The Fall of South Vietnam Controversy By pointing to certain mistakes made by American leaders in holding together the home front, though this task, for reasons to be discussed below, would probably have presented almost insuperable difficulties even to the most adroit leadership. There was the failure of the Johnson administration to provide a convincing explanation and justification of the American involvement (Dougan and Fulghum 28). "Fighting for democracy in Vietnam" or halting "communist aggression," though not without some element of truth, was inappropriate to the complex situation