In 1955 the Americans were in their third phase of their increasing involvement in the Vietnam War. America got politically involved because they helped to set up the Republic of Vietnam with Anti-Communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem. Although in charge of the Republic of Vietnam where the main religion is Buddhism, Dinh Diem was very against the Buddhist religion. Diem had also beaten the Emperor Bao Dai to the Presidency so he was increasingly unpopular thanks to him rigging the vote’s as well as beating a popular man. The actions the Americans took led to support of the ordinary Vietnamese who wanted a communist to lead. This meant America had to get more involved to make sure that nothing serious like civil war occurred.
As the Americans became more and more politically involved, they had a belief that if general elections were held, the communists would win due to increasing unpopularity of Diem. The Americans did not want this; therefore they decided to stop holding all elections. This then led to Diem doing the same.
In 1960 the Viet Cong was set up. This was a National Liberation Front fighting to overthrow the Diem Regime. They were fighting for the liberation of South Vietnam from the Americans. Their tactics included land mines and booby traps were also used, many had infected spikes in to cause great pain and discomfort to the victim. In 1962 President Kennedy (who was more aggressively anti-communist) started to send in ‘advisors’ to help fight the South. The ‘advisors’ were, in reality, Military Personnel who were fighting the Viet Cong. He did this to make sure they had a better chance of achieving their aim of stopping the war. They enabled helicopters etc to be sent out to the Military Personnel in Vietnam because they were reporting to Kennedy.
Between 1963 and 1964 tension grew in Vietnam between the North and South and as this increased so did the American Military involvement. This was mainly because in November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated and his position was taken over by Lyndon Johnson who was more prepared to take risks and commit to a full-scale war in Vietnam than Kennedy previously had been.
In August 1964, North Vietnam Patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin opened fire on US ships. The US congress had a furious reaction to this. They passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This gave Johnson the power to take all necessary measures that would achieve peace and security and yet prevent further aggression. To him this meant if he felt necessary, he could take the USA into full-scale war. On 8th March 1965, 3500 US marines and Combat troops came ashore at Da Nang. This meant America was officially at war with Vietnam.
The main reason the US became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War was, in my opinion, the Domino Theory. This is because the US promoted the Theory and it threatened Asia and this meant America would do anything to prevent this happening. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was inevitably sparked by the Domino Theory because Johnson was prepared to take the US into a full-scale war to achieve peace and security and was the beginning of the full measures.
However, the other reasons also contributed to why the Americans became increasingly involved in the Vietnam War because the change of President in the US after Kennedy raised the tension within the USA and the tension was already rising in the North and South of Vietnam.
Word Count: 800 (without title)
