The Vietnam War was one of the few wars that faced critics in America. The president had numerous motives while engaging into this war. President Lyndon Johnson had expected that China and Russia might intervene in the war after some time, which did not happen. President Johnson also had an ambitious motive of the congress passing a legistration that would see the increase of the defense budget without increasing the taxes. The decision made by president Johnson led to political, social, and military issues coming up. Socially the biggest anti-war movement rose up that opposed most of his polices as well as presence of mass protest. Politically, his political carrier was extinguished due to the communist campaigns and many Americans felt he had misled the government. He could not be able to stand for re-election because he had become unpopular as well as his party. The later years saw the congress passing resolution that cut down the budget of the military and the presidents proposal of extending aid to Vietnam being turned down. The Vietnam War also had the biggest number of draftees which comprise about half of them.Much can be learnt from these incidents. For one, there is need for the president to sell his policies to the people and the congress before they are implemented. Failure to do so may warrant for rebellion by the public and loss of popularity among the people. The fact that the passing of the policy by the congress without increasing taxes led to the country being affected economically is an important lesson to the government. There is need to ensure that policies that are passed have some financial support or the government has a plan on how to get the funds. Due to this incident, the country has tried to ensure that the policies made have support of money to avoid any incidents of economic constrains. On the other hand, the involvement in war has only come up if there is need to involve in war. For example, in the wars both Iraq and Afghanistan, the government has been involved in after it has been triggered to get involved in them. The article by Robert Scheer on the anniversary of Vietnam War should be a guide to the government to avoid activities that might lead to unnecessary war as well as ensure the war in both Iraq and Afghanistan does not turn out to become similar to Vietnam War.There is a no likelihood that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may translate to the war in Vietnam. The fact that the involvement of the government came about due to incidences like the September 11 attacks, people understand that there is a treat out there that need to be handled. The efforts by the government to withdraw the number of American soldiers is an indication that the government is committed in ensuring that it does not get involved in unnecessary war. The article by James Carafanon says it all about the two different wars. The motive of involvement in the wars is different as the author describes the fighting in Iraq is about helping the people to establish a democratic government and prevent oppressive ruling.Staying in war or withdrawing in war is dependant on the risk our country is facing as well as the fighting nation is facing. If there are attacks in Iraq or Afghanistan, there is need to access whether the attacks are against the presence of American soldiers or they are terrorist attacks. If they are terrorist attacks, there is need to stay and try to stop them, if it is against our soldiers being present, withdrawing them is the best option. However, there is need to withdraw soldiers if the two nation stabilize and there are stable government running them.
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