The clear argument on the issue ofthe Vietnam War is whether or not America
should have gone to war and whether or not America ultimately helped or hurt Vietnam.
Historian Thomas Martin has argued that, "The massive American intervention begun by
Lyndon Jolmson and orchestrated by Robert McNamara transformed Vietnamese society
more radically and ruthlessly than Vietmiiili nationalism or Viet Cong guerrilla warfare
could ever hope to." An opposing view, from Wanda Anderson, states that, "In addition
to political concerns, there was an economic reason to stop communistn from spreading.
Southeast Asia was rich in natural resources that might be v/itlilield from the West if the
countries were controlled by the communists." Clearly, there are many ways to argue the
motives, reasons and outcomes ofthe Vietnam War, whether negatively, posifively, or
somewhere in between.