History Coursework - How useful are sources A, B and C in explaining why the USA become involved in Vietnam?

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History Coursework - How useful are sources A, B and C in explaining why the USA become involved in Vietnam?

Each of these sources gives us some insight into why the USA became involved in the Vietnamese war. However, whilst the sources can be useful on one hand they all have their limitations. Source A is taken from a speech that was delivered by President Johnson in April 1965. Source B is part of a private conversation between President Johnson and an unknown person in May of 1964. The last source, source C is lifted from an interview which Noam Chomsky is being interviewed in October 1982.

The first source I will examine is Source A. This is helpful in giving us an idea of what President Johnson wanted the American public to believe about the war that they were fighting in, like the reasons for the USA becoming involved in a matter that was so far away from home. He states that one of the reasons for this was that the USA had a promise to keep. This is made clear as he says "we fight because we have a promise to keep" in the speech. This