In the Vietnam war what was the policy of containment?

Answer 1

The Cold War consisted of containing the communist countries where they already were. No further expansion. The Communists tried expanding south of Korea's 38th Parallel in 1950-1953 (Korean War); they failed. The Communists tried expanding into Central America & South America (Che Guevara, one of Castro's Lieutenants), they failed (US Special Forces-Green Berets). The Communists tried expanding south of Vietnam's 17th Parallel from 1955 through 1975 (Vietnam War); they succeeded. During the Vietnam War, there was a second meaning to the word "containment." That was keeping the Vietnam War in Vietnam. Not allowing the war to spread to other countries, and NOT involving the Communist Superpowers (Soviet Union/Red China). Thus, the Vietnam War was fought as a "Limited War"; Limited in the area in which the fighting was to occur AND limited to the use of conventional weapons (NO ATOMIC WEAPONS WOULD BE USED). The US did have a contingency plan to use NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR BOTH THE KOREAN WAR & VIETNAM WAR.

Answer 2

The Vietnam War, as the Korean War before it, demonstrated that the US would use FORCE to contain communism. The result of Vietnam also showed, that sometimes the US might fail in that policy.

Answer 3

The idea of "Containment" is quite simple. The belief was that to fight the Soviet Union directly was far too risky and difficult, if not impossible. Instead the idea was to prevent Communism from spreading and keep it within its borders, where it would then die internally. This is basically what happened, to the credit of the theorists. After World War Two France had lost most of its power and after battling the communist revolutionaries for ten more years, was forced to move out of Indochina, which it had held since 1885. America immediately took the French's place, fearing that if Vietnam fell to the communists, so would Laos, Cambodia and all of Indochina. The Soviet Union and China intervened and it was decided to split the country in half, the north would be communist the south democracy. The communist rebels couldn't care less. They had fought the French for ten years; America was just another imperialist power who had invaded their country. After America left, exactly what they had feared would happen happened. Cambodia and Laos fell to communism. Containment failed, but the theory proved correct.

Answer 4

This "policy of containment" can be construed to mean more than one subject.. For example it can mean the cold war strategy of "containing communism" (prevent it from spreading...the old domino theory) or it can mean "containing the war in one region/location" (keep it from spreading into Laos or Cambodia, and other nations).

The Viet war was part of communist containment in that the preservation of the Republic of South Vietnam was preventing communism from spreading into that Republic. Which it ultimately did in April 1975 (containment failed).

Containment of the Viet War by preventing it from spreading into Laos, Cambodia, etc. was successful, in that Laos/Cambodia remained officially neutral during the whole war.