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How Did The Cold War Influence The Vietnam War?

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How Did The Cold War Influence The Vietnam War?
USA were extremely cautious to fight in a direct war with each other (source 11). This meant that the USSR was only able to support North Vietnam through supplying China with arms who in turn would arm the North Vietnamese (source 11). Nevertheless, the Vietnam war was still composed of the “classic Cold War” scenario (source 11), as there was support from the Capitalist west as well as support from the communist East in conflict against each other.

In addition, the opposing ideologies of the Cold War further influenced the Vietnam war. The first leader of South Vietnam was Ngo Dinh Diem (source 11) who was anti-communist due to his religious beliefs. Ngo Dinh Diem was Christian and therefore did not support communism (religion was prohibited …show more content…
In the USA many anti-war protests were taking place to end the Vietnam War. (source 14). Many US citizens felt betrayed by their government after receiving news of the Tet Offensive(source 14), which eventually resulted in the US withdrawing from the Vietnam war through 'Vietnamisation' (source 14).This was President Nixon's Vietnam Policy which aimed to train Vietnamese troops so that they could take over the war and the USA could withdraw from Vietnam.(source 14). Distrust in the US government grew even further.(source 12)
Another example of a more immediate effect was the large number of deaths during the war. (source 12).Massive bombings by the USA also resulted in a stagnant economy in Vietnam (source 16). The US army used herbicides which destroyed the natural environment which in turn affected the economy extensively, as Vietnam had an agricultural system (source 12); they also used Napalm to burn Villages and forests(source 8). Eventually Vietnam had one of the poorest economies in the world (source …show more content…
The Domino Theory was based on the idea that if one state became communist, then its' neighbouring states would inevitably become communist too (source 15); thus the USA's belief that the communist influence in South Vietnam would lead to a communist takeover in the whole of South-East Asia (source 11). Due to this, the USA decided to intervene in the struggle between the non-communist South and the Communist North (source 11), bringing the Cold War context into Vietnam (source
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