History Coursework – Vietnam – Explain why the United states became increasingly involved in the war in Vietnam
It took the United States 10 years before they started the war in Vietnam and the events in these 10 years led to this war. In this essay I will explain the chain of events which led to the Vietnam war in 1965. The key event was the attack on the American patrol boat in the gulf of Tonkin which then sparked off the war and as the essay goes on I will touch this point with a more detailed analysis.
From 1945 to 1954 France had fought a war in Vietnam to try and regain Vietnam as a colony. The fighting was approved by America as even at this early stage they saw the threat of communism in south East Asia after the fall of China and they poured 3 billion dollars into the French war effort in total. The red scare had taken hold of America and Truman even went as far to say that he would support any communist threatened country. The fighting the French faced was much like the fighting America would later face as guerrilla tactics were key to the eventual success of Viet Minh in 1954. America’s plan to contain communism known as ‘containment’ would need a different approach if Vietnam was to be saved from communism.