What Is The Us Involvement In Vietnam

613 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Resistance to colonial rule

Vietnamese independence was a crucial event that took place soon after World War II. Before World War II, Vietnam was a colony of France. The French were still determined to restore colonial presence in Indochina. With the help of the British, the French managed to seize control of Cochinchina, creating two Vietnams, the communist North and noncommunist South.
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 …show more content…

In December, the Viet Minh tried to overwhelm French troops in Hanoi, but the French were still very confident with their victory. In 1949, the French reunited Cochinchina with the rest of Vietnam and created the Associated State of Vietnam and appointed Bao Dai, the former emperor, as chief of state. Viet Minh, aided by the new communist government of China, waged in guerilla war and was successful. At around this time, the United States began to fear that Communism would spread throughout Asia and try to take over the world. In response, the U.S. sent lots of aid to the French. Even though the French had received help, they were still shaken by their fall in the garrison at Dien Bien Phu. In May of 1954, the French and Viet Minh agreed to negotiate an end of the war at the

Show More
Related

  • The U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War Was Justified

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    When Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh and his political organization, the Vietminh, seized control of their independence from France United States Politicians saw it as another communist take over. When really Ho was more a nationalist than a communist. All Minh wanted was for the United States to recognize its independence from France and to send aid to help it reach its nationalistic goals. "Before the Cold War Ho and the Vietmin...

    Read More

  • The U.S. Contained Communism In Vietnam

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1949, Mao Zedong led the Peoples Revolution, which established a Communist State in China. Communism has now been introduced to Asia. In this period, after World War II, Communism was a popular ideology being introduced throughout the world. Vietnam was one of the many countries under the threat of Communism. At this time, Vietnam was a French Colony. As time went on tension started to come between the French and the Vietnamese people. As tension increased so did the fighting between the French and The Vietnamese. Finally in 1954, The French decided that they could no longer withstand the revolts of the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese were now free of French rule. However, many problems still remained in Vietnam. After the war there was a conference to discuss the troubles in Vietnam and all of the other troubles in Asia. That conference was called the Geneva Conference. Vietnam sent two delegations to the conference. One of the delegations represented Viet Minh (which was Communist in their leanings) and the other represented Bao Dia's government, which was backed by the United States. Both claimed to represent all of Vietnam. At the conference there was a discussion about dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel to solve the troubles between the two delegations. Now there were two Vietnams. One, in the north, was under Communist rule and the other, in the south, was not. While the Geneva Conference was being held, the United States was already concerned about Communism being spread. The United States then decided that the only way to solve the problems would be to contain Communism including in Vietnam.

    Read More

  • Reasons For The United States Involvement In The Vietnam War

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Vietnam Research Project

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    This theory stated, "If South Vietnam falls to the Communist, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India and Pakistan would also fall like dominos. The Pacific Islands and even Australia could be at risk." After the French were defeated in 1954, Vietnam was split in two; the north was Communist, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the south was Capitalist under Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem's regime got billions of dollars from the US but remained very unpopular with most Vietnamese people. The US prevented the elections that were promised under the Geneva conference because it knew that the Communists would win.

    Read More

  • Why the United States Became Increasingly Involved in the War in Vietnam

    3181 Words  | 7 Pages

    Unfortunately, the French returned and responded to Ho Chi Minh's declaration of the Vietnamese independence by enlisting British help in order to expel the Vietminh from the south of the country, resulting in a division between Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam and the French's South Vietnam. This division was followed by futile attempts to negotiate between the French and the Vietnamese, which lasted a year. For the Vietminh, it was vital that the country reunited as the majority of the food production was in the south, but the French refused and so the Vietnam war began in 1946, when the French killed over 5,000 civilians. The American President, Roosevelt, disliked the French method of colonialism but conceded to pressure to conform in order to respect the United State's Ally Britain.

    Read More

  • Vietnam War Research Paper

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    After returning, Minh had help from the Vietminh; an organization of communist that wanted freedom from other countries. Their main goal was to turn Vietnam into a self-governed communist country. France wanted none of this non-sense. In 1945 they had moved back into southern Vietnam and ruled most of the cities. Ho Chi Minh swore to fight France to gain control of the whole country. U.S. promised to aid France, and sent almost $15 million worth of financial aid to France. The French fought for four years, being financially aided by the U.S. the whole time. The U.S. spent nearly one billion dollars in order to help France regain control of the tiny country. The only reason that much effort was put into a small area was the fear of the y. Domino Theory. The Domino Theory first showed it's head during a 1954 news conference by U.S. President Eisenhower. The domino theory is the fear of the spread of communism from one country to the next, and so on. Even with the assistance of the U.S. France could not gain the control it once had on Vietnam.

