Vietnam: A History :: essays research papers

Vietnam A History by Stanley KarnowThe Vietnam War, to me, is the around interesting war in American history. As someone one time said, it is like a shroud of a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma. earlier reading this book I had a general knowledge of the war. I knew about the communist insurgents, the Gulf of Tonkin, Saigon and Ho Chi Mihn. I knew about Presidents Johnson and Nixon, posttraumatic stress disorder and demonstrations. What I did not fully understand was why. wherefore were the North Vietnamese so resilient? Why did the US blade such poor judgment? Why were we really there? What was Vietnams history prior to our arrival?History is an organic process, a tenaciousness of related events, inexorable yet not inevitable. (pg 11) The roots of Americas involvement in Vietnam were nurtured by what Professor Daniel Bell has called Americas concept of its own exceptionalism. George Berkeley, an Anglican bishop and philosopher stated in 1726 as he departed from England to Am erica, Westward the course of empire. The phrase, manifest destiny, was coined in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas, originally, and to extend America to its natural boundaries. Promoters of the Homestead Act sought to have new territory for small farmers. Idealists such as Walt Whitman intended to bug out Americas happiness and liberty to the ancient cultures of Asia, facing westbound from Californias shores, inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfoundthe land of migrations, look afar Around the turn of the century, America did grab Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, but it seemed that America unbroken a hands off approach with Asia, which the Europeans already had their hands on. thither was little inclination for America to dominate foreign territories, since Americans were former British Colonial rebels. So Cuba was granted independence, and bids by Haiti and San Domingo to become American dominions were rejected. America, conflicting Europe, r efrained from plundering China, however, the pacification program in the Philippines foreshadowed US strategy in Vietnam.Americas expansionism was almost evangelical, as if the United States had been singled out by some divinity for the salvation of the planet. (pg13) After World War II, FDR hard-pressed that international post-war peace and stability would depend on Americas global leadership, and Woodrow Wilson pledged to make the world safe for democracy.Meanwhile, American missionaries began burbly into China. Many prominent Americans envisioned a Christian China with crosses on every hill and valley.