Vietnam War - Social Movements :: Vietnam Conflict

The Vietnam War (1965-1975)was fought between the matrimony and South Vietnam. The North was called republican Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. On August 2nd, 1964 the USS Maddox was on a secret intelligent mission on the North Vietnamese coast where in the Gulf on Tonkin they were attacked by torpedo boats. The USS Turner Joy was attacked in the same area two days later. out-of-pocket to the second attack Congress declared the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which led to air strikes.In 1959 there were 5,000 guerilla fighters and in 1964 the numbers jumped to 100,000. At Pleiku on March, 1965 U.S marine barracks were attacked causing the three stage escalation bombing of North Vietnam to begin. The 3 year lasting bombing was used to force North Vietnam to stop supporting the topic Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam by destroying their industrial infrastructure and Vietnams air defenses. Unfortunately this di d not stop the Norths support for the NLF. The U.S. Air Force bases were constantly cosmos attacked so the U.S. on March 8, 1965 the 3,500 U.S. Marines was deployed to South Vietnam. At this point in time, the U.S. public supported the dispatch because the Vietnam War had been portrayed to the American people as a war against the spread of Communism. Johnson was president at the time and he kept adding more and more troops as the war went on. As the brief quotas increased, the American public protests started. When Nixon came into presidency his policy towards the Vietnam War was peace with honor in other words he wanted to widen the war. After more bombing and fighting, on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords was signed, restoring peace in Vietnam and U.S. forces pulled out. Nixon stopped all American attacks on Vietnam. The condensed summary of the Vietnam War is to see what presidents were involved in this war (Johnson, and Nixon) and what foreign policies were taken towar ds Vietnam mostly before the protests began.Social movements have been a huge influence in shaping U.S. foreign policy. I would ilk to focus on the Vietnam War and how social protests changed its route. The constant and organized protests done by the American people is definitely a factor that pushed Nixon to take the American troops out of Vietnam, when those werent his intentions when he was elected for president.