Preview

Air Force in the Vietnam War

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1429 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Air Force in the Vietnam War
A war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam began in 1954. The war was fought because the north wanted communism, and the south did not. The United States decided to get involved in the war. The United States became allies with South Vietnam, because they did not want communism to spread. I bet you’re wondering what is communism and why a nation will break apart and fight because of it. Well communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. Communism caused a vast amount of people to die. More than three million people ( including 58,000 americans) were killed in the Vietnam War. More than half were Vietnamese civilians. The United States were an official part of the Vietnam War. The United states air force did some great things in the Vietnam War. I feel that if the United States air force did not get involved, the war would’ve been different. The United states Air Force positively contributed to the outcome of the Vietnam War in many ways.

Yes, technically we did lose the Vietnam War, but the damages and casualties could have been way worse without the United States Air Force helping South Vietnam fight for a non-communist government. The United States The united states first got involved in the summer of 1950, when it sent advisers to help France maintain and operate U.S.‐manufactured aircraft in the war with North Vietnam. After the North Vietnam victory and the partitioning of the country into North and South in 1955, America continued sending air advisers to Vietnam. By 1961, six South Vietnamese squadrons were ready for combat, supported by an American combat training detachment known as “Farm Gate.” The boundary between fighting and training for U.S. Air Force personnel during the early 1960s was never clearly defined. The Farm Gate commandos believed they were primarily to fly close air

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The Vietnam War lasted about two decades. The United States was engulfed in a civil war between North and South Vietnam and wanted to assist the south with preventing a hostile takeover by North Vietnam under the Communism banner. The Vietnam War was not only America’s longest War, but also costliest and deadliest. We spent over $150 billion and suffered close to $58 thousand American deaths and nearly 300 thousand wounded. By the time we decided to withdraw from the war, North Vietnam easily swept through the south and unified Vietnam under Communism. Still to this day, one of the most debated topics regarding the Vietnam War is why the United States got involved and why, when and how we should wage future wars. (Dunn, 2001)…

    • 1462 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    My Lai Massacre Essay

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages

    From 1959-1975, America was involved in a prolonged conflict to prevent the spread of communism. Opposing forces were attempting to unify Vietnam under a communist government. In 1954, at the Geneva conference, Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel, splitting the country into communist…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The most important reason as to why the United States became involved in Vietnam was the long term cause of the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory was the belief that once one country had fallen to communism, its neighbours would do the same. It was devised by John Foster Dulles, the US Secretary of State, during the 1950s. The Domino Theory would be a an obstacle for the Americans if they were to win the Cold War, as they had to keep as few countries from going communist as possible. If South Vietnam were to fall communist, its neighbours in South East Asia may do the same- including India, a country with a billion inhabitants and around 90% of its people living in poverty. Communism may look an attractive prospect to South East Asia’s poor, which increases the likelihood of the Domino Theory, and would have a dire effect for American economic interests in the region. American companies would be nationalised by the state under communism, and trade would be badly affected because Americans would not be able to sell commodities in communist countries. This would not only harm America’s economy, but also its military- it would not be able to sustain a well trained, well equipped army without the money to do so. Eventually, this would also have dire political effects for America- its President would look weak, and the Soviet Union would be the dominant global power, due to the United States’ inferior military, economy and financial system. Moreover, if the…

    • 1547 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Not like many other cases in this conflict there was a lot of different countries that joined, one of them including the USA. The US contributed so much just so that vietnam will not turn to be a communist country, and start a small domino effect, and then more and more countries will join and become communist. No matter how much effort they put…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the course of the Vietnam War, there have been many different factors why the USA became increasingly involved. One reason included how they believed it would be a ‘simple’ war to fight and for that reason, they would have the ability to easily win plus the war would not continue on for too long. Additionally they desired to contain communism as they believed they might be capable to stop the growth of communism within Asia. In order to help retain communism, they believed in the ‘domino theory’.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Past War In Vietnam War

