Communist Totalitarianism Versus American Imperialism
Commonly called the Cold War, this global conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union together with the communist bloc was very real and deadly. This antagonism began quite early after the end of WWII when the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin declared in February 1946 that communist states could not co-exist with the capitalist countries. The Soviet Union then embarked on the task of challenging the supremacy of the United States.
We must not forget the Berlin blockage, the development of nuclear weapons, the repression of civil liberties in the communist countries, the crushed uprisings in Budapest, Praha, and Warsaw, the Korean War, the Cuban missiles crisis and the war in Vietnam which was pursued by five successive American presidents from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon, Democrats and Republicans alike. President Johnson really needed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to go to war against North Vietnam. At that point in time in the global Cold War, it was only the logical step for him to attack North Vietnam which was the sanctuary and rear base for the entire communist bloc to test the resolve and actual might of the United States of America.
There was no need of an excuse for President Johnson to sustain such a test of will and power against the communist bloc. All the five American presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon) were not blood-thirsty and war mongering persons and clearly abhorred war but war was imposed on them in spite of all their efforts to avoid it and resolve it by peaceful means. Only totalitarian and dictatorial governments go to war to pursue their political objectives. Of course, one can have endless discussions and debate on these subjects since there are people who claim that the U. S. is imperialistic. So when we talk about the spread of Communism, we want to mean the preservation and defense of our free way of life against a totalitarian political regime.
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