Vietnam and Iraq

The Vietnam War and the current War in Iraq are similar in that the United States military was involved in both operations in spite of little popular support . The reasons for getting involved in each war however , were different . During the 1950s , the influence of Communism appeared to be rapidly spreading across the world . The USSR swallowed up many countries in Eastern Europe , China , and now Viet Nam . The United States government was in an arms race with the Soviet Union at the time , and were alarmed that the Russian sphere of influence

was growing by leaps and bounds . Fearing that Communism would gain a foothold in the Hawaiian Islands and the Western United States , the powers that be decided that America would be much better off fighting the Communists in Asia rather than letting them expand eastward toward the United States . Internally , the political situation in Vietnam tensed after the French withdrawal in 1954 . The Communist Party begun to gain popularity among the downtrodden and impoverished souls in the North . The Vietnamese were divided between the Communist Viet Cong forces in the North and the anti-Communist constituency of South Viet Nam

The 2003 Invasion of Iraq begun on the premise that Saddam Hussein 's government was in violation of a U .N . resolution banning chemical weapons in the region . Subsequent searches uncovered no such weapons but the U .S . and British military forces continue to occupy the region After the death of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein , the Sunni and Shia Muslims , kept from each other 's throats because of his strong-man tactics , have become embroiled in a national civil war . Kidnappings disappearances , and decapitations are par for the course and thus far there are thousands of American casualties and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths . The premise for this invasion was the same as the one for Vietnam : fight the enemy on their own soil in for to avoid fighting them at home

The Americans were directly involved in choosing the leadership for South Vietnam . Ngo Dinh Diem was their chosen president because he was staunchly anti-Communist and a Vietnamese nationalist , paralleling America 's ideological stance (McNamara et al , 200-1 . This was not the first time that the Americans interfered in another country 's politics nor would it be the last . In the U .S , massive protests against the war began as more Americans questioned the appropriateness of their role in the battle for Vietnam , a battle the military retreated from after the fall of Saigon . According to a retrospective on the Vietnam War It was the longest war in American history and the most unpopular American war of the twentieth century . It resulted in nearly 60 ,000 American deaths and an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths . Even today , many Americans still ask whether the American effort in Vietnam was a sin , a blunder , a necessary war , or a noble cause , or an idealistic , if failed , effort to protect the South Vietnamese from the same fate is in...