In March 1965 the United States Congress released the State Department document "Aggression From the North: The Record of North Viet-Nam's Campaign To Conquer South Viet-Nam" (the white paper) for publication and distribution to the American public. The white paper conveyed the situation in Viet Nam as perceived by the government and would shape the perception of the public for the early part of the war. Primarily it suggested that the cause of the struggle was limited to a communist masterminded take over of a separate and sovereign nation. This view does not fully account for the historical, nationalistic struggle the Vietnamese had suffered in the previous century.

The lack of reference to nationalist movements against the French creates a biased interpretation of the conflict. The authors of the white paper either intentionally ignored the long standing move for self determination and nationalism in Viet Nam or were so concerned with communist control of a united Viet Nam that they discounted the nationalist motivation. Nonetheless without this consideration the conflict was painted as an aggression and subversion of a recognized government by a separate country. Not only was

The white paper did not only find reason for placing the blame on the North through a justification of the current government. The U.S. generalized the motivation and characteristics of the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong as far as the white paper suggested consisted of entirely Northern trained soldiers most of whom had been former Viet Minh soldiers. The list of soldiers from the south fighting for the Viet Cong includes multiple soldiers that defected after returning to their homeland to kill their own people. The fact that most of the soldiers were former Viet Minh should suggest that the goals of the Viet Cong were similar to those of the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh were established to nationalize the country and remove the imperialist French. The Americans refused to recognize that the Viet Cong were fighting to remove U.S. influence and artificial borders. Therefore characterizing the Viet Cong as a foreign influence neglects the fact that the Viet Cong were a reincarnation of a national army now separated by an unwanted political boundary. The political affiliation of the North was certainly an issue in the struggle but the spread of communism was less important than reuniting the nation. The U.S. hatred of communism however was the driving force behind preventing the reunification.

The U.S. already had a large stake in the relations between North and South Viet Nam based on their support of the Diem government. From this position the authors were set in the assumption that Diem and his regime were the popular and beneficial leaders of South Viet Nam. The white paper does not

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1079
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)