The Vietnam conflict - "Our objective is to create conditions for a favorable settlement by demonstrating to the Viet Cong that the odds are against their winning."

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        "Our objective is to create conditions for a favorable settlement by demonstrating to the Viet Cong that the odds are against their winning."  This quote, taken from a report by LBJ's top advisor, Robert McNamara, sums up the intentions of the executive branch during the debates over whether or not to escalate the Vietnam conflict.  In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson was faced with the monumental decision of either pulling out of Vietnam, or escalating the conflict with air strikes against North Vietnam.  From the various research I have conducted I will explore and try to understand why he made his decision.  To do this I will present the background information of this conflict and the events leading up to his decision.  

        The conflict in Vietnam began long before the first American advisors ever touched Vietnam soil.  After the Japanese occupation that occurred during World War II ended, Vietnam was in a state of limbo.  The rest of the world was quickly becoming aligned with one of the two super powers that were forming the Bi-polar system and Vietnam was not to be left out.  After an attempted democratic government was ineffective, the French tried to regain control of their former colony and this resulted in the Indo-China war.  Quoting from the Vietnamese declaration of Independence, which was written in 1945, some of the reasons for Vietnamese independence became obvious.  The declaration states that the French have "denied us every freedom," "enforced upon us inhuman laws," and most importantly "they have set up three different political regimes in northern, central, and southern Vietnam in an attempt to disrupt our national, historical, and  ethnic unity."  Two other items from the declaration help to cement the French wrong doing in Vietnam.  First it states that the French have "built more prisons than schools" and second, "In the economic field, they (the French) have shamelessly exploited our people, driven them into the worst misery and mercilessly plundered our country."  

        Vietnamese opinion of the French was very poor, not only due to the exploitative manner in which they were treated, but also because of the fact that the French were twice unable to protect Vietnam's borders.  In 1940, and again in 1945, the Japanese invaded Vietnam for strategic purposes and both times the French surrendered unconditionally.  This bitterness toward the French finally ended on July 21, 1954 with the advent of the Geneva agreements.  Item one of the Geneva agreement states "The conference takes note of the agreements ending hostilities in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam."  The agreement further states in item four that there is a clause on "the cessation of hostilities in Vietnam prohibiting the introduction into Vietnam of foreign troops and personnel as well as of all kinds of arms and munitions."  One of the main ramifications of the Geneva agreement was that the country would be divided along the seventeenth parallel, but item six is quick to point out that this "line is provisional and should not in any way be interrupted as constituting a political or territorial boundary."  

        Now that the French were no longer involved in Vietnam, someone had to move into the vacuum that now existed.  Worried that the Soviet Union would infiltrate the region, the United States was left with no option but to become involved in the dealings of Southeast Asia.  A communist victory in Vietnam could only be considered a U.S. loss and in the early 1960's this is an event that the U.S. had to avoid.  U.S. involvement in the region began to escalate in the late 1950's when it became apparent that north and south Vietnam had irreconcilable differences that would keep the two sides from becoming a unified democratic nation.  The north, led by Ho Chi Minh, had become increasingly sympathetic to the communist plight and it was apparent to the U.S. government their future was with the south.  The chief U.S. ally in the south was the anti-French crusader Ngo Dinh Diem.  Diem, a catholic anti-Communist, was the prime minister of south Vietnam and also a great source of controversy between the U.S. and France.  The French, unhappy with many of Diem's decisions, pressed for his removal on numerous occasions.  In May of 1955, the U.S. decided to back Diem and this ultimately led to a complete French withdrawal.  By refusing to participate in free election Diem was also one of the main reasons that the country remained divided.  

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        Now into the late 1950's the U.S. government had taken over sole responsibility for south Vietnam.  The U.S. was now faced with the task of making south Vietnam independent.  Between 1955 and 1960, this was accomplished by the military assistance and advisory group.  This group, or MAAG as it was called, due to an 85 million dollar per year budget, was able to turn an unorganized and poorly equipped south Vietnamese army into a modern fighting unit.  In the economic arena, the U.S. was responsible for 127 million dollars in economic aid and 16 million dollars in technical aid from ...

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