Start of United States Involvement
During the Cold War the United States advocated the policy of containment. This political cartoon displays what has been called "The Domino Effect". The Domino Effect was a tactic used by the US government in order to convince opponents of containment that it was necessary in order to keep the world safe from communism. The Domino effect meant that if communism was not stopped from spreading in Vietnam it will continue to spread throughout Asia and then throughout the world.
This explanation of the spread of communism was proven false as Vietnam in the end became communism but communism still did not spread too its neighboring countries. This proved that the domino theory was a façade in order to justify the involvement in Vietnam. - August |
"The Domino Theory" (John Pike, Globalsecurity.org)
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Results
Henri Huet
The Vietnam War affected America in many different ways, we had nearly 60,000 casualties, and more than 150,000 wounded American soldiers. 700,000 veterans suffered from psychological after affects of the war such as PTSD (Rexy) along with physical effects as well. Many American citizens also lost faith in their government and their militaries decisions right after the war (Chambers). They soon ended up questioning the claim of the United States moral superiority and its status of the world defender of freedom and right after witnessing the My Lai massacre (Rexy) . We were also affected economically, with the help of the 167 billion we spent on the war we gained a major federal debt and the American economy plummeted along with the living standards from late 1960’s to the 1990’s (Chambers). Lastly many Americans disrespected the Veterans who came back from the Vietnam war from their frustration with the war. All in all, we faced many hardships throughout the war and even more back home.
- Paul
- Paul