Vietnam Essay, Research Paper

One of the great weaknesses of democracy and of the democratic profession in the second half of the 20th century has been its incapacity to communicate clearly and intelligibly to governments and to people what it practices and seeks to achieve. (Paul Kattenburg-Author of the Vietnam Trauma in American Foreign Policy) The United States has always been a democratic nation and for many years has tried to influence other nations into becoming democratic. As Vietnam was trying to break away from France in 1945, the country was split in half itself through political differences. The Northern half, led by Ho Chi Minh was adopting communist values, while Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnams President, led the South towards a republic. As this split occurred, tensions grew stronger and a war broke out; The United States intervened with Southern Vietnam in order to help defeat the communists in the North. The United States intervention in the Vietnam War proved that a foreign policy solely based on preventing the spread of communism is doomed to failure.

The United States entered the Vietnam War to aid Southern Vietnam in defeating the North Vietnamese communists. The whole conflict in Vietnam was started by different interpretations of the Geneva Accords, which was the peace treaty drafted after the successful rebellion against France. Because many issues in the agreement were left unresolved, like whether or not the treaty divided Vietnam into two separate countries, the actions taken by North Vietnam could have been thought of as an invasion or an attempt of unifying the nation. In 1957 communist-backed rebels in South Vietnam began to carry out several terrorist attacks. The National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed in 1960 with the help of North Vietnam s communist government. The Communist government in Vietnam was formed by a plan of the leading communist groups around the world. Because of these circumstances (lack of adequate education, health, transportation and communications) the communists decided that the area of South-east Asia was ripe for a violent uprising beginning in 1949 (Robert D. Schulzinger, author of A Time for War.) People needed to become unified and since they were economically unfit for a democratic society, a new communist government took its place. With the help of the Soviet and Chinese communist s, North Vietnam was turning into a strong offensive against South Vietnam and America who were trying to stop them.