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10/04/2012

History Term Paper Topic: Vietnam

By the end in the Second Globe War (1939-1945), a new challenge has risen within the eastern side from the globe, the” communist forces emerged from World War II strengthened by Soviet”. (World Almanac 683).
The public opinion in United States changed right after the end of that war: “In the months after World War II, US foreign policy was tough to define. To most American, foreign policy meant acquiring their household house safely from far-away place”. (Mega 35)
The victorious Allied nations held a conference joined by Axis nations in “ Potsdam in late July from the participation of Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Joseph Stalin. They decided that the French would not be permitted to return right away to Indochina, and that the Indochina peninsula would be divided into a couple of parts along the sixteen parallel.” (Brocheux 105)
Ho Chi Minh, the leader of Vietnam attended the Meeting too, he had a vision for your united Vietnam, but the other leaders offer had already decided to break it up into North and South. Some researcher stated that, “Although Ho Chi Minh never stopped asking america to see points his way. The Truman administration had little interest in seeing something that all. Until america truly had a working foreign policy, Ho could not expect a helpful answer in the United States”. (Mega 38)
Tensions have been increasing in between US and Soviet Union, the communists’ power was increasing in Asia, US and its allies became worried. The Associated Press reported from Moscow in October 22, 1947 “Col. Gen. Andrei A. Zhdanov inside a declaration published today called upon Communists and their sympathizers everywhere during the globe to join in a battle against what he charged had been attempts by america to achieve "world domination by American imperialism."
America tried to assist France in its battles in Indochina: “President Harry S. Truman authorized a little method of economic and military aid for the French, who had been fighting to retain manage of their Indochina colony, such as Laos and Cambodia in addition to Vietnam.” (Rotter)
But French require additional help, “in 1951, General Jean De Lattre de Tassigny, the over-all commander of French forces in Vietnam, visited the united states Congress and made a loud, eloquent appeal on behalf of his government”. (Mega 44).
President Dwight D. Eisenhower “undertook instead to build a region inside the spurious political entity that was South Vietnam by fabricating a federal government there, taking over control from the French, dispatching military advisers to train a South Vietnamese army, and unleashing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct psychological warfare against the North.”. (Rotter)
France lost tens of thousands of its troops; the war “grew out from the lengthy conflict between France and Vietnam. In July 1954, after 1 hundred many years of colonial rule, France was forced to leave Vietnam”. (Vassar College)
“In November 1963, there were more than 16,000 U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam, and over 100 People in the usa have been killed”. (Rotter) Kennedy thought that advisors would help train and also the South Vietnamese to fight the Vietcong.
The American Public knew incredibly modest on the depths of their country’s involvement in direct combat, “It was tough to define and convey the idea of “progress" on the public. There had been few set piece or conventional battles and American objectives have been not defined in geographical terms (e.g., Berlin and Tokyo)”. (Simon)
Americans’ assist for aid in Vietnam was high at the first, since they didn’t know much about, and the government persuaded them the “limited war” has been growing. The fear in the Cold War that began following the Second Globe War was encouraging Americans to assist their federal government in Vietnam. But the federal government misestimated Vietnamese abilities.
US elevated its troop’s quantity in Vietnam, from 184,000 in 1965 to 389,000 troops in 1966. American citizens began to demand a finish on the war, the federal government launched four year bombing campaign that resulted death of 2, 6 million Vietnamese although dropping 7 million tons of bombs. American realized how the war just isn't “limited war”, as well as the thought on the fighting against the spread of communism was commencing to diminish.
A scholar say”Perhaps Johnson was far more prone to military intervention or perhaps events in Vietnam had forced the president's hand to a lot more direct action”. (Brigham)
The president’s Administration was under developing public pressure to obtain an exit strategy. Senatorial hearings, intense television coverage, graphic photographs and daily physique counts. Death and causalities numbers had been increasing every day.
The Johnson Administration also saw its approval ratings plummet. In 1964 Johnson approval ratings were 80% favorable and 80% of Individuals felt that if the us pulled out of Vietnam then Communism would spread throughout the region, just because it did in Eastern Europe fifteen many years earlier. The president tried to increase the progress and hope.
