The Vietnamese War is one of the hotly contested debates among political scientists, historians and even journalists. In the event of hot debates, different personalities induce different ideologies creating different schools of thought. From orthodox to revisionism, there are still contentious issues on who was responsible for the war in Vietnam and why America decided to chip in.
It is now apparent to articulate that, the ongoing conflicting discussions have led to the creation of various schools of thought with different and divergent views about the Cold War. This comprises of orthodox, revisionism and post-revisionism schools of thoughts regarding Vietnamese war. The paper will only consider revisionism as a school of thought about Vietnamese war.
Many historians and political scientists do not understand why United States involved itself in Vietnamese War. Its intrusion into the Soviet Union brought more harm than good according to some historians, while others see it an advantage. Revisionist views forms a critique about United States’ international affairs and its foreign policies especially during period of Cold War.
For example, revisionist writers argue that, United States used dubious diplomacy in breaking into Soviet Union’s crisis. United States policymakers enacted capitalistic laws, which led to Americans accessing foreign markets. Consequently, this led to the expansion of America’s economy leading to internal power emancipation.
Revisionists from Vietnam accuse America’s war strategies and vehemently discarding liberal orthodox while citing America as the bulwark of the Indochina war. Historian argues that, beside numerous mistakes from United States, its foreign polices lacked correct facts. Moreover, the policies represented miscalculations, blunders and inaccurate interpretations concerning the war.
For example, the creation of free markets was a sign of capital imperialism under gorgeous idealistic perceptions. In addition, political intervention from United States brought not only bureaucracy into Vietnam’s domestic politics but also created ethnocentrism.
According to revisionists, America would not have involved itself in Vietnamese War. There was all manner and idealistic modalities to avoid its involvement. Liberal realist viewpoints indicate that, American policymakers made errors by thinking that the war was important to the affairs of United States. If these policymakers accessed both security and economic curiosities, then national revolution would not have resulted. United States relied on past war experiences before making an adventure into Vietnam War.
Another important viewpoint to note is that, America depicted defiant behavior and prudent intentions to Vietnamese War. Selfish interests like being concerned about their economy led to creation of open foreign markets for business and agricultural commodities. The global hegemony of United States kept rising with the expansion of its economy making many countries to fear them. In one way, America had gained autonomous authority with majority. According to revisionists, this was a bad impression.
According to revisionists, America’s judgmental mistakes were because of emotions rather than analyzing the situation on the ground first. It is through this reasoning that, revisionists do not see any reason of America involving itself into Vietnam War. They see President Roosevelt as an opportunist and a figure of capitalism thus terming executive powers duplicitous. American diplomacy tactics meant to impose American policies abroad selfishly.
In conclusion, though there are divergent views concerning America’s involvement in Vietnam War, both liberal revisionists and orthodox views are the same especially in accusing America’s stake in the war. United States foreign policy led to enactment of a policy leading to America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Though United States did not involve itself into the war in order to break the dominance of Soviet Union, it wanted to gain politically and economically. Through this horrendous tactic, military war ensued resulting to Vietnamese War and Soviet Union separation move. Nevertheless, the Cold War was has all to answer on who was to be the next super power and biggest world’s economic hub.