As a result, the Geneva agreement was set up to try and keep order in Vietnam, the north would be ruled by communist Ho Chi Minh and the south by Ngo Dinh Diem. This was temporary, Ngo was meant to hold elections to unite Vietnam, but he never did and the Americans, scared that Ho would win, didn’t force him to. His Tyrannical policies made him very unpopular and the communists in South Vietnam rebelled and formed a guerrilla group, the NLF(Vietcong) to overthrow him. The Americans pumped in more money, this time into the South Vietnam army (A.R.V.N) to combat the Vietcong.
Ngo’s worsening, corrupt regime caused the growth of the Vietcong and president Eisenhower, noticing this, sent in advisors. They helped the A.R.V.N to organize themselves providing training. America sent in 1000s of advisors to try and counteract the 1000s of people joining the Vietcong. During Kennedy’s term in office he increased the number of advisors from 685 to 16000 and introduced strategic hamlets due to the unstable situation, trying to prevent the Vietcong from attacking villages. However, these failed, as many of the Vietcong were inside the protected villages and the people were unhappy about being moved from their homes.
Vietnam was becoming a key battle in the cold war, the USSR was providing aid for the communists and Americans providing aid for the anti-Communists. However, despite all the money being poured into the A.R.V.N they found it almost impossible to combat the guerilla tactics of the Vietcong who, by 1964, controlled 40% of South Vietnam.
President Johnson wanted to send in American troops to prove Americas strength and quickly end the communist uprising, but he needed to justify it to the public, so he waited for the Vietminh to openly attack American property. When the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred it was all the excuse he needed and he launched strikes against the North. In 1965 Johnson sent in US ground troops completely involving the USA with the Vietnam conflict.
I think the main factor that drew America into the war with the Vietcong was their fear of the domino effect, once they were involved they were trapped unable to get out without loss of face and embarrassment. Ngo’s corrupt regime lost the publics support for the anti communists but it was mainly America trying to prove themselves to be stronger then the USSR.
