Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The U.S. struggles against the Communist in Vietnam
The Viet Cong had some clear advantages against the U.S. They had the knowledge of their territory which they used effectively to defeat their enemies, they made use of guerilla tactics which made it very difficult for the U.S. to fight them face to face, the only way the Americans could be successful, and they had the support of several nations that supplied them with effective weaponry.
b. Which quality was most important in determining who won the war? Was one feature so important that being ahead in that area meant that other advantages or disadvantages did not matter?
No because there were several important factors involved in the Vietnam War. The main goal of the Viet Cong was to be successful enough through the use of Guerrilla tactics that they drove out the U.S. and subsequently drove out democracy. The United State's goal was to stay in Vietnam despite the numerous casualties and the difficulty in staying ahead of the Viet Cong and preparing for any attacks. One could argue that the Guerrilla tactics of the Viet Cong was the most important quality in the war but history proved that America's endurance and their ability to overcome this difficult fighting method proved to be a great quality allowing many successes in the war.
2.a. The U.S. weaknesses were: The slim knowledge of the lay of the land, camping and fighting in large groups with heavy artillery that couldn't be moved easily or quickly, lack of motivation of the soldiers and support from South Vietnam, and the inablitiy to successfully counter the war tactics of the Viet Cong.
b. At the same time, the Communist strengths were: almost complete knowledge of the land, the incredibly effective use of guerilla tactics, soldiers who were truly motivated, and a lot of support from Vietnam nad other Communist nations.
c. The U.S. forces did have some successes. For example: they successful halted the import of supplies to the Viet Cong from other Communist countries, their bombings of North Vietnam, and their unwavering effort to remain in Vietnam until they eradicated communism from the country.
d. However, there were some major failures as well. Examples of these were: Failing to remove Communism from Vietnam and thus losing the war, supporting corrupt leaders in South Vietnam, and failing to maintain a republic in South Vietnam.
e. The Viet Cong had some major successes, such as: maintaining communism in Vietnam and winning the war, keeping Ho Chi Minh in power and promoting public support for the communist party, and bombing air field and supply bases in South Vietnam.
f. However, they also suffered defeats, for example: they lost around 10, 000 conditioned men in the Tet offensive and the battle showed the Viet Cong that they did not really have support from South Vietnam.
g. If I had to identify one major American weakness, it would be [having no way to counter the Viet Cong's use of guerrilla tactics] because: the Viet Cong's most effective weapon in the war was their use of guerrilla tactics and their expert use of their environmet to defeat the U.S. America had no response to this and this was the major cause of their defeat.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The U.S. Enters the Vietnam War
Many neutral observers were critical of U.S. policy because the U.S. was desperate to prevent Vietnam from becoming Communist so they would go to any measures to do so no matter how unethical. They began supporting any anti-communist leaders no even though many were corrupt and they gave them over a billion dollars to help prevent the spread of communism. Thye went on two establish the Republic of South Vietnam and increased the tension between the north and south.
Explain how US politicians would have defended their policies.
U.S. politicans may have defended their policies by arguing that it was absolutly necessary to stop Communism in its tracks no matter the cost. They believed that if Vietnam was overcome by Cummunism, the rest of Asia would also succumb to it. If Asia also turned Comunist then devastation would surely ensue and a war be likely to occur. Therefore is was necessary to send troops into Vietnam to quell any communist uprising and also to suuport anti-communist leaders.
3. The following events are not listed in correct date order. Place them in the correct chronological order. (Write the year inside the parenthesis, i.e. (1965). Then note the reason for each U.S. action, and how it brought the U.S. into deeper involvement in Vietnam.
( 1954 ) Formation of South Vietnam- political involvement; Vietnam was split into two different parts, North and South, in order to prevent communism from spreading further. It was decided at the Geneva Peace Conference in 1954 that they would seperate South Vietnam in order to make it into a republic.
( 1954 ) U.S. stops elections in Vietnam- political involvement; the U.S. stopped the elections in Vietnam because they were afraid that a communist leader would be elected and this would cause a rise in communist leaders in Vietnam and consequently the rest of Asia.
( 1960 ) Viet Cong formed- military and political involvement; The Viet Cong was a pro-Communist group of Vietnamese who would atack peasents and others in South Vietnam because they were against the U.S. and a republican form of government.
( 1960-2 ) Viet Cong attacks on U.S. and South Vietnam bases-miltary involvement; The Viet Cong began attacking U.S. airforce and supply bases and other lilitary bases in South Vietnam. This increased the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam because they now had to quell a strong military force.
