Wednesday, October 2, 2013

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?

11 comments:

  1. 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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  2. The domino theory is a valid, but also dangerous theory to act on. The domino theory means that if a country became communist, it would cause a spread of it through other countries. Eisenhower decides that we should act as if this was true, but it was only a theory. I am shocked that we decided to go into this war and risk many more innocent American lives. Not to mention the cost of this war.

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  3. The domino theory made a lot of sense at the time because many countries were beginning to adopt communism in a relatively short period of time. The war was highly debated because of the draft, and the sheer cost of it all. It was a brutal war where many young men lost their lives, for no real gain.

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  4. I find myself in an extremely similar place to Nicki. Although i feel slightly less inclined to sympathize with the US in this case. For multiple reasons. A few of which are how quickly the Vice-President (Johnson) turned the "american gun" (a little metaphor to spice things up) toward the back of our Vietnamese "allies" the second they started showing symptoms of the dreaded communism; "Following the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, the US went from assisting the south Vietnamese to taking control of the war...Johnson's decision to escalate the war on the grounds that is was a logical outgrowth of over two decades of incremental decisions by his presidential predecessors and it required resolution." Now i find it necessary to say that i agree that communism is not a great thing. In concept/on paper its sounds brilliant and almost too good to be true. And like most things that do sound too good to be true, communism fits right into that cliche. But i don't endorse the US becoming a 'world police' "en"forcing our values on other cultures. But since we had a direct relationship/alliance with Vietnam then i dont see TOO much at fault with the mentality(despite its obvious flaws and controversy)

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  5. I do agree with the Domino Theory. Communism was spreading like a wildfire. However, this was an extremely risky war that resulted in a lot of US uproar and disagreement. I can't even imagine how most people felt that were drafted. This war also created a bigger drift between social classes in the US. And on top of that, protests got violent and even more lives were taken. The US suffered domestically and maybe it's time to shift focus from foreign policies to domestic policies. With so much anger and tension in the US, containment is threatened because the nation is not as powerful when everyone is not on the same page.

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  6. Eisenhower refers to the spread of communism as "creeping" and boldly states that "If the Vietminh won, the remaining countries in Southeast Asia would be menaced by a greater flanking movement," which essentially articulated this domino theory. I am in a way 'shocked' that we are digressing from the Atlantic Charter's peace settlement, but I also understand why Eisenhower presented this theory. After all, the theory was a legitimate threat that needed to be realized by the people.

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  7. I do agree with the Domino theory, just based on hindsight and knowing that so much momentum can be gained by a newly developing Communist region. The people are passionate about Communism in every application throughout history, and that passion translate greatly into how much fight those people have in a war. I think that it is justifiable that Eisenhower wanted to stop the spread of communism, because Communism posed a threat to the United States both in trading and in potential military uprising. Rather than letting the continent of Asia become one strong Communist collective of nations, Eisenhower tried to stop the problem before a real one began.

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  8. The domino theory actually does make a lot of sence if you think about it. Communism was spreading quickly. And like jack said these people are passionate about communism. And this passions turns into a sence of nationalism and the want to fight for your country. Eisenhower wanted to stop the spread of communism because it posed a serious threat on us. So I believe that Eisenhowers actions are justifiable

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  9. okay this is the third time i''ve written this so sorry if it's a bit short.

    the domino effect is true yes, communism has the potential to spread rapidly if not halted. However, the Korean war didn't change anything but the lives of those who lost family members to the war. People didn't object to Vietnam because they were simply peace-loving hippies, they objected because they couldn't see the point in acting as the world police anymore or why they were being drafted to fight in a war that didn't have a clear connection to them.

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  10. Eisenhower's Domino theory actually make sense to me giving the fact that the uprising communism wild fire is rapidly spreading. It is like a infectious disease if one country gets it put their neighbors in drastically dangerous condition, which is also why US set foot in Korea war. Yet there is just one question that is confusing me, why america??? If communism is genuinely life threating at the moment how come there are tons of other capitalism countries remained silence?

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  11. I don't really like the idea of containment because I think that it is wrong to tell other countries how the ought to organize. If it is the case that the country is threatened by a dictatorship, than it is the right thing to do. But in the case of the US, it was all this fear of communism, that made them run around in the world getting their nose into everything. Considering the red scare, it is not surprising that something like the domino theory came up. Especially after the soviet union had turn so many european countries communistic. But wait- those changes of governments were due to manipulation! For me, forms of governments are not a trend or a fashion that other countries will follow- except maybe if they turn out to be very beneficial. And if it is so, I think it is wrong for other countries to get involved and try to interfere.

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