The Vietnam War's Impact on Modern History

This assignment delves into the significant impact of the Vietnam War on modern world history. It examines how the war shaped public perception of executive power, influenced the effectiveness of US foreign policy, and impacted American faith in its military strength. The analysis draws upon historical events, scholarly research, and veterans' experiences to illustrate the enduring legacy of the Vietnam War.

Running head: VIETNAM WAR
VIETNAM WAR
Name of the Student:
Name of the University
Author Note:

1VIETNAM WAR
Executive summary
The discussion analyses the importance of historical Vietnam War and the role of the USA
government. It critically discusses the reason why the war broke out, how the USA
government got involved in this conflict, what were the factors that manipulated the cause
and what the consequences were. This paper elaborates the reaction of American media,
historians, journalists and citizen after The USA was defeated by Vietnam. It finally
concludes with some recommendation of the American Presidents to stop the war.

2VIETNAM WAR
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Thesis statement:....................................................................................................................2
Major causes:.........................................................................................................................3
Major consequences of the Vietnam war:..............................................................................4
Major solutions to the war:....................................................................................................5
Importance in modern history:...............................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6

3VIETNAM WAR
Introduction
The war of Vietnam has been considered to the most important event in the history of
Vietnam as well as United States. This conflict has affected the lives of Americans as they
were enrolled in army (Young, 2017, p.570). According to data, millions of people were
traumatised, wounded and lost their lives and family due to this war. The conflict began in
1955, encompassing the era of Cold war and finally ended in 1975.
The analysis discusses the history of the Vietnam War and refers to its causes,
consequences as well as solutions to this military conflict. The discussion analyses the impact
of the Vietnam war on the society, polity, economy and administration of the U.S.
Thesis statement:
The United State desired to stop the extension of communism through the Vietnam
War but had undesirable consequences on the Americans, including economic, social and
political significances, this consequence of the conflict shaped Modern History of the World.
Background information: The Vietnam War is also known as Vietnam’s struggle for freedom.
It was a prolonged conflict between the nationalists or the communists and the US army. The
nationalists of Vietnam wanted to unify the north and south Vietnam under communist
government but the southern part wanted to prevent the communism to be spread
(Dohrenwend et al., 2013, p. 237). This is why they took help form the United States. On the
other hand, norther part was helped by the people’s republic of China. In this conflict
Cambodia and Laos also got involved.
The nationalists of northern Vietnam and Vietnam congress that aimed to
reunification of Vietnam, considered this conflict as the colonial war which they initially
fought against France backed by the US. According to Clarke, Gregory and Salomon (2015,
p.401), the US was involved in such a war that was completely unnecessary as they had no

4VIETNAM WAR
scope for winning the battle. The contemporary political leaders lost national support as the
Us citizens were against the war.
The war of Vietnam has been widely discussed in media and academic sources. The
researchers have assessed the role of Vietnam war in the history of modern world. They
discussed the contemporary US foreign policy. According to Falk (2017, p. 233), the rhetoric
of the contemporary president on Vietnam balanced the idealistic arguments that applied
principles to problem-solving of people as well as pragmatic arguments that emphasized on
the efficacy of politics. The principled appeal of the president provides a legitimate support
for his foreign policy of Vietnam which represent his to be a principled president. This
provided the authority a scope to avoid the public criticism.
Major causes:
As discussed before, northern part of Vietnam was under a communist government
whereas the south Vietnam was not (Gibbons, 2015, p. 44). Therefore, the north Vietnam
leader Ho Chi Minh aimed to spread communism and unify the whole Vietnam. This was
opposed by the southern part. USA took this opportunity by assisting South Vietnam. This
took this civil conflict to an international level. There are three chief causes behind the war-
 Preventing the spread of communism in Vietnam was essential for America as it was
involved in the Cold War against Russia which was then a communist country
(Marmar et al., 2015, p.879).
 The French army pulled out the war for a lot of reason and USA grabbed this
opportunity and replace France in military conflict.
 The policy of US was to provide assistance to the friend country. Therefore, they
posed to help France and eventually replaced them.

5VIETNAM WAR
Major consequences of the Vietnam war:
The Vietnam conflict has enormous impact on the lives of the American in both the
spheres of public as well as private. The result of military conflict also affected the American
foreign policy. The US was considered to be the greatest superpower of the world yet there
were negative effects of the president Kennedy’s decision regarding the solution of the war.
According to the researchers, the USA entered Vietnam as a superpower that was
certain to win the conflict but the downfall in the Vietnam war broken assurance and
confidence (Li et al., 2015, p.67). Millions of American citizens started to reconsider and
reassess this established belief. The USA after this conflict left battered a well as uncertainty
for the future of the policies especially for the complexities originated by the Cold war.
The foreign policy of the USA was criticised by public as the statistical data reveals
that during the war with France, it lost 76000 dead and 65000 wounded but USA lost 58000
dead and 300,000 wounded. The war had shaped the relationships between the importance of
the political opinion of the US citizens and the politics, which was biased by the media that
was functioning during this military conflict of Vietnam (Pribbenow, 2016, p.57).
The US government policy was widely criticised by many historians, journalists even
politicians. They provided radically different attitudes and estimation regarding the causes as
well as consequences of war. The popular correspondents and historians were Robert
Shaplen, Bernard Fall, George Kahin and John Lewis. These researchers build an anti-war
ideology and encouraged the people to protest against the importance of war with Vietnam.
Therefore, in 1968, this movement influenced Johnson’s administration’s decisions and
resulted in policy reversal (Salehyan, Siroky & Wood, 2014, p.661). The research reveals that
in this conflict the Nixon administration rushed the U.S. military withdrawals, sustained to
restrain the conflict, worsening in the U.S. army morale as well as its discipline.

