THE VIETNAM WAR
The Vietnam War, also knows as the Second Indochina War, is considered to be the most devastating conflict after the end of World War II. The battle lasted for around two decades, in which hundreds of innocent people and soldiers were killed, and millions of lives were adversely impacted. The involvement of the United States in this war is taken as the worst thing that could have ever happened. Focusing on halting the spread of Communism in South-Eastern Asia, the United States spared no pains in limiting the influence of Russia in Vietnam, because of the ongoing Cold War. The conflict was considered to be unpopular, and the Americans protested against their government because the intervention from the United States resulted in numerous casualties and sufferings, while not yielding any substantial outcomes.
First, the primary reason for the initiation of the Vietnam War had no relations with the United States. The internal conflict rose because of the disagreement between the Northern and the Southern part of the country. The spread of Communism was because of the emergence of Ho Chi Minh because of his contribution to the independence of the Northern part of Vietnam. Similarly, the Southern region, which was still under the control of French armies, was led by Bao Dai, with his anti-communist ideology. The leaders of both the parts aimed at integrating the two separated Northern and Southern regions but insisted on implementing their ideologies. Soon after Ngo Dinh Diem supplanted bao Dai’s leadership, he started ruling unfavorably. The intervention of the United States occurred during this time, which was illogical and unnecessary. The United States had no intentions in solving the dispute between the two parts of Vietnam, but only wanted to hinder the spread of Communism from the Northern side to the Southern side. Even though the Southern Vietnamese people wanted to be ruled under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, the Americans mistook it as a fear for the end of Democracy in Asia. After the involvement of the United States, the idea of the unification of Vietnam became more and more impossible. While the American government blindly supported the Souther anti-Communist side and assisted them with militaries, necessary supplies, and equipment. The presence of arms and ammunitions transformed the conflict into an unpopular war, killing hundreds of soldiers and innocent people.
Second, the Americans first believed that defending Southern Vietnam from communist aggression was necessary to halt the spread of Communism. The American government took it as their national interest and had blind support of the citizens. They believed that the absence of any hindrances of Communism would make the Soviet Union more powerful, which the United States could not afford to watch. However, as the war went on, the casualties proliferated. Militaries from both sides were killed in a large extent. Similarly, a considerable amount of economic investments were required to continue the support from the US side. The war grew even more and required the participation of more American soldiers, as time went on. However, by then, the war had already transformed from the conflict between two parts of the nation to the fight against foreign aggression. “The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support” (King, 1967). King(1967) claims that not only the increasing support from the American side was inviting high level of corruptions, but the American people also had no support for the decision to increase military resource in Vietnam. Innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed during the war, and the fundamental human rights were non-existent.
Furthermore, the support of the United States for the undemocratic and corrupt military regime was not welcomed by American Citizens. In the quest of frustrating the spread of Communism and spreading the ideology of Democracy and Capitalism, the United States government started disregarding its militaries and civilians. The rising cold war between the two global powers exacerbated the condition. American officials viewed Viet-Minh as the toy of the Soviet Union and went on blindly supporting his enemies. “In our opinion and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America” (Kerry, 1971). The author outs forward that Vietnam, being a geographically, politically, and culturally different country, the United States had no immediate threats or the possibility of any upcoming threats from the internal conflict of Vietnam. The Americans were careful on the Domino Effect, which stated that if one country started accepting Communism, it will take no time for Communist Ideology to spread across the neighboring countries, and ultimately to the entire Asian continent. Furthermore, President Johnson’s administration was elusive about the Vietnam War and could not provide a strong reason why the spread of Communism should be stopped. “Most of the military personnel deployed in Vietnam were the poor black and white Americans, and Johnson deliberately hid the expense of the war and initiated a policy to raise taxes, to neutralize the war spending ” (Lepore, 2018). Here, Lepore(2018) argues that the support of human resource not only displayed the racism of the then government, but also cost the US government a significant amount of money and resources. As a result, during the 1960s, the peaceful protests against the Vietnam war turned violent in the United States. Students were the first ones to protest, and gradually, the majority of Americans were against the decision of the American government and wanted to repatriate from their decision.
In conclusion, the involvement of the United States in Vietnam was is considered unpopular because of the unnecessary loss of lives and financial damage the United States had to experience. Also, hundreds and thousands of military personnel were killed, from both American and Vietnamese sides. The US government seemed too insecure regarding the spread of Communism in Russia and spared no pains in making sure they halt the process of spreading. People slowly started realizing the adverse impact of the War on Americans and staunchly supported programs aimed against the involvement. The domino theory, based upon which the American government invaded Vietnam, never came true. Instead of spreading the idea of peace and non-alignment in the world, especially during the cold war, the US government intervened in the domestic conflict of an independent nation and exacerbated the condition. Furthermore, the government was uncompetitive to show any positive results and put forward elusive facts about the war, which affected the credibility of Johnson’s administration on the eyes of people.
References
Kerry, J. (1971). Vietnam Veterans Against the War statement. Vietnam: Anthology and Guide to
“A Television History.
King Jr, M. L. (1967). Beyond Vietnam: A time to break silence. speech, Riverside Church, New York, NY, April, 4.
Lepore, Jill. These truths: A history of the United States. WW Norton & Company, 2018.
