The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial events in American history. Long after American involvement ended in 1973, the debate continued: Was it a “noble cause” as asserted by President Ronald Reagan, was it a genocidal exercise in imperialism as argued by the most vehement critics, or was it just a “quagmire of mistakes” by misguided policy makers?…

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In 1955, President Eisenhower and his policy makers, following the Domino Theory, sent U.S. troops to Vietnam to act as advisors to the South Vietnamese ARVN. The U.S. also sent massive amounts of foreign aid in an effort to establish a stable political regime under Diem. The hope was that the U.S. could play a limited role that would prevent…

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Like Eisenhower, Kennedy was a firm believer in the monolithic communism concept and its corollary, the Domino Theory. Kennedy’s acceptance of monolithic communism led him to believe that Ho Chi Minh and North Vietnam were the puppets of the Moscow communists. Thus, Kennedy escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam by increasing the number of advisors and the amount of firepower provided…

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Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, did not think that South Vietnam was worth fighting for. He campaigned for the presidency in 1964 by promising that he would not escalate the war. Ironically, Johnson allowed himself to be convinced that his personal interests (his Great Society domestic program) and the country’s security interests (the Domino Theory) were served by continued and…

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The institution of the draft for the Vietnam War affected the general public directly. To meet the quotas, draft boards did away with student deferments, and college boys began to be drafted. With the growing involvement of American boys in the fighting in Vietnam, and the resulting increase in the number of American casualties, unrest, particularly among college students and,…

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The Vietnam conflict was not the conventional type of war for which the U.S. forces were trained and equipped. Using guerilla war tactics (i.e. hit-and-run ambush, nighttime bombings and incursions, soldiers melting in with the civilian population) that were particularly suited for the jungles, the Viet Cong, with the assistance of regular North Vietnamese forces, were able to neutralize and…

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Not only were the American forces frustrated by the Viet Cong’s guerrilla tactics, they were frustrated by their own country’s policies and tactics. “Washington had sent [them] there to fight a limited war, of dubious aims, against a people dedicated to absolute war, in a fight for their own survival.” (Jennings, Id.) “When GIs couldn’t tell friend from foe, they…

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In September 1966, the United States introduced “Agent Orange”, a very strong chemical defoliant (dioxin) that was supposed to destroy the jungle cover used by the VC guerillas. Despite continued use, the efficacy of Agent Orange was debatable. A U.S. civilian nurse serving in Vietnam wrote a letter home describing the effects of combat on South Vietnamese villagers who were…

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The first large-scale protest demonstrations against the Vietnam War occurred in 1965. These demonstrations had been preceded by a series of smaller protests organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). SDS was part of the “New Left,” as compared to the “Old Left” of the 1930s and 1940s. (Mitchell, pp. 96-97.) SDS had its origins in the “ban the…

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The Communist Tet Offensive on January 31, 1968 (the Vietnamese lunar new year) was a turning point in America’s involvement in Vietnam. American military leaders had been telling President Johnson, political leaders and the American public that their strategies were working and that “we were winning the war.” But, on Tet, Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnam regular soldiers attacked…

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