Vietnam War

             The Vietnam War was by far the most convulsive and traumatic of America's three wars in Asia in the 50 years since Pearl Harbor. It set the U.S. economy on a downward spiral. It left America's foreign policy at least temporarily in disarray, discrediting the postwar policy of containment and undermining the consensus that supported it. It divided the American people as no other event since their own Civil War a century earlier. One in ten who served in this war was a casualty. Was this war worth it? I think not.
             The Soviet Union at the time had a Communist government. They influenced and bullied other countries into supporting Communism as well. Against Communism, the United States adopted the policy of containment. It was the foreign policy that tried to block the Soviet's influence of Communism. Wanting to help countries resist the Soviet's advances, President Truman created the Truman Doctrine. It was a very controversial issue with Truman willing to interfere with other nation's affairs to stop Communism. Basically the U.S. decided to take on the mission of crusading against Communism around the globe. .
             America's huge fear of communism lead them to believe that if Vietnam became Communist, then that would lead to a "domino effect,"" in south-east Asia whereby Burma, Thailand and Indonesia, would become Communist countries. The Domino Theory, feared that with the "fall" of North Vietnam to Communism, all of Southeast Asia might fall, setting off a sort of Communist chain reaction. The war began as a determined attempt by Communist guerrillas (the so-called Vietcong) in the South, backed by Communist North Vietnam, to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. The struggle widened into a war between South Vietnam and North Vietnam and ultimately into a limited international conflict. The United States and some 40 other countries supported South Vietnam by supplying troops and munitions, and the USSR and the People's Republic of China furnished munitions to North Vietnam and the Vietcong.