Why Did the Usa Become Increasingly Involved In the Vietnam War?

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Why Did The USA Become Increasingly Involved In The Vietnam War?

The Vietnam War was a prolonged and unsuccessful attempt by South Vietnam and the United States to prevent the Communists of North Vietnam from uniting South Vietnam with North Vietnam under their leadership. The Vietnam War was probably the longest war in which the Americans fought in and the only war in which they were defeated. This essay will discover the facts and reasons for why America became involved in the Vietnam War from the Second World War up to sending the first troops up to Vietnam in 1965.

At the end of the Second World War Americans were still concerned about the spread of Communism and were still offering military aid and economic aid to any country requiring defense for themselves over Communist countries. The USA was still a great believer in the Domino Theory. This was the belief that if one country fell to Communism the rest would follow. America had also been so concerned about communism due to the fact that countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania had communist governments. Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945 near the close of World War II, the uneasy wartime alliance between the United States and Great Britain on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other began to unravel. By 1948 the Soviets had installed left-wing governments in the countries of Eastern Europe that had been liberated by the Red Army. The Americans and the British feared the permanent Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and the threat of Soviet-influenced communist parties coming to power in the democracies of Western Europe. The Soviets, on the other hand, were determined to maintain control of Eastern Europe in order to defend against any possible new threat from Germany, and they were intent on spreading communism worldwide, largely for ideological reasons. The Cold War had solidified by 1947-48, when U.S. aid provided under the Marshall Plan to Western Europe had brought those countries under American influence and the Soviets had installed openly communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
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From 1885 to 1953 Vietnam had been part of the French empire and this had permitted the French to use Vietnam as a source of raw materials. The French built roads and railways but taxed the peasants heavily so that they were able to pay for it, this obviously made the French very unpopular. A League for the Independence Of Vietnam, generally known as the Vietminh, was organized in 1941 as a nationalistic party seeking Vietnamese independence from France. The Vietminh became openly Communist in the mid 1950's. In September in 1945the leader of the Vietminh, 'Ho Chi ...

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