The Injustice of 'nam

Policy is a class where we have been learning about the different roles of government. Whether that be executive, judicial, or legislative. Most recently we have been learning about the different wars and how policy greatly affected them. Our assignment was to choose a war America was in and decide if you thought it was a just war or not. I choose the war in Vietnam which was a very controversial one. Here is why.

The Vietnam ”war” took place in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This took place in the years of 1955-1975. The US entered in 1964 by sending what was called advisors but were, in fact, military personnel. Military forces who fought in it were South Vietnam, US, Viet Cong, North Vietnam, South Korea. Cambodia and China. A unique thing about the war was that nearly two-thirds of the American men serving the war were volunteers. The war which lasted for approximately 20 years, is the longest war in the entire U.S history. During World War II, there were reportedly 40 days of combat per year for 4 years, while during the Vietnam war, there were 240 days of combat in 1 year on average.

One of the main causes was that North Vietnam was trying to invade South Vietnam. A major underlying cause was the spread of communism. President John F Kennedy called it a “domino effect”. If one country falls, all the countries after it will fall with communism. I think this war is unjust because there were no threats to the United States. I feel if there was no backing by the communists and it was just a civil war, it would have been a better idea but with all that support from the Chinese communists, it was a mistake for the US to get involved.

The US Congress was never involved in this and it turns out that Lyndon B Johnson did it on his own by executive order. This was justified because of the War Powers Act. The War Powers Act is a congressional resolution designed to limit the U.S. president’s ability to initiate or escalate military actions abroad. This act requires the President to notify Congress in 48 hours of sending armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30-day withdrawal period. LBJ used it to enter the war.

There is a major flaw with this though. If something were to happen where the US might need to get involved this act might cause a roadblock for US troops. This could potentially make things worse without the US knowing what is going on. Also, this can potentially cause many civilian and innocent people to die.

Something I found which was also really interesting was apparently there was a letter from Ho Chi Minh. This was a telegram from him to Harry S. Truman about how he didn't want a conflict with the US. The US didn’t want to lose their ally, France, so they ignored the letters. A quote from Howard Zinn about Vietnam is “In 1953, a congressional study mission reported: "The area of Indochina is immensely wealthy in rice, rubber, coal and iron ore. Its position makes it a strategic key to the rest of Southeast Asia”. This shows how they were also thinking about what they would gain if they invaded. I feel like this relates to the whole Iraq oil wars which I won't go into now.

So overall I think this war was unjust. There was a big communist threat so they wanted to get rid of that and kind of show everyone that this is what happens to communist. Also, I think they were thinking about how much they could profit off this land with all its resources. Finally, if the war powers act didn't exist then the president could send troops anywhere without having the Congress discuss it.




We see how the various policies of the Congress and the desire to take the resources of Viet Nam got us into this conflict and the result was negative for the US.




Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York. , 2017.





Editors, History.com. “Vietnam War.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history.






Gates , John. “John M. Gates.” John M Gates, discover.wooster.edu/jgates/vietnam-the-debate-goes-on/.

Circuit Bored

I am "currently" in a class called Urban Planning. We are learning about things such as how electric currents work. We had a field experience to the Museum of Science and Industry and learned about the Tesla coil. This also related to the book we are reading "The Devil in the White City" which the building is from that time p  For this Action project we had to build a circuit board and relate it to the internals of a smart house.
  

overall I think this unit was very cool. The math wasn't too difficult and I saw how The Devil in White City and the information about electricity actually worked well together. Some times it feels like more of a stretch but with this unit, I feel like it worked.