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| Wolfe, Frank. Protesting the Vietnam War. (1967). Flickr. Web. |
The Vietnam War: Was It Just?
There are many reasons why the Vietnam war was fought, as well as many underlying reasons. The war was fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The main cause for fighting this war (in the beginning) was to keep France was taking back control of the Vietnamese land and to reunify Vietnam. Once they had defeated France, communism became a very pressing issue in North Vietnam The Vietnam War took place from 1955 to 1975 and involved over 21 countries including France, Japan, UK, North and South Korea, China, Soviet Union, Cuba, Cambodia (during the time of the Khmer Rouge), Australia, etc. Many of these countries were allies of the major opposing sides - North and South Vietnam. In the case of the U.S. we were allies with France so we stepped in to back them up. on March 8, 1965 to Some tactics used by the different sides were guerrilla and tunnel warfare and full-time soldiers. Tunnel warfare, in particular, was a significant feature of this war. Vietnam created hundreds of tunnels that would lead to trap doors, holding cells, etc. which were used by North Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers to get in and out of enemy territory without being detected. The south side of Vietnam wanted the entire country to become communist. The south opposed communist rule and when the U.S. saw that there was tension, we installed a government in Southern Vietnam to make sure that communism didn’t win. The Red Scare made everyone in the US afraid that communism would take over the entire world so they thought that they needed to protect their allies and any other country that they possibly could. By doing that we caused a widespread anger that caused the North and the South to go to war. We did not have a solid reason to join this war-- it was just for the Vietnamese to fight, but I don’t think that U.S. involvement can be considered just because we clearly were afraid of the possibility of communism stretching around the world, but involving ourselves and causing a lot of problems in not only Vietnam but the U.S.
The Vietnam War lasted for about 20 years, which means that there were 5 presidents that served throughout its course each of them got us more and more involved in a war that had nothing to do with us. The 5 presidents who served were, in order: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Beginning with Kennedy, he sent 10,000 “advisors” to train Vietnamese soldiers. Moving on to Johnson, he did quite a lot for this war. In 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident happened and Johnson was given the ok signal by congress to wage war. Johnson sent ground troops to Vietnam in 1965 and began Operation Rolling Thunder. In 1968, he began peace negotiations, which were continued in Paris by President Nixon, who started the retreat of the American troops right after the Vietnamisation of the war in 1969. After many violent anti-war protests, Nixon finally brought all American ground forces home Vietnam in 1971 and the Pentagon Papers were released by the Pentagon. President Johnson stated in his campaign that he would not ever send troops over to Vietnam; which he then went back on. He sent troops without an official declaration of war. In the beginning of U.S. involvement, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which was very important in our involvement because it started a lot of fighting after congress gave Johnson the “ok” to take any measures he deemed necessary to keep Southeast Asia (Yoshua Wuyts, What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War).
There were a couple policies put in place during the Vietnam war by the U.S. One of the most important policies was the draft that began on December 1, 1969 and called on all men born from 1944-1950 to participate in protect their country. President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed it so that we could have enough soldiers to serve in this army. He had previously said he would never send people to fight in Vietnam. He then was persuaded by the National Security Council to send troops without an official declaration. The National Security Council is a group that ensures the safety of all Americans and they felt that it was necessary to wage war in order to do that to their best ability. It was intended to give the U.S. more soldiers to fight in the war. There were 6,058,000 soldiers sent to Vietnam through the draft and 3,029,000 soldiers were volunteers (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft).
