Vietminh Unit 37-64 Analysis

The joint Chief’s ideology was an inflated version of the “Domino theory”: South Vietnam was pivotal to America 's worldwide battle with Communism and a defeat in Vietnam would affect the United States (Karnow 342). Nevertheless, by early 1965 after he won his first mandate as President, Johnson concluded that only direct American intervention could prevent Communism from spreading to South Vietnam, and more importantly defend him from being the first ever president to lose a war (Karnow 350). Johnson and his advisers both inherited the assumption from Eisenhower and Kennedy that an independent Vietnam was essential for the defense of Southeast Asia and America 's global credibility (Karnow 393). As much as Johnson hoped to limit America 's

Eisenhower feared that communism would spread to other countries but countries cannot be considered “dominoes,” so the domino theory is false. The domino theory was then reintroduced during the Vietnam War and the Kennedy administration (“Vietnam War”). Many people see the domino theory as something entirely true. They think the theory is applicable because of the blood shed in Vietnam and its surrounding countries because of the spread of communism (Moïse). The American government saw Ho Chi Minh as one of the playing pieces in the game of communism.

the government of North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, representatives of communism. At first, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent military advisers to train a South Vietnamese army with the hope of preventing communism from being established. (“Origins of Cold War”, 4) Eventually the US sent over 2.7 million military personnel to fight in Vietnam demonstrating its firm belief that communism must be stopped at all costs. Even as the number of American soldiers killed and wounded in Vietnam grew, the US was reluctant to withdraw its forces from this deadly conflict. Approximately 58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam war and many more were wounded.

In contrast, the second explanation, which focuses on the military objectives of the offensive, fails to acknowledge the deteriorating situation faced by the North Vietnamese and VC forces on the eve of Tet. Wirtz examines three aspects of the decision to launch the Tet Offensive, the first, the choice was probably encouraged by a need to end a divisive military debate over the proper response to U.S. involvement; an offensive that utilized the entire range of military assets in the south would serve to appease all sides in the strategy debate by incorporating everyone’s pet project and military organization. Second, the choice was motivated by the military leadership’s observation that they were no longer making significant progress toward the unification of Vietnam under Communist rule; both the North Vietnamese and VC leadership recognized that, if current military developments continued, they would ultimately lack the resources needed for an offensive strong enough to effect the military situation in the

The first region that people believe this war started was because of the conflict within the Vietnam region. One reason that there was conflict between this country is because of the different types of governments. South Vietnam was Anti-Communist and the North was Communist. Another reason why the war started is Ho Chi Minh, the president of North Vietnam, did not get along with South Vietnam 's president and disagreed on many things. Ho Chi Minh organized, Viet Minh, a military league that would help fight against South Vietnam and there strong ally, the United States.

Yet, fear of the Domino Theory happening to Vietnam, since the soviets controlled most of the countries there, they decided to help france by sending $160 million dollar to support their war. The Domino Theory is

According to John T. Correll who states that in 1964 "Johnson and McNamara said that the central U.S. aim was to secure an 'independent, non-Communist South Vietnam. '" but on March 24, 1965 McNaughton says that the United States main priorities are: "70 percent- to avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat, 20 percent- to keep South Vietnam territory from Chinese hands, and 10 percent- to permit the people of South Vietnam to enjoy a better, freer way of life." The reason the Pentagon Papers was so shocking to the public was because people began to realize that the government hasn 't been telling the whole truth about the Vietnam War. Also, of the main focuses was on the freedom of press issues. The Pentagon Papers didn 't cause a national security problem other than the fact that the Vietnam War wasn 't over yet.

