vietnam

     The experience of the Cold War distorted the American perceptions of Vietnam. These distorted perceptions had many causes: "the enduring myth that communism was global and monolithic; the conviction that China was expansionist; and American domestic pressures centering on the 'loss of China' syndrome" (Kahin, Major Problems, 301). This problem was fueled by the "domino theory" and a hypocritical American inclination to claim control over the governments of other states in the name of freedom.
     The domino theory caused American leadership to believe that a communist threat to
any single state, especially in southeast Asia, would lead to a far greater consequence than
just one state - it would lead to a communist bloc in the region. As President Eisenhower, the
author of this theory, explains, " You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the
first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very
quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have most profound
influences" (Eisenhower, Major Problems 286). It was, therefore, thought that if communism spread anywhere at all, even to a materially and politically marginal state like Vietnam, the United States may be doomed to be the last in the line of inevitable dominoes. The focus was no longer on the threat of the communist Soviet Union or China invading our country outright, but that they would invade smaller countries and gain power. "Washington planners concluded that here, under the guise of anticolonial 'wars of national liberation,' the Cold War would be decided - not in a single Armageddon moment but in a series of local insurgencies" (Boyer, 278) Similar thinking had lead led to the Korean War, and it was paving the way for the War in Vietnam.
     In 1954 the Vietminh, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, successfully defeated
colonial France in Vietnam. The Geneva Accords (the product of a conference which
included representatives from the new Democratic Republic of Viet-nam, France, the People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom, Cambodia, Laos, and the United States) declared that, "so far as Viet-nam is concerned, the settlement of political problems, effected on the basis of respect for the principles of independence, unity, and territorial integrity, shall permit the Vietnamese people to enjoy the fundamental freedoms, guaranteed by democrat institutions established as a result of free general elections by secret ballot" (Geneva, Major Problems, 288). Therefore, it made perfect sense when, a decade later, the United States issued the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that included the
statement, "...the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect
their freedom and has no territorial, military, or political ambitions in that area, but desires
only that these peoples should be left in peace to work out their own destines in their own
way" (Gulf, Major Problems, 290). But, this statement was a deceptive front for the true
intentions of the United States.
     The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was later used by President Johnson to justify his continuation and escalation of the War, but this part that claimed a desire for self-determined peace for southeast Asia was ignored in Vietnam. "During 1955 and 1956 Ho [Chi Minh] and Prime Minster Pham Dan Dong sent repeated requests to [American backed puppet government leader pf South Vietnam] Diem for consultations on holding elections. But, these were ignored" (Kahin, Major Problems, 309). This was largely due to a report by the State Department's Division of Research in 1955 that found that, "'Almost any type of election that could conceivably be held in Vietnam in 1956 would, on the basis of present trends, give the Communists a very significant if not decisive advantage'" (Kahin, Major Problems, 307). With this in mind, the United States felt that it "could not afford to risk elections" and told their puppet leader in South Vietnam to avoid them. (Kahin, Major Problems, 307). The United States claimed in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to be working to make Viatnamese people free, however, "Free people didn't literally mean free, but only anti-communist" (Griffith lecture).
     This was all due to the fixation of the United States on Cold War fears. The Americans knew that Ho Chi Minh, leader of North Vietnam's Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was aligned with some communist parties. But, because of their tunnel vision they were not able to grasp the fact that he was a Viatnamese nationalist first, and communist second. They appeared to not understand that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had modeled itself after not only the French Revolution in 1791, but also the American Revolution that made American independent from Britain. In 1945, when the Vietnamese claimed their independence, they drafted a document that quoted from both
the French Declaration of Human and Civic Rights and the American Declaration of Independence. It also said, "'All peoples on earth are born equal; every person has the right to live to be happy and free...These are undeniable truths" (Minh, Major Problems, 282-283). Due to Cold War fixation and biases, the United States seemed to miss all of this. Consequently, we turned the Cold War hot against the USSR and China by fighting the Viatnam, with devastating and dramatically inhumane effects on Vietnam and her people.

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WORKS CITED

Boyer, Paul. Promises to Keep:The United States Since World War II. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

Eisenhower, President Dwight D. President Dwight D. Eisenhower Explains the Domino Theory, 1954. Major Problems.

Geneva Accords. Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference On Indochina, 1954. Major Problems.

1 Griffith, Robert and Baker, Paula. Major Problems in American History since 1945. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

2 Griffith, Professor Robert. Lecture, American University, October 11, 2001.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964. Major Problems.

Herring, George C. The Meaning of Vietnam. Major Problems.

Kahin, George McT. The Cold War and American Intervention in Vietnam. Major Problems.

Minh, Ho Chi. Viatnamese Declare their Independance, 1945. Major Problems.