American Foreign and Diplomatic Policy toward the Vietnam War

Events in Southeast Asia in general and Vietnam in particular were of little interest or consequence to American policymakers and the American public prior to piece War II. in the 19th century, the United States pursued an isolationistic foreign policy vis-a-vis events outside the Western Hemisphere. It devoted itself to developing its vast continental resources and fulfilling its Manifest Destiny, which included territorial expansion in North America, by peaceful means but also by war in 1812 and the Mexican War of the 1850s. Under the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, the United States warned foreign powers against step in in the affairs of Latin America. Since 1898, the United States has intervened militarily and diplomatically many times in Central America and the Caribbean section as it has deemed necessary to protect its commercial and strategic interests there. British naval hegemony in the Atlantic Ocean enabled the United States to breathe free of major military commitments in Europe until German advances forced it to intervene there in 1917-1918 and again in 1941-1945.

In the Pacific, the United States acquired the Philippines as a colony upstartr the Spanish-American war. It also annexed Guam, the Hawaiian Islands and part of Samoa in the 1890s. While European nations vied for spheres of influence on the Asian continent, the United States pursued an string out Door Policy toward China, which was designed to preserve wh

Hammer, Ellen. The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1954.

of the press reporting on the one hand, and the official position on the other . . . the polarization had become

The eruption of the Korean War and Chinese communist military interjection persuaded Acheson and Truman that the Indochina war was another front in the Western campaign to contain Asian and global communism. Beginning in late June 1950, the United States extended an average of $500 million in military aid per annum for the French war effort in Indochina. By 1953 it was picking up nearly 80 percent of the tab.

However, the French position deteriorated due, said Edmonds, to "a combination of rambunctious determination on the part of the Vietminh, strategic and tactical errors by the French and war weariness in France," where the war became cognize as la guerre sale, the dirty war.

Vietnam War prior to 1965, near Americans either supported

After one real and a second confusing, phantom attack (which probably never occurred) by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on an American destroyer in the Tonkin disjunction on August 2-3, 1964, Johnson obtained authorization to oppose as he saw fit from lopsided congressional votes (416-0 in the House and 88-2 in the Senate). He ordered vindicatory air strikes against North Vietnamese targets. He failed to disclose to intercourse or the public that American naval units were in the Gulf in support of secret South Vietnamese raids on North Vietnamese shore installations, which he had authorized. In repartee to further Vietcong attacks, including one on American forces at Pleiku on February 2, 1965 which inflicted more than 1,200 American casualties, and to shore up the unstable administration in South Vietnam, Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, the assail of North Vietnam by American planes. During the spring and summer of 1965, Johnson acceded to the requests of oecumenical William Westmoreland, the American commander in Vietnam for Ame
Ordercustompaper.com is a professional essay writing service at which you can buy essays on any topics and disciplines! All custom essays are written by professional writers!