Several intriguing questions come to a person’s thought system while talking about the long and bloody war in Vietnam. One tends to wonder whether the American involvement in the Vietnam War was justified. On the one hand, a particular section of people believes that America’s involvement in Vietnam was justifiable. On the other hand, some other personalities think that the US involvement in the Vietnam War was not necessary and therefore should not have gotten itself involved. With respect to the war, a movement that was against the US governments involvement in the war in Vietnam began through the leftist intellectuals and peace activists on college campuses and soon than later gained national prominence in 1965. That was after the US started bombing the northern section of Vietnam in earnest. The anti-war marches and other kinds of protests attracted a broad support base over three years and peaked in 1968. That was after a successful Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese troops gave a proof that the war was far from its end. Due to the raging effects of the war on the American people; I support the protesters.
The period before Ho Chi Minh broadcasted the independence of the democratic republic of Vietnam from France in September 1945; he had requested the United States and president Harry S. Truman for a helping hand and recognition. The democratic side of the United States government blatantly ignored this courtesy call for help (Boyer, Clark, Halttunen, Kett, & Salisbury, 2013). One can easily argue that Ho Chi Minh had no choice but to assistance from China and Russia which were on the communist side to gain support from French Colonial rule.
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For long duration, Vietnam was a unified nation. The disagreements and division at the seventeenth parallel were caused by the 1954 Geneva accords were supposed to be a temporal one. In case America did not involve itself; Vietnam could have been unified during the 1956 general election. Thus, it is most likely that the involvement of America in the Vietnam matters was considerably politically instigated. Vietnam happened to have been a proxy in the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States (Falk, 2017). Seven million tons of bombs were allegedly dropped on Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. That was more than twice the quantity that was shot during a whole World War II. Through the usage of the infamous Agent Orange and other defoliants, the United States army demolished approximately seven thousand seven hundred square miles of forests. That was roughly six percent of the total land under Vietnam. That resulted in adverse effects on health to millions of people (Boyer et al ., 2013). Several persons question the United States policies that were used for saving Vietnam from the Communist by subjecting it to destruction.
The undeclared war was quite costly to the United States. By November 1967, the US troop strength that was in Vietnam was approximately 500,000, and the US casualties had hit 109,527 wounded and 15,058 killed. In the end, they had lost 58,000 lives and that caused great anguish to across the American people (Falk, 2017). Several young men were being called to service each day since the American commanders needed extra troops. That further fueled the draft the anti-war movement. That also led to the impediment of the welfare programs and thus brought down the economy to the levels of the crisis that was witnessed in the 1970s (Boyer et al ., 2013). Such immense and severe consequences placed an enormous question mark over the benefits the US achieved through its involvement in issues to do with Vietnam.
In conclusion, it can be censoriously summarized that the protestors were justified during the Vietnam War. The effects of the war were raging and substantially hurt the American economy. Several began to question the validity of the government and its military establishments. An end to the war gave a sigh of relief and the reign of peace to the American people.
References
Boyer, P. S., Clark, C. E., Halttunen, K., Kett, J. F., & Salisbury, N. (2013). The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume II: Since 1865 . Cengage Learning.
Falk, R. A. (2017). The Vietnam War and international law (Vol. 1). Princeton University Press.
