Unjust War :: essays research papers

The Vietnam conflict began in the late nineteenth century. The French conquered Vietnam and made it a protectorate. For nearly forty years, Vietnam had not experienced settled peace. The League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh) was formed in 1941, seeking independence from the French. On September 2nd, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed it independent of France. The French opposed their independence from 1945 to 1954. The French wanted to reestablish their rule in Vietnam but were beaten at the battle of Dien Bien Phu on May 7th, 1954. Ho Chi Minh led the war against France and won (lawson 13-15). After the war there was a conference in Geneva where Vietnam was divided into two parts along the seventeenth parallel. North Vietnam was mainly Communist and supported Ho Chi Minh, while the south was supported by the United States and the French were based there (bender 55-59). There was still some Communist rebels within South Vietnam. These were the Viet Cong. The South Vietnam ruler was Ngo Dinh Diem who was anti-Communist. At the conference, Laos and Cambodia became independent states (johnson 34). North Vietnam wished to unify North and South Vietnam through military force. Since the United States feared the spread of communism in Asia, John F. Kennedy provided economic and military aid to South Vietnam to prevent the takeover by North Vietnam (bender 35). At this time, this was still a civil war and because this was a civil war the United States had no right to become officially involved, but at this point it did (mcleod 120-125). The North Vietnamese resented the little intervention by the United Sates and so, three Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on the U.S. destroyer, "Maddox" on August 2nd, 1964. The "Maddox" had been in the Gulf of Tonkin, (international waters), thirty miles off the coast of Vietnam. On August 3rd, 1964, President Johnson gave the right " to attack with the objective of destroying attacking forces.† Retaliation air attacks began on August 3rd. Their aim was to destroy North Vietnam's gunboat capability. As two more United States destroyers were supposedly sunk, more air and sea forces were sent. Up until now, the U.S. had refrained from direct combat. This is when the United States formally entered the Vietnam War. The U.S. did this for two reasons. We wished to maintain the independence of South Vietnam and we had to prove to allied nations that we would help them resist Communist overtaking.