United States' Involvement in Vietnam

United States' Involvement in Vietnam

Ever since 1861, the French armies held power in Vietnam, keeping a

tight rule on their new outpost in South East Asia. The French later

branched out and took control of the neighbouring countries Laos and

Cambodia, adding each to their list of Asian colonies in the late

1800’s. In the early 1920’s, political rebels began gaining power in

the Vietnamese governments, demanding more and more rights to

independence and freedom. In 1930, a communist revolutionary known as

Ho Chi Minh set up the first Vietnamese communist party originally an

‘Indochinese’ party. In 1940, Japan demanded and received the right

to place Vietnam under military occupation, restricting the local

French administration to figurehead authority. Realising this new

opportunity, the Communists organized the Vietminh Front and prepared

to launch a revolution near the end of the war. Their aim was to

bring about moderate reforms, rather than exclusively Communist

principles like in Russia and China.

When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, the

Vietminh forces rose up throughout Vietnam and declared the creation

of an independent republic in Hanoi. The stubborn French were not

going to give up their prized possession in the pacific so easily, and

so decided to attempt to drive out the Communist Vietminh from their

territory. For more than a year the French and the Vietminh sought a

negotiated solution, but the talks, held in France, failed to resolve

differences, and war broke out in December 1946. For nearly eight

years, this war raged on, and apparent overthrow tactics were in play

by both sides. T...

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...rriages of the unborn

children pregnant women with Agent Orange. This pressure caused

Johnson to quit his post as President, and Nixon was determined not to

follow suit, so he learned from Johnson’s mistakes, and stopped napalm

and Agent Orange missions, and promptly removed all forces from

Vietnam, so this aspect was very important when it came to the

question of why American pulled out of Vietnam. The final reasons for

pulling out Vietnam were brought upon back home in the United States

where pressure groups, student protests and Anti-War protestors were

doing all they could to push the Presidents as far as they could in

order to get the result they needed. This pressure seemed to be the

last straw, so Richard Nixon brought about Vietnamisation and gave the

people their wishes and pulled his troops out of Vietnam.