Causes And Effects Of The Vietnam War

Essay, Research Paper

Causes and effects of the Vietnam War War is snake pit. Imagine how most every household in the United States waseffected some manner or another during the Vietnam War. Parents lost boies, married womans losthusbands, sisters lost brothers, and kids lost their dadas. A sum of over twomillion lives were lost, and for what? In this paper I am traveling to state you why somepeople lost their loved 1s for a few old ages and others lost them everlastingly. Many people believed that the Vietnam struggles started in the 1960 s. Thosemany people are incorrect. The struggles the United States had with Vietnam startedin 1946 with a subsequence to the battle between the Gallic and the Communist-ledVietminh. The Communist-led Vietminh was besides known as the League for theIndependence of Vietnam. The League was founded in 1941 and was headed by therevolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. The League wanted their independency fromthe French. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh announced their independencefrom France. The Gallic opposed their independency from 1945-1954. The FrenchExpeditionary Force tried to forestall the Vietminh from come ining Laos where it ledthem to Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954. The Gallic weren t really careful and thisbattle allowed the Vietminh to cut off their air passage to Hanoi. After 50 five yearss offighting, the Gallic surrendered and Ho Chi Minh had won the war againstFrance. In 1954 a political conference was held in Geneva and ended the period ofcolonial regulation in what had once been the Gallic Indochina. The conferencecompiled that Vietnam was to be divided into two parts along the seventeenthparallel. North Vietnam was chiefly Communist and supported Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnam was supported by the United States and the Gallic. SomeCommunist protagonists were still within South Vietnam. These were known as theViet Cong. South Vietnam s swayer was Ngo Dinh Diem who was ananti-Communist. North Vietnam failed to esteem the Geneva colony. Theywere still seeking to coerce Southern Vietnam to go a communist dominatedcountry. Northern Vietnam seemed unwilling to negociate to most states. Theydidn T want to negociate when it seemed to them they were winning and they didn twant to stop up losing. Equally far as Americans positions were concerned, the Vietcong hadno independent standings. The duty for dialogues weren t the SouthernVietnam, but with Northern Vietnam. After Northern Vietnam decided non tonegotiate, the United States and its South Vietnamese Alliess had made programs to takea measure farther through a brace of heavy bombardment foraies on a North Vietnam supplydepot and a naval base. North Vietnam requested that they unify North and South Vietnam militaryforce. The United States feared the spread of communism in Asia so John F.Kennedy provided economic and military assistance to South Vietnam to forestall thetakeover by North Vietnam. The United States were non yet officially involved. Thewar was still considered a civil war between North and South Vietnam. Americans felt that peace attempts had hit a dead terminal. Many wanted theUnited States to draw the forces out of Vietnam and convey their loved 1s place. Many Western states weren T interested in the spread of communism in Asia butmore with stoping the war itself. The thought of get downing dialogues to stop the warand pave the manner for American backdown already relieved a turning popularitythroughout most of the universe. Washington had uncertainties about neutralizationagreements with Communist powers. In the autumn of 1964, it was believed that NorthVietnam was merely interested in easing the United States out of Vietnam but had nointention of raising its ain aggression or discoursing a peace based on earlierinternational understandings. Throughout all of last twelvemonth, the general attitude of the Communist worldwas that they might see some devices to salvage the will upon South Vietnam. Out attitude was and is that we are non interested in salvaging face but in salvaging SouthVietnam. ( Secretary-General Rusk ) This struggle wouldn T have been so of import if merely 33 million Vietnamesewere included but it included all of the universe. Australia had antecedently sent 83military advisers to work with the South Vietnamese forces announced in Januarythat this limited aid would be increased. After worsening, New Zealanddecided in to direct its ain heavy weapon battery of 120 work forces who would collaborate closelywith the Australians. Of all the Western states, merely Australia and New Zealandhad takedn the Vietcong challenge earnestly enought to fall in actively in battling it. Formosa ( Taiwan ) was being held by the Republic of China as an

