Thursday, April 29, 2010

The U.S. Enters the Vietnam War

1. Many neutral observers in Vietnam were critical of US policy. Explain why.
For years, the U.S. had been spouting the view that "each and every country should be able to have free elections". However, in the case of Vietnam, America rushed in to prevent them from holding free elections, because the US was worried that said elections would go against their interests. To many outsiders, the U.S. policy appeared hypocritical; the U.S. was more willing to support twisted, corrupt governments than it was to allow the Vietnamese people to choose for themselves.

2. Explain how US politicians would have defended their policies.
The U.S. would have defended their decision by stating that it went with their policy of containment. They would also have said that if Vietnam was allowed to become Communist, the rest of Asia would soon follow suit. The U.S. backed up its policies by playing on the widespread fear of Communism.

3. The following events are not listed in correct date order. Place them in the correct chronological order. (Write the year inside the parenthesis, i.e. (1965). Then note the reason for each U.S. action, and how it brought the U.S. into deeper involvement in Vietnam.
The reasons you can choose from are: No direct involvement; financial support; political involvement; military involvement. Also, note what events triggered the increased involvement.

(1963) Assassination of JFK - Johnson becomes president political involvement Johnson was much more prepared to launch full out war against Vietnam than JFK had been.

(1955) Formation of South Vietnam financial support The U.S. now had government that it could send aid to and negotiate talks with; South Vietnam allowed the U.S. to have a firmer presence in Vietnam.

(1964) Gulf of Tonkin Incident military involvement After this incident, Congress passed a resolution that gave Johnson free reign to proceed as he pleased in Vietnam; this bill made the war possible.

(1962) Number of 'advisers' reaches over 11,500 military involvement The sheer amount of troops that JFK placed in Vietnam made the chance of violence all the more likely; the more troops that were sent in, the more hostile the Vietnamese became.

(1962) JFK sends military advisers military involvement JFK sending in military under the pretense of "advisors" set a tone for the war: the U.S. was going to get involved no matter what, even if they had to conceal it.

(1965) U.S. Marines land at Da Nang military involvement This was the first landing of official combative troops in Vietnam. With this move, the two countries were officially at war.

(1954) U.S. stops elections in Vietnam political involvement After making this move, America was intrinsically involved in the situation: they could not simply stop elections and then not stick around to support the remaining government.

(1963) U.S. supports South Vietnam government after army overthrow Diem political involvement Even though the governments were corrupt, the U.S. continued to support them. This involved them further in the conflict by

(1960) Viet Cong attacks on U.S. and South Vietnam bases military involvement After this, the U.S. could no longer deny that the situation required military involvement; the Northern Vietnamese were clearly hostile.

(1960) Viet Cong formed military involvement The Viet Cong represented a clear opposing force - the U.S. now had a more defined enemy to fight.

4. Choose two events that you think were critical in getting the U.S. involved in a war in Vietnam. Explain
your choice.
Two events that were critical in getting the U.S. involved in a war in Vietnam were JFK sending military "advisors" and the Gulf of Tonkin incident. JFK's "advisors" started off the landslide of troops that would soon pour into Vietnam; had the "advisors" never been there, a military situation might have more easily been avoided. The presence of said "advisors" threatened the Northern Vietnamese, making them more inclinced to behave with hostility. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is easy to mark as a catalyst; after the incident, Congress passed a bill letting Johnson take free reign with the situation in Vietnam. After this bill was passed, he nearly immediately declared war; the connection is not hard to make.

No comments:

Post a Comment