The Vietnam War is certainly the most controversial war the United States has ever been involved in. From its commencement the Vietnam War seemed to be a war between East and West, Democracy and Communism. The foreign policy of the United States during the cold war was driven by a fear of spread of Communism and the threat of loosing Southeast Asia to Communist rule was unfeasible to American policy-makers. The United States Involvement in the Vietnam War can be summed up into three stages. First, came the creation of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, which was formed to eliminate Communist activity in South Vietnam. The second stage came after the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave president Lyndon Johnson full war-making powers until �peace and security� had returned to South Vietnam. And the final stage came during Nixon�s Vietnamization, which would slowly withdraw U.S troops, and the South Vietnamese military would assume the battle. The war in Vietnam lasted from 1959 to 1975 and the end result was the unification of Vietnam under Communist control as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Clearly U.S efforts failed to serve their main purpose: preventing the spread of Communism to South East Asia.
The United States first strategic involvement in the conflict in Vietnam was the formation of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to prevent and eliminate Communist activity in Southern Vietnam. The ARVN comprised of South Vietnamese troops and was advised by high-ranking U.S military officials whose role at this point was strictly advisory. Using these troops the South Vietnamese took land away from peasants and returned it to former landlords, reversing the land redistribution program implemented by the North Vietnamese. United States Special Forces (Green Berets) would work with ARVN troops directly in the villages in an effort to match NLF (National Liberation Front, Communists of North Vietnam) political organizing and to win over the South Vietnamese people. The number of U.S. advisers assigned to the ARVN rose steadily. In January 1961, when Kennedy took office, there were 800 U.S. advisers in Vietnam; by November 1963 there were 16,700. Despite all these measures, the ARVN continued to loose ground and the NLF continued to get stronger.
The second stage of U.S intervention came after the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving president Johnson full war-making power in Vietnam. Immediately after the resolution was passed president Johnson ordered bombing of North Vietnam. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy declared that a full-scale air war against North Vietnam would depress the morale of the NLF. The bombing did just the opposite, however. The inability of the ARVN to protect U.S. air bases led Johnson�s senior planners to the consensus that U.S. combat forces would be required. On March 8, 1965, 3500 U.S. Marines landed at �� Nang. By the end of April, 56,000 other combat troops had joined them; by June the number had risen to 74,000.
Richard Nixon who was determined to end the war brought about Vietnamization, which was the final stage of U.S involvement in the conflict in Vietnam. During his campaign for the presidency, Nixon announced that he had a secret plan to end the war. In July 1969, after he had become president, he issued what came to be known as the Nixon doctrine, which stated that U.S. troops would no longer be directly involved in Asian wars. He ordered the withdrawal of 25,000 troops, to be followed by more, and he lowered draft calls. In the end Vietnamization would remove all U.S troops from Vietnam and the South Vietnamese military would assume all the fighting.
U.S involvement in Vietnam was originally driven by anti-communist views, however towards the end of the battle the United States was just trying not to be humiliated in a war that seemed to be without a cause.