Vietnam: A History :: essays research papers

Vietnam A History by Stanley Karnow     The Vietnam War, to me, is the most elicit war in the Statesn archives. As someone once said, it is corresponding a shroud of a mystery, wrapped inside an enigma. Before study this book I had a general knowledge of the war. I k unused somewhat the communist insurgents, the Gulf of Tonkin, Saigon and Ho Chi Mihn. I knew about Presidents Johnson and Nixon, posttraumatic melodic line disorder and demonstrations. What I did not fully understand was why. Why were the northmost Vietnamese so resilient? Why did the US make such poor judgment? Why were we really there? What was Vietnams history prior to our arrival?     History is an organic process, a continuity of link events, inexorable yet not inevitable. (pg 11) The roots of the Statess affair in Vietnam were nurtured by what Professor Daniel Bell has called Americas impression of its own exceptionalism. George Berkeley, an Anglican bishop and p hilosopher stated in 1726 as he departed from England to America, Westward the course of empire. The phrase, manifest destiny, was coined in 1845 to promote the annexation of Texas, originally, and to decease America to its natural boundaries. Promoters of the Homestead Act sought to open new territory for small farmers.      Idealists such as Walt Whitman intended to project Americas happiness and liberty to the ancient cultures of Asia, facing west from calciums shores, inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfoundthe land of migrations, look afar almost the turn of the century, America did grab Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, but it seemed that America kept a hands off approach with Asia, which the Europeans already had their hands on. There was teeny-weeny inclination for America to dominate foreign territories, since Americans were former British colonial rebels. So Cuba was granted independence, and bids by Haiti and San Doming o to become American dominions were rejected. America, unlike Europe, refrained from pillaging China, however, the pacification program in the Philippines foreshadowed US strategy in Vietnam.Americas expansionism was almost evangelical, as if the United States had been singled out by some divinity for the salvation of the planet. (pg13) After World War II, FDR stressed that worldwide post-war peace and stability would depend on Americas world(a) leadership, and Woodrow Wilson pledged to make the world safe for democracy.Meanwhile, American missionaries began pouring into China. umpteen prominent Americans envisioned a Christian China with crosses on both hill and valley.