Us Role In The Vietnam War Essay

Discussion 11

1) How and why did the United States escalate its role in the Vietnam War?

After the Geneva Accords split Vietnam in two, a group called the Vietcong began a war against the governing authority in South Vietnam. During this time, the US was sending supplies and a small amount of troops to South Vietnam to help shape the new democratic country. When North Vietnamese (communist) patrol boats attacked American destroyers, this led to all-out war with North Vietnam. The US also got involved to stop communism from spreading from North to South Vietnam.

Military advisors were sent to South Vietnam in stemming aggression by communist North Vietnam beginning in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration. The number of the advisers grew consistently until numbering over 15,000 during the administration of John F. Kennedy, who succeeded Eisenhower. Lyndon B. Johnson became president in 1963 after Kennedy was assassinated. He continued the policy, but in 1964 he became concerned that South Vietnam was going to be overrun, he was fearful of being considered soft on communism and was concerned that a

The Great Society demanded President Johnson’s the end of poverty and racial justice. He saw the Great Society as a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demand of commerce, but the desire for beauty and the anger for community. According to Johnson three more areas need to be reformed; education, the environment, and cities. His program providing job training, remedial education, a domestic Peace Corps called Volunteers in Service to America, and a Community Action program that empowered the poor to shape policies affecting their own communities. In 1963, the antipoverty program helped reducing the portion of poor people including black poverty to a half the percent during the same