American History II students are discussing the Vietnam War. The rationales, events, and legacies.
EXTRA CREDIT: Discuss what rationale you think was the most important that contributed to US involvement in Vietnam. Make sure you explain your answer.
I think that containment was the most important rationale that contributed to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. America felt obligated to stop the spread of communism in other countries. With communism prominent in the Soviet Union, America had already experienced war with a communist nation. When Northern Vietnam fell under communist rule and the South was in need of rescue from communist influence, the U.S. was more than willing to step in.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important rationale that contributed to US involvement in Vietnam was containment. Containment is the US policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism. This is a valid argument because as the United States we swore to prevent the spread of communism and that is exactly what containment was about.
ReplyDelete-Kaycee Cooper
I think the most important Rationale would be containment because the official reason the US entered the war in Vietnam was to stop the spread of communism. Tori Gondeiro
ReplyDeleteI think containment was the most important rationale that contributed to the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. If we weren't trying to stop communism from spreading or in this case the communist North capturing South Vietnam we wouldn't have ever went and fought. Advising the South and supplying them with everything needed to survive and fight wasn't
ReplyDeleteenough. South Vietnam is communist to this day, so in my opinion we lost many of our men for no reason.
Alex Holland
I think that containment was the most important rationale contributed to US involvement in Vietnam. When we sent our troops over to Vietnam, supplying French military it helped them out greatly. When Korea was divided into two zones, we as Americans felt that the Truman Doctrine and Containment had succeed. It had its pros and cons. Going to war in Vietnam lost us several troops and Vietnam is still a communist country today. But we did keep Germany from the Soviet Union and it is no longer a communist country. All of the rationales had their pros and cons, but I believe containment had the biggest effect.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important rational considering the United States involvement would have to be the one about the United States Credibility. I think that the presidents and the high ranking government officials were to worried about if people would be able to trust us. Maybe for reasons like we may need to borrow money or we want to make sure that people will know that we can protect them always, even if they doubt us. I believe that that is one major reason. It also in a way contradicted ourselves. The french wanted our help, but we helped the south vietnamese instead. Since we still wanted France as an ally we decided to try and get England to help the French, or so my research has told me. Once we were involved in Vietnam we couldn't just stop, because it would ruin our credibility. Even during the war the soldiers would have to "pacify" the little villages to let them know that we would protect them and try to help, again another factor of credibility. So that is why I think that Credibility is one of the most important rationals of why we were involved in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteI believe that containment was the most important rationale. The spread of communism was a very large threat and who knows where we would be if we didn't step in! I for one am very thankful that I was able to grow up without the threat of communism.
ReplyDeleteI believe the rational that was most important to the U.S invasion in Vietnam would be resources. The French had been in Vietnam before the US for the same reason. Vietnam has great minerals, rice, and even better rubber trees with the factors to make rubber. This I believe is one of the big reasons the US was in Veitnam
ReplyDeleteIn my personal Opinion, The Rational that was most important to the US involvement in Vietnam was the Domino Theory. This is the Idea that if One country falls under Communist rule then it will bring surrounding countries under Communist rule. This is Important because, we as Americans hate Communists. Especially back then when we had just fought the 2 world wars, We saw what Communism is like, and there was no way in Hell we were going to let it spread across the world. So we went to Nam to stop Communism from spreading, and to Protect the freedom of not only our great country and it's people, But also hundreds of Millions of other people from different countries across Asia and Europe. We fought a valiant war against Communism, but they knew how to fight in their own country, and because of that, we had to eventually pull out of Vietnam. in the following years, we watched as South vietnam, as well as the surrounding countries came under Communist control. which is exactly what happens according to the Domino Theory, thus seeing how that theory could be a threat to our freedoms. because of this loss, many Americans today see Vietnam as a waste of precious, time, money, resources, and most importantly, human lives.