The draft was hated by 80% of the population (Shmoop, Politics in the Vietnam War). People felt that the draft was just a way for the government to kill off a lot of people and it wasn’t fair to be forced to go out and die for their country. People became “draft dodgers,” which means that they either faked being mentally/physically ill, fled to Canada or Mexico, pretended to be gay, etc. In 1970, the draft faced its highest resistance rates ever. People began burning their draft cards, which is illegal, as a sign of protest. By 1972, 200,600 people had resisted the draft. I think that the draft was unjust. The draft was made up of 25% poor men, 55% working class men, and 20% middle class men (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft). The board at the draft center would have to look through an applicant's draft status and usually would defer upper- class applicants. This is not fair because the draft forced men to go fight for something they may or may not believe in. Some people, because of their religion, did not believe in fighting in wars and were forced to because of the draft. He was initially not keen on the idea of sending troops to Vietnam, but was told by his advisors that he would be seen as a “weak and spineless president” if he didn’t send troops. He went back on his promise and ended up proposing the draft and sending over 2 million men to war. The consequences were pretty severe. The government faced a lot of backlash from the draft and people were incredibly angry about being forced to go fight and potentially die for their country. S The draft was hated by majority of the population. People felt that the draft was just a way for the government to kill off a lot of people and they thought that it wasn’t fair to be forced to go out and die for their country. People became “draft dodgers” which means that they either faked being mentally/physically ill, fled to Canada or Mexico, pretended to be gay, etc. In 1970 the draft faced its highest resistance rates ever. People began burning their draft cards which is illegal as a sign of protest. By 1972, 200,600 people had resisted the draft (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft).
The Vietnam War had was fought for several underlying and immediate reasons. The war itself that was between the Vietnamese and France (which then turned into North Vietnam vs. South Vietnam) was just.France wanting to retake control of Vietnam was both unfair and unnecessary, and communism and the separation of Vietnam was a very pressing issue that scared a lot of Americans. I do not, however, support the involvement of the U.S. in this war. I think that we just nudged our way in and caused a lot more problems in both Vietnam and our own country. The U.S just jumped into a war that they weren’t meant to be in. We tried to fix something that wasn’t our job to fix. This war caused tension not only in Vietnam, but in our own country as well. It pitted people against each other and caused a giant resistance party to form because of the draft. President Johnson lost a lot of trust from the people of the U.S. after he went back on his promise and sent over 2 million men to die in a war that had nothing to do with them.
Citations:
Bia, Ku. "Vietnam War Draft - The Vietnam War." The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, 9 May 2016. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-draft/>.
There are many reasons why the Vietnam war was fought, as well as many underlying reasons. The war was fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The main cause for fighting this war (in the beginning) was to keep France was taking back control of the Vietnamese land and to reunify Vietnam. Once they had defeated France, communism became a very pressing issue in North Vietnam The Vietnam War took place from 1955 to 1975 and involved over 21 countries including France, Japan, UK, North and South Korea, China, Soviet Union, Cuba, Cambodia (during the time of the Khmer Rouge), Australia, etc. Many of these countries were allies of the major opposing sides - North and South Vietnam. In the case of the U.S. we were allies with France so we stepped in to back them up. on March 8, 1965 to Some tactics used by the different sides were guerrilla and tunnel warfare and full-time soldiers. Tunnel warfare, in particular, was a significant feature of this war. Vietnam created hundreds of tunnels that would lead to trap doors, holding cells, etc. which were used by North Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers to get in and out of enemy territory without being detected. The south side of Vietnam wanted the entire country to become communist. The south opposed communist rule and when the U.S. saw that there was tension, we installed a government in Southern Vietnam to make sure that communism didn’t win. The Red Scare made everyone in the US afraid that communism would take over the entire world so they thought that they needed to protect their allies and any other country that they possibly could. By doing that we caused a widespread anger that caused the North and the South to go to war. We did not have a solid reason to join this war-- it was just for the Vietnamese to fight, but I don’t think that U.S. involvement can be considered just because we clearly were afraid of the possibility of communism stretching around the world, but involving ourselves and causing a lot of problems in not only Vietnam but the U.S.
The Vietnam War lasted for about 20 years, which means that there were 5 presidents that served throughout its course each of them got us more and more involved in a war that had nothing to do with us. The 5 presidents who served were, in order: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. Beginning with Kennedy, he sent 10,000 “advisors” to train Vietnamese soldiers. Moving on to Johnson, he did quite a lot for this war. In 1964, the Gulf of Tonkin incident happened and Johnson was given the ok signal by congress to wage war. Johnson sent ground troops to Vietnam in 1965 and began Operation Rolling Thunder. In 1968, he began peace negotiations, which were continued in Paris by President Nixon, who started the retreat of the American troops right after the Vietnamisation of the war in 1969. After many violent anti-war protests, Nixon finally brought all American ground forces home Vietnam in 1971 and the Pentagon Papers were released by the Pentagon. President Johnson stated in his campaign that he would not ever send troops over to Vietnam; which he then went back on. He sent troops without an official declaration of war. In the beginning of U.S. involvement, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which was very important in our involvement because it started a lot of fighting after congress gave Johnson the “ok” to take any measures he deemed necessary to keep Southeast Asia (Yoshua Wuyts, What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War).
