The US Involvement In The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War lasted many years and saw a great impact on the world, to those that fought in it and those that lived through it, however, many question whether or not America’s involvement was necessary. The United States of America’s decision to become involved in the First Indochina War between the French and the Vietnamese was a mistake. Their involvement in the war was a mistake because the US risked a lot in a war that had nothing to do with them and Vietnam veterans were mistreated by America’s people and government. However, some argue that if Vietnam was never fought and allowed to become a Communist nation, surrounding countries would follow due to the Domino Theory and eventually threaten democratic nations and their freedom.

American …show more content…
They were not seen by the country as war heroes and the courageous men they were, but instead were treated poorly by the general public and the government. Little financial support was given to soldiers returning with disabilities or psychological disorders gained from the war. Due to this, many veterans found it hard to integrate back into society and find themselves a stable life back home. This left the grunts of the war to be homeless or in jail, and shockingly, more veterans committed suicide than the 60,000 that died in the war. To the general public, they were seen as part of the slaughter of Vietnamese civilians, who were victims of the bombings and the battles that ensued in their country. As mentioned in Week 12 – The War on Soldiers, brutal stories from Vietnam emerged like the one of Lieutennant Calley and senseless murder of at least 22 unarmed civilians upset the general public of the US. This weighed on the nation’s conscience to quite a heavy degree and went against a lot of what America stood for and believed it. Vietnam veterans were walking reminders of a lost war and the death of innocent people; thus Americans considered them a lost …show more content…
It was a war of ideals and political struggle between the two ideologies. It’s hard to imagine a world in which communism was wide-spread, even if the Vietnam War had never happened. The US went into unfamiliar territory, risking fortunes and lives to protect Asia from becoming one communist community. The Domino Theory, while a useful tool to intimidate the population of the United States into supporting a war, turned out to be nothing more than a scare tactic in the end. Finally, with the way the veterans were treated after the war by the country, it showed the government’s inability to provide for the war efforts of their soldiers that laid down their lives for their country’s ideals. Whether or not it was a mistake for America to enter Vietnam, the action had a serious and long lasting affect that is still reflected upon as we continually seek to change how we treat our troops and our approach to war