United States' Involvement in the Vietnam War
Source Based
Source A is about US fear of communism. The nature of this source is a
presidential speech to the US public. It is clear that source A is a
primary source as it says on the bottom 'president Lyndon B Johnson
speaking in April 1965.' That shows that the source is a primary one.
There is a great possibility that the US presidential advisors
produced this source to give president Lyndon B Johnson a speech to
publish in front of the US public, one month after operation 'Rolling
Thunder', which was a military operation, in which the US forces used
massive fire power against North-Vietnamese forces. The aim and
purpose of this source is to persuade the US public to back and
understand the United States' violence in Vietnam, and to justify the
president's actions in Vietnam to his nation.
After the Second World War, France found it difficult to maintain
control over indo-china. America supplied $1.2 billion of military aid
to the French forces but in 1954, after a serious defeat in the battle
of Dien Bien Phu, the French government decided to withdraw from
Vietnam. At the Geneva conference, May 1954, it was agreed that
elections would be held within two years and that in the meantime
Vietnam would be divided into two halves with North Vietnam under the
control of communist, Ho Chi Minh. These elections did not take place
and the United States continued to supply military aid and advisors to
help protect South Vietnam from communist guerrillas (national
liberation front).
On August 2nd 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the US
destroyer Maddox. The United States government retaliated by bombing
North Vietnamese naval bases and oil refineries. In March 1965,
president Lyndon B Johnson started sending troops to South Vietnam to
protect a government that appeared to be in danger of falling to the
