Richard Nixon Effects on the Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Richard Nixon Effects on the Vietnam War - Essay Example The first and foremost issue that confronted Nixon was the massive casualties that occurred on either sides of the war. Moreover the moral decays evidenced in the events of â€Å"My Lai Massacre†, â€Å"Green Beret Affair† and civilian cost in the operation â€Å"Speedy Express† infuriated the silent majority of the American to raise their voice against the war.1 But such a demand from the American mass posed a great dilemma for Nixon Government. On one hand Nixon had to retain the sublimity of the US image in the power politics in the international field during the rising tension of Cold War.2 But it was not possible through a quick Military withdrawal from war. On the other hand, he had to pacify the outraged mob who massively could contribute to his failure in the next election in case he failed to manage a decent way-out while retaining the sublimity of the US image. At home Nixon’s dilemma was -as it is said in â€Å"Richard M. Nixon - The Vietnam wa r† says- that â€Å"If his plan involved escalation, Democrats could charge that he was abandoning attempts to reach a peaceful solution and could point to mounting American casualties and prisoners of war. If he negotiated a solution that led to the fall of the government in Saigon, Democrats could charge that he had abandoned an ally†.3 Indeed this situation was reflected greatly and played crucial role in shaping Nixon’s policy for the Vietnam War. Now though Nixon became successful to retain his position in the Oval Office in the election of 1973 and also to retain the US big-brother image in international power politics, he failed, to a great extent, to help the war. But in return he had to turn the upside of the US foreign policy down by sacrificing America’s image as the savior of â€Å"Democracy†.4 Nixon’s offensive stance, the â€Å"Madman† doctrine seems to lie at the root of all these failures, because it can be convened tha t his defensive stance would have helped more the causes of South Vietnam to survive as a democratic state than the â€Å"Madman Doctrine† could do. What Started the War? The root of the Vietnam War dates back in the year 1955. An in-depth analysis of the war is essentially bound to yield the fact that the war fairly turns from the colonial struggle of the French into the war of the US democratic interest. From the viewpoint of the US Government the US involvement in the war was meant to prevent the proliferation of communism over South Vietnam. But as per the North Vietnamese people as well as the common Vietnamese’s view, the war was the Vietnamese struggle against the colonial power, which was initially fought against the French. But later it turned against South Vietnam that was backed by the US Army. During the Cold War after the Second World War, the US Foreign Policy Makers concentrated their attention to hold the US power on the regional politics in Asia. As a legacy of this policy, the Johnson Government grabbed the opportunity to strengthen its hold on South Vietnam. Obviously the propaganda behind the US Military reinforcement was that â€Å"non-communist South Vietnam was invaded by communist North Vietnam and that the United States came to the aid of the â€Å"democratic† regime in the South†.5 According to Pilger, the US reason to involve in the war is still vague because the US involvement