Vietnam Fact Sheet Harry S. Truman, president from 1949 to 1953, helped the French in 1946 by sending them 160 million dollars. The Vietnamese ended up defeating the French at Dien Bien Phu, thus causing the Geneva Accord to divide north and south Vietnam at the 17th parallel. This division created a North Vietnam with a communist government, and a South Vietnam with a somewhat democratic government. In the 1950s, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, there was an idea or belief that stated that if one land in a region came under the influence of communism, then surrounding countries would follow and do the same.
Furthermore, United States’ support in Vietnam was initially supposed to be limited to training support (source A). As even United States president, Lyndon Johnson, was aware of the potential escalation of the war in Vietnam if American military forces were to involve themselves in the Vietnamese conflict. President Johnsons statement that “… we could get tied down in a third world war” (source A) substantiates the idea that America feared the worldwide consequence of American support in Vietnam (Source A). Contrary to this however,
During 1950, in an effort to reduce military spending, President Eisenhower created the “New Look” Policy and developed the “New Look” Military in order to “revamp” containment and deter the Soviet Union from spreading Communism. Although this was his intention, the United States only succeeded in reducing the military budget, and did not deter the Soviet Union from trying to expand Communism. President Eisenhower wanted to perpetuate the containment policies that were laid out by George Kannan and the NSC 68, and his main goal was to deter Communism with the threat of nuclear retaliation. However, as the NSC 68 tripled defense spending to $50 billion per year during the Truman administration, Eisenhower wanted to drastically reduce the military
ANALYSIS America’s policy of containment, which lead to the further development of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshal Plan, aimed to contain the spread of communism and when Vietnam was being threatened by a communist regime, the Vietcong, America extended its policy of containment to Asia. (Source B)America extending its policy of containment to Asia meant that it would support the South Vietnamese government by supplying military aid and advisors and American troops to assist the South Vietnamese in preventing a communist takeover. (Source A)America was scared that the ‘Domino effect’ would occur in Vietnam, which was the theory that if one country fell to communism, which in this case would be Vietnam, all the countries that besieged it
To illustrate, Nixon sent a message to those opposing America by stating,” If I conclude that increased enemy action jeopardizes our remaining forces in Vietnam, I shall not hesitate to take strong and effective measures to deal with that situation. This is not a threat. This is a statement of policy which as Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces I am making and meeting my responsibility for the protection of American fighting men wherever they may be '' (Nixon). This quote both delivers historical significance and perfectly exemplifies the leadership Nixon displayed, which caused the other nations and Americans to realize that the consequences of a precipitous withdrawal of American power would be devastating to the spirits of Americans in the long term. this specific quote demonstrates the dominance President Nixon showed to those who are supporting the Communist campaign of the North Vietnamese government.
troop from South Vietnam during the Vietnam war and having the Vietnamese government be responsible for their own country and war resolution. Nixon then had to face many problems and used detente in order to ease relations with foreign countries. For example, Nixon visited China because he wanted to improve relations with China over the Cold War and the administration wanted to have strategic and diplomatic rapprochement with the country. Moreover, he also dealt with the Mutual Assured Doctrine, which was a policy that spoke on nuclear weapons being able to wipe out both the attacker and defender. On May 1972, Nixon and Brezhnev from Moscow, limited anti-ballistic missiles into two departments with the SALT I agreement.
Eisenhower was the first president to use the term "Domino Theory". By early 1954, many U.S. policymakers that the french were failing in their attempt to re-establish colonial control in Indochina, which they lost during WW2 when the Japanese took control of the area. The Vietnamese nationalist, led by the communist Ho Chi Minh, were on the verge of winning a stunning victory against French forces at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. In just a few weeks, representative from the world’s powers were scheduled to meet in Geneva to discuss a political settlement of the Vietnamese conflict. U.S. officials were concerned that a victory by Ho’s forces and an agreement in Geneva might leave a communist regime in control of all or part of Vietnam.
Nixon issued a policy of Vietnamization, which he hoped would decrease the need for American troops in Vietnam. However, this did not limit the war nor end the anti-war sentiment at home. Nixon, hoping to end North Vietnamese supply lines, launched American troops into the neutral Cambodia. This failed, and in the end brought widespread massacres and destabilized the region. As the war escalated, so did protests on college campuses.
This become the domino theory that if one country fell to communism then other nation in the region would follow. which had a large amount of truth due to their soviet influence. (Transcript: Reagan’s Rhetoric, par. 2) Reagan’s administration had harder press on his enemies like any other presidency before or since then. The largest peacetime military buildup in american history was centralized the belief of “peace through strength” that if America is strong they can protect liberty around the world.
Johnson initially listed eleven possible ideas in his State of the Union speech, but when it came time to draft the legislation, he only had one main component and had to quickly add five other programs to make the initiative seem sufficient to battle a “war”. In addition to the domestic war, President Johnson also made significant improvements in the power of the presidency during the Vietnam War. Johnson believed that the Constitution gave him the authority to commit troops to the war, but thought it was desirable to gain Congress’ approval so he would have their support throughout the length of the conflict (Milkis & Nelson 2016, 365). Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964, which gave Lyndon B. Johnson the power “to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” during the Vietnam War (Milkis & Nelson 2016, 365). The additional authority to make any and all military decisions without requiring additional approval from Congress gave the U.S. presidency more power than it ever had before.
“Why and in what ways did the United States change its foreign policy from 1918-1953?” Since World War I, the united states had always had a problem with forcing its foreign policy. Throughout the past 100 years, the foreign policy has changed depending on public opinion and what was going on in other parts of the world. One of the largest changes in the foreign policy occurred from the end of World War I (1918) up until the ending of the Korean War (1953). Essentially the U.S foreign policy evolved from isolationist “prevention of war” to interventionism “protective containment of communism”.
(Funk & Wagnalls). Even though Eisenhower was able to end the war in Korea, he wasn’t able to find a way to end the cold war during his 8 years in office. Dwight was anti-communist and supported his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles. Even though Dwight worked endlessly to stop the wars, people still disagreed with his actions. “Eisenhower did not intervene militarily in Vietnam to save the French (1954) or in Eastern Europe to aid German and Hungarian revolts against Soviet domination (1953 and 1956).”
They both used the policy of containment. Eisenhower created a theory called the “Domino Theory.” The “Domino Theory” was a theory that stated that if one country became communist then their neighboring country would become communist too (Ayers 950). It was made for awareness to prevent communism. The strongest Military efforts included brinkmanship and massive retaliation.
There was one more main idea president Eisenhower wanted to get across to other countries and that was that together the world is stronger. Globalization was very important to the president he wanted to have stable trade route and help enhance the well being of the rest of the world. Of course the president wished to also have relationship with other countries that was not just one sided he wanted other countries to help if when they could. During his inaugural speech the president said, “Assessing realistically the needs and capacities of proven friends of freedom, we shall strive to help them to achieve their own security and well-being. Likewise, we shall count upon them to assume, within the limits of their resources, their full and just burdens in the common defense of freedom.”
The United States believed that it was their responsibility to contain Communism. They wanted to stop the spread of communism across the world. They saw that Vietnam as the start of the spread of Communism so it contributed as one of the reasons of going to war. The Domino theory was a theory that if one country in a region falls to Communism that the surrounding countries would fall to communism as well. The U.S. also saw the Domino Theory in Vietnam.
