How the French failure in Indochina brought the US into war in Vietnam

For many in the Western World , the war in Vietnam has remained a huge haunting specter that has never gone away . In the United States , the cold images of the military withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970 's still cast a grim and dark shadow on the national psyche and remains a major reason behind the doubts people have regarding any victory in the current war in Iraq . However , it is surprising that so few people understand the role that France played in the history of the United States ' role in Vietnam to

say nothing of the role that France has also historically played in the United States ' role in the Middle East as well

While there is some myth surrounding the France 's and America 's wars in Vietnam , much of the myth can be dispelled by the reality of the images that have been recorded for history . The Vietnam War was no more ugly than any other war in history , but it was the first war that had aired uncensored on American television . This time , there would be no illusory tales of grandeur that would put mythic heroics onto the exploits after they war came to a close . The blood of the Vietnam War had been captured for eternity as has the realization that the United States and the French were hardly welcome guests in Southeast Asia . Although popular sentiment among the lower classes for the [North Vietnamese Army] was not strong , there was still a great desire for independence (Morrison 17

Much of the problems with the war in Vietnam were directly related to the American and French populace 's its history . Vietnam had fought several centuries long war of independence with the Chinese . It also fought a hundred years war with French colonialists and also occupying Japanese forces . The country 's goals were to free itself from foreign rule . While the United States saw itself as liberating the nation from communism , the general Vietnamese population simply wanted the freedom of self determination for their nation . While the communist regimes that ended up controlling Vietnam were as brutal , if not worse , than the foreign occupying forces , at the time , the hearts and minds ' of the people were not with the American forces so the war quickly became a situation that was not winnable for the US troops and the hearts and minds ' of the Vietnamese were certainly not with the goals of the imperial , colonizing French forces either . As such , the French War resulted in a miserable defeat and the following US-Vietnam war trudged on without any clear goal until ending with US /French defeat and humiliation . In both wars , only two viable options existed to end US or French involvement : withdraw and surrender or drop an atomic bomb on Hanoi . The seldom mentioned third option perpetual aerial and ground war would simply be something that would drag on forever costing an incalculable number of lives on both sides France eventually aborted their war and this led...