anti-Communist state. The United States was non e

ager about the idea ofsending Chinese Nationalist troops to fight in Vietnam. The first responsibility ofthese troops was the defense of Formosa. The United States felt that the islandswere subject to regular Communist assault and could become the object of a suddeninvasion attempt. Korea had a direct appeal from President Johnson but decided tosend 2,000 troops to South Vietnam for noncombat duty. South Korea waspreparing to send a combat force of 15,000 men to South Vietnam, they had noother negotiations beside with the United States. Laos and Thailand had no position to join directly in the Vietnamesefighting had also shown an appreciation of the serious consequences that a Vietcongvictory had for them. Laos was normally a neutral government had gone so far as toobtain the assistance of U.S. aircraft in occasional bombings of Communist supplyroutes within Laos. Laos had a stable understanding with the United States. Thailand, an American ally, had welcomed a significant number of American troopsand airmen to its territory. Thailand was in almost as vulnerable a position asSouth Vietnam. Thailand was said to be lending its cooperation in theanti-Communist air war over Laos and over Vietnam as well. Even though thedetails of this activity were kept secret, the American military forces in Thailandwere said to be as many as 6,000 fighting men, together with 100 aircraft distributedamong four Thailand bases. The Vietnam Memorial is a sight that was made in memory of all theVeterans that fought and died or Veterans who were still missing in Vietnam. Thememorial got started when Jan C. Scruggs, a veteran himself, just couldn t forgetthe pain he faced. He had often wondered why the living and the dead were neverthanked or even remembered. He wanted to make the people remember the oneswho fought for their country and the country of others. His first idea for amemorial was to show the names of every American soldier who died or was missingin Vietnam. Second, he wanted something every American would accept. Then hedecided he wanted it to be built without government money. Last he wanted it to bein Washington, D.C. where he thought it would be a true memorial. Scruggs set up a place where donations could be sent. After several weeks ofreceiving donations only one hundred and forty four dollars was collected. Scruggsthought his idea was just a dream. After veterans themselves started seeing thestruggle, they even started helping. The veterans helped start the Vietnam VeteransMemorial Foundation. They set goals for their foundation. First, was to find aplace for the memorial. Then to find a design. Last was to set the dedication forNovember 11, 1982, Veterans Day. By the end of 1979, over nine thousand dollars had been raised. Even withall the money raised they knew they would never have enough to buy a piece of landfrom the government. Senator Charles Mathias introduced a bill for 2 acres for thesite of the memorial. The bill was passed on June 30, 1980 for the 2 acres betweenthe Lincoln and Washington Monuments. The only problem they faced now was their design for the memorial. Nobodycould decide on just one design. The Veterans decided to hold a contest whereanyone could send in their thoughts for the design of the memorial. Maya Ying Linwon with her design of a low, black, chevron-shaped wall. After the Veteransdecision many people fought for a design change. After a lot of controversy, theydecided to add to the wall. A statue and some American flags would be added tomake the wall less deathlike. Construction began on March 16, 1982. Scruggs had doubts that thememorial wouldn t be done on time for the dedication date they had set. Theydecided to hold the dedication to the following weekend, November 13-14. Beforethe dedication ceremony, many veterans lined the streets together again and walkedin the parade led by retired General William Westmoreland. The whole week beforethe dedication volunteers held candles outside the National Cathedral and recitedthe names of the 58,156 Veterans killed and missing in action, one-by-one. Thousands of Vietnam Veterans along with friends and families of the deadcame to help dedicate the memorial. Some veterans showed their war wounds. Some came in suits, others in combat gear. They all gathered in the ConstitutionGardens in Washington, D.C. to hopefully be able to face their pain and saygoodbye to their loved ones. Though many people will never forget their days in Vietnam, they will alwaysbe remembered for the way they helped the United States fight. Many of themcould even tell you they would be happy to fight again for our country, but thenthey might also tell you, War is hell.