Should we have been there?
The answer isn't yes or no. However instead the answer is we should have stayed in for even longer. But since the United States of America decided not to commit 100% to the war, and since they pulled out a few months short of victory turned the whole war into a sad, tragic waste. A waste that cost America billions of dollars, 58,220 American lives, crippled the lives of 300,000+ soldiers, and many more emotionally.
The United States' reason to go to war might not seem as valid today as it did in the 60's and 70's, but back then the threat of Communism was a constant looming monster and went against everything that the free world stood for. And through propaganda it was only expanded and made worse.
During the first few years of the war, America gave it's full support, but once the media was allowed to show the people back home what the war was really like, and how much of a waste it is becoming, it caused disapproval to spark up everywhere in the nation. Because of that, America's government received a large amount of heat and backlash for the continuation of the war and they were faced with a major choice. Either continue the war and win, or pull out early and lose, but at the same time they would make the public happy. But how much? Even though the government pulled out, they were already in for too long, which gave the people enough time to hate the war and want nothing of it. Since America had to go the war route, and the public was eventually going express their disapproval, they should have either pulled out once things started to go bad at home, or finish the war out. By waiting as long as they did they chose the worst choice possible. Instead of only having the distrust and anger of their people, or losing the war and wasting a large amount of American resources, they got slammed with both. Because of this outcome, it is clear that our government at the time was not able to make a logical choice when dealing with the Vietnam war, we should not have gone at all.
We lost the war anyways; Communism was allowed to spread to Vietnam, and the other countries surrounding the country. The Domino effect that America was so afraid of ended up happening, only it was also compounded with millions of lives lost, and billions of dollars wasted. There is no question about it that if America decided to enforce total war on Vietnam, we would have been victorious in a few months, only instead they decided that it was not necessary. It's a shame that our government had not learned from the past conflict with North and South Korea, where almost the same exact situation was presented.
Of course there are many different ways that the Vietnam war could have gone. We could have obviously never even gotten involved and worked on making our own country stronger and better, while allowing Communism to spread to a few third world Asian countries, which ended up happening anyways. We could have pulled out once the American people started to show no support for the war, like after the Tet Offensive, or during the riots at the universities in America, and gained back some of the trust and approval from the people of the United States. Or we could have stuck through with the war for a few more months, and emerged victorious. This would have cost more lives and resources, but at least the sacrifice would not have been in vain, and the victory might have even raised morale within the American people again. But since the war ended up how it did, we have to analyze that outcome. Based off of that outcome, we can clearly see that the Vietnam War was a waste and a tragic loss for America. We must now move on, as we have, and hopefully learn from this experience and hopefully in the future this kind of situation and outcome will never happen again for the United States of America.
The United States' reason to go to war might not seem as valid today as it did in the 60's and 70's, but back then the threat of Communism was a constant looming monster and went against everything that the free world stood for. And through propaganda it was only expanded and made worse.
During the first few years of the war, America gave it's full support, but once the media was allowed to show the people back home what the war was really like, and how much of a waste it is becoming, it caused disapproval to spark up everywhere in the nation. Because of that, America's government received a large amount of heat and backlash for the continuation of the war and they were faced with a major choice. Either continue the war and win, or pull out early and lose, but at the same time they would make the public happy. But how much? Even though the government pulled out, they were already in for too long, which gave the people enough time to hate the war and want nothing of it. Since America had to go the war route, and the public was eventually going express their disapproval, they should have either pulled out once things started to go bad at home, or finish the war out. By waiting as long as they did they chose the worst choice possible. Instead of only having the distrust and anger of their people, or losing the war and wasting a large amount of American resources, they got slammed with both. Because of this outcome, it is clear that our government at the time was not able to make a logical choice when dealing with the Vietnam war, we should not have gone at all.
We lost the war anyways; Communism was allowed to spread to Vietnam, and the other countries surrounding the country. The Domino effect that America was so afraid of ended up happening, only it was also compounded with millions of lives lost, and billions of dollars wasted. There is no question about it that if America decided to enforce total war on Vietnam, we would have been victorious in a few months, only instead they decided that it was not necessary. It's a shame that our government had not learned from the past conflict with North and South Korea, where almost the same exact situation was presented.
Of course there are many different ways that the Vietnam war could have gone. We could have obviously never even gotten involved and worked on making our own country stronger and better, while allowing Communism to spread to a few third world Asian countries, which ended up happening anyways. We could have pulled out once the American people started to show no support for the war, like after the Tet Offensive, or during the riots at the universities in America, and gained back some of the trust and approval from the people of the United States. Or we could have stuck through with the war for a few more months, and emerged victorious. This would have cost more lives and resources, but at least the sacrifice would not have been in vain, and the victory might have even raised morale within the American people again. But since the war ended up how it did, we have to analyze that outcome. Based off of that outcome, we can clearly see that the Vietnam War was a waste and a tragic loss for America. We must now move on, as we have, and hopefully learn from this experience and hopefully in the future this kind of situation and outcome will never happen again for the United States of America.