American Foreign Policy

Running head : Vietnam War

Major Causes of Vietnam War : A Critical Appraisal of American Foreign Policy

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Major Causes of Vietnam War

The Vietnam War is one of the longest and deadliest campaigns of 20th century . It lasted for over 25 years of battle with over 50 ,000 dead American soldiers . Causes of the Vietnam War are numerous and American involvement in the conflict can be termed as a major failure of American foreign policy . For over two thousand years , Vietnam had been struggling to establish itself as an independent

nation but foreign vested interests were the major impediments . History of Vietnamese quest for independence can be traced back to 208 B .C . when Chinese conquered Vietnam . Next two thousand years witnessed Vietnam falling from one hand to another with brief periods of independence . In 1954 , French ended its colonial era in Vietnam , which provided a new route to expansion of communism resulting into the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and the American intervention . This has been designed to scrutinize the major causes behind the Vietnam War highlighting major flaws in American foreign policy at that time period . The will present comprehensive explanation of the major reasons for the United States ' intervention along with other options it had

In to comprehend the Vietnam War , there is a need to understand the background and the situation in Vietnam in post World War II era The Vietnam was a French colony since 1887 , and the end of World War II had marked the termination of colonial trends as well . Even during the second world war , French had started losing control of Vietnam with Japanese conquering major parts of the country . However , Japan pulled back its forces from Vietnam after surrendering to United States . It was mid 40s and Vietnamese boosted their struggle to get rid of French occupation . This conflict was named Indochina war with France . The term "Indochina " originally referred to French Indochina , which included the current states of Vietnam , Laos and Cambodia . The First Indochina War also commonly known as the French War in Vietnam commenced in 1947 and lasted until the French defeat in 1954 . This uprising was duly sponsored and supported by China with United States backing the French to regain control . The level of American involvement can be gauged from the fact that 80 of the French expenses in the struggle to subdue the uprising was being provided by United States . It was the cold war era , and United States never wanted China and Soviet Union to take control of Vietnam However , the French soldiers with American money could not sustain for too long , and Vietnam finally got independence from France in 1954 (Isard , 1969

Vietnam soon after independence was faced with major challenges of rebuilding the country . The Vietnamese government had the backing of United States , but there was no substantial financial assistance being provided . The American policy makers thought it as a better way . The situation was however fully exploited by communist Russia...