Vietnam and the Eisenhower Era Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Vietnam and the Eisenhower Era - Essay Example The Vietnam policy of Eisenhower may therefore be summed up under the two following headings: (a) a reluctance to actively go to war in Vietnam using the full power of the American attack force, in spite of the fact that he acknowledged the Communist threat from China in south east Asia. This created domestic political friction within the Republican Party. It caused a split between those who fiercely opposed Communism, favoring full scale war with Vietnam and Eisenhower, who held back for reasons of safety and preventing loss of life in war. (b) using air attacks rather than focusing the strength of the attack on land forces. This created initial setbacks in the war as the Vietnamese showed their superior land power, that later led to the defeat and withdrawal of American forces. This is why the Eisenhower policy is important. All the ambiguities, uncertainty and losses generated during the Vietnam war were due to the policy that was followed by Eisenhower. It also gave the Democrats an opportunity to attack the Republicans for their â€Å"weak† policy in Vietnam because they did not take strong effective action to go to full scale war in Vietnam. Bipartisan politics and bickering was the result. Eisenhower’s policy made the clear cut division between Republican and Democratic to blur and become less well defined. His policy in Vietnam was most unlike the Republican witchhunt of Communists, in fact it was more a pacifying policy like the Democrats had.