There were a couple policies put in place during the Vietnam war by the U.S. One of the most important policies was the draft that began on December 1, 1969 and called on all men born from 1944-1950 to participate in protect their country. President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed it so that we could have enough soldiers to serve in this army. He had previously said he would never send people to fight in Vietnam. He then was persuaded by the National Security Council to send troops without an official declaration. The National Security Council is a group that ensures the safety of all Americans and they felt that it was necessary to wage war in order to do that to their best ability. It was intended to give the U.S. more soldiers to fight in the war. There were 6,058,000 soldiers sent to Vietnam through the draft and 3,029,000 soldiers were volunteers (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft).
The draft was hated by 80% of the population (Shmoop, Politics in the Vietnam War). People felt that the draft was just a way for the government to kill off a lot of people and it wasn’t fair to be forced to go out and die for their country. People became “draft dodgers,” which means that they either faked being mentally/physically ill, fled to Canada or Mexico, pretended to be gay, etc. In 1970, the draft faced its highest resistance rates ever. People began burning their draft cards, which is illegal, as a sign of protest. By 1972, 200,600 people had resisted the draft. I think that the draft was unjust. The draft was made up of 25% poor men, 55% working class men, and 20% middle class men (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft). The board at the draft center would have to look through an applicant's draft status and usually would defer upper- class applicants. This is not fair because the draft forced men to go fight for something they may or may not believe in. Some people, because of their religion, did not believe in fighting in wars and were forced to because of the draft. He was initially not keen on the idea of sending troops to Vietnam, but was told by his advisors that he would be seen as a “weak and spineless president” if he didn’t send troops. He went back on his promise and ended up proposing the draft and sending over 2 million men to war. The consequences were pretty severe. The government faced a lot of backlash from the draft and people were incredibly angry about being forced to go fight and potentially die for their country. S The draft was hated by majority of the population. People felt that the draft was just a way for the government to kill off a lot of people and they thought that it wasn’t fair to be forced to go out and die for their country. People became “draft dodgers” which means that they either faked being mentally/physically ill, fled to Canada or Mexico, pretended to be gay, etc. In 1970 the draft faced its highest resistance rates ever. People began burning their draft cards which is illegal as a sign of protest. By 1972, 200,600 people had resisted the draft (Bia Ku, The Vietnam War Draft).
The Vietnam War had was fought for several underlying and immediate reasons. The war itself that was between the Vietnamese and France (which then turned into North Vietnam vs. South Vietnam) was just.France wanting to retake control of Vietnam was both unfair and unnecessary, and communism and the separation of Vietnam was a very pressing issue that scared a lot of Americans. I do not, however, support the involvement of the U.S. in this war. I think that we just nudged our way in and caused a lot more problems in both Vietnam and our own country. The U.S just jumped into a war that they weren’t meant to be in. We tried to fix something that wasn’t our job to fix. This war caused tension not only in Vietnam, but in our own country as well. It pitted people against each other and caused a giant resistance party to form because of the draft. President Johnson lost a lot of trust from the people of the U.S. after he went back on his promise and sent over 2 million men to die in a war that had nothing to do with them.
Citations:
Bia, Ku. "Vietnam War Draft - The Vietnam War." The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, 9 May 2016. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://thevietnamwar.info/vietnam-war-draft/>.
"Guerilla Tactics: An Overview." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/guerrilla/>.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Politics in The Vietnam War." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 10 May 2016.
"U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Gulf of Tonkin and Escalation, 1964 - 1961–1968 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War: The Gulf of Tonkin and Escalation, 1964 - 1961–1968 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. United States Department of State, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/gulf-of-tonkin>.
War Team, The Vietnam. "From 1965 to 1973: The United States in Vietnam by Year - The Vietnam War." The Vietnam War. The Vietnam War, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://thevietnamwar.info/1965-1973-united-states-vietnam-year/>.
Wuyts, Yoshua. "What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War?" What Was the Role of Each Individual President in the Vietnam War? Quota, 16 Mar. 2011. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-role-of-each-individual-president-in-the-Vietnam-War>.
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