( 1962 ) Number of 'advisers' reaches over 11,500-military involvement; More and more advisors were sent to Vietnam by Kennedy because it was extremely important to find a way to effectively fight and defeat the Viet Cong.
( 1962 ) JFK sends military advisers- JFK begins sending military advisors in order to fight the Viet Cong.
( 1963 ) Assassination of JFK -
( 1963 ) U.S. supports South Vietnam government after army overthrow Diem-political involvement-
( 1964 ) Gulf of Tonkin Incident-
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Monday, March 15, 2010
Dropping the Atomic Bomb
Several factors came into play that affected how people viewed Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb. For instance, people who disagreed with his decision believed that the war had already ended and the allies were victorious. They also thought Truman simply wanted to demosnstrate how the atomic bomb would work in actual warfare and impress or frighten other military leaders like in the Soviet Union. People who agreed with Truman's decision believed that the Japanese deserved the attack and that it would force them to surrender sooner, saving American lives. They were angered at how the Japanese treated American soldiers in the war and were yearning for revenge. They also thought dropping the bomb would prevent any other nations from dropping it on the U.S. in the future because they had already observed how it works in actual warfare and its effectiveness.
2. Do you think he made the right decision? Give your reasons.
I do think Truman made the right decision because the bomb caused Japan to surrender earlier than they would have if the U.S. had not dropped the bomb and thus prevented allie deaths. This also prevented other countries from experimenting with the bomb in the future and perhaps using it against the U.S. and greatly contributed to the fields of nuclear and quantum physics.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
War for Europe and North Africa - Part II
D-day was the day that the allies invaded Normandy. The attack consisted of two parts: An aerial attack made up of 24, 000 American, British, Canadian, and French planes and a boat landing on the shores of Normandy holding allied infantry.
7. What happened at the Battle of the Bulge?
At the Battle of the Bulge, Germany took the offensive attacking U.S. soldiers in the thick forests in the Ardennes Mountain Region of Belgium. The allie troops were taken completely by surprise and their strong air force was grounded due to overcast weather. They suffered a loss of 19,000 troops, the greatest U.S. loss in the war.
8. What did Alied troops find in Germany?
Monday, March 8, 2010
The purpose of the selective service system was to expand the draft to allow for a greater number of soldiers in the U.S. military. It required every man in the U.S., age 18 to 25, to register as potential candidates for the military. This got many more young men invloved in war.
2. Women
Women were able to leave the household and work jobs helping soldiers fighting in the war thanks to the Women's Auxiliary Army Corp. Women were able to do just about anything except actually fight on the battefield, including working as nurses to aid injured soldiers and in weapon manufacturing which greatly helped men in the war.
3. Minorities
Minorities were allowed to fight in the army at this point, but they were still plagued with racism and prejudice by white soldiers who considered themselves superior and ordered these minorities around. Although they were given the ability to fight alongside white men, minorities like blacks and mexicans were always allocated into seperate units and often the first to be sent into battle resulting in numerous casualties.
4. Manufacturers
Manufacturing companies would cease to create their usual products whn the war began and instead manufacture things to aid the war effort. They would create things that were similar to what they usually manufactured to increase their efficiency, i.e. a clothing manufacturer may begin making soldiers' uniforms.
5. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)
The OSRD headed all technological and scientific development at the time and create new state-of-the-art things. These included new weapon designs and improvements on technologies like radar. They also developed substances known as pesticides to repel mosquitoes and other pests from the soldiers.
6 Entertainment industry
Hollywood's new job was to create propagandist films in order to persuade young men viewing them to join the army and to get others to aid in the war effort.
7. Office of Price Administration (OPA)
8. War Production Board (WPB)
9. Rationing
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
World Events Set Stage for Isolationism
The Japanese were greatly angered by the Treaty of Versailles because it was of no benefit to their nation whatsoever and was seemingly extremely racist as it favored the allies greatly.
2. Read the pull-out box on page 4 entitled, "Japan Becomes a Great Power." Cite specific evidence Japan was becoming a strong power that rivaled European & American interests. And, why specifically was Japan threatened by U.S. actions?
Japan was gaining strength as a world power because their nation began adopting different aspects of western culture like banking, trade, and military structure and powerful nations throughout the world began to view Japan as more of a rival than an inferior country. Japan began to feel threatened by the U.S. because they were taking control of nearby islands and western society was fast approaching their doorstep.
