The War in Vietnam

The War in Vietnam

Why did the USA become increasingly involved in The war in Vietnam?

In 1950, the USA was obsessed with stopping communism from spreading

in South East Asia. Every one was anti-communist in the USA and they

were very worried about the domino theory. The domino theory was a

20th Century foreign policy theory that speculated if one land in a

region came under the influence of communists, then more would follow

in a domino effect. The domino effect says that some small change will

cause another change nearby, which then will cause another change,

and so on, to a falling row of dominos.

The final declaration of the Geneva agreement on the 21st July, 1954,

on restoring peace in Indo-China, the representives of Cambodia, the

Democratic Republic of Vietnam, France, Laos, the United Kingdom, and

USA took part. The USA did not want this to take place.

As the 1960’s began the North Vietnamese declared their intention of

liberating South Vietnam from the US imperialist. As the Guerrilla

attacks started they had a big effect on the North Vietnamese but they

tried to blame it on the South even though it was the newly formed

Vietcong who were an anti-communist government. The USA increased its

involvement after a while when things started to get worse. Even with

more support from the US, Ngo Dinh Diem’s government made more

mistakes. They tried to separate all of the villagers from the

Vietcong by creating ‘Strategic hamlets’ or fortified villages that

the Vietcong could not get in to. A lot of the people from the

villages did not want to leave the lands hey had farmed for a long

time or leave the graves of their family...

... middle of paper ...

... providing intelligence support for South Vietnamese attacks at Hon me

and Hon Ngu, Johnsons secretary of defence, Robert McNamara, went

before Congress and denied that the United States Navy was supporting

South Vietnamese military operations. He thus characterized the attack

as "unprovoked." He also claimed before Congress that there was

"unequivocable proof" of an "unprovoked" second attack against the

Maddox.

In February 1965 an attack on American base in Pleiku in which 9

Americans were killed and 67 were injured led to the US getting more

involved. A bombing campain in March 1965 began with the onset of

Operation rolling thunder and in the same month the first US soldiers

arrived to defend th Da Nang airbase and its perimeter. The US was now

commited to a war which was to involve them for the next eight years.