Vietnam War
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In his book The Unfinished Journey (5th ed), William H. Chafe generally takes the position that the reasons for the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War were purely for the reasons of containing the threat of Soviet expansion in Europe, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. From his perspective, the Korean War bequeathed a "…mixed legacy of precedents that would shape the agenda of subsequent American policy toward the Cold War and Asia. Central to that legacy was the conviction that containment, however painfully implemented, had worked…" (Chafe, 2003, 245). It also hardened the resolve of the United States to fight Communism "…everywhere around the glob and to bolster the U.S. conviction that containment was the only language the Russians would understand…." (Chafe, 2003, 249). The Korean War had established another precedent in that it established Asia as a battleground of the Cold War (Chafe, 2003, 245). Along with the commitment by the United States to contain Communism in other areas of the world, Asia now entered the same category thus globalizing the Cold War with literally no bounds. The legacy to which Chafe refers also established other political precedents within the United States (Chafe, 2003, 246). Among these was allowing the Executive Branch of government to bypass Congress and waging war based upon the authority of the President. Another was the authority given to (or usurped by) the White House to define the
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gins," 2003) and ended with the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991 ("Fall of the Soviet Union," 2003). The events during the early portion of this conflict that particularly irritated the United States was the repeated interventions by the Soviets into Eastern Europe. What most people do not understand or appreciate was that these "excursions" were along the same route that had been traditionally used by invading armies to attack Russia three times during the twentieth century (Chomsky, 1993).
While the Soviets were indeed supplying arms and other items to the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, it was clear that the Soviets were NOT masterminding a worldwide Communist conspiracy (Clifford, 1991, 290). Similarly by the mid 1960s the ideological separation between the Soviets and the Chinese was very apparent. At the beginning of the Viet Nam era, not a whole lot was known in Washington about the basic tenets of Asian society let alone the subtle differences between the different societies. Unfortunately, it was easier for politicians to stay with tried and true perceptions than to come up with correct reasoning.
Gelb (1991, 304-308) argues that there were really a number of intertwined reasons that serve to give a more accu
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Europe Power, Viet Nam, United Vietnam, Asia Central, Cold War, White House, Eastern Europe, Korean War, Unfinished Journey, Soviet Union, cold war, chafe 2003, gelb 1991, unfinished journey, world war ii, oxford university, university press, york oxford, war ii, world war, clifford 1991, york oxford university, oxford university press, ed william chafe, william chafe harvard,
Approximate Word count = 1215
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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