United States' Involvement with Vietnam
The USA were involved in the Vietnam conflict for a number of reasons.
The first going back to what happened during World War 2 when Japan
surrendered to USA in 1945. It was decided that the Indo-Chinese
territories should be given back to the French empire. However, many
Vietnamese people wanted to be independent and free of French rule.
So, the Vietminh was founded and lead into independence by their
communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Fighting soon broke out against the
French who still wanted to keep hold of Vietnam as it was very rich in
natural resources like minerals. The French soon had an army with
around 500,000 soldiers-both Vietnamese and French, to battle the
Vietminh. The French soon went into massive debt when 90,000 of their
soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured by 1952. The French
looked to the USA for financial help, and the USA gladly helped as
they were so paranoid of the spread of communism, mainly because of
the domino theory. This was an idea devised by John Foster Dulles,
thinking that if one country fell to communism, then soon after all of
its neighbours would follow. North Vietnam had become a communist
country after the Geneva agreement was made following the French
defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Ho Chi Minh was in charge of the
North and he wanted the communism to spread to the South, controlled
by President Diem. The USA, with their belief in the domino theory did
not want this to happen. This is apparent in source A, written by John
F Kennedy in 1956. He says; 'Vietnam is the cornerstone of the free
world in South-East Asia. If the red tide of communism overf...
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...ns were against
the war because killing people indiscriminately is morally wrong, you
cannot give people democracy with a barrel of a gun, communism could
have been sorted out through communication rather than fighting; and
the USA weren't justified in using their weapons by law or God.
Parents of combat troops were against the war because if they pulled
out without winning, killed or wounded troops would have suffered in
vain. Socialists were against the war because it was damaging the
image of the USA, not enough money was being spent on the US welfare
and because the war wasn't winnable as the US troops didn't have the
southern Vietnamese peasants support. And students were against the
war as killing people is morally wrong and only 13% of all government
money was being spent on education, with 30% going on the war.
The United States became increasingly involved with the War in Vietnam mostly thanks to their enmity with Russia due to the fact they were Communist, and how the USSR spread claiming countries that could’ve been turned democratic and become trading partners of the US. While Russia, Britain and the USA were all allies in WW1, they disagreed on many things, especially on how Germany should be punished and how should Europe be handled.
Why the United States Became Increasingly Involved in the War in Vietnam In the years after the Second World War, it became necessary for the Allies to decide the future of the French colony, Indochina, when the Japanese who had been occupying the country, surrendered. Prior to the Second World War, the French had ruled over the regions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The French ruling was unpopular, forcing ideas of democracy upon the Vietnamese people and the French overthrew any efforts of resistance. When the Japanese invaded the French colony, to resist the Japanese rule, an organisation was founded, the Vietminh, led by Ho Chi Minh. In order to defeat the Japanese, it was essential for the Vietminh to co-operate with the Allies and at the end of the war, Vietnam was declared independent.
The French eventually gained back some control over parts of Vietnam. In early 1946, the French began a series of dual negotiations with the Chinese and Viet Minh over the future of Vietnam. After failed negotiations with the French over the future of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh retreated into remote parts of the countryside to fight a small-scale insurgency against the French. (The History Place, Beginner’s Guide)
The Differing Reactions to United States' Involvement in Vietnam Everyone in America had a different reaction to the Vietnam War. Some people supported the war because they feared Communism. They were afraid that if they did not stop the Communism in Vietnam, that type of government would affect all other countries. This was according to the Domino Theory. They thought that stopping the Vietnamese would be the correct and easy thing to do, but they were wrong.
Reasons for United States' Involvement in Vietnam In this essay I will be writing about why America got involved in the Vietnam War, between the 1950s to the 1960s. This was a steady and slow process with many deaths all because of communism. It was very costly and bloody. This essay will focus on political reasons, military reasons and economy reasons.
