Why Did The Usa Become Involved In

Vietnam In The 1950S And 1960S Essay, Research Paper

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

The USA became involved in Vietnam because of a call for aid from the Vietnamese president of that clip, Ngo Dinh Diem, or at least, they used it as an alibi for what they did. The Americans saw it as a premier illustration to the remainder of the universe of how capitalist economy could suppress communism. They didn t worry that they might non really be able to suppress the communism in Vietnam. Of class, the American position was that the enemy were merely a clump of provincials and husbandmans who had been given small or no preparation. The quotation mark It ll wholly be over earlier Christmas from World War I times springs to mind.

Vietnam was portion of Gallic Indo-China. Since 1930, they found themselves opposed by Communists, and by 1940, the League for Vietnamese Independence was founded. This was besides known as the Vietminh.

After the 2nd universe war, Gallic control had been badly weakened. A motion for independency led by Ho Chi Minh was turning in strength. It was called the Vietminh. The Gallic started happening themselves contending a guerilla war against the Vietminh. Other powers became involved. Communist China gave assistance to the Vietminh and the USA gave $ 3billion to the Gallic. Like Korea before it, it became a war of political orientation.

By 1955, France knew they were contending a losing conflict. They signed a pact in Geneva, leting for Vietnam to be split in two, with a North/South divide at its 17th analogue. The ground for this was because France had been in control of most of the South, and the Vietminh held the North since the beginning of the struggle. It was besides decided that the split would be a impermanent 1. In 1956, elections would be held to reunite Vietnam once more under one authorities. Ho Chi Minh agreed to the Geneva determinations because he felt that the Vietminh would win any general elections.

This was the ground that President Eisenhower of the USA refused to subscribe the Geneva understanding. The USA didn T want to be portion of anything that had the slightest opportunity of turning Communist. He and his advisers thought that communism was distributing like ink on blotting

paper, and Vietnam would be following.

For the Americans, the Domino Theory was deriving credibleness, and they had no wish to see Vietnam topple to the call of Communism. Vietnam needed to be defended to forestall other Asiatic states from being knocked over. The Domino Theory was supposed to be how communism would distribute throughout the whole of South East Asia. It started when China turned communist. Korea so turned Communist, so Vietnam, so Laos and Cambodia. It was a domino mass meeting of little Asiatic states. They needed to interrupt the concatenation and Vietnam seemed the best topographic point to make it.

Following the Truman Doctrine, and warranting their actions as being in defense mechanism of free people under the menace of communism, they began to provide the South Vietnamese authorities, foremost with money and military advisers, and subsequently with full blown military support. An illustration of this was that a group of American Advisors were sent into South Vietnam after the proclamation of the split to guarantee that it s people did non back up the Communist North in the coming elections. In 1955, a new President of South Vietnam was chosen. That adult male was Ngo Dinh Diem. He was strongly anti-Communist and the USA was really happy to back up him throughout the fiftiess. The job was that many of the South Vietnamese people hated the South Vietnamese authorities as it was corrupt, really rich and Christian. This put it out of touch with the common Vietnamese citizen who was a hapless, Buddhist, provincial.

Then came the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where an American battle-ship claimed they were attacked by Vietnamese aircraft, and used it as an alibi to establish a full graduated table offense on them. This earnestly escalated the war.

There has been some inquiries asked as to whether the ship really was attacked, as some people feel that America merely used it as an alibi for assailing the Vietnamese. This is merely a theory, although it is as likely theory as any.

In short, the USA became involved in Vietnam because they wanted to halt the Domino theory. They felt that they could halt the toppling in Vietnam, and utilize it as a collector’s item to demo how capitalist economy could get the better of communism.

How incorrect they were.