--Historian Eric Bergerud (UC Berkeley)

One of the age old questions facing mankind is: when is war just? Or is their any such thing as a just war? There are a few fundamental principles surrounding the concept of just war. They are: a just war must be a last resort. This means that all other peaceful options must be exhausted before the use of force can be justified. A war is only just if waged by a legitimate authority. A just war must be fought only as self-defense against armed attack or to redress a wrong. There must be a reasonable chance of success. This means deaths and injury that result from a hopeless cause cannot be morally justified. The consequences of the war must be better than the situation that would exist had the war not taken place. The violence and destruction must be proportional to the injuries suffered. And last, civilians must not be targets of the fighting and great care must be taken to avoid civilian casualties.

These are the bases on which war can be justified. But these principles

11.)University of San Diego. "Resources of Just War Theory." Online. Internet. Feb 23, 1996. http://ethics.acusd.edu/applied/military/justwar.html

Edwin E. Moise, Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War, Dec. 2001

12.)Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam : A History. New York: Viking, 1983; revised edition, New York: Penguin USA, 1991.

The domino theory posted that if one nation in a region became communist, others would follow. While many have cited this as justification for meddling in the affairs of other nations, especially Vietnam, what gave the US the right to dictate an economic system for them? For some, there was the specter of Soviet influence gaining power, but not all communist nations were necessarily Soviet allies, for instance China and Yugoslavia. The idea of spreading Soviet influence may have been a mere scare tactic to justify intervention to prevent something the elites in the US really feared: an example of democratic communism being established somewhere.

So in conclusion the two wars did bring about many conflicts both within the country and with other countries.

Some common words found in the essay are:
UC Berkeley, China Yugoslavia, Commission UNSCOM, Truman Doctrine, Saddam Hussein, Kuwait Iraqi, Vietnam War, Empire Kuwait, Iraq November, , gulf war, saudi arabia, war war, vietnam war, weapons mass destruction, mass destruction, edition york, world war, detained thousands, weapons mass, involvement war,
Approximate Word count = 1601
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)