How and why did the US escalate the Vietnam War?
...ts former colonial powers over Vietnam and the rest of Indochina. Harry S. Truman and other American leaders, having no sympathy for French colonialism wanted to ensure Vietnam be independent. When France agreed to a semi-independent Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai as an alternative to Ho's, the United States decided to support the French. The American conception of Vietnam as a cold war battleground largely ignored the struggle for social justice and national sovereignty occurring within the country. American attention focused primarily on Europe and on Asia and the communist threat within it. After China became a communist state in 1949, the stability of Japan became of paramount importance to Washington, and Japanese development required access to the markets and raw materials of Southeast Asia. The outbreak of war in Korea in 1950 served primarily to confirm Washington's belief that communist aggression posed a great danger to Asia. Subsequent charges that Truman had ‘lost’ China and had settled for a stalemate in Korea caused succeeding presidents like LBJ to fear the domestic political consequences if they ‘lost’ Vietnam. This uneasiness, an overestimation of American power, and an underestimation of Vietnamese communist will power made sure that all administrations from 1950 through the 1960s were in a firm anticommunist state of mind. The escalation of the war during the Johnson administration can largely be blamed upon the lack of foresight by the previous administrations as to how much effort and time it would take to influence the political framework of Vietnam. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, his successor, vice-president, Lyndon Baines Johnson was the natural choice for the presidency at a very crucial time in America’s foreign and domestic affairs. At home the civil rights movement was gaining momentum and the likelihood of a quick fix in Vietnam was slim, the Vietnam War and its long-term consequences had been ignited and US involvement was substantial at the beginning of LBJ’s first term. It is often the assumption that Johnson was an insecure man who was over influenced by his advisors, “group think” is a term sometimes used, implying that Johnson paid no attention to the advisors who were arguing for the de-escalation of the war. In August of 1964 an incident took place that arguably was the turning point for increased forceful escalation by the US. Allegedly North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked a US ship on its patrols, the Maddox, this event has come to be known as the ‘Gulf of Tonkin incident’. LBJ, wanting to appear serious in front of the country and congress regarding the halt of communism, bombed the North Vietnamese for carrying out this alleged attack. This incident triggered a snowball effect, the Viet Cong obviously interpreting this act of aggression as an attempt by the US to make the North Vietnamese bow down to overwhelming military pressure attempted to overtake South Vietnam and in retaliation LBJ sent in 35,000 troops to stop them. During Kennedy’s presidency no troops were stationed in South Vietnam, LBJ did not hesitate to send in ground troops, an escalation of gigantic proportions. The fact that there was a fear of anything communist in America at the time may be reason why LBJ was so quick to escalate the war, maybe his sentiments were that he couldn’t justify implementing his ‘Great Society’ when there was an immediate threat to US interests abroad. Johnson pored in billions to try and improve education, create jobs, and public housing for his 'Great Society'. Looking back it can be said without a doubt that his domestic policies were far more successful than his foreign policy, his success domestically is largely overshadowed by the disaster that Vietnam turned into. Another factor as to why LBJ escalated the war, increasing troops and equipment, is an underestimation of the tenacity and determination of the Viet Cong. LBJ and his advisors had estimated that the North Vietnamese would crumble under overwhelming firepower and military technology but this was not the case. America had never fought a war on this kind of stage before, the Viet Cong were able to hide in thick jungle attacking the American troops sporadically and disappearing into the jungle again before the US troops were able to organise a counter offensive, LBJ and his advisors assumed more men would counter this problem. It appears that LBJ saw escalation and a swift end to the conflict as one in the same. Because there didn’t seem to be an end in sight Johnson had begun to exaggerate the success of the campaign to the public, exaggerating the number of Viet Cong that were killed and the imminent defeat of the communists, however Johnson had overestimated the patience of the US people. There was growing opposition to the war mainly as a result of increased media coverage which had never been seen before, at that point Americans would have been able to witness the atrocities of war in their living rooms, this was something that did not sit well with the people. Riots broke out, the most notorious of these riots were in Watts, California where 27 people were killed, 600 were injured, 1700 were arrested and well over $100,000,000 damage was done. Many people including some of the president's close advisors urged Johnson to pull out of the war but so many men had already died in Vietnam and billions had been spent that in Johnson’s mind it would have been political suicide to admit that all his efforts had been in vain, also it was definitely not on the top of his agenda to be the first American president to loose a war. Instead he chose to raise the stakes and send more troops and equipment to Vietnam. General William Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, pursued an attrition strategy designed to inflict such heavy losses on the enemy that its will to continue would be broken. By late 1967, his headquarters were claiming that the crossover point had been reached and that enemy strength was being destroyed faster than it could be replenished. In 1968 the ‘Tet Offensive’ was launched by the Viet Cong, They struck throughout South Vietnam, including a penetration of the U.S. embassy compound in Saigon. American and South Vietnamese forces eventually repulsed the offensive and inflicted heavy losses on the Vietcong, but the fighting had exposed the reality that a quick end of the war was not in sight. The Communist troops captured the Citadel at Hue and seized part of the US embassy in Saigon. It took nearly two weeks to completely rout out the Viet Cong troops. The attack was a disaster for the Viet Cong who lost nearly 10,000 men and fulfilled none of their objectives. After the failure of the Viet Cong Johnson began an even more rapid deepening of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. American troop strength had inc...