a man who clearly frustrated peace negotiations aimed at reuniting the temporary divided Vietnam (Walzer, 2006). Since this was a civil war, there was absolutely no justifiable reason for the U.S. To send its military into Vietnam and side with one Diem to attack Ho who was seeking to unify Vietnam under communism (Hagopian, 2011).

The war against Vietnam was clearly unfocussed lacking defined exit strategy. The battle began by simply a call for a helping hand from the French. As a charitable nation as far as the military is concerned, it is presumed the leadership of U.S. At that time did not take time to reconsider their actions. They immediately sent the troops and advisory military personnel to Vietnam. From the event that had already happened in China, it was evidently clear that a great revolution was sweeping through Asia and Vietnam was determined to be part of it (Walzer, 2006). As a matter of fact, this is just a transitional process that nations undergo in attempt to find their form of governance. Involvement of United States was unnecessary, as they simply wanted to contain the independence of a nation that was re-organizing itself. Their entry was unanticipated and unplanned for such that there existed no exit strategy. According to the media coverage, it is undeniable that many Vietnamese were casualties of the U.S. involvement in the military. Both the U.S. And Vietnam lost a great number of personnel and civilians respectively in the war (Hagopian, 2011).