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Was U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War an unnecessary conflict or a justifiable act of containment?

This argumentative essay example critically assesses U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It contends that far from being a justified act of containment, the war was an unnecessary conflict. The essay underlines flawed geopolitical assumptions and misunderstanding of Vietnam's nationalist movements, mischaracterized as part of a global communist threat. Its inability to adjust to guerrilla warfare left a long, seemingly endless conflict without specific aims and has badly bruised U.S. credibility both internally and internationally. The essay ultimately acknowledges that the high human and financial cost of the war were disproportionate to any benefit the United States could gain, further proof that it undermined America's position and revealed the limits of its military power.

September 25, 2024

* The sample essays are for browsing purposes only and are not to be submitted as original work to avoid issues with plagiarism.

WAS U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN THE VIETNAM WAR AN UNNECESSARY CONFLICT OR A

JUSTIFIABLE ACT OF CONTAINMENT?

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The Vietnam War has always been viewed as one of the most controversial and divisive

wars in which the United States has engaged. During the Cold War, the United States

administration was most anxious that communism would spread and muddy the bounds of

democracy around the world. This dread provided a valid reason for the origin of the conflict

between 1955 and 1975. In order to prevent the financing of communism in Vietnam, the United

States assisted South Vietnam in its efforts to align with Western allies.1North Vietnam sought to

make Vietnam a Communist state, as did the People's Liberation Armed Forces, a Communist

militia in South Vietnam. American military advisors were sent to South Vietnam to aid and train

troops. But to what extent was this military intervention a necessity? In response, this paper will

elaborate on how America's involvement in the Vietnam War was ideally unnecessary due to the

flawed geo-political assumption and the misinterpretation of the regional dynamics within

Vietnam by the government.

The major reason the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was unnecessary is because the

American government misread basic political dynamics within Vietnam. There was no global

communist conspiracy behind the perpetuation of war, just a nationalist movement of

independence and unification. Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the North Vietnamese forces, was

more of a nationalist than a Soviet or Chinese puppet, as argued by historians such as Gabriel

Kolko.2It was more of a conflict against colonial rule and over self-determination for Vietnam

than over the spread of communism across the globe. The reliance of the U.S. on the domino

theory that if one country in Southeast Asia fell to communism, the rest would follow, was an

2Kolko, Gabriel. 2020. Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical

Experience. The New Press, 11.

1Duong, N. 2023. "The Vietnam War: An Analysis of History, Causes, and Impacts."

International Journal of Science Review 5 (2): 346-356.

oversimplification of the region's political realities. This more or less brings out the fact that the

fall of Saigon in 1975 did not create a cascading effect throughout neighboring countries into

communist hands. Indeed, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia did not turn communist even after

the ultimate communist victory of Vietnam. According to political analyst Fredrik Logevall, the

U.S. overestimated Soviet and Chinese influences in Vietnam, ignoring the fact that many

Southeast Asian conflicts had more to do with nationalist and anti-colonial sentiments than

anything remotely connected with ideological allegiance to Moscow or Beijing.3Therefore, the

premise upon which U.S. involvement in Vietnam was fundamentally flawed. Instead of

interpreting the war in Vietnam as part of a broader movement toward national sovereignty,

American leaders mischaracterized it as a critical front in the global Cold War.

The involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam was marked by a chain of strategic failures that

further underlined the unnecessary character of the war. The American military was wholly

unprepared to cope with the tactics of guerilla warfare as conducted by the VC, hence the

drag-out and costly battles with absolutely no avenue for victory in view. As historian Marilyn

Young states, the United States did not really adapt itself to the actual conditions and continued

with the usual military strategy, for which the dense jungles of Vietnam proved to be an

unproductive ground.4Due to the lack of any proper military goal, this led to further prolonging

of the war without any satisfactory outcome. The political consequences of the war were also

very debilitating for the country. It seriously undermined the credibility of America on the global

platform, and allies and foes alike had begun to question the validity of U.S. foreign policy. The

war had brought strains in relations with Western European allies, many of whom criticized the

4Bradley, M. P., and M. L. Dudziak. 2021. Making the Forever War: Marilyn B. Young on the

Culture and Politics of American Militarism. University of Massachusetts Press, 68.

3Logevall, Fredrik. 2001. The Origins of the Vietnam War. Routledge.

U.S. for what they saw as an imperialist intervention in a conflict that has little bearing on global

security. Domestically, it resulted in a dramatic decrease in the level of trust in government

institutions, thus leaving ongoing legacy effects in American politics. Hence, U.S. involvement

in Vietnam wasn't just strategically misguided; it became a lasting political failure that weakened

the nation's moral and military authority around the world and within.

