Introduction to international relations class, summary related to course on Path to War - Essay Example

Path to War: A Summary Path to War is a movie made for TV that depicts the crisis that President Lyndon B. Johnson encountered during the heat of the Vietnam War. It begins with scenes that show how the president brought so much promise to the country with his plans of introducing New Deal types of reforms in order to benefit those who are economically disadvantaged. Another historical event that made him more popular, especially among the colored peoples, is the enactment of the Civil Rights Act.

President Johnson’s plan to seek another term seemed very viable only to be destroyed later, a casualty of the war that his administration had fanned. However, Path to War did not only highlight the personal dilemmas that the president had to deal with during the Vietnam debacle. The movie also exposed the two lines of thought and the corresponding approaches in international relations during the time of the Cold War. In fact, many of the scenes of the debates that took place the Johnson administration’s cabinet meetings focus on these concerns.

The ‘domino theory’ was a very influential concept among the politicians at that time. The U.S. government itself was its strongest believer. This theory is based on the analysis that if one country becomes communist, the neighboring countries would surely follow, just like the pieces of the domino. In Path to War, Johnson is portrayed to have firmly believed that once South Vietnam is reunited with the North, it would become communist too. Subsequently, the rest of the countries in Indochina and the entire Southeast Asia could all fall under communist regimes.

With this theory in mind, the Johnson administration at the onset of the war were all one in arguing for the necessity of preventing the fall of South Vietnam to the hands of the local communist insurgents. To do so, it sent military advisers to the Southeast Asian country in order to train its armed forces. At the same time, it also spent billions of dollars to equip the South Vietnamese army. Despite these steps, however, the South Vietnamese army remained ineffective in fighting the Vietcong, the South Vietnamese communist guerillas who are also equipped by the North.

As the Vietcong gradually established its foothold in larger areas in the countryside, the Johnson administration sought excuses to increase the U.S. armed forces intervention in Vietnam even as a growing opposition to the war emerged from the American people. As America was further drawn into the war, the Johnson administration soon became divided into two camps which also have two opposing perspectives not just on the war but also on international relations. The pro-war group was headed by defense secretary Robert McNamara while the opposition which believed that America should gradually withdraw its troops was led by special advisor Clark Clifford.

McNamara’s stand represented the line of thinking in international relations that it is the role of the U.S. to stop communism in other countries at all cost, even if it means meddling in wars in which it is not supposed to be a part of and even if it results into the sacrificing of American troops. Clifford, on the other hand, showed more concern on the instability being caused by the war on the domestic front. While he was concerned also about the spread of communism, he believed that peace and unity in the U.S. itself is more important.

As the debate between these two camps raged, Johnson was caught it in a dilemma. In the end, however, he stood for the continuation of the war efforts in Vietnam, which resulted into his growing unpopularity among the American people. Knowing that he would never win the next presidential elections, he expressed his decision not to run. It is clear that Path to War depicted that even during the Vietnam War, there was already a debate between those who uphold that the U.S. should take an interventionist stand in international relations and those who believe that the country should deal with the domestic issues first.

Work Cited Path to War. 1 July 2011. < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218505/>.