The Vietcong stormed the American embassy killing numerous Americans, 70,000 Vietcong solders attacked cities and rural areas, a scholar comments: “By 1968, points had gone from adverse to worse for your Johnson administration. In late January, the DRV and the NLF launched coordinated attacks against the major southern cities. These attacks, known inside West as the Tet Offensive, were designed to force the Johnson administration for the bargaining table. The Communist Party properly believed how the American individuals were growing war-weary and that its continued successes from the countryside had tipped the balance of forces in its favor”. (Brigham)
By March 1968 Johnson’s approval ratings were a mere 30%. In his first principal for reelection his individual party (Democrat) put up a tiny known anti-war challenger name Eugene McCarthy, but at the end Jonson won, and right after few weeks, Mi Lai Massacre happened, 347-504 unarmed Vietnamese citizens slain by us solders, pictures, video, testimony spread through out the world. Pressures increased on Johnson Administration to exit for Vietnam, and protesters spread in USA.
Major changes has happened because the president Richard Nixon reached the White House, he and his team agreed of the public opinion how the war is “unwinnable”. Nixon and his administration (mostly Henry Kissinger the Secretary of State) formulate a four point strategy, as the public won’t enable escalation, and complete withdrawal would have domestic and global political costs: 1- Vietnamization. 2- Politics of Polarization. 3- The “Madman Scenario”. 4- Triangular Diplomacy.
The Opposition against the war, was clearly growing, the coalitions of anti-war activists illustrated their anger, and asked their government to withdraw from Vietnam.
The Mobe “as it was known, established October 15th as being a nationwide day of protest against the war in Vietnam.” (Simon)
VP Spiro Agnew goes on offensive against the common mobilized protesters
Pat Buchanan, William Safire speech writers for Nixon. Nattering Nabobs of Negativism. Hardcore dissidents and professional anarchist
Nixon replaced his Secretary of Defense, Richardson, inside the year 19973, he chose James R. Schlesinger who served in Nixon and Ford Administration. (US Department of Defence) The us president and his staff try to win the war of public opinion
The Excellent Silent Majority. “North Vietnam can not humiliate or defeat america on the US can do that”. New polls show Nixon winning some public support. Agnew goes on the offensive again, this time not students but the media. Polls show Nixon has bought himself time, opinion rises during the assist of sustained Vietnam operations. Vietnamization begins to “work” and Nixon announces the starting of troop withdrawal.
“On April 20, 1970, President Nixon addressed a national television audience”. And “ten days later, Nixon took for the airwaves again. The news this time was a lot more controversial as the president announced that American and South Vietnamese forces have been launching an invasion of Cambodia. The object in the offensive was to wipe out sanctuaries inside Cambodia that had been employed by the North Vietnamese infiltrating the south. (Simon)
Nixon’s poll numbers decline small as a result of Cambodia at first. The protests increased again. “The most publicized occurred over a campus of Kent Region University in northeast Ohio. On a evening of May well 1, 1970, antiwar protests turned violent.” The violence left murders and causalities, as well as the college was closed “Two students have been killed after Mississippi Country police fired on a crowd of students at Jackson Region University. colleges and universities went on strike; Governor Ronald Reagan closed the entire college and university method in California; within a week, the National Guard had been deployed in sixteen several states and on 21 a variety of campuses. A number of universities simply closed down to your year.“ (Simon)
“In early February, the South Vietnamese army, backed by the united states air and tactical support, launched an incursion into Laos with the intent of cutting off the Ho Chi Minh trail. Initially, the operation was successful with South Vietnamese forces moving twenty miles deep into Laos. On February 20th, the North Vietnamese launched a counteroffensive and, during nearly a month of fighting, captured the territory initially occupied by South Vietnamese forces. On March 19th, the U.S. started out an airlift to remove South Vietnamese from Laos and on March 24th; the operation was officially declared at an end” (Simon)
After those people rapid and hot events, the president rebounded, and took reforming steps internally and externally, he visited China, Soviet Union, and also the troops had been withdrawing continuously from Vietnam. Then he was reelected and got 60,7% from the presidency elections of 1972.
In 1973 peace agreement was signed among US and Vietnam that released about 590 American prisoners, as well as the conflict ended. (World Almanac 683).
How does Public Opinion affect the decisions in War?
The public opinion’s impact on a war decisions was clear in Vietnam War, the war continued, while the details and facts of that war were hidden inside American citizen, but after the media broadcasted people details and also the massacres as well as the aggressions whom happened from or against Americans, the balance of powers and also the plans have changed.
How has the Vietnam War affected other conflicts?
The war of Vietnam has its affection on other conflicts linked to US, the war was an indirect conflict with Soviet Union and its allies in Asia, like China, that Nixon visited right after he decided to stop the war against Vietnam.
The war affected the minds and heart of folks even the new generation who didn’t live in its era, military action that US takes any where, some times, journalists or regular people try to link it for the Vietnam war, as soon as they argue about what's expected, including the war on Iraq, Afghanistan, people (opposite people) tried to find a linkage between them.
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