Vietnam War

[Bengalzona]

The set of political circumstances which created the conflict were quite unique. The only thing really similar was our own revolution and the Iraq War.

Politically, there was the whole question of "Why are we even there?" This question was the precursor to the question "Should we even be there?" and was never answered adequately for the majority of people here.

The government basically said we were going there at the request of the South Vietnamese to help defend their country from invasion. This was true on face value. The South Vietnamese did request our assistance and they were, in a sense, being "invaded". But there was much more that went into this story.

The Vietnamese had been ruled by foreign powers for centuries: China, France, Japan. But they had retained their independent identity as a people. The Japanese kicked the French out during WWII. After WWII, the French came back to reclaim their possession. The Vietnamese, having battled the Japanese during occupation, were not interested in being occupied again. So they battled the French, and won in 1954 at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The French pulled out and the Vietnamese prepared for a national election.

But there was a problem here, in the eyes of the U.S. Many of the people in the country favored communism, influenced by the Chinese during WWII. Those who favored communism were particularly strong in the north of the country, but there were groups throughout the country who sided with them. In fact, it was generally felt that the majority of the country favored communism. The U.S. was at the height of the "Red Scare" and feared more communist governments being formed around the world. Basically we thought they were all friendly with each other and would band together to fight us. Soviet rhetoric at the time played to this fear. As a result, we went to the U.N., got a resolution to postpone the election and went about setting up a separate nation in South Vietnam. In reaction, the people in the north of the country (who didn't necessarily see themselves as another country) went ahead with elections there, set up their own government and decided that the first order of business was to re-unify the country. The Soviets, seeing that the government in the north was a thorn in our side, were only too happy to support ad help them. Thus both, North and South Vietnam became proxy states in the Cold War.

But the South Vietnamese government was a big problem for the U.S. It was corrupt and flawed. The President and much of the appointed government were Catholic, a very small minority in Vietnam. Most people there are Buddhist. And the government began instituting policies which promoted their religion and values on the rest of the country. The Buddhist majority opposed this and this led to coups, dissatisfaction and even to some choosing to support the north and reunification. The only reason South Vietnam existed ultimately was because we created them and propped them up. And even that wasn't enough.

So, we went because it was in our interest to go. But our interest was based upon objectives which were based upon a flawed assumption. And we went to support a government that the people there didn't even want.