Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam during the 1950’s and 1960’s

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Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam during the 1950’s and 1960’s

        Throughout the 50’s and 60’s the USA became steadily more and more involved in the Vietnam conflict in a bid to halt the spread of communism and pursuing their belief in ‘The Domino Theory”.

        Vietnam had been under French colonial rule until the late forties when the Vietcong started a campaign that they hoped would end in Vietnams independence which meant the French had to be defeated.  The struggle came to a head at the battle of Dien Bien Phu where the Vietcong defeated the French. The French soon left leaving Northern and Southern Vietnam separated, the north ruled by Ho Chi Minh the South by the dictator Ngo Dinh Diem from Saigon. The US had given $3 billion to the French to help fend off the Vietcong thus halting the ‘domino effect’ and were not willing for it to go to waste.

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        The US passionately believed in the ‘domino theory’, it was feared that if any South-East Asian nation fell the others, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia etc would follow so Vietnam was key as it bordered them all. At first the US thought the French could fend off the Vietcong so gave $3 billion to help fund the campaign as they were still recovering from The Second World War but were defeated so Vietnam was open for the communists to take over.

        In 1950 the US pumped further oney into the conflict, this time to the AVRN to setup strategic hamlets that the ...

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