Who was more to blaim for the war in Vietnam?

Question

which presedent was more to blaim and why?

Answer 1

True JFK continued and expanded the US advisory role started by Eisenhower. The LBJ went ballistic and eventually had more than 536,000 troops in Vietnam.

Personally I blame the French. They fought a colonial war with Vietnam (at the time still a single, united country...as it is today) from 1945 to1954. The US had given the army of Vietman $2.6 billion during their struggle for independence...sound familiar?

Ho Chi Minh as the leader of the Vietnamese army; as he was during the American War as the Vietnamese called the Vietnam War.

In 1954 the French were drawn into battle in a valley at Dien Bien Phu. This was their last and most costly battle. Some 6000 French troops died and over 10,000 French soldiers were taken prisoner.

The French....well, bailed leading to a peace conference in Geneva where Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam received their independence. Vietnam was temporarily split into north and south.

In 1958 with the continued communist influence in Vietnam and south east Asia Esienhower sent 2000 US military advisers to the south. By 1963 under Kennedy the advisors had reached 16,3000 and then on to LBJ.

And why do I blame the French....if they had just held on to keep Vietnam their colony to this day then we never would have lost over 58,000 troops.

OK...unrealistic and the French surrender monkeys hadn't won a war since the musket was the modern weapon of war...but I thought a brief history of how the war started might clarify my choice for Presidential blame.

Answer 2

If the North Vietnamese, backed by China had not invaded South Vietnam when the French left to spread their form of communism, there would not have been a war. The USA at the time became involved to stop the spread of communism, as did Australia. No one President carried the blame, although President Johnson escalated America's involvement.

Answer 3

To go back to the start of the Vietnam war you have to go back to the end WW2. When the Japanese were finally beaten and the war had ended the French wanted their colonies back, Britain agreed with them the USA did not. Ho Chi Mhin, had fort against the Japanese and America wanted him to take control of the then Indo China. Ho Chi Mhin wanted independance so started a guerilla war fare against the French settlers. The arms that he was using were supplied by the USA. Britain became involved in as much as British troops having battled for five years against the Germans and the Japanese were then sent in to defend the French. They then suffered casualties from armament paid for by their ally the USA. They were only a token force and as well as protecting the French they had 10,000 Japanese prisoners to look after. There then followed an extraordinary occurence a bill was passed in parliament allowing the Japanese prisoners to come under British command and they were then used to protect the French against Ho Chi Mhin. The British departed and left the French to deal with the mess. The Japanese returned home. The rest as they say is history. The French battled for years against a very tenacious enemy and then very sensibly pulled out after many young French men had died. The Americans by then were worried about the spread of communism and had turned against Ho Chi Mhin. These facts can be checked, So you see if you want to blame someone it is the President in power at the end of WW2, Truman, and the French for insisting on having their colonies back. Oh and the British for supporting France's demands! Take your pick.

Answer 4

Truman started US observation groups in the area, Eisenhower continued with more observers, Kennedy sent advisors, Johnson sent the Marines first, then massive Army/Air Force/Navy involvement, Nixon really botched things by pandering to Kissinger's ego & playing God with US troops by starting & stopping the bombing of the north, so they're all to blame to different degrees, but speaking as a two tour Vietnam vet, I personally hold Tricky Dick responsible for the continued loss of life. He was elected by proclaiming, "I've got a secret plan to end the war." Big suprise, he didn't & many, many Americans never came home because of his lies & Kissenger's need to be in the world's spotlight.

Answer 5

Blame is hardly the right word. Remember the war was originally Frances` and they just packed up and left. North Vietnam were communists, and they invaded the South, who were not. The thinking at the time was that if the whole of Vietnam were to become a communist state, it would affect Americas` position in Asia. So America sent "advisers" to the South to help them `organise` their defence, one thing led to another and America found herself in a bloody,expensive no-win war. Not wanting to loose face her leaders sent more and more men and arms, then she found her self in so deep, that it was hard to get out LBJ could have stopped it, but he didn`t want to appear weak against the JFK legacy. LBJ was certainly to blame for the continuation of the war, and for the death of thousands of young men, who died in a country most of them had never heard of before the war.
Many more thousands were maimed and many more turned into drug addicts because of it. Those who did return were greeted by a less than grateful nation, they were not given the honour and respect they deserved. The Vietnam veterans were brave fighters
good soldiers and good men. They deserve the respect of America.

Answer 6

It was started during Kennedy's watch and LBJ continued it while he was in office. Poor Nixon took over later and got us out.

Kennedy was surrounded by a group that often suffered from group think as witnessed by the bay of pigs. Kennedy and US thinking were way too afraid of Communism. They actually thought it might work.

LBJ made the mistake of trying to fund the war without raising taxes. This led to the birth of the budget deficits we still see today.

The reason we did not win the war was because Americans have become too soft. We as a country were not willing to level the type of damage that was necessary to win the war. Instead, like today, we fought a drawn out sissy war which resulted in more loss of Vietnamese and American lives than necessary.

Never start a war if you don't have the stomach to finish the war. Truman did what it took to end WWII, but now we have a country of cowards.

However, it was the French who created the situation. There is a very good movie called The Quiet American that refers to how the French screwed things up and how the Americans tried to salvage the situation.

Answer 7

Actually, it was Eisenhower who got us in. I would say LBJ was responsible for the huge expansion of the war.

Here's a great historical article by a former Vietnam vet:
http://www.vietvet.org/jeffviet.htm

Answer 8

The French were to blame for the Vietnam war. (remember, Vietnam was once French Indo-China). They screwed the pooh until both sides went to war and then they walked away. The US had to take over for fear of the domino effect of communism (which proved to be a false argument, but they didn't know that at the time)

For expanding the war: Both Nixon and Johnson. I think RFK would have ended it in '68 had he not been assassinated by the CIA. (oh - Surhan Surhan - silly me!)

Answer 9

We went in because of the ******* french, we had pull their weenies out of the fire again. We went in and they made a hasty retreat, it's what they're best at. Just a bunch of cheese eating wine swilling surrender monkeys.

Answer 10

Kennedy and Johnson.

PS. No matter what anybody says, there's not a shred of evidence Kennedy was going to pull out of Vietnam just before he was killed. None.