Nov 11, · China's Xi warns of 'Cold War-era' tensions in Asia-Pacific The United States, Britain and Australia announced in September that they had formed a new military alliance -- This essay is based on a presentation at the Butcher History Institute for Teachers on Why Does America Go To War?, March , , sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the First Division Museum at Cantigny, and Carthage College.. Why did the U.S. go to war in Vietnam? This is a question historians continue to debate Aug 31, · A Research Paper on Alzheimer’s Disease. In this paper, I will be giving an overview of Alzheimer’s disease. This will include its history, prognosis and treatment available and recent advancements made towards finding a cure. Alzheimer’s disease is a
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This essay is based on a presentation at the Butcher History Institute for Teachers on Why Does America Go To War? Why did the U. go to war in Vietnam? This is a question historians continue to debate.
One of the main reasons it remains a source of argument is that it is difficult to say when the U, cold war research paper. war actually began. Should we trace it back to the s when President Harry Truman authorized U. financial support of the French war in Indochina? Did it begin in the s when the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam in two and President Dwight Eisenhower offered U.
aid to help establish a non-communist nation in the southern half to counter the communist north? relations with the region but the policymaking of his successors, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. escalated its war in Vietnam, starting with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in which Congress authorized Johnson to use military force without declaring war. In MarchU. Marines landed at Danang. Rather than identifying one starting point, it is more accurate to understand U.
intervention in Vietnam as a gradual process. It involved economic aid, political and military advisors, and boots on the ground. All of the key moments in the process emerged from different contexts and the thinking of various players, but there were three threads that unified them: communism, the Cold War, and credibility.
Understanding the role of communism requires placing Vietnam in a regional context and examining Southeast Asian concerns about communism. A regional approach to the Vietnam War is important because U. The global context is also important because Cold War tensions between the U. At the same time that we must investigate Vietnamese and Southeast Asian agency regarding the conflict, cold war research paper, we also must acknowledge the significance of Cold War superpower rivalries cold war research paper decision making to how the war played out.
Concerns about credibility motivated U. policymakers to commit advisors, money, materiel, and troops to Vietnam, lest allies lose faith in American resolve to build a global democratic bulwark against communism and adversaries hear threats ring hollow. The context of decolonization helps explain regional Southeast Asian perspectives on communism. It mattered whether the new countries established communist or non-communist governments.
A colony of France since the mid-nineteenth century, Vietnam fell under Japanese control in after France surrendered to Germany during World War II. After the Viet Minh won a decisive victory at Dien Bien Phu in Maycold war research paper, France surrendered, cold war research paper, and the Geneva Accords that summer called for dividing Vietnam in half at the seventeenth parallel. Other Southeast Asian nations also transitioned from colonial to independent status in the years after World War II, and tensions and conflicts between communist and non-communist movements existed not just in Vietnam but also in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Regional non-communist governments supported the Republic of Vietnam, cold war research paper southern half of the divided country, believing its existence was a crucial bulwark against the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. At the annual meeting in Taipei, delegates decided to open a special APACL office in Saigon to demonstrate support for the Saigon government. Newspapers in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Manila published editorials supporting South Vietnam. An APACL youth conference featured attendees from the U.
President Marcos of the Philippines presiding over a SEATO meeting in Southeast Asia was so important in the minds of America policymakers and their allies that the U. This designation provided a justification for U.
involvement in Vietnam because SEATO members pledged to act to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Just as regional concerns about communism influenced support for South Vietnam, the Vietnam conflict also played into Cold War superpower rivalries, which, in turn, cold war research paper, shaped superpower decision making. As the U. The U. gave economic and cold war research paper aid to South Vietnam, while the Soviet Union and China offered similar assistance to North Vietnam.
Hanoi leaders understood that they walked a tightrope between their two contentious benefactors, as North Vietnam received significant support from both countries. North Vietnam also benefitted from trade with Eastern Europe through its inclusion in the Soviet sphere. Although authorities cold war research paper both Vietnams tried cold war research paper assert themselves and resist superpower control, the Cold War power struggle between the U.
In the context of the Cold War power struggle, and in the context of U. efforts to court allies in the decolonizing world, Americans had to prove that their pronouncements about containing communism, supporting non-communist governments, and aiding democracy building were credible.
Presidents from Truman through Johnson worried about American credibility. must embark on a massive buildup of conventional and nuclear weapons, NSC contended. President Eisenhower had considered authorizing a U. military action, including a possible nuclear strike, to help the French at Dien Bien Phu in Maybut Congress refused to approve the use of military force unless it was part of an international coalition.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles failed to convince any major U. ally to help. After the Geneva Accords created South Vietnam, Eisenhower offered U. support to the new government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Eisenhower considered the partition of Vietnam a victory for the U. in the context of the Cold War. Like Korea, Vietnam was now only half communist, cold war research paper, and the division of the country maintained the balance of power between the two spheres.
Kennedy argued that if the U. did not act aggressively to protect free nations, especially in Asia, China would come in and dominate the region. That type of approach would just play into the hands of the communists, and in cold war research paper case, Kennedy believed that the U, cold war research paper.
had an obligation to help build and support strong non-communist native governments. His model was the Philippines, cold war research paper Colonel Edward Lansdale had groomed Ramon Magsaysay to be president. Kennedy employed the rhetoric of idealism to try to convince the American public that the U.
had a moral responsibility to help governments and political movements that were trying to resist communist insurgencies. Historians still debate what Kennedy would have done regarding Vietnam had he lived beyond November Some close to Kennedy and members of his administration believe he would have escalated as Johnson did.
Others have maintained cold war research paper he would not have escalated. President Lyndon B. Johnson ascribed to the domino theory, and he believed that South Vietnam was the victim of communist aggression from and directed by North Vietnam. If the U. failed to step in and help South Vietnam, cold war research paper, it would send a message to the rest of Southeast Asia and the world that the U. was not truly committed to containing communism. troops to the fight.
He believed the South Vietnamese should fight for themselves with American aid and advice. Publicly, though, he and members of his administration, especially Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, emphasized the strategic importance of South Vietnam.
A Hanoi victory in the war, McNamara argued, would place Vietnam that much closer to Chinese control, and then all of Cold war research paper Asia would be in danger. military presence in Vietnam from through His successor, Richard Nixon, entered the presidency in a world that looked much different than it had in Americans across the political spectrum opposed the Vietnam War, the U.
The changing conditions of the context surrounding Vietnam made what happened there seem less strategically important to the U. than it had appeared in or Additionally, Nixon was more pragmatic than idealistic in his foreign policy worldview.
He believed that the U. intervention was a gradual process that included economic aid, diplomacy, politics, cold war research paper, presidential personalities, and military force. Regional alliances in Southeast Asia and superpower tensions between the U.
Historians may never agree about when the war actually started, but all of these factors informed U. Asselin, Pierre. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, Chapman, Jessica, cold war research paper. Cauldron of Resistance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and s Southern Vietnam. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, Herring, George. New York: McGraw-Hill, Lawrence, Mark Atwood. Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam.
Lind, Michael. New York: Free Press, Logevall, Fredrik.
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