The Tragedy of Vietnam

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The Tragedy of Vietnam
In The Tragedy of Vietnam by Patrick J. Hearden, look into the history of Vietnam from French occupation of Indochina to the final withdrawal of US troops in Vietnam. The author illustrates that, US foreign policy after WWII influenced how American Presidents dealt with spread of communism. Even though, America desired to create a New World Order, the threat of communism was a challenge to this goal. Hearden also points out that fear of communism and growing strength of the communist Vietcong in North Vietnam highlighted the need to focus more on the Global Domino Theory. Another potential challenge to America was that the South had an autocratic leader who was unable to deal with communist forces, but America’s decision to escalate conflicts into a war and eventually a stalemate.
Under the French rule, Vietnam was divided and nationalists feeling arose over time with Ho Chi Minh intent on ending French colonialism, their capitalist system and liberating the nation under a unified national state. Since the WWI, there were increased calls for independence for Vietnam away from the yokes of the French empire, but the French and British were not keen to give nations the right for self-determination (Lawrence 24). Thus, it became clear that the Western democracy would not be effective in bringing change in the country. With this in mind, Ho Chi Minh called for Vietnam independence as WWII approached, and the seizure of French Indochina by the Japanese precipitated the process.
The US foreign policy after the WWII relied on the Domini theory as a containment strategy of communism. This theory led to intervention efforts in the Vietnam War, with the US aiming to contain the spread of communist in the country and neighboring states (Hearden 84). The South East region became a focus of the Domino theory, but then the Chinese influence in the Korean peninsula showed that the policy was at times ineffective. Essentially, the theory supposed that the fall of Indochina to communist would also lead to spread of communism in Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, and over time countries in South East Asia would be under the Soviet sphere of influence (Hearden 85). Essentially, the US involvement in South Vietnam was to make the region a country free from communist influence.
Ngo Dinh Diem represented what the Americans liked, having being an anti- communist who had already being imprisoned before by the Communists. Additionally, Diem was a Catholic, and the Americans hoped that he would deal with commun...