Thirty-eight years have passed and the Vietnam War is still a controversial topic. While some Americans believe that Indochina was of no strategic value to the United States, others argue that civilian leaders have undermined the war effort. My paper will help analyze the different viewpoints for U.S. involvement in Vietnam and the overall assessment of each. Almost all the sources utilized came to the consensus that the chief purpose for U.S. intervention was to stop Communism from spreading. Nevertheless, while some believed that the developed country had reason to fear the “Iron Curtain,” which fell upon Asia in 1954 with the armistice in Korea and the Geneva Accords, others did not see this as an act of upholding freedom and democracy. My thesis concludes that apart from the containment argument, what America sought by intervening in Vietnam was the opportunity to demonstrate its credibility as a world power.
miles away from them, and so they felt they had to be involved in a
Vietnam is a time in American history that most of us would like to forget, but really, we must learn from it. Vietnam is a time where we didn't look at the whole picture, it was 'perceived through the lens of Cold War politics.' (MP:420) With the new ?domino theory,? Americans feared for their safety and the safety of the 'free world.' If they didn't step in, they would inevitably lose the world to communism.
As many as two million Vietnamese civilians were killed during the Vietnam War(Spector). Would this number have been different if certain things off the battlefield in the United States did not occur. The Vietnam War was a war between the communist regime of North Vietnam leaded by Ho Chi Minh, and the non-Communist South Vietnam. The United States fought with the south in fear that if all of Vietnam became communist then the domino effect would occur and all of Asia would turn to communism(“Vietnam, War”). The war began in 1954 and ended in 1975 when communist forces took over the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon(“Vietnam”). This was two years after President Nixon, the thirty seventh President of the United States ordered the withdrawal
France had control of Indochina which later became the countries Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh, who was communist, and his followers, who were called Viet Minh entered into war with the French from 1946 to 1954. There was a conference to decide the fate of Indochina, which was determined in the Geneva Accord. The Geneva Accord divided Indochina into 4 different regions which were Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Laos and Cambodia were both meant to be neutral. An election was planned for 1956 to reunite North and South Vietnam under the same leader.
In March 1946, Ho Chi Minh and the French made negotiations in which France would recognize Viet Minh as the government and would give Vietnam the status of a free state within the French Union. In return, French troops could remain in Vietnam but would withdraw gradually over the next five years. Despite negotiations, the French still wanted to reestablish colonial rule and the Viet Minh still wanted total independence. In late November of 1946, the first Indochina war began. The French naval vessels bombarded
The Vietnam War caused an outbreak between Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The tet offensive was of the main reasons for the start of this war and was one of the largest military campaigns that North Vietnam used to attack the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was supported financially and militarily by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies, while the South Vietnamese army was supported by United States, South Korea, Thailand, and other anti-communist allies. In this paper, I will addressing, to what extent was Communism a significant factor for the United states to join the Vietnam war and this was the manifestation of the Cold War, and led to the reason of Communism being the main reason for the United states
United States' Withdrawal From Vietnam America went to war in Vietnam with an aim of destroying the Vietcong to protect South Vietnam from Communism. America was against communism and they wanted to stop the spread of it. They did not achieve what they set out to do as they had many boundaries in their way. Events both inside and outside of Vietnam led to the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.
Unlike many other European countries that sought out the territory in Southeast Asia merely for increasing their power through trade, the French first began interactions with the region as early as the 17th century. Alexandre De Rhodes began an expedition to the Southeast Asia region with the desire to expand the Jesuit missionaries throughout the region to further their belief. For many years until the 18th century, the Jesuits expanded and created many missionaries throughout the region. The 18th century had brought an astronomical expansion in the trading markets throughout Europe and Asia as all the European superpowers began colonizing all of Southeast Asia to further their trading “empires.” The French would also begin to participate, not at the same level as countries such as the Netherlands or Great Britain, but more in moderation. At that time the French believed to confine their participation in Southeast Asia to religious advancement and moderate trading. It wasn’t until the 19th century until things would begin to take a turn and the French would become a major participant in Vietnam’s history.
War in Vietnam had no real beginning and was just escalation of fighting that was going on for centuries. In 1954 Vietnam became independent from the control of French Regime. The two parts of V...