HIST 405 Week 7 Case Study Assignment; Pivotal Moments in US History - The Vietnam War and Agent Orange

lOMoARcPSD|1709022 Many things caused the United States to join the Vietnam War. After WWII, America ended its relations and alliance with the Soviet Union. This caused a cold war between the two countries involving military and form of government. The Soviet Union began harsh dictatorships while also spreading communism around Asia and Eastern Europe. The United States wanted to prevent the spread of communism and come to aid against anyone who was facing the communist threat. Soon after, the communist North Korea invaded anticommunist South Korea. Under the flag of the United Nations, America came to defend the anticommunist cause in South Korea. The U.S. government feared that all of Asia would become communist, so they decided to back the French effort in Indochina. Later, 8 U.S. planes were flown to Vietnam to deliver weapons, which was the first direct American aid to the anticommunist cause in Vietnam. Later, the French were getting pushed back and needed help. President Eisenhower was reluctant at first, and people like Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and Senator John F. Kennedy warned that the fall of Vietnam could bring further triumphs of communism throughout Asia. The question of who would reign over a unified Vietnam was to be answered in an election internationally supervised. The U.S. government stayed firm on not giving any territory over to the Communists, which ultimately caused America to join the war in Vietnam officially. All of this was proven true in (Isserman, 2016). The tensions during the Vietnam War were very high in America. People did not know what to expect and thought the effort was wasted meddling in foreign affairs. Socially, people did not know whether to trust the government anymore. They were spending too much time focused on the war effort, and the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, and Carter did barely anything to reassure the country. According to (Jones, 2016), the Vietnam War caused the deaths of about 58,100 American lives and made people question the foreign policy and domestic leadership of American people. Overall, the connection between the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War is that African Americans were risking their lives on the front lines in the war, and they were still getting treated horribly in America. The African American people felt that the government was paying too much attention to the war to improve relations involving black people in the U.S. This was proven true (National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2023). I don't believe that waging war to promote democracy is a good idea or justifiable. It is understandable from a military/government standpoint because you want to promote your way of life. However, I believe that imperialism is wrong, especially in a way that promotes your form of government; look at prominent negative figures in history, such as Hitler or Stalin. Didn't they do the same thing, promoting their way of life forcibly on others through a war? Don't we look back at those two as evil and morally wrong people?