How The United States Bogged Down In The Quagmire Of Vietnam

The Vietnam War, which lasted for more than two decades, is a central incident in American post-war history. The war not only changed the international relationship at that time, but also gave a long influence to American society and politics till now. The purpose for the war was to exclude socialism out of Southeast Asia. But at the same time the United States tried to avoid colliding with China and Soviet directly. The inner contradiction of principle made the United States trapped into the deadlock both in military and in diplomacy. The policy of 1966 put emphasis both on social reform in South Vietnam and military attacks to North Vietnam. The policy always switched from one to the other. Moreover, the United States began to reevaluate the Cold War mode from then on.The thesis follows tracks of materialist conception of history and combines research methods of history and international politics science. The discussion mainly focuses on the Vietnam policy in 1966. By examining which, the thesis concludes that the rupture of the policy was resulted from the inner contradiction of the leading policy.The thesis includes three parts: the preface, the text and the conclusion.The preface mainly introduces the research of Vietnam War; give an interpretation to the origin of American intervening Vietnam and the particular situation of 1966. The policy began to switch when the military stalemate came in 1966.Text is divided into five parts: debates on resuming bombing; international peace efforts; social reforms in South Vietnam; bombing elevation and rethinking of Vietnam policy in the United States.The conclusion provides two dilemmas in the American policymaking: the conflicts between the idealism and realism in American policy; theconflicts between military beating in North Vietnam and nonmilitary pacification in South Vietnam. Moreover, the people's attitudes in U.S. are becoming powerful to influence the war decision.