Why the USA Become Involved in Vietnamin the 1950s and 1960s

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Why the USA Become Involved in Vietnamin the 1950s and 1960s

In the 19th century France owned a huge part of South East Asia. This

area was known as Indo- China. During the Second World War, Japanese

troops occupied this area. Local people did not want to be ruled by

foreigners so they organised resistance groups. One of them was the

Viet Minh. It was mainly a communist group, led by Ho Chi Minh.

Japan surrendered on August 15th 1945. Soon after that Ho Chi Minh

announced that Vietnam was an independent republic. The French wanted

to keep Vietnam in their empire so French troops returned to Southern

Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh was not going to let the French

retake Vietnamwithout a fight. War broke out between the French and

the Viet Minh in 1946. The USA did not approve of France fighting to

get its colony back. However they gave over $1 billion to France to

help them win. Despite all the money, the French lost the war. In

1953, they tried to trap the Viet Minh by setting up a camp at Dien

Bien Phu. However due to the Viet Minh the French could not get

supplies into the camp. After two months the French were defeated and

the survivors put into prison camps. After another two months an

armistice was signed and the French agreed to leave Indo China. The

peace talks were held at Geneva. They agreed that Vietnam would be

split into two parts. The north part became a communist republic,

controlled by the Viet Minh, and the southern Vietnam became a

republic led by and Ngo Dinh Diem. It was hoped by the North

Vietnamese that when elections were held the country would be united

again under communist leadership. The USA didn't want th...

... middle of paper ...

...they needed the raw materials from these countries

again giving them the authority to involve themselves in Vietnam. Also

another reason is because of the Truman Doctrine, this was the

containment of the expansion of communism. This is linked with the

dominoes theory as they basically state the same kind of thing, if one

country falls to communism it will spread. America did not want

communism to spread so they involved themselves in the war to contain

the spread of it. However another reason might have been to undermine

communism and spread capitalism all over the world. All of these are

reasons why the USA got involved in Vietnam they all link with on

another as the main purpose of them getting involved is to stop the

spread of communism and to perhaps spread capitalism.

History

Vietnamcoursework question 1

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