Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Changing View of Vietnam

Oh, how quickly our friends and enemies change!  During World War II, the United States actually supplied Ho Chi Minh's guerrilla forces with weapons to fight against the Japanese.  Not long after the war's end, the Viet Minh were considered a threat--influenced by the Soviet Union and China, and evidence that no country was safe to the threat of communism.

How do we account for this change in view towards Vietnam?  Do we sympathize with Eisenhower's articulation of the domino theory?  Or are we shocked that we are straying so far away from the Atlantic Charter?

17 comments:

  1. Overall, I think it will be really hard to change the views towards Vietnam, it is possible but really hard to do. Also this time gets really complicated because while the war was going on abroad it was almost like we were having a war here at home because the police brutality was so bad when it came to protests. I think that we do sympathize with Eisenhower's idea of the domino theory because I some what agree with him that surrounding countries that are communist may influence others however they it depends on how strong a country is that they might be able to not be influenced. Just some background, "The domino theory was a foreign policy theory during the 1950s to 1980s, promoted at times by the government of the United States, that speculated that if one land in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect".

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  2. A part of me agrees with Eisenhower's domino theory. With such great idealistic power, communism has the ability to be spread rapidly. If one country turns over, then the chance that the next one will too is extremely high. We saw this too going into the Korean War. However, it seems as if the mentality of this age is that the only way to solve problems is through war. Of course this is the mentality over many years of history, however it does not support the fact that we should wage war in every single country that has a threat of turning communist. We were becoming the world police, and each time we intervened in something, the reputation of doing so only increased.

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  3. We definitely sympathize with Eisenhower's domino theory because of how scared everyone was of communism. We supplied them because we wanted them to fight with us, but then heavy influence from the Soviets and China caused otherwise. We account for these changes by going to war with them, which might not have been the wisest decision, but at the time it felt like it was necessary. The pretenses in which we started the war were false, but Eisenhower wouldn't have started a war if he didn't think it was necessary. This is a similar situation to the US and Iraq. We trained there military and supplied them with weapons. They too turned against us. So In my opinion, we should stop giving weapons to other countries considering they will probably just turn on us. Were kind of 0 for 2 when doing that, odds aren't great.

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  4. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed President Johnson, “ to use conventional military forces in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war.” Eisenhower believed that the fall of French Indochina to communism would lead to a “domino effect” in Southeast Asia. Eisenhower’s speech about the domino theory had little impact on the country. Personally, I can see how Eisenhower’s domino theory might have been correct, if one country falls to communism, there is no stopping other countries from falling as well. Furthermore, the Atlantic Charter was a policy that outlined the allied powers goals. The fact that we strayed so far from the Atlantic Charter is unsurprising as we were in a time of peril and war.

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  5. Overall, I think we sympathize with Eisenhower's articulation of the domino theory because we did not want communism to spread, and clearly he was going to do everything he could to stop the spread of it. The influence of communism was a strong factor. I do not think it was shocking that we strayed further away from the Atlantic Charter, because this was a desperate time and some changes had to be made. We were not looking to follow the limits of the Charter at the time.

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  6. America's biggest fear in the Cold War was the fact that every country in Asia and Eastern Europe were "falling" onto communism. Eisenhower therefore, saw the need of Americans to go to war with all of those countries that were falling and this is what it's known as the domino theory. I am more on the side of Eisenhower because the spread of communism all over Asia would not have done a lot of good to the world because communism had not done very good to countries that experimented it. However, it is true that the Us got into war maybe too many times in a short time period and it was really hard for the families and for the army and overall for the country. These wars also made a lot of damage to the less developed countries in Eastern Asia causing also so many more deaths in the Asian countries'side than in the American side.

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  7. It was definitely difficult because it's been a long time that the United States were keeping a strong attitude towards communism. The Cold War could explain how anti-communism the United States was. There were high tensions between the US and the Soviet Union and China. Eisenhower's domino theory worked a little bit, since Nixon was thinking more about the future of the country and a globalization view although he also had an attitude against communism, the Vietnam War still happened. But for now, because of the need of world and more benefit for the US, the US must change the attitude towards Vietnam.

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  8. The change from supporting Vietnam to fight against Ho Chi Minh, I think is caused by the fear towards the red. It is true that communist is spreading fast. I don't think is was as dangerous as people thought. I think capitalism and communism can have a nice coexistence. Therefore I don't sympathize Eisenhower's domino theory at all. It did seem like it spread like domino. However, it is controllable by diplomacy. All he wanted to do was to get involved in a war and show off his weapon. So he said that in order to get the supports from American people. United States was just too strong, so every president in the cold war had the ambition to fight and to have victory.

