Analyze the view that US military intervention in Vietnam was more a necessity than a tragic error.
by
gabtr (student)
Gabby Tolkin-Rosen
Analyze the view that US military intervention in Vietnam was ‘more a necessity than a tragic error’.
The view that US military intervention in Vietnam was ‘more a necessity than a tragic error’ is an orthodox standpoint, the view that US military intervention was necessary may have been perceived by the Americans at that time to be correct because of America’s policy of ‘containment’ and in addition to this, the prestige America invested into the war in Vietnam. However, the lack of benefit Vietnam offered America, America’s blurring of Russian communism and Vietnamese ‘nationalism’ as well as the extremely taxing effects of the war allow for the conclusion that military intervention in Vietnam was in fact, a tragic error.
During the Vietnam War, America’s initial policy of ‘limitation’ proved unsuccessful, thus America’s role and consequently their military involvement increased dramatically in the area. The fact that this policy of limitation was adopted in the first place shows that Vietnam was at first not considered a necessity, however as America became more and more involved in the war, so did the importance of military intervention in Vietnam.
The American’s perceived military intervention in Vietnam as necessary due to the American policy of ‘containment’. This fact that North Vietnam was deemed by the Americans as ‘communist’ due to their nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh qualified this policy to come into affect and Vietnam as an area to be contained from communist aggression, military intervention in Vietnam was deemed extremely important as an area to contain from communism because of its proximity to Japan, and the threat of communism spreading to the newly American-leaning Japan offered extreme danger for the Americans and the promotion of their capitalist system. The necessity for containment was exacerbated by the rise of communist China as a powerhouse for communism. This fear of the spread of communism was enforced by Eisenhower’s ‘Domino Theory’ which highlighted the necessity of American intervention in Vietnam in order to prevent the ‘falling of the domino of communism’ which would result in other Asian countries following this pattern of going communist and of other ‘Asian wars of liberation’. The threat of the active spread of communism was confirmed by the ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ incident, which showed that communism was advancing and becoming more aggressive in its means. Therefore, military intervention and its importance presented through the policy of NSC68 was seen as entirely necessary to protect America’s capitalist system against communism, and for the containment of communism as a whole.
