In 1949 the Chinese Communist forces gained power in China. Mao Zedong, now the leader of China provided his fellow communists over the boarder in the North Vietnamese jungle with military supplies, such as artillery, so to encourage the spread of communism.
The US didn’t like the Vietminh’s association with communist China and also Russia (the Soviet Union). This enforces the USA’s attitude towards the Vietminh being considered as communists, and as an enemy. Communism seemed to spread its way across Asia. The US could not stop communism spreading to the Vietminh, from China and the USSR, so they had to stop the Vietminh spreading communism further, or at least reduce this spread. However, the US still do not use military action directly; send in GI’s.
Coincidentally, the day after the French were defeated at Diem Bien Phu, the major powers met at Geneva, for the Geneva agreement. Here it was decided that in July of 1956 the whole of Vietnam would vote on whom they would like to be ruled by. Eisenhower, the president of America at the time did not push for these elections because he feared that the communist party, the Vietminh, would come out on top and take control of Vietnam, as Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the Vietminh was very popular in Vietnam, compared to his opponent Diem. The elections never took place.
Eisenhower's domino theory was a major worry for the US. This was where one country would fall under communist rule, mainly in (Southeast) Asia, due to heavy influences from neighbouring nations. In an attempt to solve this Eisenhower created the ‘17th parallel’ this split Vietnam into a communist north run by the Vietminh, and the republic south, run by Diem, assisted by the US. President Eisenhower stated that communism would stop at the 17th parallel. Diem, a Christian, was “elected” president of the republic of Vietnam in 1955. The US had to support him and aid the south with supplies and money to keep his army, the ARVN (Army for the Republic of Vietnam), going. This is evidence for the USA steadily getting involved in Vietnam. Also, by the mid fifties the Cold War was intensifying and the US had suffered to Chinese forces in Korea and so Eisenhowers attitude towards communism and the Vietminh became more serious and stricter
The Vietminh, now named Vietcong were very successful in their means of warfare. They had destroyed the French and were now targeting US officials who were training the ARVN in the south. This meant that the US needed to give more help, and so he increased the amount of officials he sent over, he equipped 20,000 more ARVN troops and spent almost $270million in military support for Diem, in 1961.
The NLF was a very successful group in the north of Vietnam, who had a lot of communist aims. Their popularity in the south grew as Diem’s fell. The US had to undermine the popularity of communism in the south and so had to help as many people as possible. This included the Buddhists and the peasants that Diem angered during his rule. President Kennedy agreed to overthrow Diem (but not to kill him), as he was too unpopular to have a chance of defeating the Vietcong.
In 1964 the US bombed the north of Vietnam because, as the US air force commander said “We are swatting flies when we should be going for the manure pile”. What this means is that the US and ARVN forces are concentrating too much on defending against ambushes and searching through the dense jungle for individual soldiers; when really they should be targeting the Vietcong’s supplies most likely in Hanoi. However, President Johnson was facing an election later that year and he had been accused by his opponent to be soft on communism, and so he may have bombed the north (very heavily) just to try and win some votes. He used the Gulf of Tonkin incident as an excuse to bomb the north. This incident was where a US ship called the Maddox in the south China sea was order to fire (non-stop for four hours) at a supposed enemy that nobody saw, the night after it had encountered a small fleet of enemy ships. Johnson claimed the Maddox was attacked and so launched air raids on North Vietnam.
One of the most important reasons for the USA getting increasingly involved in Vietnam was the association of the Vietminh with communist nations. Even though the leaders were very left winged, their overall objectives were nationalist and so the USA had no problem with them. Their aims gradually became more and more communist and as they were associating with these communist nations. America’s standpoint on the Vietminh had become more of that of an enemy. This was also due to the growth of the Cold War, which meant the USA now looked upon communism more severely and opposed it more strongly than before. The US could no longer sit back and let them defeat the French, and gain control of their nation. This lead to Eisenhower’s domino theory on the spread of communist rule through Asia. The US was pressured into getting involved in Vietnam in order to reduce the spread of communism.
I would say that the other major reason for the USA’s involvement was the inability of Diem, and the ARVN to defeat The Vietcong and the NLF. Diem made himself very unpopular with the people of South Vietnam, especially the Buddhists, and the peasants because of the failure of some of his policies, i.e. the strategic hamlet policy. He was no match for the communist parties who were very popular. The ARVN had no morale. The Vietcong were much stronger than the ARVN as they were fighting for their beliefs and freedom. The USA was again drawn into Vietnam to help undermine the popularity of communism and help Diem’s popularity. Also, they had to assist the ARVN for them to even have a chance of defeating the Vietcong. If America did not help out, the spread of communism throughout the eastern world would have been inevitable. And also, if the ARVN and Diem had a chance of success, there would have been less need for the involvement of the US.
