Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950's and 1960's?

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GCSE History - Vietnam Coursework

  1. Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950's and 1960's?

The USA became involved in Vietnam in 1949, under fear of communism spreading further into South East Asia as Mao Ze Dong had won a communist victory in China in the same year. The USA and USSR were the two most powerful nations in the world at this time and were both involved in a Cold War with each other. Each had opposed the way in which the other country was run, with USA being Capitalist and USSR being Communist. When the USSR exploded its own atom bomb in 1949, it became clear to the US that they were on equal level with the Soviet Union, as it appeared that they were no longer the only country with nuclear power. Every time a nation fell towards communism, the USSR became stronger, weakening the USA and other capitalist nations. Vietnam at this time was a French colony, which was occupied by the Japanese during World War Two. The Vietminh, which was an anti-Japanese resistance lead by Ho Chi Minh, defeated the Japanese in 1945 and took over North Vietnam changing it into a communist state. This led to the return of the French at the end of World War Two and they tried to take Vietnam back. With China, who had just become communist, supporting the Vietminh, the USA felt they had to intervene and decided to support France with Financial aid in order to enforce the containment theory and the Truman Doctrine.

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After the Korean War, the Japanese had surrendered in the North to the USSR, and in the South to USA. This allowed both countries to enforce the system they followed with USSR turning North Korea into a Communist country, and USA turning South Korea into a Capitalist country. In 1954 the French were heavily defeated at Dien Bien Phu by the Vietnamese therefore North Vietnam had no leadership. The Geneva Agreement in 1954 led to Indo-China being divided into four different countries: Loas, Cambodia, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Free elections were then held in Vietnam disallowing any foreign nations ...

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