Explain why America became increasingly involved in the affairs of Vietnam between 1954 and 1965’

Christian Hamilton-Smith

Burnley Habergham High School

History Syllabus B

(Modern World History)

Assignment 2 (Question 1)

‘Explain why America became increasingly involved in the affairs of Vietnam between 1954 and 1965’

In 1939, Vietnam was part of an area known as French Indo-China. French Indo-China consisted of three countries, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The French had added these countries to their empire in the 19th Century. Indo-China was home to 25 million people of which around 80 per cent of these lived in Vietnam. The French ruled Vietnam directly but the royal families of Laos and Cambodia ruled in these areas under French control. The people of Indo-China were unhappy due to French rule. The French imposed their language, laws and exploited their economic system. They also spread their religion amongst the people of Indo-China. The French suppressed the people with Catholicism, when their religion was of the Buddhist faith.

Indo-China was an attractive country, in that it was rich in natural resources. This is one of the reasons why it was sought after so much. It was rich in coal, rice, corn and also rubber. After the South of France had been taken by the Germans, in June 1940, it became hard for France to remain in control of their valuable empire. Some Vietnamese saw France’s defeat as an opportunity for their countries own independence. Japan also wished to extend into South East Asia, as it was full of raw materials. With Paris captured by the Germans in September 1940, the French surrendered. Japan saw this as an opportunity to move in on Indo-China.

In July 1941 Vichy France, (At this time the south of France had become neutral, due to German influence) agreed to let the Japanese take the rest of French Indo-China. France could no longer afford to keep men or pump money into their colony, as they were being attacked at home by the Germans. The French did not want to admit to this and therefore said that Japan were protecting Indo-China from Britain.

The Japanese allowed the French to continue running Indo-China, but they agreed that Japan could take whatever they needed. The Japanese were gland of this as they had been at war with China since 1937. Japan did the extreme and stripped the country of their resources. They left the people starving to the point that two million people died around 1945. This angered the people of Vietnam, and didn’t take long before resistance groups were formed. One of the people who was unhappy with the Japanese was Ho Chi Minh.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890. His father (Nguyen Sinh Huy) was a teacher, but lost his job due to his unwillingness to learn the French language. He taught his children to oppose French rule, as he was a nationalist. Ho travelled around the world as he was a sailor. He settled in Paris in 1917 and began to read books by Karl Marx and other such authors. Ho became a strict communist, due to his upbringing, travels and reading. He began to realise that it was not just the Vietnamese that were suffering from oppression. Ho joined the French Communist party and in the 1930’s moved to live on the border of China. Ho believed that it was every communists duty to return to their own country, He believed that communists should organise, help train and lead their people into freedom and independence. Ho and his fellow nationalists created an organisation called the Vietminh, which began to attack the Japanese using guerrilla campaigns.

American involvement started around that time, in 1943. America along with Soviet Russia began to give weapons and supplies to the Vietminh to help them against Japan. The Japanese retreated when they had lost the war in 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese were out of the war and returned to Japan. France again wished to restore their rule in Indo-China. The Vietminh were displeased with this as they wished to have a free independent country. As a result war broke out between the Vietminh and the French. The Vietminh seized the capital city of Hanoi and forced the abdication of the Emperor Bao Dai. The Vietminh then declared on September 2, that Vietnam was independent and announced the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, (North Vietnam) with Ho Chi Minh as president. The French recognised this new state but could not agree on the economical and political side with the Vietminh. This broke out into a conflict between the two sides in December 1946. The French began to back Bao Dai and they set up their own state, (South Vietnam) creating the new capital at Saigon.

America began to recognise the Saigon government, and began to assist it. The American President at the time was, President Harry Truman, who dispatched military advisory groups to help South Vietnam. He felt strongly about communism, as he helped to set up the Truman Doctrine (The Truman Doctrine helped non-communist countries financially and also protected them from the spread of communism.). Both sides were building up there troops until in the spring of 1954, the Vietminh attacked the French at Dien Bien Phu. The Vietminh surrounded the French at the camp so that they could not gain supplies and thus the French surrendered after a 55-day siege (May 8 1954).