Despite these criticisms, those who support U.S. involvement argue that the war was an

act of containment that was justifiable and had to be done to prevent the further spread of

communism in Southeast Asia. To them, the Cold War was a global struggle, and the U.S., as a

superpower, should intervene anywhere where communism is under threat of expansion. This is

the view that the defeat of South Vietnam to communism could have given courage to the Soviet

Union and China to further spread communist regimes across the region, presenting a threat to

U.S. allies such as Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Those supporting the claim still

argue that though the war was costly, it had to be an imperative show of U.S. will against the

expansion of communism. Various critics believe that the U.S. had no luxury to appear weak in

Vietnam, for such an impression would serve as a notice to the Soviet Union and China that a

lack of will existed on the part of the U.S. to defend its interests in Asia.5The U.S. was supposed

to protect its credibility as a world leader and its allies as it did in the case of SEATO. The

containment of communism in Vietnam, even for a limited period of time, might have been

sufficient for the internal contradictions of communism to undermine its global ambitions and,

thus, contribute to the end of the Cold War.

5Warren, James A. 2022. How Arrogance and Ignorance Doomed the U.S. in Vietnam. January

23. Accessed September 24, 2024.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-arrogance-and-ignorance-doomed-the-us-in-vietnam.

While hugely relevant in a general Cold War context, the argument about containment

simply does not hold much water in the case of Vietnam. For example, the domino theory,

through which much of the U.S. Cold War policy in Southeast Asia had been justified, simply

did not come to pass. The fall of Vietnam did not lead to a cascade of communist takeovers, and

countries like Thailand and Malaysia continued to resist communist movements without the need

for U.S. military intervention. Besides, as recent research pointed out, the geopolitical

assumptions upon which U.S. involvement rested were fundamentally unsound; thus, Vietnam

was never as strategically crucial as U.S. policymakers had imagined it to be.6In addition, the

U.S. intervention in Vietnam arguably weakened, rather than strengthened, American influence.

The war showed the limits of U.S. military power and reduced its standing in the world for both

allies and adversaries alike. Rather than shoring up U.S. credibility, the war undermined it;

thereafter, U.S. foreign policy became more circumspect and less interventionist. It made

anti-American sentiment much bolder in most parts of the world, especially in places such as

former colonies, where American intervention could only be conceived of as purely imperialistic

and not some sort of defense against an elusive freedom's aggressions.

In the end, while the involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam was widely framed as a

justifiable act of containment, such a policy was clearly remarkably unnecessary and based on

flawed geopolitical assumptions, resulting from an underestimation of regional dynamics.

Human lives and finance costs were very high, clearly out of proportion with derived benefits,

while the domino theory that vindicated the intervention came out as a gross simplification of the

highly politicized landscape of Southeast Asia. Though many still insist that this was necessary

6Black, Jeremy. 2018. The Vietnam War: A Lesson in the Geopolitics of Southeast Asia. March

30. Accessed September 24, 2024.

https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/03/the-vietnam-war-a-lesson-in-the-geopolitics-of-southeast-asia/.

to stem the tide of communism, the larger historical record is clear that the Vietnam War did

more harm than good in weakening U.S. global standing and exposing the limits of American

military power.

Bibliography

Black, Jeremy. 2018. The Vietnam War: A Lesson in the Geopolitics of Southeast Asia. March 30.

Accessed September 24, 2024.

https://www.fpri.org/article/2018/03/the-vietnam-war-a-lesson-in-the-geopolitics-of-south

east-asia/.

Bradley, M. P., and M. L. Dudziak. 2021. Making the Forever War: Marilyn B. Young on the

Culture and Politics of American Militarism. University of Massachusetts Press.

Duong, N. 2023. "The Vietnam War: An Analysis of History, Causes, and Impacts."

International Journal of Science Review 5 (2): 346-356.

Kolko, Gabriel. 2020. Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical

Experience. The New Press.

Logevall, Fredrik. 2001. The Origins of the Vietnam War. Routledge.

Warren, James A. 2022. How Arrogance and Ignorance Doomed the U.S. in Vietnam. January

23. Accessed September 24, 2024.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-arrogance-and-ignorance-doomed-the-us-in-vietnam.

September 25, 2024

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Academic level:

Undergraduate 1-2

Type of paper:

Argumentative essay

Discipline:

American history

Citation:

Chicago

Pages:

4 (1100 words)