United States' Involvement with Vietnam

United States' Involvement with Vietnam

Although there are no specific, reasons as to why the USA became

increasingly involved in the war, I can name many different reasons

and aspects as to why they did. These reasons all link together in

some way. These reasons range from long term to short term, and from

financial, to political, and finally to full scale war.

The origins of involvement can be traced back to the 19th century when

the French had added a huge part of South East Asia to their already

growing empire, this area was known as "Indo-China". During the Second

World War Japanese troops occupied this area, and it was ruled by the

Japanese. The population if Indo-China didn't like being ruled by

foreigners so resistance groups were set up, the most important of

these groups being the Viet Minh, who were a communist resistance

group led by Ho Chi Minh. On August 15, 1945 Japan surrendered Indo

China and South Vietnam was declared an independent republic. World

War Two was over, but the longest was of the 20th Century was about to

begin, the war in Vietnam.'

The reasons for Americas initial involvement in Vietnam date back to

1946 and the start of the cold war, between the two superpowers of the

world (communist Russia and capitalist America). America had started

to become very scared of Communism, as the spread of it would

completely destroy their countries economy. Later in 1946 during the

cold war America were in fear of the spread of communism in South East

Asia (the Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh), and America pledged that they

would help any country in threat of communism to stop communism

"spreading", this was known as...

... middle of paper ...

...read of communism through Russia, Vietnam

and China. Arguably when America started supporting the French

financially, they were always prepared to stop communism in any way

they could for once America had reached a certain level of involvement

there would have been no way to stop the war from happening. I see the

Gulf of Tonkin as the spark, the event that made the war in Vietnam a

full scale military operation. If there was no formation of the Viet

Minh then there may have been no spark to start the war 25 years larer

As I have explained all the reasons I have mentioned are all of equal

importance, one would not have happened without the other and

therefore there can't be one overall reason why America entered the

war, but I believe once America started to get involved there was no

stopping what happened, happening.