o peacefully gain their independence from France (Chant 25). In January of 1950, the Viet Minh gained recognition by the governments of the USSR and China, who supplied weapons and places to train (Chant 25). Because the two Communist superpowers recognized the Viet Minh, the Vietnam war became to the U.S. a struggle between capitalism and communism, especially since the Viet Minh were openly communist themselves. By aiding the French, the U.S. thought they were helping their free-trade ally France fight communism, the Communist Party was very strong in France (Goldstein 3). The U.S. feared that Vietnam would fall to communism, and set-off the “domino effect” for other communist satellites in Indochina (McNamara 76). With weapons and training from Russia and China, the Viet Minh forced France to request help from the U.S. Fearing the spread of communism under Ho Chi Minh’s regime, the U.S. was glad to offer France assistance, but even after the French humiliation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the U.S. continued their involvement in Vietnam (Encarta “Vietnam War”). The Vietnam situation became another indirect way to confront communism, which was a perfect excuse to implement Kennedy’s very aggressive policy of “Flexible Response” in the early 1960’s, when the U.S. was eager to get into battle (Chant 9). After the French conceded defeat and were forced to withdraw by the Geneva Accords, the U.S. decided to escalate its involvement, believing the South Vietnamese wanted assistance in driving out communism. The U.S. knew of South Vietnam’s weak military condition, and became more and more involved despite an uncooperative government. Suggestions the U.S. made were ignored, and the army avoided combat (Chant 38). Without complete involvement and a true desire to win, the guerrilla warfare of the Vietcong was too effective to face in a jungle setting, especially when most Vietcong soldiers were recruited in the South and had much support from the local civilians. Despite all of these problems, the U.S. remained in Vietnam, without any clear goals or objectives, or even a clear strategy for defeating a guerrilla operation.

Now the U.S. was at war, with an insignificant nation struggling for autonomy, the same way the original thirteen colonies had struggled against Britain two hundred years previous. If the U.S. won, it would achieve very little, but the goal did not seem to be to reunite the country under a specially crafted democratic government, and there would be nothing to gain from victory. Most American soldiers had no idea why they were fighting, while Viet Cong and Vietnam nationalists were fighting to be free. The U.S. based its decisions on assumptions and underestimates, and lacked the necessary understanding of the region’s history (McNamara 219). The U.S. never established any clear goals, besides crushing communism, an oversight that led to military confusion, ambiguous efforts, and poor distribution of troops and supplies (McNamara 219). By 1961, President Kennedy saw South Vietnam’s weakened condition as a sign pointing to escalated involvement (Chant 31). Up until that point, U.S. involvement of military personnel had been limited to advisors. The total of eleven thousand was more than two-thirds American (Chant 31). In October of that year, Kennedy sent General Maxwell D. Taylor to Vietnam to assess the situation, and Special Forces to provide tactical training to the Vietnamese Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (Chant 31). The first true military engagement the U.S. experienced came on August 2, 1964 (Encarta “Vietnam War”). The Maddox, a U.S. destroyer, was accused of violating North Vietnamese waters, and was consequently fired on by Viet Cong gunboats (Encarta “Vietnam War”). This confrontation was the excuse to go to war the U.S. was waiting for, and President Johnson immediately ordered the first air strikes on North Vietnam following a second attack on the

Some topics in this essay:
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