The Vietnam War was one of the longest lasting conflicts in American history starting on November 1st, 1955. Dwight Eisenhower began the United States' involvement with the Vietnam War by creating the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization to help squelch communist uprisings in the area. With conflicts growing between the Communist North Vietnamese and the anti- Communist South Vietnamese the U.S sent the first troops in 1965 to aid in stopping the spread of Communism. Even after 41 years of the war being over people still debate the legality of the vietnam war. Some say under the international laws of war it was legal and just for America to intervene with the conflict. Others argue that the U.S was under the wrong intentions and did not provide …show more content…
The U.S did anything they could to get the upper hand in the war any many people see their bombing in cambodia a major violation of war. Even with these articles it shows that the U.S main purpose was no peace in the war but to stop an opposing force by any means possible then figure out peace later. Their reason behind this was the domino theory which says that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control. LBJ used this to justify increasing US involvement in Vietnam. In Document 3 is says that No act of violence which makes the return to peace more difficult as well as Killing the enemy is not the main purpose, obtaining your goal is. This is seen as Unnecessary killing or destruction which is unlawful. Document 4 says in Article one that you Must make every effort to obtain peace, and once peace is achieved, do not break or breach it. Article two says that a country should Settle disputes so that peace, security, or justice are not endangered. This must stay loyal to the purpose of the United Nations. This goes against what the U.S did as they did not follow these steps of peace which would of maybe helped the war effort and cause less casualties overall. Document 8 talks about the treatment POW during the Vietnam Conflict. It describes the torture that the went through and …show more content…
With the U.S having countless troops the North Vietnamese kept fighting even though at the end there was no hope. Without having a end goal that was easily obtainable made the war go on for as long as it did. Document 9 is talking about how we need to secure peace soon and that the north vietnamese people are waging war against us and that we are just trying to help the southern people secure freedom. This sums up the endless cycle of the war as we continue to support the south the north vietnamese kept pushing to end the war. Document 1 also supports this as it states that individual/ Personal Business cannot wage war as well as it says that those who are attacked should deserve to be attacked. While this is true for the war it must be for good intentions in the future and make some advancements. This prohibits it from being for unlawful of wicked intentions. Since the U.S did not have an official declaration of war many of these ideas about war. Based on the documents above the Conflict did not have a compromise to end the war as it did not have a way to secure peace except through total war and defeat of the
The war in Vietnam to do this day has gone down as one of the influential and controversial wars in United States history. The war lasted from 1955 to 1975.The nation as a whole began to uproar over the war and the major consequences of the war. There were many reasons why so many Americans were against the war. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam (Wikipedia). Not to mention, many young people protested because they were the ones being drafted while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the counterculture and drug culture in American society and
In recent discussions of trumps airstrike, a controversial issue has been whether or not Trumps strike was warranted. On the one hand, Author Tom Smith argues that the syrian strike was a good thing. From this perspective Smith assumes Trump is taking a step in the right direction. On the other hand, however, Author Aldan Heir argues that the syrian strike was illegal. In the words of Heir, one of the view’s main proponents,” These airstrikes are clearly illegal.”
Nixon learned from Kissinger that the Vietcong had strongholds in Cambodia so Nixon decide to extend the war into Cambodia and for a coup to get the Vietcong out. In Grandin’s book Kissinger mad the case that the war spreading into Cambodia meant the Vietcong had new hideouts and it would hurt the Vietnamization policy . Now the United States bombed North Vietnam and Cambodia. On page 71 in the foot note the Kissinger book even notes that the Vietcong in Cambodia were hiding in remote places but the US liked to attack the Cambodian Farmers to weaken the Vietcong . With the eventual end of the Vietnam War and with the Nixon Doctrine beginning peace with
Many students were taught in their U.S. History class in high school that United States went to war with Vietnam because they wanted to prevent the Vietnam from becoming communists, and if Vietnam were to fall it could result in the whole region of Indochina to become communists (domino theory). In Howard Zinn’s essay gives a different perspective to its readers and he raises questions in minds of his reader such as, “what was the real reason for U.S to invade Vietnam and how come a wealthiest and a powerful country lose war, so miserably against a third world country?” According to Howard Zinn the hidden reason for U.S. entering and supporting French in the Vietnam War was because “Communist had control over all of Southeast Asia, which
“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Although some people may believe that the Vietnam War achieved the goal of avoiding communism and protecting the people, the overarching idea is that it was an unjust war because of the countless lives that were lost from the participating countries, the
The Vietnam War was a war the United States should have never been involved in. The “Domino Theory” was a direct cause of the war. The war resulted in much death; innocent civilians and young Americans were killed. The Vietnam war also resulted in rioting, distrust for the United States government, and the loss of many lives. 58,000 Americans were killed and 300,000 were wounded.
