Vietnam

15 Pages 3746 Words

the line was strictly
provisional. To find a solution, Fulbright declares that we must recognize that nationalism is the strongest political force in the world and we must therefore adjust our priorities accordingly, to accommodate the possibility of a communist influenced nationalist movement. We must allow a communist influence in the government instead of attempting to repress a genuinely nationalist revolution, which is the case in Vietnam. In conclusion, Fulbright states that the Vietnam War drains valuable resources, which could be better spent on improving the general status of our country. Because American policy prioritized anti-communism over sympathy for nationalism, this created a dangerously erroneous view that the conflict was simply another incident of communist aggression that had to be contained at all costs, like Korea. Furthermore, the US violated the scheduled elections in 1956 by supporting "President Ngo Dinh Diem in his refusal to hold the elections provided for in the Geneva
Accords, presumably because he feared that the communists would win . . ." This not only showed a fundamental problem with US policy, but also the rejection of self-determination, which contrarily Johnson had stated as one of the reasons for US involvement in Indochina. According to Johnson, the US was in Vietnam, sacrificing lives to support "a world where each people may choose its own path to change." Yet, the US simply violated the Geneva Accords with increased American support and intervention. Although the US military intervention had bolstered Diem's government, it did not solve the fundamental problem of establishing a viable and stable nation in South Vietnam. In addition, US strategy proceeded not only in ignorance of the local circumstances, but apparently didn't even have a clear plan to establish a lasting government or to effectively defeat the communists. This was compounded by the fact that the US would not tolerate an unf...