Explain why the United States became increasingly involved in the war in Vietnam

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History GCSE Coursework

John McCarthy

. Explain why he United States became increasingly involved in he war in Vietnam

During world War Two Vietnam had come under control of the Japanese after the Germans defeated the French and they were the colonial power, which had control over Indochina, which included Vietnam. This led to the formation of the Vietminh, which was a mixture of Nationalism and communism. The communist Ho Chi Minh led this and its main aim was to defeat the Japanese and set up an independent state. Ho Chi Minh was founder of the Indochina communist party and was a great inspiration for the Vietnamese people to rise above their rulers.

At first the USA supported the Vietminh but it was not aware of its communist ideas. After the Japanese had left, the French concentrated on rebuilding their empire. They started a war against the Vietminh and this was not at first funded by the USA because they saw this as a struggle against colonial rule. The Vietminh were not willing to hand over their country just after they had one it back from the Japanese. In 1949 when China turned communist they helped Ho Chi Minh, which gave great concern to the Americans who poured $500 million a year into the French war effort. The Americans came up with the domino theory, this was when one country in Asia became communist this would lead another to be communist and so forth. This became part of the USA's Cold war containment policy.
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However the French started suffering heavy losses. Between 1946 and 1954 the French suffered 90000 casualties as a result of the guerrilla tactics used by the Vietminh. Then in 1954 the French suffered 3000 dead and 8000 were to die later in captivity as a result of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The Vietnamese had won an open battle with the help of the communist countries Russia and China who supplied many modern weapons and equipment. The defeat led to a peace conference in Geneva, which ended in the division of Vietnam into a communist North and ...

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