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Vietnam War was a bad decision made by the United States government. There was no reason for the United States to start a war with this foreign country. The Defense Department released a film in 1965 addressing why the United States had to go to war with Vietnam. They said it was to defend freedom and aggression, and to stop the spreading of communism. In reality, this war was made by choice, it was not a “do or die” situation for America, but the United States saw Vietnam as a major threat and decided to declare war on them, only to lose a lot of soldier, time, and money.…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States had fought wars to rid the world of communism. The Vietnamese had been controlled by the French since the 1880s. The Vietnamese people had fought for independence and had won in 1954, after they won, the country was split into communist North Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam. Communists living in the South were called the vietcong. In the 1960s, they had tried to overthrow the government.…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Vietnam war is an incredibly controversial topic; some say America won, while others say that they lost. In this case, America took a major loss, they were never winning at any point. The reason the Americans officially lost the war is because they were unable to achieve their goal which was to stop the spread of communism in Vietnam. In fact, the exact opposite happened, after the American forces left South Vietnam in January of 1975, communism immediately overran it. Along with the reasoning behind why the Americans lost are 3 points which will give a deeper explanation on why the U.S lost the Vietnam war. First of all the Americans lost because the North Vietnamese wanted to win more than they did. Following this is the American’s bombing strategies that proved to be horrendously ineffective because they were choosing to bomb locations that would end up giving them no real advantage. Thirdly, and quite possibly the biggest reason that lost America the war was their attempt to fight a war of Attrition against the North Vietnamese strategy of Guerilla warfare…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The vietnam war was a great war that was tough and had many struggles there was many obstacles in the way to beat the vietnamese many argue that we won because we backed out of the war but a lot of people think we lost the vietnam war and here is a few reasons the united states lost the vietnam war . The united states of america lost the vietnam war because of lack of allied support, lack of support at home, lack of ballistic or nuclear bombs and finally the lack of real military objectives . The first reason why the united states lost the vietnam war was because of lack of allie support.the leader of the south was president diem…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Coronary Bypass History

    • 1906 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Vietnam War caused much controversy in the United States, because Americans saw the war over television and revolted that of the countries efforts . In February 1965, Pres. Johnson commenced the air war, ordering continual bombing of North Vietnam. He also sent the first ground troops to South Vietnam (PBS). America assisted the South, because they wanted to contain communism. They also wanted to protect the free South from the communist North, which allowed them to assist South Vietnam in air wars and ground wars against North Vietnam. During the gruesome war in Vietnam, America was also in a stalemate with Russia . The Cold war lasted for many decades and in the 1960s brought fear of it against Russia. “American officials encouraged the development of atomic weapons like the ones that had ended World War II. Thus began a deadly ‘arms race’” (Staff). They wanted development of atomic weapons so that they were prepared for Russia. This would eventually help end the Cold War when both America and Russia made a deal to give up some atomic weapons. Today both the Vietnam and Cold war efforts have impacted America. Vietnam has helped lessen the cause for which it was fought, fighting communism. Moreover, the Cold war allowed America to act more in social affairs. The Cold War affected America long term by pushing the country to create more nuclear weapons. The…

    • 1906 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The area of Indochina, present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was taken away from France during the World War II and afterwards, they tried to get it back. France lured the U.S. into paying 80% of the costs used to fight Ho Chi Minh and Communist North Vietnam by the end of the French-Indochina War. Author Gini Holland said, "This ‘paying the costs ' committed the United States financially, although not yet militarily, to the region" (Holland 41). So, when Vietnam was into their civil war, the U.S. felt the need to help South Vietnam. In addition to fighting Communism, the American soldiers faced the very devoted and hostile Vietcong, the pro-Communist guerilla force of South Vietnam.…

    • 2093 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vietnam War DBQ

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Vietnam war was the longest war in American History which fought between 1964 to 1975 and the most unpopular war for the American of the 20th century. This is the only one war that United States lost the war but no one knows the truth because the US government had not told about this war yet. The resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths. It seemed like the American won the war but actually they were not. The experience for the American soldier in Vietnam was long and painful one for the nation. During the war, the Vietnam is spilt in the two groups; the South which was Capitalism and the North which was Communism. To support the South Vietnam’s government, the American sent the soldiers…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Containment Policy Dbq

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When the Korean War was over communist North Korea had lost minor amounts of territory to American aided South Korea. In Vietnam the American forces lost the war and Vietnam became a communist country. It was necessary to fight both wars to ensure America maintained its reputation as a powerful country. The top priority in fighting the Vietnam War, according to document 32, was to avoid a humiliating defeat to the technologically inferior Vietnam forces. The maintained support of American allies was a factor in fighting the Vietnam War. Had America withdrawn “American allies would be shaken,” claimed Robert McNamara in document 31. To preserve its standing as a formidable country willing to stop at nothing to fight communism it was necessary for America to fight the Korean and Vietnam…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This meant that the president had a reason for further involvement in Vietnam. After the attack, the United States increased funding and sent more troops to South Vietnam. With all the help from the United States, South Vietnam still did not have the strength to defeat North Vietnam’s army. America kept sending more troops to Vietnam and now they had over 21,000 soldiers present on Vietnamese grounds. By June 1965, after several battles the American government started to realize that it is most likely they where going to lose the war because the guerilla forces outnumbered them.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Vietnam War is referred to as the “longest and most unpopular American War of the 20th century”(Overview), that lasted from 1955 to 1975. In the US, the war began as a result of the U.S. policy of Containment. This policy’s goal was to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. The Viet Minh is a communist led…

    • 1295 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays