In 1946 the Vietminh were sent back into the jungles by Hoi Chi Minh to fight against the French. America had become indirectly involved by funding the war for the French. The French fought to preserve the empire were as the reason America became involved was they saw this as a stand against communism.
Truman pumped in millions of dollars supporting the French, but despite all the financial help the French were losing the war against the Vietminh.
In the spring of 1954 the Vietminh attacked the French fortress of Dien Bien Phu in northern Vietnam. On the 8th of May 1954 the French surrendered to the Vietminh, after a 55-day siege. The same day North and South delegates met with British, French, Russian and Communist Chinese representatives to discuss the situation. They agreed to a truce between the French and the Vietminh and the temporary partition of Vietnam, along the 17th parallel. This was known as the Geneva peace agreement. The Vietminh leader Hoi Chi Minh would control the North and the south was to be controlled by the government of Saigon (Saigon was the capital of south Vietnam, it was ruled by Emperor Bao Dai.) This was to be temporary as elections were to be held in 1956, were the Vietnamese people could vote freely for their overall leader.
On October 24, 1954 president Eisenhower offered South Vietnam direct economic aid, that following February, American military advisors were sent to train South Vietnamese forces.
By 1955 Emperor Bao Dai was disposed of and Vietnam became a republic, under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem refused to hold elections in the South arguing that the people of North Vietnam would not be free to express their will. America supported Diem in his decision. This was a breech in the Geneva agreement and the agreement was promised to be defended by the Americans. So Vietnam stayed split in two.
In 1959 in order for they’re to be ‘peace’ in South Vietnam president Eisenhower poured in economical aid and modern weapons and sent in military advisors. By the time he had left the office in 1961 there were 685 advisors in Vietnam. This reflected the US fear of communism in the 1950’s. where even support for currupt dictators was preferable to communism.
By 1959 communist sympathises who had moved north after the partition of Vietnam began returning south in growing numbers. Called Vietcong, they began to carry out small attacks on US posts and in 1959 began their guerrilla attacks on the Diem government.
In December 1961 President Kennedy significantly increased military assistance to Diem’s government and the first U.S. troops consisting of 400-uniformed army personnel were sent in. Diem set up the A.R.V.N and the new president Kennedy gave $270 million to find them. Following this Kennedy sent 10000 advisors to help Diem. Kennedy’s increased involvement because the communist North was winning against the South. Again the US did this for the wrong reasons they believed that the Vietminh were trying to take over Vietnam. In fact the Vietnamese people followed the Vietcong as they helped them.
In 1963 A.R.V.N officials assassinated Diem, as they believed that the U.S. would withdraw support if Diem stayed in power. President Kennedy knew about the assassination but did nothing. Three weeks later Kennedy himself was assassinated. Before his death Kennedy increased involvement as troops and helicopter crews were sent in to aid the A.R.V.N against the Vietcong.
In 1963 Johnson became the new President of America, Johnson knew little about what was going on in Vietnam so his advisors gave him a number of options. But in the end he decided to send in troops in as to not look weak. He poured in more money and bombed the Hoi Chi Minh trail.
Johnson however had a problem; the elections for president were the following year. If he was to send American men into Vietnam, he knew the death toll would be high, this would make him unpopular with the American people and meant he would almost defiantly not be voted for next year. The gulf on Tonking incident was the excuse needed by President Johnson to send more troops into Vietnam and win the war. On the 11th November 1965 an American Destroyer ‘Maddox’ gave off a radar mix-up and was believed to be under attack. The president told the American public and stated they were under attack even though a second message came through saying there was an error and they were not under attack. This second message was ignored and the American public were being manipulated into believing they were being attacked, this gave Johnson the public support he needed. Consequently there was an escalation in the USA’s involvement. Congress passed the ‘Tonking resolution’, which was thought the necessary measures for America to win. The US navy fought the Vietminh navy.
On the 11th of February 1965 Johnson launched operation ‘Rolling Thunder’, Johnson made it very clear he believed this was what was needed to end the war. It involved bombing North Vietnam key military targets, industrial targets, such as army barracks, bridges and cities in attempt to bomb Vietminh in to submission and stop communism in Vietnam and hopefully the Middle East.
In November 1967, the pentagon announced the number of total US casualties in Vietnam since 1961 had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. The cost of the war was approximately $25 billion per year.
In 1969 the new President Richard M. Nixon, announced that 25,00 US troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam, a further 65,000 troops were withdrawn by the end of the year. The reason to this was the war and the US’s involvement was not supported back in America. This programme became known as the Vietnamization of the war.
From 1954 to 1968 the Americans became increasingly involved because of their fear, hatred and attempt to contain communism. The Americans first came involved by helping the French with financial aid, equipment and advice. After eight years the French had given up and withdrawn their troops from Vietnam. They became increasingly involved when the prospect of communism endangered their ‘Back yard’. There was a failure by the US in which it miss understood the conflict that was happening in Vietnam. The US thought that the war was communism against nationalists, when it was really between colonialists and nationalists. The Americans saw that the Vietminh was led by a communist, and decided to side with the nationalists. Their complete and utter hate for communism let them enter the war for the complete wrong reasons. The majority of the Vietnamese people wanted a communist government, so the people of Vietnam were against the Americas decision in ‘helping’ them.
The US kept on increasing involvement because the Vietcong seemed to always be winning; they believed that if they kept on pumping in more money, equipment and military aid they would eventually win the Vietcong. But they didn’t take into account on the number of the Vietcong and their will for freedom.