In 1949 the CCP emerged as victorious over the GMD; there are many factors that attributed to this success, these are: Mao Zedong’s contributions, the Yanan Period and the failings of Chiang Kai-shek and the GMD. All of these ideological and military aspects helped the CCP defeat the GMD. Mao Zedong, who was the chairman of the CCP from 1935 until his death in 1976, greatly contributed to the success of his party in the civil war. The military aspect of his contribution was his theory and implementation of guerrilla warfare tactics. Mao’s guerrilla warfare enabled the Red Army to strengthen their forces whilst weakening those of the GMD, Mao knew he could not rely on traditional military methods to defeat the GMD, as he lacked the necessary resources to do so.

This lack of experience among the troops also left a sense of cohesiveness within the unit. The inability of President Johnson to admit defeat in Vietnam probably made it impossible for him to be elected as a U.S president for the second term. Studying history therefore allows us to learn from our mistakes and change the direction taken during the next major conflict within our nation. The lessons learnt in Vietnam have developed the U.S military force to its present state since military and government leaders are now able to review past military failures and successes but most importantly their reason for failing. References Christopher, R. (1995).

First off it definitely affected the relationship between the countries. For instance,” The United States considered attacking Cuba..” (“The Cold War: Cuban Missile Crisis”) The United States decided not to because they did not want to start World War Three. Also they didn’t want to start any drama again with Cuba. Also it made the United states have a more careful watch on Cuba. Another thing that affected history was that after this happened people didn’t trust Cubans.

The period from 1960’s to 1970’s was a hardship time for Americans because of Vietnam invasion. In an attempt to contain and defeat communism, the United States, oblivious of the enemy capability and filled with pride, invaded Vietnam at a cost of large financial expense and human lives. North Vietnamese military supported by forces of China and the Soviet Union fought the American force ferociously and was able to force America to end its invasion in 1975. As with most other third world countries, Vietnam also has a long history of colonization by European powers. The territory that occupies modern-day Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, was part of French-Indochina, as one of France’s collection of many colonies.

He increased the number of forces in South Vietnam. The war escalated then he decided to not run for reelection. Nixon used the war to his advantage. He promised to find a way to end the Vietnam War, pledging America would have “peace with honor”. Now he had to uphold this promise and implement a plan, but it didn’t work.

President Kennedy believed in containment and in the Domino Theory, but he did not believe in it to the point of waging unending war against communism in vietnam. Kennedy actively pursued a way to leave Vietnam, and a way of maintaining american influence, through financial support and training. He wanted all american personnel of vietnam. During Kennedy’s term in office, there was no open warfare in Vietnam and the united state’s involvement in the war was limited. Kennedy 's strategy was to bring the Northern vietnamese down through strategic bombing and limited ground attacks.

With Ngo Dihn Diem gone, communist forces pushed further south into Vietnam, pulling the United States forces deeper into the war. For President Lyndon B Johnson, pulling out of the war was not an option: we were too deeply involved, but this had gone on for long enough, we needed to put an end to this. "Operation Rolling Thunder" (1965-1968) would be the final push against communism in Vietnam: overall, the plan was a series of violent air/ground strikes that would block off communist access to southern Vietnam, instill fear and desperation, and cause such immense infrastructural damage that northern Vietnam could no longer function as a state. "The purpose of Rolling Thunder was to send a message to north Vietnam" (Bia) but whether the message was that of producing peace talks or forcing the cut-off of communists to southern Vietnam was largely debated: we could have allowed the space to produce peace talks, but the result could have been of North Vietnam reciprocating the attacks in force, we could not risk the time in allowing the possibility of communist production of aerial warfare, our only choice was to act fiercely

After Kennedy’s assassination Lyndon Johnson inherited the White House and took the approach that dictatorships should not be appeased. Johnson was reluctant to become involved in Vietnam due to his political interpretation and policy direction are known as “Containment” and his belief that there was a threat of world domination by Communism which had become a very common Cold-War view among American politicians during this time period. But he continued on to help provide economic and military aid and even authorizes covert actions to prove to enemies that America will take a tough stance in Vietnam. As president, he felt he had to take all necessary measures to protect the U.S. from any attack a and to prevent any further