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  9. I think this is a totally plausible and normal change for Eisenhower to make. Strategies should change with changes of situation. As the president of the U.S., it is Eisenhower's responsibility to think for U.S.'s own benefits. Before the threat of Communism, U.S. was fighting against French for Vietnam's independence, which follows the Atlantic Chart. After the incessant growth of Communism in Asia, U.S. switched its direction to contain Communist influences. It is really not Eisenhower's choice to choose which side to support, but which side apposite to U.S.'s fundamental beliefs.

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  10. Everyone was afraid of communism. Eisenhower's articulation of the "domino effect" would've won many more Americans over had the country not been so sick of war. I think Americans were just tired of sending loved ones to places on the other side of the world, for a cause that seemed obsolete, except on the other side of the world. What's worse, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed even more troops to be sent into Vietnam.

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  11. The United States and Vietnam's relationship changed very quickly. From allies to enemies. But everyone was afraid of communism and the domino effect was true, if a country adapted communism there was a chance that the neighboring country would adapt it as well. Also if communism fell in a country it would fall in other places.But at the time communism was spreading very rapidly and scared many people.

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  12. Eisenhower domino effect wasn't as effective because everyone was so afraid of communism and did not want to stay in the war any longer Americans were so sick of wars and everything and people dying and being set of that they didn't want all of this to couture. Communism was growing anyways and the even though the US had different beliefs they only needed to take care of their country.

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  13. I personally think that what Eisenhower did is perfectly normal. The United States had supplied guns to Ho Chi Minh when Vietnam was fighting against the Japanese, and even when Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam Independent from France, United States refused to support France in any way. However, when it became clear that The Soviet threat was real and viewed Viet Mnh a communist regime taking its orders from Moscow, United States had no choice but to give assistance and get actively involved in Vietnam. Plus, Einsenhower believed in the domino theory, which is if one nation in the region fell, it was only a matter of time until its neighbours were going to fall under communism like dominos.

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  14. The rapid change in attitude towards "Nam" relates to the saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. While Vietnam was fighting the Japanese, our enemy, we considered them to be our friends, and we aided them. When the Second World War ended and the Cold War began, our new enemy was the USSR and communism overall. So the communist North Vietnamese became our next target.
    The Domino Theory was definitely correct. When China became communist under Mao, all of its neighbors started having communist revolutions. First North Korea, then North Vietnam, followed by the rest of Indochina.
    Although the Domino theory is true, Americans became disillusioned with the Containment policy during the Vietnamese War because it was no longer viewed as protecting democracy. The Atlantic Charter stated that all nations should abandon the use of force and should not pursue any aggression outside of their borders in the interest of peace. Obviously, the Containment policy by definition went against the Atlantic Charter. This is why many Americans protested the Vietnamese War.

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  15. Like so many things in government the sides/views/ideals change as soon as its most convenient. In the case of the United States, we needed an excuse to justify our change in actions to go to war with Vietnam, resulting in the Gulf of Tonkin. This was very much in response to the Domino Effect which says how when one country goes Communist, so do all the others in the region; almost as if the Commies are a contagious virus. Also like Zion siad, so many Americans would have been on board had they not been so sick of war. It is very difficult to gain support for a war that you can actually see affecting you in any way. Similar to Iraq/Afghanistan there were really no visible benefits from invading that part of the Middle East... we didn't even get there damn oil.

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  16. the main goal was cease communist movements in south asia. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed President Johnson, “ to use conventional military forces in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war.” Eisenhower believed that the fall of French Indochina to communism would lead to a “domino effect” in Southeast Asia. the intervention was prolonged and intense which caused such an uproar at home. it took far to long and distributed to much pain to americans and vietnamise alike.

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  17. I think that this situation can be seen through two points of view: one (the one that no one seems to believe at the time) is that America helped the wrong guy. However, Eisenhower strung this situation a little differently (not intentionally I think but it worked out perfectly for his cause. In his eyes and in the eyes of the US, the US had gone in and helped for good reasons: to help a group rebel against communism. But then the domino affect took its place and caused Vietnam, which was so close to all of the other Communist countries to turn Communist. Vietnam was almost the perfect example of the domino theory because a country that was originally taken over in order to prevent Communist converted itself to Communism because of its neighbors. I also do think that Eisenhower's change in point of view on the topic was plausible.

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