After the French defeat a peace conference was held in Geneva in 1954, here it was decided that the country would be split into North and South Vietnam for 2 years, and that elections would be held in both to decide the government which would reunite the country. However, no less than a year after the death of Joseph Stalin who was heavily criticised and an enemy of America for not holding elections, the Americans did exactly the same thing. They prevented elections taking place in South Vietnam as they feared that the communists would win. The new president Eisenhower was convinced that Russia and China were planning on spreading communism throughout Asia. Maybe even as far as India; the idea was known as the domino theory, and based itself on the concept that if one country fell to communism, the surrounding countries would also fall. The Americans were determined to stop the first domino, Vietnam, from falling. However it was their policies and implementation of these policies which exposed their ignorance of the culture to the Vietnam people.
The United States practically forced a puppet of their own into power, Ngo Dinh Diem. The United States supported him because he was bitterly - anti communist and in 1955 he declared himself president of South Vietnam.
Diem was unpopular; he was from the landlord class and treated the peasants of Vietnam with contempt. Being a Christian also, he showed the Buddhist religion no respect; he did not please the vast majority of people in South Vietnam. The Americans were concerned with his corruption and it did frustrate them, however the United States still funded his government with around 1.6 billion dollars in the 1950’s. The actions of Diem’s government lead to the formation of the communist National front for the liberation of South Vietnam, more commonly known as the Vietcong in 1960. It largely included South Vietnamese opponents to the government. However there was also large numbers of North Vietnamese communists taking their orders from Ho Chi Minh. Using the Ho Chi Minh trail from North to south, the north supplied the Vietcong with munitions and reinforcements; they were also able to launch coordinated strikes against American bases.
By 1962 the new, modern, President Kennedy sent in more military personal (who were always referred to as ‘advisors’), to fight the Vietcong. This was not the First time America had done this, President Eisenhower had sent in military personal in 1956; however Kennedy was now also sending in helicopters. Diem eventually became so unpopular there was a coup d’etat within in his own government and he was killed along with his brother. However the governments which followed were also corrupt and unpopular, even so they still received massive U.S support. Despite the apparent cracks that were emerging in the cardboard government in South Vietnam, Kennedy promised America that he would not blunder into a war, unclear about the aims and not knowing how to get out. He was assassinated later that month.
In 1963 tension between North and South Vietnam increased and so did American involvement, with over 23,000 troops (‘advisers’) at the end of 1964.
The new President, President Johnson was more prepared and less distracted by things such as the Berlin Wall and Cuba, to invade Vietnam full-scale, in order to prevent the spreading of communism. In August 1964, North Vietnamese patrol boats opened fire on U.S ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Less then 5 days later congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, this gave Johnson the power to use all necessary force to achieve peace and security within Vietnam. The very same day the bill was passed Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam. In early March 1965 there were combat troops arriving in South Vietnam. By the end of 1965 America knew it was truly in a war, as the first confrontations between American troops and the Vietcong and the North began.
In conclusion I feel that a key factor, was trying to make some sort of return on their investment. The United States ended up ploughing billions of dollars into Vietnam and their investment was important to them. Also the change in political attitudes also aided increase involvement in the war. Up to 1965 the United States had 4 presidents involved in Vietnam all with different beliefs and varying levels of anti-communism. But overall I feel that it was indeed this anti communism within America that ultimately led to the United Sates to get involved. The U.S feared communism it threatened their whole way of life, and that is why they payed such a high price to stop it spreading into Vietnam.