The Vietnam war was one of the deadliest wars in history, during the conflict approximately 3 to 4 million Vietnamese on both sides were killed, in addition to another 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians who were drawn into the war, and more than 58,000 Americans lost their lives. Justified or not it was truly tragic. Looking back with what we know now, we can figure that there would have been much more effective ways that we could’ve gone about our engagement. US leaders believed that they could repeat their successes in Korea and the Philippines in Indochina. And during that time communism was considered the greatest threat to our way of life, and at that time during the early 50’s the United States had a foreign policy of containment,
The Vietnam War was strictly between North and South Vietnam. Many people say that we had no business in getting involved. Furthermore, the Americans were lied to by their own government. Who would trust a government that as been lying to them the time? Especially in a time of war.
Each day in Vietnam, terrible war crimes were committed. I heard stories of American soldiers who had personally mutilated bodies, shot at civilians, razed villages, because their country somewhat made them do it. I have come to this conference to warn the U.S. about the dangers
The year is 1955, and the US has prioritized building a strong nation in the South of Vietnam under the US favored leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem. The following year, Diem decided to not hold the Geneva-mandated reunification elections, as he believed the Communists would win the election. Therefore, Diem, along with help from the CIA(Central Intelligence Agency), ousted former Emperor Bao Dai, and created the Republic of Vietnam(RVN). The RVN never became the full structure of democracy the US had hoped, but they still stuck with Diem, and he remained in power. As the early 1960’s came around, the US increased involvement and funding into helping Diem fight and the South fight the civil war against the Viet Cong, under the JFK administration.
“The United States was indasissible for both legal and security reasons.” Although the United States wanted more land the Mexican American war was not justified because United States knew about disputed area and provoked Mexican troops, another slave state added, and they had no respect for the Mexican government. To begin, The United States knew about disputed area and provoked Mexican troops. In document C it States, “The mobilization of the us army was an outright attack on Mexico.” The United States knew that that's where the border was but they still insist on moving forward into Mexican territory.
The Vietnam war was preceded by a very turbulent time in our history with problems here in the states such as racism, women’s rights, and a president being shot. But in Vietnam they were going through a civil war, which they had done before, but not to this extent, this time they got the U.S.S.R. involved. It was communist Russia and North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. started to get
The anti-war movement grew increasingly popular in American society, which led to America lost numerous supporters. Some advocates with peaceful wishes advocated the U.S could withdraw troops sent to fight in the Vietnam Wars for the reason that it would contribute to less human bloodshed and less property damage in the region. Early opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam drew its attention in the Geneva Conference of
Ho Chi Minh, Former Prime Minister of Vietnam, once said: “You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win” (Vietnam War Quotations). Vietnam is in Southeast Asia with the population of 96 million. The country border China, Laos and Cambodia (The World Factbook: VIETNAM). Vietnam used to be ruled by France but later declared independence after World War II under Ho Chi Minh.
The War in Vietnam is often seen as an illegitimate war and caused a great deal of conflict in the 1960s. For one, the Vietnam War was seen as unconstitutional as under Article 2 Section 2 of the Constitution no president can initiate war without going through Congress. This, of course, did not happen with the Vietnam War. However, it is argued that this unconstitutional act can be justified if similar past president actions have previously gone unchallenged (Lobel 796). In the case of the Vietnam War, this rationale was correct.