A Justifiable War, History_Other, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - History Other

A Justifiable War

A Justifiable War "Was the booby-trap theirs or ours?" "And his question was the answer."-Bryan Alec Floyd. Throughout history there has been a countless number of wars. Some in the name of God or some other holy figure, others have been for noble things such as freedom, and some have been for simple things such as money and land, but for which one of these issues is it justifiable to lead men to their deaths for? When talking of just causes of warfare within the last thirty years many people think of Vietnam and whether or not it met up to the standards of a "good" war. To fully understand a war one must first understand its causes. For Vietnam to have taken place it needed certain volatile elements, which at that time were overabundant. The end of World War II opened the way for the return of French rule to Indochina. Despite the ties he had forged within the American Intelligence community, and his professed respect for democratic ideals, Ho Chi Minh was unable to convince Washington to recognize the legitimacy of his independence movement against the French. French Generals and their American advisors expected to easily defeat Ho Chi Mihn's little weak forces. But after 8 years of and 2.5 Billion in U.S. aid, the French lost a crucial battle at Dienbienphu and with it,-their Asian Empire.-www.vhfcn.org/stats.htm With the goal of stopping the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, America replaced France in South Vietnam supporting President Ngo Dihn Diem until his own generals turned against him, bringing political chaos to Saigon.-http://204.249.212.251/shsira/Vietnam.html. So with Ho Chi Mihn set on reuniting Vietnam, Lyndon Baines Johnson determined against it, and South Vietnam on the verge of collapse, the stage was set, all the players were in position and what we now know as Vietnam took place. Now knowing the history of the war and its causes we can now look at what a justified war is by comparing different wars and looking at their causes. The first example of a "justified" war brings us to The Revolutionary War in America during the late 1700's. In this war the colonial Americans wanted independence from the British who ruled over them. There were many reasons given for the revolution taking place. Some reasons were things such as taxation without representation, not being able to travel and expand into the Appalachians, and that the ruling king had "established absolute Tyranny over the States". All of these reasons are well justified and give good reason to revolt against their government. The people of the States were being taken advantage of and were all out of options, it was either sit there and get beat upon or fight back. Although the American colonist was fairly prosperous on the average, the weight of taxes had become unbearable. From this example we now have one reason in which war is justified; when your ruling government has become tyrannical in nature. Our next example brings us to the Civil War, which also took place in America, but was about a century later. This war was based upon the idea of freedom in many senses. The North wanted to free the slaves of the South and wanted to abolish slavery while the South relied so desperately upon slavery and had built its way of life around the institution. Before we identify the motives of the North we will look at the South. The southern states that succeeded from the Union did this knowing that if they stayed their livelihood would soon be threatened and they would surely fight for that. This brings back the idea of revolting against your government when they have become tyrannical in nature. On the other hand though we can now look at the North and know that they were in the correct position in this war. Although people's opinions were based on much "Tom Foolery" during that time period and even after the slaves were "freed" they weren't quite free, but it was an important step in history. One other reason that the Civil War took place is because the South meant so much to the North as an economic basis that the North couldn't afford to lose its source of income and all of it's agricultural exports such as tobacco and cotton. This example reinforces the idea of rebelling against tyrannical governments as a justified cause and also points out two other reasons. One is that it justifies fighting for one's freedom from bondage and the other, which isn't one that is superbly just, is fighting for a country's economic stability. The latter of the two being the one in which it is believed by many to be the reason that a lot of wars are being fought today, whether it's over gas prices or some other type of international trade. The last example of a justified war brings us to World War II. Today it seems somewhat like the Civil War does in many ways. It seems to be a battle of good against evil. In many contexts it seems to be from many points of view a battle of biblical proportions. On one side you have Germany, Italy, and Japan who are obviously looked upon as the devils and on the other side you have countries such as America, Great Britain, and France who represent the saviors. There were so many causes for this war and so many motives that it would be near impossible to list them all, so the main and most important ones will try to be covered. Underlying the immediate causes of World War II were basic causes which may be summarized as follows: (1) aggressive nationalism and imperialism on the part of Germany, Italy, and Japan; (2) development of new alliances; (3) the collapse of collective security; (4) appeasement; (5) fascism and racism, violence and disregard of human rights; (6) the failure of the United States to enter actively into European affairs in the 1920's and 1930's, and to help stop aggression.-Mastering History P.L. Grossier, Oxford Book Co. 1st ed. 1974. This war is the best example, in the opinions of many, as to when and why war should be fought. It lists all the things that one should fight against if need be. This war also brings to the forefront the best reason to fight: when a country's way of life is threatened so severely that it brings its knees because of fear. This war threatened the way of life for everyone who was in opposition to the Germans, Italians, and the Japanese. These countries were hell-bent on world domination and would stop at nothing to get their needs meant. With all these examples in front of us of justifiable wars we can now closer examine Vietnam, the most unpopular war Americans have ever been involved with. The reason given to the American public as to why we were sending troops to Vietnam was because we were going to stop the spread of communism is Southeast Asia. A so-called domino effect was developed that led many to believe that if Vietnam became communist then it would spread to Laos, then on to Thailand, and so forth until all of Southeast Asia became completely communist. With all of Southeast Asia possibly becoming communist and the Cold War threats ever present, this developed a fear in some Americans that if the communist take-over continued our way of life here in America would be threatened. But was the American way of life really at risk of being overtaken? Most today think not. It is believed today that the threat of a complete communist takeover was just a scare tactic used to cover up imperialistic intentions to take over Vietnam, similar to the taking of such properties such the Philippines and other various economic acquisitions. The French had taken advantage of this notion only years early until their Asian Empire collapsed. With them out of the way it is believed that the American government saw its chance for economic gain and would hopefully be successful, where the French had not just a few years previous, in overthrowing the Vietcong. After looking very closely at this war it can be seen that the only reason America decided to fight this war was for its own economic interest, a very poor reason to have so many die. This is the reason as to why this war was so unpopular. Most Americans could see no true reason as to why we were sending our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends to this foreign country to die besides a possible economic gain. Was it a justifiable war? No. "Empty causes, direction for the soul, conviction for the mind."-Bad Religion. War is a truly ugly thing. It has become more gruesome as the years have gone by and as man created more deadly tools to kill with. Throughout history we have seen a countless number of wars take place and a countless number of men, women, and children die. Some for just causes and some for empty ones. In Vietnam we saw so many loved ones die for some cause that we can't exactly put our finger upon. We have not seen the end of war's ugly face yet as mankind, but hopefully we will be able to pick our battles more wisely in the future. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1623