vietnam - early days
The Vietnam conflict took thousands of American and Vietnamese lives. Twenty five years after taking second place in this conflict it is easy to say what we should or should not have done, but hind sight is based on the results of history and the decisions made at the moment of living it. The leaders at this time only had two choices in dealing with Vietnam - one, to support the American dream and ideals through pursuing democracy, imperialist economics, capitalism and Christianity; or two, to support Ho Chi Ming, leaving the future to the unknown and uncontrollable influences of those feared by their constituents. When seen in the fear, hype and affluency of the times, it is obvious that options were narrowed to one for decision makers. To understand these decisions, we must understand this period from 1945 to 1955. 1945 was an important year in world history with the defeat of Germany and the first atomic test explosions taking place, followed by use of these nuclear bombs on Japan. At the end of World War II the United States did not feel threatened by the Soviet Union because they did not have access to this weapon. Further, the U.S. made threats with this nuclear weaponry every time a crisis arose, such as Azerlicuja
Look magazine in January of 1955 recognized Ming as the likely choice, stating "If elections were held today, the overwhelming majority of Vietnamese would vote Communist. People cannot deal with nuclear weapons and fear. Historically no ruling group has ever remained more or less indefinitely in power in the wage of active or even passive resistance from the governed, or without ruining itself in the process. " News coverage supported these views with magazines publishing heart wrenching photos of the elderly, orphans, widows starving, homeless and trying to make their way to South Vietnam carrying the caption "Freedom? What's That?" Were there opposite views, or other options even offered at this time to the American people? Yes, but they were few and far between, and often from unknown or new political leaders. John Foster Dulles and Eisenhower attended this pivotal conference. Fear - the most powerful weapon anyone has every had against the affluent, strongest nation in the world. and were therefore, something to fear. Fear someone might do to us what we threatened to do to them. Further fuel to this fire was the conflict occurring in Korea, the purges and persecutions of people at home (McCarthy the later master of this), and the hysteria of the unknown "reds" and nuclear disaster. Further, Ming was to pull Communist troops out of South Vietnam, and those who wished to move South or North were allowed to do so. Your gun had to be bigger than the Soviet Union's.
Common topics in this essay:
Chi Ming,
Cold War,
Asia Mission,
Senate American,
Southeast Asia,
John Kennedy,
American Vietnamese,
Secretary Dulles,
Ming Communist,
Dean Acheson,
ho chi,
chi ming,
soviet union,
ho chi ming,
american people,
nuclear weapons,
cold war,
people deal nuclear,
arms race,
weapons fear,
southeast asia,
fear communism,
nuclear weapons fear,
deal nuclear weapons,
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Acceptance Essays
