Introduction
Since early fifties the government of the United States began to pay special attention to Vietnam and political situation in this country, because, it was one of the most important regions in the Southeast Asia. In fact, American forces became involved in this war in 1950 when they assisted French troops in fighting against Vietnamese National Army. The main objective of the then administration was to prevent the spread of the Soviet Union influence.
However, more active measures were taken only in the sixties. These events should be discussed within the context of the Cold War, and at that moment the relations between the two superpowers were rather tense.
During his presidency John Kennedy tried to resolve this conflict and pacify the opposing sides. This policy might have produced results yet after Kennedy assassination, his successor Lyndon Johnson gave preference to the use of military force. In turn, Vietnamese National army received support from the USSR. Many politicians argue that its major goal was to bring democracy and freedom to Vietnamese people and liberate them from the yoke of the Communist Party. Nevertheless, it seems that the major or strategic objective was to win the palm of supremacy in this region.
Historians give various explanations concerning the defeat of the US forces. In part, it can be ascribed to the lack of experience. First, many battles were held in jungles and American officers and soldiers were not accustomed to such conditions. The major problem was that face-to-face battle virtually deprived our soldiers of the superiority in number and technology. Moreover, there are some scholars who maintain that the underlying cause of failure was the lack of motivation. In other words, many people did not see the point of fighting in Vietnam. In this regard, it should be mentioned the US allies such the Great Britain and Canada were reluctant to send their troops to this country, and to some extent this contributed to the defeat.
There is a widely held opinion among some military officers that this war could have been won if command had continued strategic bombing. According to them, such method would have compelled their rival to yield. Naturally, such argument has some rationale, but such bombings would have caused death to thousands of civilian people. The government abandoned such strategy, because it could tarnish the international reputation of the United States.
It is rather difficult to say whether the United States could win this war or not. In theory, the victory was achievable, but it would have taken immense sacrifices, military and civilian. Additionally, this victory would have turned the United States into some kind of an international bully, or even an Evil Empire, seeking to dominate other states.
To conclude, the War in Vietnam eloquently demonstrates that military force should only be a last resort. On the whole, this conflict was the failure of both American and Soviet diplomacy. Perhaps, Lyndon Johnson administration should have taken Kennedys approach, aimed at peace negotiations. This might have saved lives of many innocent people.
American Moves to the Right
The period from 1969 to 1989 is often characterized by the phrase “America moved to the right”. These words can be interpreted from various standpoints: first they may imply the strengthening of conservative views in American society and subsequent intensification of civil rights movements, which cried against right-winged policies. Secondly, these words may also denote the enmity between the US and the USSR. In this case, the word “right” is a political standpoint which stresses the importance of tradition, conservatism in religion, culture, racial questions and so forth. However, this gave rise to strong opposition. The right-winged ideology always opposes to everything new or untypical but it immediately faces challenges.
In order to elaborate this argument we should refer to several landmark events in the history of our country, for instance, Nixons advent to power and the policy of his cabinet. In this respect, we need to throw light on such key event as Watergate and its further implications. Overall, Richard Nixons presidency has often been defined as the rise of conservatism. This mostly manifested in the governments interference into the spheres of finance and economy.
Secondly, during his election campaign, he appealed mostly to socially conservative layers of society and he mostly condemned anti-war demonstrators, by saying that they were playing into the hands of the Soviet Union, but this only increased anti-war sentiments among American people. It can be observed that that political conservatism had just the opposite effect.
His presidency was marked by rapid growth of civil rights movement, namely we should speak about feminism and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay,Bisexual and Transgender) movements. Although Nixon did not directly oppose to this new cultural and social trends, yet he was not willing to render any assistance to them. The scandal, which broke out 1972 revealed that the then government committed several blatant violations, namely illegal wiretapping of American citizens, political espionage, and illegal audits. When these facts were made public, Nixon was forced to resign his office. As regards Ronald Reagan, historians mostly focus on his open confrontation with the Soviet Union.
In one of his speeches, he called this state “an evil empire”. This was not only an accusation of the USSR, in this way Reagan wanted to emphasize the fact that the United States was the major opponent of this empire and other nations had to follow this example. In part, this was consistent with the philosophy of American exceptionalism. However, in late eighties, the negations between the two governments alleviated the situation.
Conclusion
Certainly, conservatism is inherent part of American internal and external policies but we cannot say that it dominates. The thing is that even in the most conservative community, there will be people, who oppose to traditional values and opinions. The main disadvantage of conservatism is its intolerance to other views. Therefore, we may conclude that the phrase “America moved to the right” is no longer applicable nowadays, but some aspects are still noticeable, namely, the belief in American exceptionalism.