In order to understand how and why societal views shifted in America, it is important to know the discourse that was used in order to justify the United States involvement in Vietnam. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s message to Congress on August 5, 1964 was the official start to the United States involvement in Vietnam and the discourse used in his speech needed to raise support from American citizens in order to justify their intervention in Vietnam. In this speech, Johnson states that the North Vietnamese regime conducted deliberate attacks against United States naval vessels operating in international waters. By showing to the American citizens and Congress that the North Vietnamese instigated the unjust altercation, Johnson is able to begin gaining support for the United States entrance into Vietnam. Johnson explains four propositions in his message to Congress, one which states, “our purpose is peace. We have no military, political, or territorial ambitions in the area.” This proposition is important because it explains to American citizens that this intervention in Vietnam does not have any ulterior motives, meaning every American citizen can support an intervention that would help the citizens of Vietnam live in a communist free society. Johnson continues his message to Congress by using America’s current anti-communist viewpoint to help garner support for the intervention in Vietnam. Johnson states that “the North Vietnamese regime has constantly sought to take over South Vietnam and Laos. This Communist regime has violated the Geneva accords for Vietnam.” This statement further helps to raise support because now not only have the North Vietnamese unjustly attacked an American naval vessel in international waters, they have begun their attempts to spread communism to the rest of Vietnam, something the United States will not tolerate. Johnson ends his message to Congress by stating that the United States must make it clear to all that they are united in the determination to bring an end to Communist subversion and aggression in Vietnam. Johnson used this speech, with this specific discourse about helping Vietnam and removing the threat of Communism to gain, not only support from Congress, which would supply the monetary needs for the intervention and eventual war, but to gain support from the American citizens, who would be called to fight in Vietnam. Now that Johnson had the support for the war in Vietnam from both Congress and American citizens, it is important to note why Americans had a fear of communism and how this related to a movement against the Vietnam …show more content…
With the conclusion of both the First and Second World War came the end to capitalism in Russia and China. Because of this the United States experienced a period of red scares where Americans felt that capitalism was on the brink of destruction. Johnson was able to use this fear to implement the intervention in Vietnam, as explained previously in his message to Congress. This fear of communism from American citizens helped to lead to a change in opinion from the next