6VIETNAM WAR
Major solutions to the war:
The chief solutions to this Vietnam war was based on its significance that it was the
most important international conflict against the U.S army in the 20th century. In spite of the
fact that the war was rather small for the USA as it involved limited actions on their part but
this 9 years of American official involvement in this war, more than two million Vietnamese
and 58,000 Americans lost lives.
The chief military actions during this Vietnamese war was influenced by the civilians
with the military. Vietnam eventually became the centre of the strategy of Cold War. Various
tactics of limited war were related to different operations of the USA. These strategies were
openly criticized by the civilian society leaders in America. Both the Presidents John
Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson employed democratic solutions. The limits were set to prevent
spread of the armed conflict in Vietnam. the U.S. presidents including their governments
opposed the growth of freedom of action though the U.S. military force senior members
recommended expansion of the scopes of the military conflict in Vietnam.
Importance in modern history:
Some of the features of this the War aided to shape the history of contemporary
World. The connection among reasons and significances of many historic events in the
Modern World influenced economic, socio-political development of the society (Hart, 2014,
p.742) The reasons and significances of the War are used for understanding the efficacy of
American presidencies. It also assesses role of the U.S. presidents and media for shaping the
public opinion. The War disapprovals had a strong influence on construction of the future
foreign policy.
The anti-war movement due to the Vietnam war had huge influence on the spans of
the Vietnam war as well as its outcomes. Both Presidents understood that anti-war

7VIETNAM WAR
demonstrations had upset the American efforts to Vietnam and encouraged the rival force in
winning the war. Including to this, media coverage also had a solid impact on the
consequences of this war (Powaski, 2017, p.102). These aspects shaped the Modern History
and provided instances of the influential role of common people in judging the solutions to
this military conflict.
Moreover, the different characteristics of this Vietnam War also had a tough effect on the
national relationships. The financial condition in America was greatly influenced with the
desires of the militaries to conduct armed operations. The expenses of this military conflict
resulted American economy weaker.
According to the researchers, the War was completely based on the expansion of the
guerrilla combat and the introduction of military hardware like helicopters. These were used
by the army in problematic terrain. As it was a guerrilla combat, Vietnam War was people’s
war. There was no strict division between army and the civilians (Short, 2014, p. 28). The
military experience of the Vietnam War influenced largely the strategies of other military
interferences as well as wars that include the Gulf War in 1990 and Iraq invasion in 2003.
The importance of media was vital in setting agenda and distribution of propaganda for other
military actions including Gulf War, Iraq invasion, the attacks of 9/11 also invasion in
Afghanistan.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that, The Vietnam War had important effects on the
Modern World History. First of all, people believing in tough executive powers has influence
on formation of public changed their beliefs. Secondly, American policy in Vietnam clearly
assessed the efficiency of its foreign policies. The rival experiences of USA in Vietnam had
swayed the people’s confidence on the national military power.

8VIETNAM WAR
References:
Clarke, P. M., Gregory, R., & Salomon, J. A. (2015). Long-term disability associated with
war-related experience among Vietnam veterans: retrospective cohort study. Medical
care, 53(5), 401.
Dohrenwend, B. P., Yager, T. J., Wall, M. M., & Adams, B. G. (2013). The roles of combat
exposure, personal vulnerability, and involvement in harm to civilians or prisoners in
Vietnam-war-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Clinical Psychological
Science, 1(3), 223-238.
Falk, R. A. (2017). The Vietnam War and international law(Vol. 1). Princeton University
Press.
Gibbons, W. C. (2014). The US Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative
Roles and Relationships, Part IV: July 1965-January 1968 (Vol. 4). Princeton
University Press.
Hart, J. (2014). The New International History of the Wars for Vietnam. Reviews in
American History, 42(4), 739-745.
Li, M., Corry, N., Williams, C. S., Ho, C. L., Horesh, D., Karstoft, K. I., ... & Kulka, R. A.
(2015). Course of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 40 Years After the Vietnam War
Findings From the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study.
Marmar, C. R., Schlenger, W., Henn-Haase, C., Qian, M., Purchia, E., Li, M., ... & Karstoft,
K. I. (2015). Course of posttraumatic stress disorder 40 years after the Vietnam War:
Findings from the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study. JAMA
psychiatry, 72(9), 875-881.

9VIETNAM WAR
Powaski, R. E. (2017). A “Worm with a Hook”: Lyndon Johnson’s Decision to Escalate US
Involvement in the Vietnam War, November 1963–July 1965. In American
Presidential Statecraft (pp. 67-120). Springer International Publishing.
Pribbenow, M. L. (2016). Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of
Vietnam, 1954-1975. University Press of Kansas.
Salehyan, I., Siroky, D., & Wood, R. M. (2014). External rebel sponsorship and civilian
abuse: A principal-agent analysis of wartime atrocities. International
Organization, 68(3), 633-661.
Short, A. (2014). The origins of the Vietnam war. Routledge.
Young, R. (2017). The “Real Victims” of the Vietnam War: Soldier versus State in American
Comic Books. The Journal of Popular Culture, 50(3), 561-584.