3. Why was the Washington Naval Conference convened and what was accomplished? (pg. 6) (Note: Japan signs the agreement.) The Washington Naval Conference was convened in order to deal with the growing concerns of Japan and their expanding navy. The conference wished to slow down the arms race between the U.S. and Japan as tensions built between the two nations. The conference was successful in limiting the size and number of battleships and also opened further trade with China.
4. The Senate's willingness to ratify the Kellogg-Briand Pact relected two strong and widely held sentiments. What were they? (pgs. 6 - 7)
The sentiments that were relected were the united state's ability to to permit military action only in self-defense and that it was not necessary to attack any nation that did not abide by the treaty.
5. Why did Hitler enjoy popular support in Germany for most of the 1930s? Give three reasons. (pgs. 9 - 10)
Hitler enjoyed popular support for most of the 1930s because he made sure that he was portrayed to the public as a stand-up guy who only looked to pursue their best interests. He seemingly was merely attempting to gain back the land stolen from Germany after the first World 2War and build them up to a powerful nation once again. He was succesful in blaming certain ethnic and social groups for what occurred after this war and also helped in strengthening the poor German economy.
6. Japan voiced its intentions to invade China for what two reasons? (pg. 10)
Japan claimed that they were going to invade China because they wished to obtain plentiful natural resources that their country lacked and did not want to have to trade with china to get them and they wanted to expand their territory and power.
7. Compare the Reichstag fire and the explosion on the Japanese railway in Manchuria. What did they accompllish?
Both these incidents were similar in the way that they both were caused by groups of people who felt oppressed by the government and were greatly affected by the actions their leaders had commited and they seemingly both accomplished very little as the government continued to oppress its people.
8. Why was the united States unable to oppose Japan in the early 1930s with a significant military force? (pgs. 11 - 12)
The United States was unable to match the Japanese military becuase it had just recently greatly lowed its number of troops by a total of 2.7 million making them far less powerful militarily.
9. Describe the major similarities and differences among liberal democracy, fascism, and socialism. (pg. 8) The differences pertaining to these three types of government rule mainly deal with who holds the most power. In liberal democracy power is given to the people while in fascism and socialism power is mostly in the hands of the government. In socailsim practically everything is controlled and owned by the government and it is fairly close in its societal restraints to communism. Fascism is not much better but people have more freedoms and their is more social variety such as the existence of seperate financial classes. The similarities between these three is the fact that the people do withhold some rights and freedoms, the most being held with democracy, and they are not considered as restrictive as communism. Democracy will usually have a president and differednt branches of government while socialism and fascism usually have a single ruler holding the greatest power.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Great Depression Outline
The United States government attempted to use several different methods in solving the problems caused by the great depression during the 1930’s. President Hoover’s way of thinking was that over time the economy would repair itself but soon realized this was not an option. Roosevelt however took a more tactical approach proposing his New Deal plan to resolve the depression, and this was composed of what was known as the three R’s, relief, reform, and recovery. This directly helped solve the primary issues of the depression and, given time, this plan proved to be highly successful and provided a necessary fix for a desperate nation.
Problems: Economy: stock market crash, unemployment, debt, tariffs, banks
Non-economic: homelessness, agricultural
How’s: Relief- Emergency Banking Act, FERA, FDIC; helped to solve the immediate problems that needed to be dealt with first such as widespread poverty
Reform- SEC, AAA, CCC; this helped with banking and economic issues as well as farming nd labor. These were essential to reform in order to help end the depression and prevent such a thing from recurring in the future
Recovery- TVA, NRA, Social Security, Wagner Act- These acts also helped in preventing future issues and provide assistance for people who could not provide it for themselves. These acts came from examining past issues to prevent them from happening again.
Success: The New Deal was quite successful in a preventative manner and focused on making sure a similar incident was less likely to occur in the future. It was not totally successful in resolving the Depression however and it took several more years after the introduction of the New Deal for the country to be somewhat stable once again. National hope was restored and confidence was built by Roosevelt’s efforts.
Succesful Acts:
Federal Securities Act and SEC
Conclusion: In conclusion the primary method of government action was FDR’s New Deal which dealt mainly with relief, reform, and recovery of the nation. It helped to solve economic problems as well as social issues created by the Depression. It was mainly successful in its preventative measures and did not exactly provide immediate relief for many of the nation’s problems; however it restored national hope and confidence in government.