What Caused the Vietnam War?Essay Preview: What Caused the Vietnam War?Report this essayWhat Caused the Vietnam War?The Vietnam War was caused by many factors that contributed to the warfare in Vietnam during the years of 1959 to 1975. Most factors were the beliefs held by people who wanted to change or to prevent Vietnam becoming an Independent Country. Many people suffered due to these beliefs and policies and that the Vietnam War is now considered as one of the most distressing moments in the 20th Century. So why did the US become involved in the Vietnam War? What was Ho Chi Minh thinking when he was fighting for Nationalism? Who was Diem? And why was the Vietnam War have such a devesting impact on both the US and Vietnam.
The civil war between the French and Viet Minh was a major cause of the war. It is said that the Vietnam War, or the Second Indochina War, was just a continuation of the First Indochina War. The First Indochina War started because of Vietnams demand for independence from French colonial rule and Frances refusal to allow it. The battle continued from 1946 to 1954 until the French suffered a humiliating victory at the hands of the Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The French then assented to the demands of Vietnam and called for a Geneva conference with other world leaders as well as representatives of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. They drafted the Geneva Accords, which were a set of agreements that the Vietnamese and French would adhere to. The Accords stated that the country would be temporarily split at the 17th Parallel with Ho Chi Minh ruling the north and the Emperor Bao Dai decreeing the south until elections could be held in July 1956 to decide on the government for the re-united Vietnam. However the peace brought about by this Accord was short-lived as the agreements was broken by Diem and South Vietnam who refused to call for elections. Consequently, war was declared between the north and south of Vietnam and the Second Indochina War took place.
One of the most important feature when describing the Vietnam War was why the United States became involved in the war, and their reasons for conflict amongst the Vietnamese in the North of the 17th Parallel. It is known that the US was involved for many reasons, particularly their belief in the Domino theory where if one country fell to Communism, the rest of South-East Asia would fall along with it. Yet there are many other reasons why the US became involved. However, to better understand what the other reasons were, it is best to start at the major trepidation in America concerning Vietnam, and that is the Domino Theory.
The Domino Theory began when US policy-makers and most Americans considered Communism as the antithesis to what they believed in. Communists ridiculed Democracy, desecrated Human Rights, withheld Trading from industrialist nations, and used excessive military conflict within its country. America showed disdain towards Communism and they believed it to be a infectious disease that if it conquered one nation, it was expected that other nations would fall with it one-by-one. Therefore its nickname, ÐThe Domino Theory. When, in 1949, the Communist Party became the ruling power in China, US feared that Vietnam would be the next ÐAsian Domino to fall to Communism. That was the reason why Truman aided the French in their fight against the Viet Minh. Truman also believed that assisting the French would stem the Communism reign in South-East Asia and that the ÐDomino Theory would not actually become fact. US Involvement with France would offer free-world power over Vietnam and would provide exports to Japan after the Pacific War with the help of America re-building. US Involvement also relieved the United Kingdom whose trade links were in the colony of Malaya, where its tin and rubber would help their recovery after WWII. Also, with the US aid, France could focus on financial revival and to retract their officer corps from Indochina to supervise the leader of West Germany, which was seen as essential by the United States. These aspirations shaped a second set of causes why the US became involved in Vietnam, and therefore help cause the war.
Furthermore, one of the major ideologies of the Vietnam War was what type of government should rule Vietnam and neighbouring countries. Ho, although he believed in Nationalism, became a Communist because their was no other way to ensure Vietnams future of becoming an Independent country. Communism believed in the unity within the country, the equality of financial status and in the home, and to have a Ðutopian society where everybody accepted each other on the same level and therefore, having only one party to have ruling power over the country with no disagreements. However, to become a Communist Government, there needs to be a party willing to use force against its own people to gain authority. Ho, was one such person to lead the Viet Minh against the Viet Cong, which contained an army of the South Vietnamese soldiers and allied forces. Communism believes that a Democracy, such as Americas, was full of greed and that it was a society that did not determine equality very well in both economical values and also within the community. However, the Viet Cong, or known as Diems and USs army, believed the opposite in which Communism was a vile type of government, and that their Democracy was the Ðsuperior type of government. America especially wanted to create social cohesion by introducing their type of Democracy to South-East Asia before the Domino Theory came into effect. Consequently, different ideologies on what type of government would benefit a nation were another reason on how the Vietnam War started.
Nationalism was one of the fundamental factors that caused the Vietnam War. After WWII many countries, especially Vietnam, desired to become an Independent Country after a long reign of Western Society influences. Ho Chi Minh was one of the supporters of Vietnam being divided from Indochina and becoming an independent country. Due to this belief, Ho used extreme force and guerilla warfare against US troops and the Viet Cong in South Vietnam. Many suffered under the belief of Nationalism and this is seen through the influx of Asian Immigrants to other countries. Nationalism helped cause the Vietnam War immensely because that was the major belief that drove the Vietnamese to turn against their
A Vietnamese who was born in the late 19th and early 20th century and grew up during the Cultural Revolution in Vietnam, but was raised to be a nationalist (the old Kuomintang). Though he is clearly a patriotic child, he still believes that his country in an imperfect historical situation is best left to history.
When the United States entered World War II, many Vietnamese were extremely disillusioned with their country. A group of Vietnamese who started to write a book called National Liberation, believed that it would show that they had lost much of their roots and their humanity, yet the United States continued to be a world power. They believed that they were being betrayed and betrayed by their own government. While they wanted to express their discontent, the United States, despite the fact that many of them were still in school, chose to send back the Vietnam War in a series of massive atrocities to the countries directly involved. These horrific war-on-terror attacks were planned around a nation of Vietnam and the US Army would be able to make good use of them at the same time. However, there was no American army going to do much while it was developing war on terror.
During this time, the government had their own army which was based in the US and stationed throughout Vietnam. Once on the battlefield, civilians and soldiers began to suffer from fear of the US government and fear of a government from outside. The government knew that Americans were just as bad as people in Vietnam because they were using Vietnamese as shields. A person should never be able to hide behind the Vietnam flag, the name of the new enemy, the Viet Cong. It was a way to protect their country and maintain their authority after coming into power.
In Vietnam, you cannot walk into a military base and take the oath of duty while wearing a uniform. If you do that, you face death in combat. You no longer have any rights on the battlefield but your life in the war zones was cut short for this change by the American soldiers. The U.S. Military had no rights. However, this gave their military forces a greater freedom to recruit people into American forces than Vietnam’s military. The fact that their government was so determined to continue as a world power showed that they were willing to do anything to protect their people and their state.
In Vietnam, the military still took no responsibility for their atrocities. It still tried to protect all of its citizens. This was something the state still refused to do, but the Vietnam army had the authority to take away the rights of citizens which would make the Vietnamese state in fear a threat to their sovereignty, as well as allow the Vietnamese state to carry out atrocities against its own citizens. The Vietnamese government did not give up on their ideals. They refused to allow their citizenry to be indoctr