Truman Doctrine During The Vietnam War

During 1945-1990 the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States completely dominated the United States’ foreign policy. The United States’ policymakers had to take care of places that were outside American territory, but relevant to the conflict. In order to compete with the Soviet Union after World War II, the US government decided to help the countries which were against Soviet Union. According to Document C, President Truman claimed to support people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressure.

Soviet Union and United States wanted to put the halves back together, but had different ideas of how the government should be run, which caused tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States to escalate. The United States thought that the Soviet Union wanted to spread communism to surrounding nations. The United States focused on communism, to start, President Harry S Truman created a foreign policy called the Truman Doctrine to defend the Soviet's political pushes. With the policy established, the United States would contribute any forces or supplies needed to those nations under fire from outside and in-house forces. The plan was set to defend areas anywhere from Asia to Europe.

Although Ho Chi Minh and his policies could be characterized as communist, the people of Vietnam were able to connect with him and his aspirations of a independent

The Soviet Union was aiming to spread communism across Europe, which the United States was against. This led to containment and was laid out in the Truman Doctrine promising US support to countries threatened by the USSR. The Truman Doctrine aimed to stop the spread of communism, which pushed the United States into the Cold War

(Brenes,5) America now knows of these ideas due to the X article and long telegram decided to try and prevent the further spread of communism. Truman Doctrine was presented on March 12, 1947. The cold war had just begun to start and America decided it needed to halt Soviet aggression and spread ideas to other countries. Greece and Turkey are major countries that reside right next to the Soviet Union that could be

“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Although some people may believe that the Vietnam War achieved the goal of avoiding communism and protecting the people, the overarching idea is that it was an unjust war because of the countless lives that were lost from the participating countries, the

foreign and domestic policies because it scared Americans and caused tension within the country and worldwide, leading to a lack of trust within the country. The second Red Scare, propaganda, Russian growth in power, nuclear tension, and the Hollywood Ten were all parts of the war that damaged American policies. Civilians lost trust between one another and within the government. Communism intimidated many people, and the Cold War made it appear as though it would soon take over the world. However, Truman and Eisenhower made it evident that the United States was fighting for innocent civilians worldwide, but they could not promise a steady government or country while the tension exists with Russia, but the nation is doing what they must(Document C).

The attack comes without warning and President Harry Truman, with the help of the United Nations, vows to defend democratic South Korea. The Containment Policy stated that the US would support any nation that are being oppressed by communism and cannot protect themselves from it. This became America’s major reason to intervene in the Korean War. However, the policy of containment came under attack due casualties and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism.

The Vietnam War was fought to stop the spread of communism that threatened the United States way of life. War strategies that were used were harsh, major battles bloody, and war opposition at home was high. The leaders of our countries decisions caused devastating effects that not only shook our country but the whole world. The United States had fought wars in the past to stop the spread of communism.

Due to limited resources, interference in other regions, even if covered by the Truman Doctrine, was considered undesirable because China and Palestine were less important than the restoration of Europe. In addition, at this time, the Truman Administration is moving away from the doctrine of containing communism and moving on to a strategy of containing the Soviet Union. This was also part of the strategy in

Walter Dean Myers once stated that “One of the lessons learned during the Vietnam War was that the depiction of wounded soldiers, of coffins stacked higher than their living guards, had a negative effect on the viewing public. The military in Iraq specifically banned the photographing of wounded soldiers and coffins, thus sanitizing this terrible and bloody conflict.” The Vietnam War, fought in 1955 to 1975, was the longest war in American history. This war was a conflict between the Communist North Vietnam and its ally Viet Cong, and South Vietnam and its ally the United States. During the Vietnam war, tensions in the United States were extremely high.

On March 16, 1968, American soldiers invaded Vietnam resulting in roughly 350 unarmed Vietnamese deaths (Yanak, Ted, and Pam Cornelison). They demolished the village of My Lai killing and destroying anything in sight. At first, this horrific event was kept a secret, but when information was leaked, America’s character was at risk. This horrific procedure

Laurelle Cornelius Mr. Malinowski Modern American History May 5th, 2023 Cold War DBQ “How did the United States utilize the policy of containment during the Cold War?” When the Cold War began, Harry Truman, the current president, made it his duty to protect and aid the United States and its allies. A prominent proclamation of those duties was found in the Truman Doctrine. The Truman Doctrine was a document that discussed the United States and how we would handle the Cold War. There was a lot of focus on the idea of containment.

According to author Colonel George C. Woolsey, on March 12, 1947, President Truman issued “a Presidential pronouncement declaring immediate economic and military aid to the governments of Greece, threatened by Communist insurrection, and to Turkey, under pressure from Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean area” (Woolsey 2008). Consequently, Congress allocated $400 million to aid the implementation of this doctrine. The Truman Doctrine pledged to support other countries in their struggle to resist communism. The implementation of the Truman Doctrine not only affected 1940s America, it changed the scope of our national foreign policy. As reported by professor Dennis Merrill at the University of Missouri, “The administration 's concern over communism domino effect, its media-sensitive presentation of the doctrine, and its mobilization of U.S. economic and military power to modernize unstable regions, marked the advent of a modern U.S.

Additionally, these doctrines were also used for the United States’ benefit because in the Monroe Doctrine, the United States forbade European powers from trying to conquer South American countries; in the Truman Doctrine, the United States tried to contain communism and to stop its spread across Europe. The Monroe Doctrine and the Truman Doctrine were used to help other countries against hostile powers, and at the same time these doctrines helped the United States to become and to remain a world power during the Imperialism and Cold War era. In the 19th