Why did America join Vietnam

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The Vietnam conflict began in the late nineteenth century as a result of France conquering Vietnam and making it a protectorate. Vietnam had not experienced settled peace for nearly forty years. Viet Minh, the League for the Independence of Vietnam was formed in 1941, in an effort the reclaim independence from France. In September, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed it independent of France. The French opposed their independence from 1945 to 1954 and the first representatives of de Gaulle’s government landed by parachute in Saigon and Hanoi on 23rd August, 1945. France wanted to re-establish their rule over Vietnam but they were defeated at the battle of Dien Bien Phu on 7th May, 1954. The French Expeditionary Force tried to prevent the Viet Minh from entering Laos and Dien Bien Phu was the place chosen to do so. The French were not very careful and this allowed the Viet Minh cut off their airway to Hanoi. The French surrendered after a siege that had lasted for fifty five days. Ho Chi Minh led the war against France and won.

After the war against France a conference was held in Geneva where Vietnam was split up into two parts. North Vietnam was mainly Communist and supported Ho Chi Minh, while the United States and the French supported the south was based there. There were still some Communists who rebelled in the South part of Vietnam. These were known as the Viet Cong. The South Vietnam ruler was Ngo Dinh Diem who was anti-Communist. At the conference, Laos and Cambodia became independent states.

North Vietnam wished to unify North and South Vietnam through military force. Since America feared the spread of communism through the ‘Domino theory’ in Asia, John F. Kennedy provided military and economic aid to the South part of Vietnam in an effort to avoid the takeover by North Vietnam. At this time, this was still a civil war. Although The United States provided help, they were not yet officially involved in the conflict.

The North Vietnamese resented the little intervention by the United States and so they attacked their destroyer, “Maddox” with three Vietnamese torpedo boats on 2
nd August, 1964. The "Maddox" had been thirty miles off the coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin (international waters). The next day, 3rd August, 1964, Johnson gave the right "to attack with the objective of destroying attacking forces." On 3rd August retaliation air attacks began with an aim to destroy North Vietnam’s gunboat capability. As two more United States destroyers were destroyed, more sea and air forces were sent. Up until that point, America had refrained from direct combat. That was the point at which the United States formally entered the Vietnam War.

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The U.S. did this for two main reasons. The first was that they wanted to maintain the independence of South Vietnam and the second was that they wanted to show, with proof, to the other allied nations that they would help them resist communism. They wanted to prove this so that the neighbouring countries would not just become communist countries without a fight and also that America, the most powerful country in the world, would be there to help them. This would avoid the ‘Domino Theory’ so there would be less communist countries. As Congress was just about to ...

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