The European and American involvement in Vietnam war

THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM WAR

Introduction

At the center of American misconceptions lies the belief that the U.S involvement in the Vietnam War was for a noble purpose to save Vietnamese from the evil Communists. The bloody cost of the war which is an estimated three million deaths puts the objective of the fight to question. The immense deaths of Vietnamese and the general bloody aftermath of the war are magnified by the fact that the fight was not necessary at all 1 . First, both Europe and The United States were not acting in self-defense and secondly Vietnam did not pose any security threat to any of the countries.

The international community including Great Britain, Japan, France as well as the Soviet Union pushed for negotiations. However, America stood isolated in trying to seek a military solution in Vietnam 2 . Several leaders of civil rights movements including Martin Luther King Jr. challenged America's stand on Vietnam and called for several protests against the U.S involvement in Vietnam War. He called on the American citizens to admit that by getting into the war, they were unfair to the lives of the Vietnamese. Vietnamese viewed the intervention of United States into the Vietnam War as an unwanted imposition of the power of yet another foreign country in their land. Just like Vietnamese viewed the French colonization, so was the same for America. The United States had initially supported French to re-colonize Vietnam just after the Second World War. Most historians view the U.S and European involvement in Vietnam War as something that was largely triggered by the ideology of Cold War and threat by the Communist groups. Some of the American leaders who were proponents of this war claimed that Ho Chi Minh, the leader of Vietnamese posed a threat to the United States and the Capitalists. This was, however, strange to the Vietnamese since their revolution was only aimed at ending colonialism by the French. Ho Chi Minh was popular amongst his people and commanded respect from other communist leaders across the world.

Origin of the European and U.S Involvement in Vietnam War

United States' involvement in Vietnam War dates back to the end of Second World War. At this time, the Vietnamese were still struggling with the colonial presence of the French in their country. The United States maintained neutrality but secretly supported re-colonization of Vietnam by the French. Ho Chi Minh successfully merged revolutionary ideology with the anti-French sentiments. In 1954, after a prolonged war to fight for the liberation of Vietnam, Minh captured Dien Bien Phu and authoritatively rooted the French 3 . In 1954, following the French surrender at Dien Bien Phu, there was an International Conference which was chaired by Great Britain and the Soviet Union to deliberate on the future of Vietnam. 

The conference was attended by nine delegations including France, The Soviet Union, Great Britain, China, Laos, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, State of Vietnam, Cambodia and The United States. After nearly two and half months of negotiations and bargaining, the delegations reached a set of agreements in July. During the peace negotiations at Geneva, the delegations decided to divide Vietnam into two halves, the southern and the northern halves 4 . Chi Ho Minh, the leader of communists, would govern the north part, and its capital would be Hanoi. 

The Southern half, on the other hand, would remain a non-communist with its headquarters at Saigon. The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union threw their support behind the northern half, while the United States supported the non-communism South Vietnam. The Geneva agreements further prohibited the additional foreign arms, military personnel and foreign military bases in Vietnam 5 . The final declaration stressed the fact that the demarcation of the foreign military should not be interpreted as constituting territorial or political boundary. At the end of the conference, the agreements were signed by all parties except Bao Dai Delegation and the United States.

In a Unilateral statement, the U.S Secretary of State Smith Bedell declared that the United States would find a way to handle the situation through surreptitious means. News from Pentagon papers indicated that administration of President Eisenhower considered the conference as a failure to the free world since the agreement gave Chinese and the Viet Minh support for exploitation of the Southeast of Asia. The hostile view of the conference by the U.S government misread the real impact of the Conference on the Chinese. 

After the end of the conference, Pekin made a declaration that negotiations were a better way to solve other conflicts such as; the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Unification of German as well as the European security In 1960. The Viet Cong also known as The National Liberation Front, emerged and challenged the legitimacy of non- communism South Vietnamese government 6 . Another civil war erupted for control of the Southern half. Hanoi expressed its interest to unite the country under the leadership of communists. Another war erupted yet again with the commitment of the U.S to prevent the communists from ruling over the Southern Vietnamese. 

In 1961, under the administration of President John F. Kennedy, the U.S leadership increased the U.S support for the South Vietnamese government including doubling the military aid, military advisers as well as authorization of use of defoliants, napalm, and herbicides.

The increased involvement of the United States in South Vietnam was inspired by domino theory which indicated that if one country fell in the hands of communism, then other surrounding countries would also succumb to communism and the result would see communism gaining power. George Kennan in his long telegram urged the United States to do all in its power to contain the influence that communism had across the world. 

The United States officials believed that if South Vietnam would fall into communism, then the other surrounding countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Burma Cambodia, Malaysia, and Laos, would also fall in the same trap 7 . For this reason, they had to do all within their power to stop the spread even if it meant using military force. In 1964, two of the torpedo boats belonging to the North Vietnamese attacked the United States destroyers at the Tonkin Gulf. President Johnson Lyndon requested the U.S Congress to approve the use of military force in Vietnam 8 . 

It resulted in the commonly known Gulf Tonkin resolution which laid a foundation for the military commitment of the United States in Vietnam 9 . From Golf Tonkin resolution, there was a declaration that the U.S Congress would support all measures to prevent further aggression by the North Vietnamese and any armed attack against the US military forces. President Johnson was inspired by considerations of both international and domestic political power. He subscribed to the containment strategy and the domino theory. He was also afraid of appearing as a weak figure in the sight of his domestic and international political opponents.

