Alverson, Quinton Essays (2083 words) - Military History By Country

Alverson, Quinton 4/27 /2016 English 201 USA's Consequences and involvement on Vietnam The United States has always been credited as being one of the most dominant/ independent nations since our founding fathers declared their independence in 1775. Other nations plead for our dependence to justify their government s , boost insufficient economies, compel tranquility, and m uch more. Foremo st, these actions are all possible due to the striving success our country has with its strategic warfare. Witho ut it, the helping hand our country serves today would have never been foresee n. Why? The leading role of our nation arises from the involvement of the United States in previous wars. Whether it being The Revolution, WWI, WWII, The Cold Waretc. All t hese events have earned us our respect , and we've withheld this credibi lity from the protection/influence we provide against other nation's foreign affairs . Although our guidance remains , the question of the United States involvement with the war in Vie tnam confuses many Americans then, and now as to why it seemed necessary . Originally, the United States thought the issue would be resolved in no time, but the brutal outcome stated otherwise with it being the longe st war America has ever seen. Even though we will never fully comprehend our intentions in Vietnam, the following will explain why it should have never taken place. Vietnam was originally governed by the French until Japan overruled this region during WWII. Once the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan leading to their surrender in 1945, Vietnam felt that it was safe to declare their independence (Bacevich) . Some areas were still colonized by Japan and France following this declaration, but when a man named Ho Chi Minh, a former revolutionary leader, relocated back to Vietnam, he sought help to completely reform all their taken land. Ho Chi Minh begged the United States to ass ist in his reformation and help spread his communistic government, but after the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union, an agr eement passed to restrict any spread of communism, so Minh's request was ignored. The French continued to occupy regions in Vietnam, fighting off Ho Chi Minh's soldiers called "The Viet Minh." When the " domino theory " was published stating that once one South Asian government fell to communism, ma ny more would follow ; the United States feared this possibility and begin aiding the French against Ho Chi Minh's army. At the Geneva Conference in 1954, The United Nations came together to find a way for the French to back out of the dispute, but America feared North Vietnam (Where Ho Chi Minh ruled) would completely unite the South into one communistic country. When the "Viet Cong" (South Vietnamese who supported communism) begin attacking southern Vietnamese who were anti-communist, the United States sent in troops for support. The original plan was to aid South Vietnam to fight off the Viet Cong in order to establish a justifiable government and then we would leave, but North Vietnam and the Viet Cong was too much against the little help we sent over. It wasn't until two US ships were supposedly fired upon in the Gulf of Tonkin (Water surrounding the southern coast of Vietnam) when the United States took it as an act of war ( Shally -Jenson) . I say suppos edly because many believe that we feared the spread of communism so much to where we lied about the missiles and declared war anyway. At the time, citizens of the US favored the call of war due to the previous tension we had with the Soviet Union, but as the war progressed , their cheers changed to riots. America entered a war far underestimating their enemy's potential. We ignored the fact that we were fighting on our opponent's home land, deliberately thinking our technology would play an upp er hand . What we did not know is that a large major ity of Vietnam is surfaced by jungle, and struggled to locate our enemy's whereabouts . The Vietnamese understood the advantage they had in their homeland, using tactics like unexpected ambushes, hidden booby traps, and very complex tunnel ways that allowed evasion