In 1954 the French suffered a humiliating defeat to the Vietminh. The battle occurred on the top of a hill were the French had positioned themselves at a fortified location called ‘Dien Bien Phu’ which controlled all major trade routes within Vietnam. The French made the great mistake of underestimating their enemy and assumed that the Vietminh would not be able to reach them as they were positioned on higher ground. However despite this the Vietminh relentlessly used every resource at their disposal to conquer the hill. This was such a humiliating defeat for the French that it persuaded them to pull out of the war. The Geneva Agreement proposed that Vietnam would be split in two, and elections would be held every 2 years to determine who would run the country. But America failed to agree and refused to sign as it believed it was to the benefit of communism. Ngo Dinh Diem was the southern Vietnamese Prime minister, he and his government were supported by the Americans despite being extremely corrupt. Diem helped rule the South of Vietnam with the Emperor Bao Dai, until he removed the Emperor and replaced him with himself. He then further abused his position and appointed his family and friends with the most beneficial positions. He then introduced new laws and taxes which greatly upset the peasants, especially with the new farming policies. It was these laws that led to protests such as the Monks which burnt themselves to death as they were unable to practise freely. Unfortunately for America the harm Diem was creating and led to an increase in their involvement. Diem was then assassinated shortly after.
The Domino Theory was taken very seriously by the Americans. It suggested that Asian countries would fall victim to communism like dominoes, as in once one had fallen the next in turn would fall and so on. To ensure that Vietnam remained pro-western, President Eisenhower provided weapons and sent 17 ‘advisors’ to train the ARVN. As the Americans were so keen on preventing the spread of communism they helped to form the south-east Asia Treaty Organisation or SEATO, to protect Asian countries against communism. America gave huge support to Diem’s government as it was anti-communists.
The Vietcong were highly trained and used guerrilla tactics, using a combination of ambushes and their vast knowledge of their surroundings. America then increased their numbers of advisors to 685 which was again secretly increased in 1961 to 16,000 by JFK. JFK was then assassinated in 1963. In 1962, the ‘strategic Hamlet programme’ was introduced. The governments of America and South Vietnam had been for sometime concerned about the influence of the NFL on the peasants. In an attempt to prevent this, the peasants were moved into a new village in areas under South Vietnamese control. This strategy failed as the peasants were reluctant to move and resented working without pay to protect themselves from people who didn’t threatened them, and may have made more peasants join the NFL.
Lyndon B Johnson then replaced JFK as president in 1963. Johnson was a strong supporter of the Domino Theory and soon came under pressure from his military advisors to take more forceful action against North Vietnam. He was reluctant to send in troops as it would be unpopular with the public and would be hard to justify. He wished to become elected before making war. On August 2nd 1964, the US destroyer ‘Maddox’ was fired on by 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats. President Johnson now had his excuse and ordered the bombing of varies strategic points in North Vietnam such as torpedo-boat bases and oil storage depot. This was a major increase in the USA’s involvement as it moved from in-direct to direct interference. Their reason for this increased involvement was due to “repeated acts of violence against the armed forces”, but was no doubt related to America’s objection to communism. The outbreak of war occurred on the 6-7th February 1965 at an American base in Pleiku. It was infiltrated and attacked by the Vietcong. Eight US advisors were killed and hundreds wounded. President Johnson now had his excuse to attack Vietnam, and on the 11th February he did so with ‘Operation Rolling Thunder’.
During 1954-1965 America became increasingly involved in the affairs of Vietnam. This was due to a large number of factors, but mainly due to its huge objection to communism and paired with its own interests, such as sustaining its trade with Vietnam and varies other financial reasons, which will have been of great value. Another less but still very convincing and valid reason for their increased involvement was the embarrassment of being beaten by such an unworthy advisory, which then increased their great fear and hatred of the communist threat spreading.