In 1965, President Johnson escalated the involvement of United States in the war. He authorized several bombings and also committed hundreds of thousands of the United States ground troops to the war. For the fear that the war would taint his image in his domestic agenda, Johnson hid the extent of U.S involvement from the American public. Most of the American citizens had no news of about the extent at which their government had gotten involved in the war. In 1968, there was a heavy attack of South Vietnam by the North. This attack managed to convince many U.S officials that the war could not be won the way the U.S had believed. They realized that they were still far from succeeding in the war. 

The opponents of this war heightened their level of opposition with several civil rights groups coming up strong to express their dissent in the U.S involvement in the war 10 . Pressure continued to pile on the United States to stop their involvement in Vietnam as news leaked through New York Times about their involvement in Vietnam. President Johnson did not seek to re-run for the presidency because of his already tainted image. When Richard Nixon won the presidency, he had a plan to end the war in Vietnam. 

Richard’s administration was determined to achieve a peaceful end of the war with honor 11 . To achieve this, Nixon expanded the war to the neighboring countries like Cambodia and Laos and encouraged independence of Vietnam in handling their war. This also entailed withdrawal of the U.S troops from Vietnam and reliance of the South Vietnam armed forces in handling the war. In 1969, the number of U.S military forces in Vietnam was cut by half. In 1975, Martin Graham, the Ambassador of United States asked Thieu, the leader of the Vietnamese to resign for the sake of the country. On the same month, Duong Van Minh, Thieu's successor ordered a ceasefire, which saved so many lives. The North Vietnamese achieved its goal of uniting the country of Vietnam under the leadership of communists after the Paris Peace Accords.

Conclusion

American involvement in Vietnam was not in any way an equal war. The war was entirely fought in Vietnam. No Vietnamese soldier went to the United States to bomb its cities. The U.S officials, on the other hand, sent more than two million Americans to fight in Vietnam. The U.S lost the war, but the Hanoi government cannot also claim to have won the war. At the end of the war, the communist leaders managed to unite the country under the leadership of the communist government. This indicates a failure on the side of the United States and Europe in the involvement of Vietnam War.

Annotated Bibliography

Hewison, Kevin. "A Great Place to Have a War. America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA Joshua Kurlantzick (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016)." (2018): 177-180.

This article illustrates how the U.S war in Laos transformed the CIA from spies to the key players in America's foreign policy. President Eisenhower had focused on the Southeast nation. He was afraid that the country would fall into communism and add to the influence of the communists which by then had already started posing threats to the United States.

Kershner, Seth, and Michael Mannheim. "A guide to Vietnam War resources: Government documents, oral histories, antiwar movements." College & Research Libraries News 76.9 (2015): 511-514.

This article presents the official involvement of the U.S in Vietnam and the effect that this war has in the present. This article also evaluates the necessity of U.S involvement in this war and the merits and demerits that it brought to the US foreign policy. Over the years the Vietnam War has been documented in several books, articles, and film. While these provide abundance sources for the topic, this article emphasizes the oral histories and government sources and provides rich materials for reference for the problem. These sources can be used to carry out further research on the same issue.

Lunch, William L., and Peter W. Sperlich. "American public opinion and the war in Vietnam." Western Political Quarterly32.1 (1979): 21-44.

This article provides data on the public attitudes of Americans and other citizens concerning the Vietnam War over a period of nine years from 1964-1973.This article is useful in this research since it presents facts that are broken down into the important demographic groups. This article further shows the heated debate of the political elites over America's role in Vietnam and if the involvement of the U.S in Vietnam was necessary at all.

Prados, John.  Vietnam: The history of an unwinnable war, 1945-1975 . University Press of Kansas, 2009.

Prados puts together the pieces of the events after the Second World War until the ceasefire and the U.S departure from Vietnam in 1975. According to the article, the war seemed to be unwinnable due to the many lost, ignored or missed opportunities. He observes that the leadership of United States under several Presidents from Truman to Eisenhower through to Kennedy, Johnson and finally Nixon had consistently misunderstood and ignored the realities of Vietnam and Southeast of Asia. He further indicated that these leaders passed every opportunity to avoid the war. Prados demonstrates several choices that the leaders ignored each passing year while making decisions based on the distorted by politics of Cold War and significant misperceptions about the goals, culture, psychology, and abilities of both the allies and foes of United States with regards to the Vietnam War. The article is useful in the research since it gives a detailed analysis of the war and gives reasons why the author believes that the war was a failure.

Whyte, Jeffrey. "Psychological War in Vietnam: Governmentality at The United States Information Agency." Geopolitics (2017): 1-29.

This article elaborates the psychological impact of Vietnam War on the Vietnamese citizens. It also explains how the war played a major role in facilitating cold war. This article further explains how United States Information Agency played a role in facilitating psychological war that supported the mission of United States in Vietnam War. Through the analysis of the operations of USIA, the article argues that the strategy of psychological war was meant to exert power over the territory and people of Vietnam. Through an evaluation of the psychological war, this article questions the success or failure of Americans in establishing power. It concludes that the impacts of the psychological war were inconclusive and could not offer enough evidence to prove the success. This article is useful in this research since it gives insight on whether the war should be considered as a success or failure to the Americans.

Bibliography

Hewison, Kevin. "A Great Place to Have a War. America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA Joshua Kurlantzick (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016)." (2018): 177-180.

Kershner, Seth, and Michael Mannheim. "A guide to Vietnam War resources: Government documents, oral histories, antiwar movements." College & Research Libraries News 76.9 (2015): 511-514.

Prados, John.  Vietnam: The history of an unwinnable war, 1945-1975 . University Press of Kansas, 2009.

Lunch, William L., and Peter W. Sperlich. "American public opinion and the war in Vietnam." Western Political Quarterly32.1 (1979): 21-44.

Whyte, Jeffrey. "Psychological War in Vietnam: Governmentality at The United States Information Agency." Geopolitics (2017): 1-29.