Why were some USA citizens against the Vietnam war?
Opposition to Vietnam WarThe criticism of the war in Vietnam started out mainly as a conservative reaction to President Johnson's policy of fighting for a limited purpose, a negotiated peace, rather than all out victory in Vietnam. Those critics included Senator Barry Goldwater, retired military men, and even some extreme members of the John Birch Society. These people were known as "hawks." As the President escalated the war effort, and became a hawk himself, his chief critics became known as "doves" and included antiwar protesters, college students and faculty, liberal Democrats, and many other people in various walks of life who felt that the war was immoral, dragging on to no benefit for the US, and was causing increased casualty lists to mount. Many believed the US was fighting a war against the wishes of the majority of the Vietnamese people. These critics felt the war was a civil war in Vietnam between north and south and we had no business interfering. Some supported the communist effort in Vietnam and hoped for a defeat of the "imperialist capitalist" United States. Many Americans felt we were fighting a small, unimportant county, while the real enemy was China and the Soviet Union. There were many demonstrations against the war which took the form of sit ins in college and high school campuses, marches both for and against the war, and editorials written for and against the war. One of the most infamous demonstrations took place at Kent State University, 1970, when National Guard troops fired on Kent State students and protesters and four were killed and eleven were wounded. Nixon had been elected on a promise to Vietnamize the war, meaning more fighting would be turned over to the South Vietnamese army, and to start bringing home American troops. When the President ordered US troops into Cambodia and ordered more bombings, the result was a tremendous uproar at home with more marches and demonstrations. Congress reacted to the antiwar feeling and repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave the President the authority to send troops and fight the war in Vietnam. Our purpose in the war is debated to this day. Historical note:Vietnam was a part of French occupied IndoChina. After World War II, independence movements began, along with Communist expansion. In 1954, the French lost the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu, which led to the French abandonment of the colony. Vietnam was split between the Communist North and the western-supported South.Rather than leave the Vietnamese to their own devices, the USA took over where France left off, fearing a "domino effect"; i.e. if Vietnam fell to the Communists, then the whole of South-east Asia would be vulnerable. The Americans had had a Pacific presence in the west Pacific during World War II and they were still highly influential in the politics of Japan and the Philipines; so it seemed natural to them to intervene in Vietnam. Perhaps, this was the USA's great mistake; since the Vietnam War proved to be an ordeal for the Americans. But some still reckon that the domino theory was correct since, even though the South "fell", the spread of Communism in SE Asia was halted. But arguably other factors, such as Thai Nationalism and Indonesian Islam would anyway have resisted the "Red Peril".