    Read More

  • Vietnam War Thesis Statement

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Vietnam’s history geography has play a role during it and because of it’s location, climate, soil it was an ideal place for farming which would soon attract invaders. The Chinese, French ,and Japanese all wanted something from Vietnam which included agriculture abundance, colonial possessions, and natural resources. They all controlled Vietnam at this time. Japan surrendered when vietminh declared it’s independence and the United States did not support this independence. The French and Vietminh went into war where the french had lost and Vietnam was divided ( French took control of

    Read More

  • Essay On Dien Bien Phu

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    Between March and May of the year 1954, a climatic confrontation between the French and North Vietnamese armies took place which decided the outcome of the First Indochina War, the precursor to the Vietnam War (Pringle). This climactic confrontation, called the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, was a major loss for the French, and a decisive victory for the army of Northern Vietnam, the Viet Minh.

    Read More

  • French Colonialism and Vietnam

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ence of 1957 would support the cession of foreign involvement in Vietnam. However the French would not relinquish any territorial claims until the electoral conference in 1956. It was there that the French finally gave up its remaining control in Vietnam, however, the United States and South Vietnam rejected the decisions made between the two conferences and thus began a new chapter in Vietnam’s history with American involvement and further wartime.

    Read More

  • Comparison of the Vietnam War and Trojan War

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy and the Vietnam War

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    After World War II, the French began a fight for their former colony of Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The French and other countries failed to see at that time the will and desire of the Vietnamese people to gain independence from foreign rule and to have their country unified. Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist, fought the French and overtook the North Vietnam capital of Hanoi with his followers, the Viet Minh, declaring the area the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. (Anderson, 2002) The French were unwilling to give up their colony and drove the Vietminh from many of the larger cities in the south. The United States entered the Vietnam struggle in 1950 when $15 million in aid was pledged to France in order to fight the Vietminh. (Anderson, 2002) The rationale was to align with France and keep the Soviet Union from expanding in Europe and to keep another country from falling into communist rule.

    Read More

  • Analysis of America's Longest War: The United States in Vietnam

    1839 Words  | 4 Pages

    Herring begins his account with a summary of the First Indochina War. He reports that the Vietnamese resisted French imperialism as persistently as they had Chinese. French colonial policies had transformed the Vietnamese economic and social systems, giving rise to an urban middle class, however; the exploitation of the country and its people stimulated more radical revolutionary activity. Herring states that the revolution of 1945 was almost entirely the personal creation of the charismatic leader Ho Chi Minh. Minh is described as a frail and gentle man who radiated warmth and serenity, however; beneath this mild exterior existed a determined revolutionary who was willing to employ the most cold- blooded methods in the cause to which he dedicated his life. With the guidance of Minh, the Vietminh launched as a response to the favorable circumstances of World War II. By the spring of 1945, Minh mobilized a base of great support. When Japan surrendered in 1945, the Vietminh filled the vacuum. France and the Vietminh attempted to negotiate an agreement, but their goals were irreconcilable.

    Read More

  • Vietnam War Mistake

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    The final French defeat was in Dien Bien Phu and was followed shortly by a peace conference that took place in Geneva (Overview of the Vietnam War). The entire French Indochina area had won independence, but North and South Vietnam had only just started a greater war. The two sides remained divided with the North being led by the communist regime. The guerrillas running the North were known as the Viet Cong, whose leader was Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnam was democratic and refused to unify with the North.

    Read More

  • American Foreign Policy Caused the Vietnam War

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    As a consequence, September 2nd, 1945, Vietnam declared independence from French imperialist and the Japanese military, which invaded Indochina (Vietnam) during the World War II. Kevin Reilly in his Readings in the World Civilizations recorded Ho Chi Minh’s speech while declaring the independence of Vietnam in 1945, where Ho Chi Min captured the frustration Vietnamese felt over the 80 years of French dominance. Ironically, Ho Chi Min, out of respect started his speech with the citation of American declaration of independence. He talked about unequal laws, role in ...

    Read More

  • The Vietnam War

    1931 Words  | 4 Pages

    The war in Vietnam had no real beginning and was just an escalation of fighting that was going on for centuries. In 1954 Vietnam became independent from the control of the French Regime.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

More about What Is The Us Involvement In Vietnam

Open Document