The United States Enters the Conflict
Though the United States had not been militarily committed to the war effort until 1965, the nation had been committing millions of dollars in military aid through the use of MAAG, the Military Assistance Advisory Group ,and through the use of direct form of aid, i.c. vehicles and weapons, to at first the French, before the fall of Indochina at the battle of Dien Bien Phu on May 7 1954, and then to the government of South Vietnam after the elections of July 6, 1956. (Deepening Involvement 10, 13, 28). Involvement stemmed directly out of the idea of containment and the "domino theory" proposed by the Eisenhower Administration. This, called for a containment to halt the further fall of East Asia to Communism. Sparked by the fall of china in 1949 and the explosion of the atomic bomb by the Soviets, and bolstered by NSC-68 which warned that Soviet power was too large and needed to be curved(Herring 2). Hence US involvement was derived to stop the spread of Communism.
US Combat InvolvementWith Johnson's approval to send in US troops to defend American interests in Vietnam, after the issue of the "blank check" through the Gulf of Tokin Resolution by Congress in 1964, US involvement begin to escalate quickly. Such operations performed were Operation Crimp, 1965, Operation Junction City, 1967, Operation Hastings, 1966, Operation Attleboro 1966, which were all intended to find either the NVA, North Vietnamese Army, or the Vietcong forces and drive them out, at some points out of the DMZ at the 17th Parallel (PBS 1, 2). These Operations included many search and destroy operations to seek out and untimely disable the Vietcong and NVA forces. This is exhibited specifically through Operation Rolling Thunder which sought to destroy the Vietnamese supply line through the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Further the war escalated up to the surprise Tet offensive of 1968(January 30-31), where the Vietcong invaded the South with striking force and speed attacking US and ARVN, Army of the Republic of Vietnam, force strongholds especially Saigon. Though the Vietcong forces were able to quickly and effectively pierce the United front, they were soon subdued by the United States and ARVN forces and 37,00 Vietcong forces are killed and many more captured. Though American Causalities mount at 2500. The attacks continue on with such the Siege of Khe Sanh beginning on March 22, 1968 and ends 77 days later when Operation Pegasus recaptures Route 9 (PBS 3). The war begins to deescalate with the end of Operation Rolling Thunder in 1968 and is further deescalated with the introduction of Nixon in 1969 and his "vietnamization" policy (PBS 4).The last major campaign is occurred in 1972 with the invasion of Cambodia, which lasted 60 days and amounted to public out-roar. US forces are furthered deescalated until a full US withdrawal in 1973.
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Roots of the Vietnam Syndrome Take Form
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As the casualties and horrors of war began to take shape so did the anti war opposition, which Herring attributes as one of the sources of the US failure in Vietnam, going into war with one hand tied behind the back. If this had not been so and General Westmoreland had been able to invade North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia effectively, then the War of Attrition may have succeeded (Herring 4, 5). Questions arose on Us beliefs that Vietnam was a US battle to be fought. Though forces such as the media and the counter revolutionary culture pushed many to the cause of antiwar sentiments.
One of the largest attributed sources to the anti-war movements was the medai. This was the age of the television as portrayed in the video right, the media was all over the latest atrocity and or conflict in the War and feeding what little biased information that was held and displaying it to the public though they did not as largely as some proclaim change the American position very much. These were highly prejudicial and undermined the movement. The the deep irony or paradox of the situation is that the new young leftist movement undermined themselves with their outrageous protests with violence and bloodshed.
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"Careful studies of the polls indicate that until very late a majority of Americans considered the antiwar movement more obnoxious than the war. Thus in a perverse sort of way, and to a point, antiwar demonstrations may have strengthened support for the war. There is no persuasive evidence that it was the media that turned public opinion against the war; many social scientists contend that media content generally reinforces rather than changes existing views" (Herring 4).
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Also the use of chemical weapons greatly shifted public opinion with the deadly usage amounts of Dioxin in Agent Orange specifically.
"I am not an epidemiologist. And there are professionals who will still tell you that there is no absolutely proven connection between the spraying of this poison and the incidence of terrifying illnesses in one generation, or the persistence of appalling birth defects in the next one or the next one"(Hitchens 3).
Though one of the biggest faults of the war is the Watergate scandal which never again puts the prewar presidential power back into the president's hands.
"I am not an epidemiologist. And there are professionals who will still tell you that there is no absolutely proven connection between the spraying of this poison and the incidence of terrifying illnesses in one generation, or the persistence of appalling birth defects in the next one or the next one"(Hitchens 3).
Though one of the biggest faults of the war is the Watergate scandal which never again puts the prewar presidential power back into the president's hands.