The Vietnam War (1959-1975) was one of America’s longest wars. It started with the opposition of having a single Vietnam. America, in fear of having communism spread, decided to get involved. That was America’s main concern: the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. President Eisenhower stated his Domino Theory to support the Vietnam War effort. This Domino Theory stated that if one country falls to communism (South Vietnam), then the other countries around that country will fall to communism (like a when you have a line of dominos, and once falls, the other dominos keep on falling). Thus, America supported South Vietnam, since North Vietnam was communist.
The South Vietnamese government was weak. That is also another reason why America gave so much support to the war. In the beginning, America only supported South Vietnam with money and military advisers. By 1963, President Kennedy increased the number of military advisers from 100 to 1600. Then in 1964, North Vietnam attacked an American ship in international waters. Afterwards, President Johnson used this excuse to get power from the Senate to take troops to Vietnam. After the arrival of troops, bombings on North Vietnam began. Even though President Nixon increased the number of bombings on North Vietnam, in 1973 he began removing troops from South Vietnam. Then, in 1975, South Vietnam lost the war. For me, this is a clear sign that South Vietnam wasn’t fighting its own war. It was America that was fighting a war that was not theirs. It wasn’t even an official war since Congress never declared war. It was just a stupid conflict in which our country lost money and, more important, lives.
The Vietnam War didn’t have the full support of the American people. At first, people supported the war because they claimed that they needed to stop the spread of communism. Afterwards, people began realizing that the war was a mistake. To start with, the war was spending too much money. Taxes were increased, so the people were unhappy. Others began to protest the war because of the chemical weapons used. Something that the people also did not like were the drafts, especially since the drafted, they say, were the poor. Some of the soldiers that were in the war questioned the morality of the war.
This is part of what was the Vietnam War. Something, in my opinion, a waste of everyone’s time, strength, and money.
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