Vietnam War Primary Source Analysis

Superior Essays
I’m doing my Primary Source Paper on the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war was one of the most controversial wars America has ever been in. It had three other names it was known as; the second Indochina war, resistance war against America, and the American war. The war started November 1 1955 and ended on April 30 1975. It was during the cold war era that happened in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The first Indochina war occurred from 1946-1954 and was between North and South Vietnam. The Soviet Union and other communist country 's supported North Vietnam and South Vietnam was supported by the United states and other anti-communist country’s. This first war consisted of mainly guerrilla war and a few more conventional battles with large units in battle. …show more content…
I will analyze each quote individually. “You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win.” Ho Chi Minh to the French, late 1940s. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of North Vietnam and support communism. From this quote I get that he was a very confident leader and would win at any cost. “You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly.” Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954. Eisenhower is talking about the domino theory that America had that once one country became communist the countries around will follow. “Now we have a problem in making our power credible, and Vietnam is the place.” John F. Kennedy, 1961. Kennedy is talking about the United States needs to establish how powerful they are in Vietnam. “This is not a jungle war, but a struggle for freedom on every front of human activity.” Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964. Johnson talking about Vietnam, that its more then just a war of power. That its for basic freedom of a human. “Tell the Vietnamese they 've got to draw in their horns or we 're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age.” Gen. Curtis LeMay, May 1964. General LeMay threatening to bomb Vietnam if the Vietnamese don’t fall

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Vietnam War Dbq Analysis

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Overall, the Vietnam war was a popular conflict that failed in terms of the defense of S, Vietnam against the communist N. Vietnam, and changed many American’s opinions about the nation’s role in the world and on their lives. The Vietnam War was yet another example of the escalation of the cold war, but his time, American intentions were completely misguided, and the damage done to society was huge. American involvement in Vietnam increased conflict and tension in the U.S. because of the overwhelming unpopularity of the government decisions causing great social unrest and unhappiness especially young people, political corruption in the Johnson and Nixon administrations, and economic mismanagement of the war effort vs. domestic programs. As…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Vietnam, a war based on lies. The Cold War’s increasing belief that the spread of the communist power would mean the end of freedom. "Reality is grim and painful. But it is only a remote echo of the anguish toward which a policy founded on illusion is surely taking us.” -John F. Kennedy.…

    • 1842 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How the Vietnam War had an Impact on the 20th Century The Vietnam War escalated from a Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict in which the U.S was deeply involved. The Vietnam War was fought in South Vietnam between government forces, which were aided by the U.S, and guerrilla forces, which were aided by the North Vietnamese. Despite increased American military involvement and signed peace agreements in 1973, the Vietnam War did not end until North Vietnam successfully invaded South Vietnam in 1975. The Vietnam War may have been the longest war in American history. However, after South Vietnam collapsed, America was left to question their highly controversial involvement in a lost cause.…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Affects the Vietnam War had on Veterans The Vietnam War started on November 1st, 1955 and lasted until April 30th, 1975. There were 58,220 American casualties recorded to date, but there are so many more lives lost not on record. The U.S entered the war to stop the communist takeover of South Vietnam because we thought it would trigger “The Domino Theory.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    America 's entry to the Vietnam war was slow, but it soon became one of the bloodiest wars the country had ever seen. Troops were being deployed and lives were lost for reasons many found unclear. The war 's roots first started to develop in 1950 when the French, who were fighting for control of Indochina, began to deny the Vietnamese the privileges they were promised in exchange for French intervention. The Viet Minh, a communist group that fought control by the French and Japanese, were engaged in the First Indochina War against the French until 1954 when the French were defeated (Hillstorm, 1-2). Ho Chi Minh and his forces saw this as an opportunity to enforce communist rule throughout the entire country.…

