Vietnam is a country in Eastern Asia located on the Indochina Peninsula.  It is one of the largest countries in the East Asian region with more than 90 million people. During the early twentieth century, the country was divided into North and South Vietnam forcing the United States to intervene. As a Pro-Philippine American during the early twentieth century, I would have supported the involvement of the U.S in most of the East Asian countries.  Most of these countries were under communist rule, in this case, Vietnam, because the type of government was unorthodox and uncalled for since most of the counties were recovering from colonial rule and dictatorship is what they needed they least. The Vietnam War is the primary reason for the involvement of the U.S   in Vietnam in the early 20th century with the aim of restricting Communist domination that found its way to the Vietnamese government.

U.S involvement in Vietnam began in the 1950s during the Eisenhower administration. At that time, Vietnam had ceased from becoming one country and instead was divided into North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was a communist state, and it was trying to coerce the South to adopt communism, but the South was not yet ready to change to this new administration. The Cold War during that time resulted to fears that if the Northern Vietnamese communists prevailed, the rest of Southeast Asia would be under their mercy thus the reason why the then US president John F. Kennedy vowed to prevent South Vietnam from becoming a communist state, like some of the countries that had become communists such as China, Korea, Cuba, and Eastern Europe.

The decision to enter the Vietnam War was not a sudden instead the American government believed that preventing more communalism was the best thing to do in preventing a communist Asian continent. I would have supported the idea to help the Southern region of Vietnam fight off the North and its allies because, before the war, the U.S had also maintained the Philippines fight off the Spanish rule in the country. The outcome of the involvement was very successful as it helped the Philippine people be free from colonialism and this was what Vietnam needed were it to stay together in the wake of communism in the region.  During that time, the Philippines had greatly supported the war, and as such, they had offered help to the American troops and the South Vietnamese people were also supportive of the role the U.S played in the war.

I support the fact that the US was willing to fight the war to protect Vietnam from communism, which I believe would have infringed on the rights of the Vietnamese people. In his opening speech of the presidential program for Vietnam, Kennedy stated that the US objectives were to prevent the spread of communism in South Vietnam and instead create a viable and democratic country on a series of mutually supporting actions of a political, economic, psychological and covert character.

American support was good for Vietnam because it gave the southern part of the country a chance to fight off dictatorship. The U.S had previously helped the Philippines, a South Asian country as well as assisting South Vietnam to defend its independence. Thereby leaving it to its fate would have undervalued America’s commitment and shake its credibility to the rest of the world that was pro-American. What’s’ more, The South Vietnam military benefited from the American soldiers given that they received more advanced training and advanced military equipment to tackle the enemy.

Quite some Vietnamese were able to oppose the move by the northern leadership to make the country a communist nation. The support provided by the American government was the primary motivator as the people were willing to fight the policies meant to assimilate them to communism.

To offer support to the Vietnamese after the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S allowed about one million Vietnamese to the country and offered them legal status and other related benefits thus providing them a chance to start a new and better life. The need to help the Vietnamese immigrants stems from the fact that the U.S felt obligated to do so, as well as help those who had supported its cause in the country. The U.S is always ready to help people from unstable countries as well as those seeking political asylum, and the case was no different from those enlightened and educated Vietnamese individuals as well as others who were against communist rule.

A totalitarian Northern communist regime would have been worse for the Vietnamese people. Before and during the Vietnamese war, the government had tortured, executed, and arrested a lot of Vietnamese people. The involvement of the U.S was, therefore, a blessing in disguise to most of the South Vietnamese people because they were protected from such atrocities by the American government at the time.

The U.S involvement in Vietnam during the early century resulted in a new view of war by the American people and the rest of the world. In my opinion, it was a wakeup call to the American government to choose its battles wisely. For instance, although they had been successful in the Philippines, they seemed to be losing to North Vietnam and their communist allies. There was much criticism of the war given that a lot of money was spent on military operations, not forgetting the number of American soldiers who died during the war. As an American supporting its role in most countries towards good governance and democracy, I believe the involvement was a lesson to the then government that it only needed to engage in meaningful wars that would not cause more harm.

Conclusion

During the early twentieth century, the United States was involved with Vietnam, in particular, South Vietnam, to help them fight the Vietnam War. The involvement was a welcome idea because the U.S had established itself as a caring and democratic nation that would do anything to protect the liberties of other countries, given the example of the Philippines. Although the U.S did not win the war, the state was able to get back to normal after the two sides reunited. Although it became a socialist country after Northern Vietnam won the battle, the leadership adopted capitalist policies, which in my view were the best if Vietnam wanted to progress socially, economically and politically, just like the U.S and the Philippines. Therefore, supporting the involvement would have been a good idea, particularly for an individual who knew the role the U.S played in the Philippines.

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