How America Lost The War In Vi Essay - 607 Words

The Vietnam War was the most controversial war in American history. Costing more than 47,000 U.S. lives and $140,000,000, the war had momentous impact on the country, politically, economically, and socially. More significantly, the United States failed to achieve its stated war aims, for the first time in history. The goal was to preserve an independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam, but by the war’s end in 1975, all of Vietnam was under the communist rule of Ho Chi Minh’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The U.S. emerged from the war disgraced: a global superpower had been bested by the nearly third-world nation of North Vietnam. But how? Antiwar sentiment among the civilian population contributed to the American defeat, but†¦show more content†¦Such strong opposition amongst the public was echoed by objection to the war in the political world. Public protesting forced congressmen to reexamine the justice of the war, and politicians such as Senator William Fulbright were sharply critical of America’s policy. By 1967, even Defense Secretary Robert McNamara opposed President Johnson’s course of escalation. Although doves were a prominent minority, the adversary force they created was enough to undermine the will of the government to continue fighting. Without the full support of its people and with a deeply divided government, the United States was hindered in its efforts to effectively fight the Vietnam War. The greatest problem with the war in Vietnam was its flawed purpose. Washington had sought to control international communism, but this global strategic concern masked the reality that the appeal of communism in Vietnam derived from local economic, social, and historical conditions. In essence, the U.S. response to Vietnam’s communist threat was to apply a military solution to an internal political problem. America’s infliction of destruction on Vietnam served only to politically discredit the independent South Vietnamese government that the United States sought to support. The rhetoric of U.S. leaders following World War II about the superiority of American values, the dangers of appeasement, and the hazards of communism recognized noShow MoreRelatedThe War During The Cold War Essay1408 Words   |  6 PagesAs the Second World War came to a close and American and Soviet forces marched into German territory, both states understood that shortly thereafter their common foe would be defeated and their relationship very well could deteriorate. 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