    • 1898 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Vietnam War is a war that lasted from November 1st, 1955 to April 30th, 1975 yet the United States of America officially taken upon themselves to join in August 7th, 1964. The major reason why the United States joined the war was to prevent Communistic control over South Vietnam, to stop the establishment of a satellite country; as part of the United States’ Containment Policy, which it’s primary objective is to eradicating the spread of Communism. Many men of the United States have been drafted, enlisted and volunteered to train at the boot camps to prepare themselves in a new setting of war with a new type of warfare, the guerrilla warfare. As the United States gathered the manpower and firepower to fight the Viet-Cong based on the request…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Rosenau is a Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Naval Analysis Strategic Studies Center and worked in International Military Advisory roles and missions, as well as an Officer of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Rosenau was assisted by Austin Long, a paid researcher for the RAND corporation. The purpose for this piece was to break down the American Counterinsurgency tactics for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, done inside of the RAND Research Center. The document breaks down the counterinsurgency tactics used by the US during the Vietnam War in detail. It describes how the Phoenix Program came to be and why the US Government got involved in counterterrorism tactics in the first place.…

    • 1968 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Logevall claims that committing to war in Vietnam was a terrible mistake. Logevall begins by showing some sympathy to President Lyndon Johnson and other leaders at the time, as they believed that the strategies they had would work. He then goes on to state that “vocal proponents of taking the war to North Vietnam were strikingly few in number”4. He states this to show the overwhelming rejection of support to go to Vietnam by many American leaders of the time, other than Johnson. Logevall also suggests that even other countries were skeptical of being able to win in a long-term battle with the Viet Cong.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vietnam War Analysis

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One response was to "call [death] by other names (21)." "If it isn't human, it doesn't matter much if it's dead . . . a VC nurse, fired by napalm, was a crisp critter. A Vietnamese baby, which lay nearby, was a roasted peanut (238-239). " This detachment made death easier to handle.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vietnam War Interview The Vietnam War lasted from 1955 through 1975. Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford each held office during this time period of about 19 years. This war was an effort to halt the spread of communism, the Anti- communist forces consisted of South Vietnam, United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Khmer Republic, Kingdom of Laos and the Philippines. The communist forced consisted of North Vietnam, Viet Cong, Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Starting around 1957 and lasting till 1975, standing as America’s longest war, Vietnam was first established when US President John F. Kennedy showed support of South Vietnam, whose neighbor, North Vietnam, was trying to take over and convert them to communism. Three different presidents were in office over the entirety of the war, JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. With the most controversial decision-making coming from Lyndon Johnson, whose presidency by 1968 saw 30 billion dollars spent on the war a year and large numbers of…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Vietnam War was a power struggle between communism and capitalism, North Vietnam against South Vietnam respectively with each party wanting different political system. The United States of America aided South Vietnam while North Vietnam was aided by the Soviet Union and the republic of China. The Vietnam War was fought between 1955 and 1975 which fell in the middle of the cold war which was fought between 1947 and 1991. The United States of America as well as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics used the Vietnam War as a way to indirectly fight each other. The involvement in the Vietnam War was very unpopular in America and many movements were made against it.…

    • 2489 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Vietnam war was a brutal war killing millions of vietnamese civilians, thousands of americans, and destroying miles of jungle. it also caused long term effects that to this day are making people physically ill, ruining habitats, dividing people on both home fronts, and causing a high tension point between a people and its government. The vietnam war started in 1956 due to the division of the (GVN South Vietnam) and the (DRV North Vietnam). American pressure caused these two countries to stay split between each other after french rule had ceased.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Today’s world has come far to achieve what it has, it has gone through good and bad times but in the end through one way or another it has achieved peace and stability. Societies have moved passed their violent and turbulent pasts and today all nations live together in peace. The given source suggests that all nations should function without external influences and believes that every nation is capable of taking care of its citizens. The writer believes it is in a country’s best interest if it only concerns itself about its own national policy and it will create a level of diversity. There are many individuals that will agree with the source and they might suggest that it gives a country freedom to follow its own self-interests which could lead to innovation and creativity.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Following Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed the role of presidency in 1963. During this time, there were little bursts of antiwar sentiment on the political fringes of the United States, but this perspective did not encapsulate the typical American citizen (Morgan 140). Generally, the American imagination of Vietnam was skewed positively. The news was often painted from a positive lens, detailing America’s success and helpfulness in helping South Vietnam gain independence from communism. Coupled with the pressure of assuming presidency after Kennedy’s assassination, he listened intently to Kennedy’s team of technocrats believing that concentrated bursts of violence would quickly resolve the impending nature of North Vietnam’s…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays