Involved In Vietnam
Why Did the USA Become Increasingly Involved in Vietnam?
The Vietnam War- one of the bloodiest, grimmest, and most trying times of the Cold War. A war that many believed was fought in vain and without purpose and that “…produced no famous victories, no national heroes and no patriotic songs…” A war that threw the USA into public disdain for intervening where intervention was not needed; for causing bloodshed when none was called for- and all in the name of a failed policy of Containment and the miscalculated Domino Theory. However, in order to explain why the USA became increasingly involved in Vietnam, it is necessary to go into background detail as to why it became involved in Vietnam in the first place.
Before the Second World War, Vietnam …show more content…
Money, military equipment and advisors were sent along to support the new government. A guerilla war took place for eight years, in which both sides fought furiously against each other, ending with a crushing French defeat in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. Furthermore, this resulted in the 1954 peace conference in Geneva where Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam and future elections were put in place to decide its fate. This defeat was a blow in many ways to the Americans: firstly, the French had lost thousands in battle and secondly, a small Asian state had managed to gain the upper hand over a modern, well equipped, rich European state.
Fearing that Communists would win in the upcoming elections, the USA intervened and prevented the elections taking place. This was a result of a newly adopted policy of determination and ignorance, headed by a theory known as the Domino theory. Simply put, Eisenhower, the American president, and his secretary of state JF Dulles, thought that should Vietnam fall to Communism, it would result in the countries around it- Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and India- eventually falling to Communism, just like a row of dominoes- and a Communist South Asia was not an option for the …show more content…
He believed that the South Vietnamese forces would not be able to keep out the North Vietnamese for long- they would need major help in the form of a much more aggressive war (this was due to South Vietnamese peasants warming up to communism after harsh treatment by Diem’s regime). This led to him planning a bombing of North Vietnam in 1964 which was preceded by the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in July 1964 where two American ships were attacked by North Vietnamese gunboats in international waters. In retaliation, Johnson made the USA more involved in the war by sending a further 150,000 troops to fight against the North
The Vietnam War- one of the bloodiest, grimmest, and most trying times of the Cold War. A war that many believed was fought in vain and without purpose and that “…produced no famous victories, no national heroes and no patriotic songs…” A war that threw the USA into public disdain for intervening where intervention was not needed; for causing bloodshed when none was called for- and all in the name of a failed policy of Containment and the miscalculated Domino Theory. However, in order to explain why the USA became increasingly involved in Vietnam, it is necessary to go into background detail as to why it became involved in Vietnam in the first place.
Before the Second World War, Vietnam …show more content…
Money, military equipment and advisors were sent along to support the new government. A guerilla war took place for eight years, in which both sides fought furiously against each other, ending with a crushing French defeat in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu. Furthermore, this resulted in the 1954 peace conference in Geneva where Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam and future elections were put in place to decide its fate. This defeat was a blow in many ways to the Americans: firstly, the French had lost thousands in battle and secondly, a small Asian state had managed to gain the upper hand over a modern, well equipped, rich European state.
Fearing that Communists would win in the upcoming elections, the USA intervened and prevented the elections taking place. This was a result of a newly adopted policy of determination and ignorance, headed by a theory known as the Domino theory. Simply put, Eisenhower, the American president, and his secretary of state JF Dulles, thought that should Vietnam fall to Communism, it would result in the countries around it- Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma and India- eventually falling to Communism, just like a row of dominoes- and a Communist South Asia was not an option for the …show more content…
He believed that the South Vietnamese forces would not be able to keep out the North Vietnamese for long- they would need major help in the form of a much more aggressive war (this was due to South Vietnamese peasants warming up to communism after harsh treatment by Diem’s regime). This led to him planning a bombing of North Vietnam in 1964 which was preceded by the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in July 1964 where two American ships were attacked by North Vietnamese gunboats in international waters. In retaliation, Johnson made the USA more involved in the war by sending a further 150,000 troops to fight against the North