“In ancient times, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were connected to one another through the exchange of culture and religion. They also engaged in trade, as well as fought one another over territory. China bordered these three countries on the north. They each had a history of conflict with China.” China was capitalist nation, but several years after World War II ended they became a communist nation. This caused paranoia in the United States because after the end of the war they were determined to contain the spread of communism. They thought since Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were connected to China that they would fall to communism. This theory was called the domino effect. The United States paranoia caused a lot of tension between them and many
Many presidents carrers were ruined because of the war. Lyndon B. Johnson was one of the first presidents to deal with the war and Americans did not like the way he dealt with it. Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the main reason the war started. By the time JFK was assassinated in 1963, the United States had 16,000 military troops in Vietnam. On August 2nd, tensions between the United States and Vietnam grew worse when the U.S.S. Maddox was attacked. However, the United States did not respond and LBJ received backlash for this, as it made him look weak. Then on August 4th the United States thought that the Vietnamese sent an attack on the U.S.S. Maddox and decided to send target bombings on Vietnam. Americans were confused by this because they did not understand why the United States would go to war for a false attack. And Johnson couldn’t use the first attack as an excuse because the Vietnamese had already gotten away with it two days earlier. When the war started, Johnson did not believe in it. Quickly, this word spread throughout the United States and it made American citizens even more mad and it gave the anti-war movement a bigger advantage than they already had. Eventually Lyndon B. Johnson had so much baggage on him from the Vietnam War he couldn’t run for re-election (Doc D). Not only did the war cause problems for LBJ but also for Congress. Congress passed the Gulf of
The United States sent a fair amount of aid to Vietnam. This included a great quantity of soldiers. The draft was and still is a way of compulsory recruitment for military service. Young men all over America were chosen to go to the war. Many did not want to serve and to get out of the draft, one way you could was by going to college (Doc F). This angered citizens because while they sent their sons and husbands off to a war with a high casualty rating, the upper class people-mainly people involved with the government-were at home with their families. Even a presidential candidate agreed that the United States was wasting their time with Vietnam. George McGovern was the candidate running against Nixon. McGovern states in one of his speeches, “What I propose is that we spend all that is necessary for prudent national defense, and no more.”(Doc H). He goes on to explain that the United States has devoted too much money into new weapons that will “end the war” and sending more and more military forces with no purpose but will only repeat the horrible experiences the men before them had in Vietnam is a complete misuse of valuable resources and money (Doc H). A lot of Americans thought that the money could go towards other social issues. People complained that we couldn’t have gotten in so much debt if the