Many say that the United States should never have gotten involved in Vietnam and aided in the Vietnam War, yet there are several strong reasons why the United States did the correct thing and stepped in.  Some reasons to start the war were long-term, while others were short-term.  The major long-term reason was that the United States needed Vietnam to be a capitalist-democracy in order to trade with, and benefit from them.  Another long-term reason was the fear of communism spreading in all of south Asia. This idea of, if Vietnam falls to communism all of south Asia will as well, was known as the “Domino Theory” and was first created by President Eisenhower.  Other short term effects include North Vietnam’s attacks on US naval forces in the Tonkin Gulf, and North Vietnam’s communist aggression in South Vietnam.

The North Vietnamese attack on US naval forces in the Tonkin Gulf was the first step to American military action in Vietnam.  The North Vietnamese aggressions in the Tonkin Gulf lead to the signing of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. This resolution stated President Johnson would be able “to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.” With President Johnson’s new power he began Operation Rolling Thunder. Operation Rolling Thunder was a series of airstrikes that were intended to stop North Vietnam’s war industries, including the large supply route, the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  The weapons used in the airstrikes were not only explosive weapons, but chemical. Agent Orange and Napalm was dropped on North Vietnam in an attempt to destroy the vast thick jungles. Through the policy of escalation Johnson sent a large amount of American troops to fight in Vietnam and defend South Vietnam from the north.  Often times in Vietnam American troops would carry out “Search and Destroy Missions.” This strategy produced by General William Westmoreland was done by small groups of US patrols who would search for enemy camps or supplies hidden in the jungle, and if they were found they would be destroyed.  The American troops were not popular in the Vietnamese cities and villages so in an attempt to defuse the situation the citizens would be temporarily moved to a secure village and defended by troops, this was known as pacification.  Up to this time US troops were on offence and defense but on the Vietnamese New Year known as Tet the Americans thought they could finally rest and have a peaceful holiday, they were wrong.  On the Vietnamese holiday of Tet the North Vietnamese carried out heavy attacks on major US targets, such as the US embassy, fortunately no attack resulted in a high loss. These series of attacks carried out on Tet by the North Vietnamese was known as the Tet Offensive. Soon after in 1968 another presidential election was held.  The two candidates were Hubert Humphrey as the democratic candidate and Richard Nixon as the Republican candidate. Republican Richard Nixon won the election with 302 electoral votes and a low 43.4% of the popular vote.  After the 1968 elections protests in America were larger and more frequent than ever.  Many college students got involved in these protests and many were carried out at schools.  At one student protest at Kent State University in Ohio police attempted to break it up with tear gas, this was unsuccessful and the students became aggressive resulting in the police firing on the crowd killing 4 and injuring 9.  Originally Nixon planned on continuing the war and escalating it to larger than ever, but perhaps as a result of the protests, Nixon looked toward peace and a way out of the war.  Nixon wanted out of the war, but he did not want America to appear weak or defeated, as a result national security advisor Henry Kissinger created the plan of Vietnamization.  This plan would systematically hand all fighting in Vietnam over to the South Vietnamese army.  Also at this time Kissinger was attending secret meetings with North Vietnamese leaders in Paris speaking of a peace treaty.  From these meetings came the Paris Peace Accord which officially ended the war for America. It stated that all American troops will be removed from Vietnam and all American POWs will be released.  Though the war was over it did not appear as an American victory. 

The Vietnam War resulted in tremendous losses on both sides, the casualties were severe.  On the American side about 58,000 American soldiers were killed and 2,500 MIA along with the Americans were 185,000 South Vietnamese casualties.  North Vietnam lost the greatest number of about 1,000,000 dead. Yet the worst of all were the civilian casualties, 500,000 civilians were killed leaving around 1,000,000 children orphaned.  As a result of the American’s withdrawing in South Vietnam their capitol, Saigon, was taken over and Vietnam was united under a Communist-Dictatorship.  As the domino theory had predicted all of Indochina fell to communism, which is a grave loss for America.  Fortunately as a result of the war the War Powers Act was made. This act prevents undeclared wars by forcing congress to pass approval before the president can be allowed to send troops into an armed struggle. Now the Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands to honor those who lost their lives fighting for their country in the Vietnam war.