Americas Vietnam War

America’s Vietnam War

Prepare a set of structured, linear notes in order to COMPARE and CONTRAST the policies of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. Demonstrate their justification to defend ‘democracy’ in Vietnam.

GUIDANCE

You have been asked to differentiate the policies of four U.S Presidents in relation to the war in Vietnam. You must include the consequences of these policies and use correct terminology, include key dates, events, and approximate statistics/figures where applicable. You must also consider the effect on the U.S public and any impact on U.S domestic policy which would lead to potential questioning of the Government’s role in Indochina.

You must also ensure you use all citations correctly and according to the Harvard Reference System. Please type all work and include word count.

Containment

Truman’s Vietnam policy = contain communism. If Vtn fell,Domino theory = comm would spread to Laos & Cambodia. So he supported French invmnt in Vtn to contain NVtn by offering $10 mill for French war effort & est. US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Saigon. End of 1950, US had given Frh $100 mill & military eqpmt.By 1954 US giving $2 bill to Frh for war effort & $50 mill for econ & tech aid for Vtn civilians. Contain theory con. why US bec. invld in Vtn war. However, not con. an American war. He justified it as preventing comm. spread. Consequence was US inevitably getting invld in Vtn war.

Is sim. To Rollback in containing comm. but Rollback is <aggressive. It’s pushing comm. back to USSR. Containment thy is > invlvg.

Rollback

Rollback = pushing comm. back to established countries. Eisenhower supported + financed French invlvmnt in Vtn. Increased US invlmnt when French trouble meant they threatened to leave. The US sent 200 US technicians + bombers to aid them. Before Dienbienphu, Eisenhower gave Frh $385 mill in armaments for off. Vs Vietminh. He believed southeast Asia was vital for US security. However, he thought it cheaper to pay Frh to contain instead. Was against direct ivlmt in Vtn.

Truman was around for the first Indochina War.

His famous Containment policy, which was articulated by George Kennan in 1947 (Kennan and Containment, 1947. Office Of The Historian, Available at: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/kennan) introduced as a means of preventing communism spread ‘like wildfire’ was important for Vietnam as he, and the government were unable to distinguish Vietnam as a separate country with its own history and reasons for being vulnerable to communism. This problem of the ‘us vs them’ is repeated by later presidents as it became a longstanding policy with communist countries. He decided to get involved as the French, who before this were not supported by the US in their involvement in Vietnam as it was seen as colonialist, convinced him that the resistance to colonial rule was communist-inspired and part of soviet expansionism.

He didn’t support Ho chi minh for Vietnamese independence as ho was communist.

‘Truman understood that he needed France to act as a shield against communist expansion in Europe. France wanted its power in its former Southeast Asia colonial possessions restored. Truman and France were able to reach an agreement that returned the DRV, Cambodia and Laos back to the French.’ (Richards, http://study.com/academy/lesson/roosevelt-truman-and-indochina.html)

Discuss how the Vietnam War intensified militarily under the Presidency of Johnson up until 1967 (800 +/- 10% words)

Vietnam RVN Government fell in 1963, and had a succession of short-lived military governments. This intensified the war as the Viet Cong took control of half of South Vietnam, (Sanders, 2007, p. 86) meaning there was much more pressure to act quickly in a military fashion to prevent the region from falling entirely to communism. “He repeatedly said he did not want to be the first president to lose a war, especially to the communists. Johnson’s military and civilian advisors and his own beliefs and ambitions thus guided him towards the continuation of the commitment to Vietnam, even though the situation there was deteriorating.” (Sanders, 2007, p. 86)

The Hanoi Government also sent more PAVN troops south to strengthen the VC and protect the land claimed. (Sanders, 2007, p. 86) This undermined the US in two ways: first, it showed the failure of the strategic hamlets programme, which was advertised as the way the Saigon regime would solve the problem of South Vietnamese peasants supporting the VC. Second, the US’s inability to successfully stop the advance, even with the capability they possessed, such as air power, showed the US was losing the war against a technologically and militarily inferior country.

The US had been sending covert military operations into North Vietnam covertly. This led to the famous Gulf of Tonkin incident, which intensified the war as Johnson used the incident to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The Resolution meant the US could openly attack North Vietnam with American troops, instead of using South Vietnamese troops, covert ships or the 16,000 ‘advisors’ in Vietnam since June 1964. (Sanders,