"Let every nation know, whether, it wishes us well or ill that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardships, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival of liberty." This is just what the United States did during the Vietnam War. The goal of the United States was to preserve a separate, independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam. However, whether or not the American people always agreed with the decisions the government made regarding Vietnam is not quite as simple.
In the beginning, most Americans felt an enormous need to help South Vietnam resist the communist North Vietnam and the Domino Theory. They believed that in the long run, keeping Vietnam away from communism would help America's national security. However, throughout the lingering war American minds seemed to shift. Not everyone felt that losing 58,000 young American men for a cause that did not affect them was worth all the hardships and tribulation.
U.S. Marines move through the ruins of the hamlet ...
Civilians sort through the ruins of their homes in...
Battle of Hamo Village During the Tet Offensive. U...The emotions of the American public began to heat up. While American soldiers were dying in the jungles of Vietnam, protests all over America were going strong. This all came together when suddenly, the Tet Offensive occurred on January 30th, 1968. The already pessimistic people of America realized that they were in the middle of an un-winnable war and they wanted out. American's ideas about Vietnam quickly changed. The American people did not think that trying to protect South Vietnam from communism would ever help America. From then on the Tet Offensive would be known as the turning point in the Vietnam War. After Tet, American leaders began a slow, agonizing diminution of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
President Truman had just recently lost China to communism and settled for a stalemate in Korea. Now, the prospect of...