What were the reasons for America to become increasingly involved in Vietnam? The second Indo-China war, 1954-1975, grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam

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What were the reasons for America to become increasingly involved in Vietnam?

The second Indo-China war, 1954-1975, grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, France was forced to leave Vietnam. Communist forces under the direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap defeated the allied French troops at Diem Bien Phu. After the Geneva agreement saw Vietnam divided temporarily into north and south until the elections in 1956. Bao Dai was to lead the south and Ho Chi Minh the north. The North was being supported by the Chinese and Russians and the south by the Americans. An estimated 3 million troops from both sides died in this war. In this essay I will be going down in order from the most important factor for America to become increasingly involved to the least important. My argument is that America’s obsession of their fear of communism was the most important, as they didn’t want communism to spread around the world and one-day take over America.

 The domino theory was a huge fear and obsession of Americas. They believed that if one country was allowed to fall to communism, the country next to it would be influenced and would also fall to communism, just like dominoes. In view of the fear in America of communism spreading throughout the world, the thought of Vietnam being influenced by the two biggest countries of communism; Russia and China, and then spreading it like a disease to other countries was unacceptable. This theory meant that America had an even stronger desire to win the war and because of this, they committed more money, weapons and troops to South Vietnam, to stop the Vietcong taking over. In my opinion this is the most important reason for the US to become increasingly involved in the war. As I think that because it was a country becoming communist and spread round the world and even take over America, that they felt it necessary to become involved and put a stop to it by using their military strength.

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The fear of communism links with the domino theory. They had become obsessed with the spread of communism in Asia and also felt that other communist countries like Russia and China were putting more influence on the countries around them. Since the Geneva agreement had split Vietnam into two at the 17th parallel, it gave China, Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong a chance to influence their beliefs on South Vietnamese peasants, by offering them more land when communism takes over. By 1962, it is possible that over 75% of South Vietnamese peasants supported the Vietcong as they were seen ...

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