The Vietnam War - Early US Involvement PDF

The Vietnam War – Early US Involvment Born in 1901, Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed Premier of South Vietnam on 7 July 1954, by Emperor Bao Dai, prior to the conclusion of the Geneva Conference. With the signing of the 5 Geneva Accords, Diem faced problems that were very different and ofte...

The Vietnam War – Early US Involvment Born in 1901, Ngo Dinh Diem was appointed Premier of South Vietnam on 7 July 1954, by Emperor Bao Dai, prior to the conclusion of the Geneva Conference. With the signing of the 5 Geneva Accords, Diem faced problems that were very different and often more difficult than those faced by the north. To the south, in 1954, great chaos and confusion existed in SVN [South Vietnam], where the writ1 of the Government barely extended beyond the environs2 of Saigon and other major cities. Most of the countryside, and indeed many of the provincial capitals, were in the hands 10 of the Viet Minh fighters, private armies and bandits. In addition, nearly one million refugees had to be absorbed. The new state of SVN lacked any sense of unity, being an uneasy, disparate,3 conglomerate of cities, towns, regions, religions and tribes, all subjected in various ways to the pressures of 15 years of war. The involvement of the USA in Vietnam can only be understood if examined in its global 15 context. The USA emerged from the Second World War as the world's leading power. “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.” 20 President Eisenhower, April 1954 First, Vietnam represents the cornerstone of the Free World in South East Asia... Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Phillipines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the red tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam... 25 Secondly, Vietnam represents a proving ground of democracy in Asia. However, we may choose to ignore it or deprecate4 it, the rising prestige and influence of Communist China in Asia are unchallengeable facts. Vietnam represents the alternative to Communist dictatorship. Third and in somewhat similar fashion, Vietnam represents a lest5 of American responsibility and determination in Asia. If we are not the parents of little Vietnam, then 30 surely we are the godparents.6 We presided at its birth, we gave assistance to its life, we have helped to shape its future... This is our off spring, we cannot abandon it, we cannot ignore its needs. And if it falls victim to any of the perils7 that threaten its existence—Communism, political anarchy, poverty and the rest—then the United States, with some justification, will be held responsible; and our prestige in Asia will sink to a new low. 35 Fourth and finally, America's stake8 in Vietnam, in her strength and in her security, is a very selfish one—for it can be measured, in the last analysis, in terms of American lives and American dollars. It is now well known that we were at one time on the brink of war in Indo- China—a war which could well have been more costly, more exhausting and less conclusive than any war we have ever known... And the key Position of Vietnam in South East Asia, as 40 already discussed, makes inevitable the involvement of this nation's security in any new outbreak of trouble. Senator John F. Kennedy, June 1956, in W.R. Fishel (ed.) Vietnam: Anatomy of a Conflict, Peacock, Illinois, 1968 1 Writ = Anweisung 2 Environs = Umgebung 3 Disparate = ungleich 4 To deprecate = missbilligen 5 Lest: Kaum übersetzbar. In diesem Zusammenhang ähnlich wie desire. 6 Godparents = Paten 7 Peril = Gefahr 8 Stake = Anteil 45 The idea that the mission of the United States was to build a democracy around the world had become a convention of American politics in the 1950s. Among certain circles it was more or less assumed that democracy, that is, electoral democracy combined with private ownership and civil liberties, was what the United States had to offer the Third World, Democracy 50 provided not only the moral basis for American opposition to Communism, but the practical methods for making that opposition work. Whether American officials actually believed that the Asians and Africans wanted or needed democracy—and many officials definitely did not— they saw lip service to it as a necessity to selling American overseas commitments to the American people. The American officials and scholars who backed Diem adhered9 to this 55 convention precisely. F. Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake, Vintage Books, New York, 1973, pp. 115-16 60 The hallmark10 of American foreign policy after 1945 was the universality of its intense commitment to create an integrated, essentially capitalist world framework out of the chaos of World War Two... The United States was... acting not out of a desire to defend the nation against some tangible11 threat to its physical welfare but because it sought to create a controllable, responsible order elsewhere, one that would permit the political destinies of 65 distant places to evolve in a manner beneficial to American goals and interests... The regulation of the world was at once the luxury and the necessity it believed its power afforded... as a fulfillment of an international responsibility and mission. G. Kolko, op. dt., pp. 72-3 70 In March 1947 President Truman announced that the USA would 'support free peoples who are resisting subjugation12 by armed minorities or by outside pressures'. The 'Truman Doctrine' was a response to the growing threat of communism in Europa and in Greece, in particular. The doctrine committed the USA to the role of protector of smaller, endangered 75 nations against the monolithic13 enemy of communism. A series of international incidents reinforced the position of the USA: The Berlin Blockade (1948), the 'fall' of China to communism (1949), the successful test of a Soviet nuclear device (1949) and the Korean War (1950-53). The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 further reinforced the belief that America was the watchdog of the free world. Collectively, this series of threats, wars and incidents and the 80 accompanying tension between the Soviet Union and the USA, was known as the Cold War. It was in this atmosphere of international tension and distrust that America began supplying aid to South Vietnam. Taken from: Harpur: War Without End. Longman, 2000, pp. 47 – 51. Tasks: 1. Describe the general situation of Vietnam after the Geneva Conference in 1954. 2. Examine the different sources and collect the arguments for a US involvement in Vietnam. 9 To adhere = befolgen 10 Hallmark = Gütesiegel 11 Tangible = greifbar 12 Subjugation = Knechtung 13 Monolithic = monolithisch (aus einem Guss gefertigt)