Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

John Lennon, the co-founder of the popular English rock band the Beatles, once said, ““The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn 't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.” During the 1960’s, the “possibilities” that filled the atmosphere of the United States was challenges of the societal norm on discrimination and an overseas war that consumed both lives and trusts of the citizens in the US. As the 1960s dragged…

Why did the United States find it so difficult to ends its involvement in the Vietnam War? In this essay, I will outline and explore the reasoning behind the United States involvement and withdrawal from Vietnam and why the decision to withdraw from the war, was one of great complexity. The Vietnam War was a civil war fought between the communist’s states of North Vietnam and the capitalist South. The North Vietnamese wanted to join with the south as one united communist country. Whilst the…

Tom cruise earned his first Academy Award nomination for, “Born on the 4th of July”. His spectacular performance of Ron Kovic, a young Vietnam veteran returning home sums up the Vietnam era. The moves flashes to Vietnam where Kovic experience the atrocities of war before he is wounded and shipped to a VA hospital to recover. The condition of the VA hospital are despicable, rats, broken equipment, and drug use. Most of the people who work there are apathetic, overworked, understaffed, and black…

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. The American takeover of the newly born South Vietnam that hurt the people more than it helped, taking on a series of destruction and devastation rather than assisting and strengthening. The 11 year war that…

Torreon (Torreon, CRS 01/27/15, summary section). Regardless of whether the conflict is stand alone or part of a prolonged engagement and/or war period, a majority of these conflicts where American troops are involved do not have an associated authorization use of military force associated with them. To highlight this fact Mr. Timothy McGrath states that the United States is currently involved in 134 different operations in his 8 December 2014 article on US Foreign policy (McGrath, Global Post…

Johnson passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which was a resolution to aid South Vietnam during the war. President Johnson was trying to stop the spread of communism around the world, therefore he felt the need to help South Vietnam fight off the communist. Almost immediately after the North invaded the South, the United States was involved. Since this was a war that the American troops did not believe in they were refusing to volunteer to fight. With there already being a resolution to aid the…

The rise of communism in the USSR and China sparked fears in the American government. The U.S. learned of a new power rising in North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh who wanted to gain control of the South making all of Vietnam communist. Through Eisenhower’s tactics (which ran poorly) America lost many of its troops. The domino effect ran through the predecessors of Eisenhower who wanted to continue in his ways. However, each President proved that their policies were faulty and could not withstand…

Westmoreland’s Request “Vietnam divided America more deeply and painfully than any event since the Civil War.” (Readings 9, To Avoid a Defeat, 231). The steady stream of American casualties suffered at the hands of the NVA made a difficult situation intolerable as American support for the war diminished with each soldier laid to rest. President Lyndon B. Johnson made a dire mistake in approving General Westmoreland’s request on to put combat boots on the ground in Vietnam, as the threat to…

Diem was assassinated. President Robert F. Kennedy knew all about the coup, but that was not apparent to the public until later. When Lyndon B. Johnson was reelected in 1964, he increased U.S. engagement in Vietnam. In that exact year, the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” was passed by the U.S. congress, which gave LBJ the power to select as many military force as he saw best fit. Many African Americans and college students wanted an end to the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King was outspoken against…

The Kent State Massacre John Filo, photography major from Kent State, won the prestige Pulitzer Prize for his photo taken on the campus of Kent State University. Sadly the image captured fourteen Mary Vecchio screaming over the dead body of Jeffery Miller after he had been shot. Among Miller were three others who died after the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a chaotic protesting group of students on Kent State University. The shooting that occurred on May 4, 1970 will forever be known as…