Essay --

Effects on Politics at home The Vietnam War brought complete turmoil to the American society. It all started when President Harry Truman wanted to stop the spread of communism in the Middle East and Asia by promoting the United States as an anti-communism country and offering help to other countries that were also against communism. President Truman used the word containment to describe this act of stopping communism in his foreign policies. This containment policy transcended to the 1960s, when John F. Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, were presidents. Kennedy won his presidency based largely on the fact that he promised to be more involvement in Vietnam (which was favored largely by the United States population) and the Cold War in general. Kennedy wanted to be more involved in Vietnam, and the Cold War in general, to preserve America’s power. With Kennedy and his team of U.S. Foreign Policy advisors, they believed to preserve America’s power they could help the development of Third World countries—mostly, in turn so they will not become communist countries. One of these countries so happened to be Laos, however, it soon fell to communism and Kennedy had to pull back forces. With the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the back down in Laos, Kennedy believed that America could not withstand another failure; another hit that would diminish America’s integrity. This is what led to Kennedy’s involvement in Vietnam—for he could not take another defeat of it. Kennedy offered a huge amount of support for the Ngo Dinh Diem’s Government. However, Kennedy rejected continuous proposals on sending large amounts of American troops into Vietnam in fear of a full out war and a huge rate of deployment. Instead, Kennedy ... ...t about 2 billion dollars a month, leading America to experience deficits and inflation. Because of this de-valued U.S. currency, it lead foreign investors to invest in things more profitable—taking away a lot of America’s revenue. This lead to extremely higher tax rates, which also, threaten Johnson’s reelection. There were protests in the streets, angry civilians, too many soldiers overseas, and chaos among congress, that led to Johnson’s downfall. America was an absolute turmoil, and because Johnson relied too heavily on his advisors—which often had many different opinions—he did not know how to control the chaos. When reelection time came around, Richard M. Nixon won in a landslide with the promise of ending war in Vietnam. By 1969, Nixon had instituted Vietnamization. This policy ended America’s involvement in the war and lead to a more stable America.