Why did the Vietnam war begin to lose support at home?

Answer 1

• Wars in Vietnam
• There were many Vietnam Wars. Here is a brief outline of the events (wars) leading up to the United States fighting in Vietnam. The Chinese had control over the area known as Vietnam, but in 939, they left and an independent Vietnam was created. In 1407, the Chinese regained control of the area. In 1427, the Chinese were driven out and another Vietnam nation was established. In 1861, the French seized control of Saigon and the rest of the south by 1867. They took control of the north by 1883. In 1940-41, the Japanese advanced into and took control of Northern and Southern French Indo-China, as France had been defeated by Germany at that time. It was during this period, that Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese Communist, returned to Vietnam from China and headed a Revolutionary League to regain independence for Vietnam. In 1945, he proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. When the Allies defeated Japan in WWII, the British and Chinese accepted the surrender of the Japanese in Vietnam and the French re-entered the area and took over control again. On December 19, 1946, Vietminh forces attacked the French in Hanoi and the Indochina War--also known as the Vietminh War--began. In 1954, the Vietminh defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and the nation was temporarily divided into two sections, north and south. The people of the south chose Ngo Dinh Diem as their ruler and Ho continued to rule the north. Diem refused to go along with the planned elections in 1956 to unite the nation, because he knew he would lose, so the Vietminh members in the south created the Viet Cong and the war between north and south for control of the country began. The government of South Vietnam requested military advisors from the United States to help train the South Vietnamese army. Ho Chi Minh was a communist and during the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s, the aim of the US government was containment of communist power and not to let it spread. The Eisenhower administration provided South Vietnam with money and advisors to help stop the threat of a North Vietnamese takeover. The United States also was pledged by treaty (SEATO) to aid the member nations in southeast Asia, if they were attacked by a foreign (communist) power. Following the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, President Lyndon B. Johnson also believed in containment and the domino theory. If one nation falls to communism, the next nation will fall, and the next, etc. It became the aim of the Johnson administration to prevent a communist takeover in Southeast Asia. In August, 1964, President Johnson reported to the nation that American ships had been attacked by North Vietnam gunboats in the Gulf of Tonkin, in international waters. The Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the President the power to use whatever force necessary to protect our interests in the area. At the time, the truth was not reported. << Rather than being on a routine patrol Aug. 2, the US destroyer Maddox was actually engaged in aggressive intelligence-gathering maneuvers � in sync with coordinated attacks on North Vietnam by the South Vietnamese navy and the Laotian air force.>> http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261 By Dwanc3

Answer 2

The publication of the Pentagon Papers

The people were basically fighting a war for no reason. Ordering the invasion of Cambodia Ordering the bombing of North Vietnam during peace negotiations

Answer 3

because the anti war activists and the news media swaid the American public against it. The real sad thing is that North Vietnam would have given up and surrender any month if we would have continued bombing Hanoi. Instead the news media and the anti war groups went crazy over the war and finally got it stopped. Yes we lost 50,000 troups over 7 years. But put it in perspective, we lost 50,000 troups in a 3 day battle at Gettysburg during the civil war and we lose 50,000 people every year in car crashes. Don't here much anti-car people screeming about that though.And now you have people against Iraq and Afangistan wars, i guess when we get attacked again ... or histroy will repeat itself.

Answer 4

It was not a declared war and every night on TV the news showed the war. Today, we don't see the wars we fight, but in the 1960's there was front line coverage with people like Dan Rather. The fighting was real and so was the results on the nightly news. It allowed people to see what war was really like and resulted in protests about the war. The draft also added to it. In 1968 the largest draft took place in US history and the war was growing not ending.

Answer 5

President Johnson had not delivered the victory he had repeatedly promised