Westward Ho!

Completely out-of-touch with his people, he fiddled the figures to produce a turnout for Saigon of over 650,000 when only around 425,000 were registered. This fiddling of elections showed what the Americans’ real priorities were – rather than focusing on installing democracy, they were focusing on not installing communism. In an almost entirely Buddhist country, Diêm was a devout Roman Catholic, one who favoured the rich landowners over the peasants – a mistake that, combined with his…

Written by Tim O 'Brien, “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home,” is a nonfictional story of a soldier as he battles the physical, psychological, spiritual and emotional challenges that come with being on the frontline of war as an American soldier. With his personal account and presentation of events from a sensate perception, O 'Brien takes the readers through the pain and fear that many American soldiers went through as they fought during the Vietnam War. Its sheer rawness…

The Things They Carried took place during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was made up of two sides. One side was the communist ruled Government of North Vietnam, China, Soviet Union, and other communist countries. While the opposing side fighting against them were the United States, South Vietnam, Philippines, and many other anti-communist countries. When the war start it was February 28, 1961 and officially ended on May 7, 1975. The Vietnam War was the first televised war. The war was…

from continuing the War. The bombing raids in North Vietnam would target ammunition and manufacturing factories. Once again this did not work and the war continued on longer than American Government expected. If American forces would have bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail from the start of the war and continued the raids, they could have stop the transportation of the supplies from the north to the South. The situation with this trail was that American forces could not advance into Cambodia and or…

There was a multitude of occurrences that helped to begin the Vietnam war, most notably: the spread of communism through areas of Southeast Asia, including China and Korea, the establishment of the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, the election of President Ngo Dinh Diem, and Congress’s decision to give President Johnson utmost authority over the military. The importance of Southeast Asia’s susceptibility to communism is demonstrated when, in Document B, McGeorge Bundy says, “It is recommended that…

Agent Orange: A Weapon of Destruction The infamous Brutus from the play, Julius Caesar, used the idea of the end justifies the means to rationalize his decision to kill Caesar for the greater good of the Roman Republic. This idea had been used by many throughout history to justify their morally wrong actions for the greater good. The United States federal government might have argued that the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War and dumping more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange…

Vietnamese history and people. During World War II, Japan invaded and occupied Vietnam, a nation that had been under French administration since the late 1800s, after several epochs of Chinese imperialism. After Japanese surrender in August of 1945, Ho Chi Minh and his followers, called Vietminh, were able to easily fill in and take control of the country. But unlike the British and the Dutch, who reluctantly granted independence to their colonies, liberated France sought to recolonize…

The Causes of the Vietnam War Callum Pastuszak The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest conflicts post WWII, it is important to understand how it started and learn from our mistakes so nothing like this happens again. It was a war that revolutionised warfare for ever with the first widespread use of Grulla warfare and introduce many new tactics and weapons. It involved some 2.2 Million soldiers and $150 billion ($950 billion in todays USD). It is a war that should be used to learn off…

From 1945 to 1964 Vietnam was separated between the communists in the North and the colonialists in the South. Ho Chi Minh, leader of the communist forces in the North (Vietminh), was a Vietnamese nationalist who was prepared to do anything in order to earn his country’s independence. Many believed that Ho was an agent under the Soviet Union sent to Indochina in order to spread communism. In The Quiet American, an anti-war novel by Graham Greene, Thomas Fowler, a British Journalist, and Alden…

succumb to a negotiation. In 1953, the CE’s headquarters in Paris realized there would be no victory in Vietnam for the French. The Vietnamese were too powerful and strong to defeat. After this realization, as a result the French would negotiate with Ho Chi Minh but still maintaining a level of dominance in…