Domestic Influences on the American

Domestic influences on the American decision to retreat from Vietnam (1968-1973)

The American participation in the Vietnam War has often been considered to be unjustified because of its timing and because of the fact that the Soviets had also taken part in the conflict. The Cold War has been responsible for several armed clashes around the world, with the U.S. And the Soviet Union standing as sponsors while various countries served as simple actors in the overall divergence. Not only does the general public consider the American involvement the Vietnam War to be without a basis, as it also considers the American retreat to be without foundation.

Initially intended to be something that would not have a strong effect on the American society, the Vietnam War had not met its objective. The Johnson administration did not succeed in providing the war with limited forces and resources, nor did it succeed in trying to keep U.S. citizens impassive to the activities happening in Vietnam.

The War's impact was beginning to be felt in the U.S. also as Americans were expressing their anti-war convictions through protests and demonstrations. The war also served as an object for propaganda for some. Richard Nixon took advantage of the occurrence to run his 1968 campaign under the slogan "peace with honor" (A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, pp. 229). While the American government had had trouble attempting to control the people at home, matters were becoming even worse in Vietnam. The North Vietnamese had been aware of the situation in the U.S. And started to press their case in an effort to disgrace Johnson. Under stress by the conditions in the U.S. And in Vietnam, Johnson realized that his only chance had been to retreat his troops.

Knowing that the chaos would spread all over South Vietnam if there would be no one left to protect the territory and its inhabitants, Johnson apparently guaranteed that he would see that the retreat would not be accompanied by the South's destruction.

The situation had become critical at the time when Nixon came into office. Determined to abandon all of Johnson's peace plans in favor of others put together by his administration, the new president made significant changes regarding U.S. actions in Vietnam. His main mission turned into destroying Vietnamese communism before his troops left the country. The war spread to Laos and Cambodia as the U.S. had been attempting to damage the communist resource routes. In spite of the fact that heavy bombings continued throughout North Vietnam, the government there did not show any signs of being overcome.

In addition to his citizens lobbying for the war to be ended and the North Vietnamese keeping their strength, Nixon also had to deal with the Watergate scandal. This meant that he had lesser time to deal with the problem in Southeast Asia or to assist the South Vietnamese government.

The Paris Peace Agreement from the 27th of January, 1973, had put an end to the fighting between the U.S. And the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In spite of the peaceful character of the situation, matters did not change much, and hostilities continued between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The fact that people from South Vietnam had been outnumbered and that they no longer received significant military and material assistance from the U.S. had become obvious. The Communists eventually put an end to the Second Indochina War on the 30th of April, 1975 as they captured Saigon.

Works cited:

1. Cheng Guan, Ang, "Singapore and the Vietnam War," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40.2 (2009).