Due to the Domino Effect Theory, in which the U.S. believed once one country in Asia fell to communism, all countries would subsequently fall to communism, the U. S. took a strong interest in the conflict in Vietnam.

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Amanda Altazan

Gardens of Stone Essay

November 24, 2003

        Due to the Domino Effect Theory, in which the U.S. believed once one country in Asia fell to communism, all countries would subsequently fall to communism, the U. S. took a strong interest in the conflict in Vietnam.  After the war between France and Vietnam, the small Asian country was divided into two separate government entities.  The north, led by Ho Chi Minh, looked to support from communist China while the U.S backed the south.  The United States, caring less for the Vietnamese people and more for its own image transformed the conflict into a fight between communism and capitalism.

        Within the civil war between the north and south there existed a second conflict in the south.  The United States established a government in South Vietnam to strengthen democracy in the country.  SEATO was created at this time to ensure allies with the U.S. in the Asian world.  The U.S. also began pumping money into the south in an attempt to build up the economy.  Finally, the U.S. began supporting a new leader in the south, Ngo Dingh Diem, a western educated catholic.  

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        However, many problems surfaced involving this new U.S. backed leader.  First, he used most of the money sent from the U.S. to build up the military instead of directing it toward the economy.  He also refused to break up the plantation lifestyle.  The majority of the South Vietnamese were peasants working on these plantations of the rich few.  Diem then began intimidating and suppressing any resistance to his government.  

        Many opposition groups to Diem’s government began to join together to form the National Liberation Front of the south.  It’s army, the Viet Cong, began staging guerilla warfare against the ...

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