Get Down!

Known as the most controversial war in U.S. history, the Vietnam War was arguably a war that the U.S. should not have gotten involved in. The main reason for the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was the fear of Communism and the Domino Theory, which says that if a country is Communist, all of the neighboring countries will convert to Communism too. “You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly” (Dwight D. Eisenhower). After the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam, the U.S. had lost 58,000 men total to the war.  The war went on for 18 years starting in 1957 and ending in 1975. Although the U.S. had more firepower than the North Vietnamese, things like the harsh jungles in Vietnam helped to diminish this power.

The U.S. suffered many disadvantages in Vietnam. The humid weather and the harsh jungles of Vietnam proved to be the hardest. The jungles made it easy for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong to hide their weapons and hide themselves. The trouble that the U.S. had in these jungles was the reason that they used controversial weapons like Napalm, a jelly-like fluid for flamethrowers, and Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant. Another downside for the U.S. in Vietnam was the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong could be anybody in any hamlet (small town). With the Cold War happening at the same time, the U.S.S.R. sought to go against the U.S. in Vietnam and sent aid to North Vietnam along with Communist China. Other neighboring Communist countries like Pol Pot’s Cambodia and Laos with the Pathet Lao were also potential threats for the U.S. With the Ho Chi Minh trail going through Cambodia and Laos to supply North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam, Laos became the most bombed country in the world at the time. Although there were many things to bring the U.S. down in Vietnam, probably the thing that brought them down the most was their lack of support back home.

From the beginning, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was not popular back home. There were many protests at colleges and conventions and many politicians disagreed with the war to get people to like them. For example, Robert Kennedy ran for president in 1968 where he stated in his speeches that he was against the Vietnam War. Before, during John Kennedy’s presidency, Robert Kennedy was for the war and helped to get the U.S. involved in the war from the beginning. Along with protests, there were also people who were supposed to be drafted into the war, but either burned their draft papers or fled to Canada. People like this also helped to lower the U.S. morale in Vietnam. “Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that” (Richard Nixon) The support of Vietnam in the U.S. only dropped further when North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, the attack of over 100 sites in South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese. This attack helped to lead to Johnson’s decision to not seek reelection.