Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam

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Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam?

In World War Two, Japan captured Vietnam, situated in South-East Asia, and part of the old French colony Indo-China, from the French. When they did the Vietminh, a Vietnamese resistance organisation, led by Ho Chi Minh was formed to fight against the Japanese. At the end of the Second World War Ho Chi Minh, who was a Communist, announced the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Yet, at the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences it was decided to split Vietnam into two. North Vietnam was to be under Chinese control, and the South would be under British control. However, in 1946 it was agreed that the French would be allowed to take over again. This led to a guerrilla war started by the Vietminh, against the French. The French were struggling to win this war, and found it even more difficult in 1949 when the Chinese decided to help the Vietminh after becoming communist under Mao Zedong, after the USA had spent $2 billion dollars supporting anti-communists. This was also the year in which the USSR exploded its own atom bomb, which meant the USA was no longer the only nuclear power. The French asked the USA for help but were refused it, as they first disapproved of the French. After China became communist the USA put $500 million a year into the French war effort and helped them set up a non-Communist government in South Vietnam. In 1954 the French were defeated at the decisive battle of Den Bien Phu.

At the Geneva conference in April 1954, the foreign ministers of Britain, France, the USA and the Soviet Union decided to meet and try to bring peace in Vietnam. They decided that Vietnam would be divided into two halves, North Vietnam would ruled by Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam by a strong opponent of communism, Ngo Dinh Diem. It was decided that the French troops would withdraw from Vietnam and the Vietnamese people would be allowed to choose whether to live in the North (Communist) half or in the South (Capitalist) half. In 1956 there would be a general election to choose whether the country should be united, and who, out of Diem and Ho Chi Minh would rule Vietnam.

Although Vietnam was over 9000 miles away from the USA they were threatened by the fact that Ho Chi Minh was the most likely winner of the 1956 election in Vietnam. This would mean Vietnam would be a communist country. Communism went against all of the USA's political ideas, and they felt endangered by the way it was spreading, in the Soviet Union, China and from the Korean War. America first became involved, after the communist victory over the French in Vietnam. This, frankly, scared America, who felt that the world would eventually been taken over by communism, and something had to be done. By supporting the South Vietnamese government, the US felt as if they were helping to stop this communist take-over. In the Truman Doctrine and the 'policy of containment' it was agreed that the USA was not going to allow any more countries to turn communist, thus 'containing' the feared expansion of communism throughout the world.

The USA's first worry was that Ho Chi Minh would win the general elections in Vietnam, as this would allow communism to expand to the whole of Vietnam. President Eisenhower later said "I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree hat had elections been held at the time of fighting, possibly 80% of the population would have voted for the communist Ho Chi Minh". Responding to the French defeat by the Vietminh at Den Bien Phu, Eisenhower spoke of "the domino theory", this was the idea of how easily he thought communism would d spread, he said "You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly." President Lyndon Johnson was also a strong supporter of the domino theory, he said, "If we quit Vietnam, tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii and next week we'll have to fight in San Francisco." He also said "If you let a bully come into your front garden one day, the next say he'll be up o your porch, and the da after that he'll rape your wife in your own bed." These quotes express the American fear of communism; it was believed that victory in Vietnam was vital to the defence of the United States. President Eisenhower developed a foreign policy based on the idea of the domino theory.
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Since North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, the USA's support obviously fell to Ngo Dinh Diem, who hated all that communism stood for, just like America. They supported him by sending money, supplies and military equipment, and hoped that the government of South Vietnam would act like a "puppet government", enabling America to have their say in the happenings of Vietnam. However, by 1959 the North Vietnamese government had ordered the Vietminh to begin terror campaign against Diem's government. Diem had quickly become very, very unpopular with the people of Vietnam, and turned out to be ...

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