Vietnam

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the American reaction to communism from 1945 onwards and describes how this led to the US involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. The paper analyzes the views and actions of presidents Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to explain the United States' decisions regarding communism and Vietnam from 1945 to 1963.

Table of Contents:
President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
President John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

From the Paper:

"As congressman from Massachusetts, Kennedy first set out for an extensive fact-finding mission to the Middle and the Far East in 1951 and, on its return, he re-stated his support for all Western efforts for freedom in the regions (Bostdorff and Goldzwig 1994, p 2-3). He stated that if the West did not promptly and appropriately realize their ideal, especially in Southeast Asia, the Chinese Communists could and would dominate the region. He also disagreed with the French's anachronistic colonialist mentality and nationalistic ideals. Instead, he called attention to complex realities in Southeast Asia and that these complexities required particular and concrete policies. He found the French and US policy in the region as lacking in practicality, while he continued to express support for the principle of freedom behind the policy. In 1956, he said that Vietnam was the cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia and the "keystone to the arch (Bostdorff and Goldzwig, p 19).""

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bostdorff, Denise and , Steven. Idealism and Pragmatism in American Foreign Policy.New York: Presidential Studies Quarterly. Vol 24 Issue 3, 1994
• Eisenhower, Dwight. The Importance to the United States of the Security and Progress of Viet-Nam. Address at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, July 1967. http://mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/eisen.htm
• Rotter, Andrew J. The Causes of the Vietnam War. The Oxford Companion to American Military History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. http://www.english.uuc.edu/maps/vietnam/causes.htm
• Smitha, Frank E. The United States and Vietnam. Macrohistory, 2005. http://www.smitha.com/h2/ch26.htm

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