America under the direction of President Eisenhower, began to get more involved in the war as they wished to stop the spread of communism. America was against communism as they had completely different political and economic views. America believed that communism was taking over and that they had to stop it. They didn’t believe in how a communist state acted. Mostly everything in a communist country was owned by the government, newspapers, industries and businesses etc. They would be in complete control (a totalitarian government), and America didn’t like this. Eisenhower believed that if one country became communist all the neighbouring countries would also fall, this was called the ‘Domino Theory.’ This is why even though the French had been beaten they did not withdraw from Vietnam, they continued to back the Saigon government.

The countries associated with the Cold War, all met in Geneva to discuss the future of Indo-China (May 8, 1954). It was agreed that the country should be temporarily split, with the north going to the Communists and the south placed under the control of the Saigon government. That would be until the elections that were to be held in 1956.

On October 23 1955, South Vietnam was made into a republic, with Ngo Dinh Diem as president. Even though this happened America did not withdraw from Vietnam. One of the first things that Diem did was to announce that his government would refuse to hold elections. He did this on the grounds that the people of North Vietnam would not be free to express their will, and also that they might produce false election votes. This action taken by Diem won the backing of the United States. This began to make the agreement at Geneva crumble, and both sides were guilty of violating it. During 1957 an increasing number of Communist sympathisers began to gather in South Vietnam. This group, (The Vietcong) began to attack US military installations, and in 1959 began to make guerrilla attacks on the Diem Government.

The Vietcong intensified these attacks on the US and Diem in 1960, the year in which President Kennedy came into power for America. During this North Vietnam made a statement in which proclaimed their intention, “to liberate South Vietnam from the ruling yolk of the US imperialists and their henchmen.” The Americans believed that it was North Vietnam that were instructing the Vietcong to attack. On November 10, their theory was proven correct as they found out that North Vietnamese troops were taking part in attacks with the Vietcong, against South Vietnam. The Vietcong wished to be seen as an independent group, so they called themselves the National Liberation Front (NLF).

The United States still under control of President Kennedy, began to increase the number of American military troops in South Vietnam. Also they began to increase the funding substantially to prove that they were still backing Diem. Even though America said that the troops were not really combat units, a year later American military rose to 11,200 in Vietnam.

On November 1, 1963, Diem was overthrown and he and his brother were executed. President Johnson became President on November 22 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. None of the government surrounding Diems death proved capable of dealing with the countries military situation. A military council under Nguyen Van Thieu was finally created in 1965, in which it restored political order.

The war escalated in the first week of August 1964, when North Vietnamese torpedo boats had supposedly attacked two US destroyers in the Gulf Of Tonkin. This meant that North Vietnam had gone against an agreement passed on August 7. Johnson began to deepen US involvement by ordering jets to bomb military targets in North Vietnam as a retaliation. A halt was ordered on the regular bombing raids in the hope of initiating peace talks, but the North Vietnamese just rejected all negotiations. This meant the bombings were resumed. While these raids were taking place America began to build up their troops again in South Vietnam. A Brigade of American marines landed at D Nang, bringing the total of US military forces in Vietnam to around 27,000. By the end of 1965 American combat strength was up to nearly 200,000.

While America was continually building up their forces they halted the bombing once again, in an attempt to end the war. Again this was turned down, and so the raids resumed. President Johnson again announced that more troops would be sent in if peace was not achieved. Once again Hanoi rejected the offer of peace talks. The casualty figures and cost of the war were mounting for America and they seemed to be getting nowhere. Johnson announced on March 31 that he would not be seeking re-election as president. In May 1968 peace talks began but got nowhere. It seemed to America that they had made a big mistake becoming involved in Vietnam.

America did not stop the spread of communism in Vietnam, they lost many lives and also wasted billions of dollars trying to stop the North Vietnamese from obtaining their goal.