ReplyDelete-Buddy Tullis
I think that the domino theory was the most important rationale that contributed to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. With the spread of communism growing in Southeast Asia, the U.S. didn't want Vietnam to fall under Communism. The domino theory basically states that if one country were to fall under communism then a chain reaction would occur thus the surrounding countries would also fall and become communist. So if the U.S. had let North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh take over the rest of Vietnam then some of the surrounding countries would also become communist. They didn't want that to happen because the U.S. believed that Communism was and still is a flawed system. Take Stalin for example, he was a mass murderer. He killed millions of his own people. If you went against him you were pretty much dead. If you were in a culture he had no use for you were dead, same thing with religion. So the U.S wanted to prevent other countries as well as Vietnam from having their own Stalin. That in my opinion was the most important rationale for the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
ReplyDelete-Karsten Vanleishout
I think that containment was one of the most important rationale. We entered Vietnam because we wanted to "contain" communism. The US did not want the Domino Effect to occur so we went into Vietnam to stop communism from spreading to other parts of Vietnam and the surrounding countries. Its hard to say whether or not Vietnam would have totally fallen to communism if we hadn't intervened. To justify whether or not the efforts were there and the reason for entering Vietnam would be bases on opinion. Vietnam was a war about killing, not territory or rights. Many of lives were lost because of the efforts of the United States in Vietnam. Containment was a good idea but I think was not executed well enough for the severity of the situation.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important rationale was communism. The red scare and the domino theory were both tied into communism. People feared communism which is a good reason to fight it off. Also, people didn't want communists taking over countries and having surrounding countries fall into communism like dominoes, so there is another good reason to fight it. We promised to help any country fighting for democracy in order to stop the spread of communism. After Germany started conquering multiple countries when we only agreed for them have one, we knew we had to help stop communism in South Vietnam. We couldn't go back on our promise to help them because we wanted to stop communism not just for them, but for us too. We didn't want communists taking over. If communists were to take over, it would be harder for everybody. There would be a much higher possibility of countries not exporting goods to the U.S. In Vietnam, one of their main goods was rubber. They had other resources too. If we let communism spread there, then we might not get those goods anymore and communism could spread to surrounding countries possibly cutting off their goods as well. We were fighting to keep a promise to stop communism; therefore, I think communism was the most important rationale
ReplyDeleteI think that the most important rationale that contributed to U.S. involvement in Vietnam was containment. Communism was a huge threat and the whole reason that the U.S. entered the war was to prevent the expansion of communist power. Vietnam was just a war about bloodshed and how we could contain communist power so it didn't spread. If the U.S. was not scared of the "Domino Theory" and communism spreading, the U.S. would have never went and fought.
ReplyDelete-Ginny Glover
The rationale I think was the most important that contributed to US involvement in Vietnam was the Domino Theory. Because of this theory we were worried about the spread of Communism and how susceptible neighboring countries are to falling into a communist government. In my opinion this is the reason we even have a rationale containment because we were so worried about the domino theory spreading communism throughout the world. It is pointless to contain something that isn't a threat. To the United States, communism is the worst thing that can possibly happen to a country. With the Domino Theory, it struck fear into others of communism because of how easily it could spread.
ReplyDelete~Brianna Lindgren
I think the rationale that was of great importance on the topic of Vietnam was Containment. This is because containing communism is very important and is really one of the only good reasons we went to Vietnam. Communism is very bad, and the us trying to stop it is a good thing. The other rationales were really all on a chance something might or could happen but containment is straight forward and was what the Vietnam war was all about. Also if we contained communism to a certain area we would eliminate the domino theory and other rationales. Therefore if we just contain communism to a certain area it wouldn't be a problem.
ReplyDeleteone of the biggest rationals was containment because containing comunism was a big thing. and i think that the biggest legacie we have of the war is how we now have ptsd, just because our soldiers that made it through the war are now living with it.
ReplyDeleteI think the most important rational would have to be containment. Containment was stopping the spread of communism. The United States feared that once Vietnam became communist that other countries would follow, The Domino Theory,so they used containment as a reason to go into war with the south Vietnamese against the north. North Vietnam was trying to take over the entire country as a communist country, and take control of the resources and major exports in the country.
ReplyDeleteJenna Peterson