Review: Why Did The United States Have Interests In Vietnam From 1945-1963
Trenton Wieberg. HIS-350-O. Before 1960, what struggles did the Vietnamese have in gaining independence? Why did the United States begin to have interests in Vietnam from 1945 to 1963?
“President Franklin D. Roosevelt seems instinctively to have recognized that colonialism was doomed and that the United States should identify with the forces of nationalism in Asia” (Herring, 9). These words seem so ironic would compared the course of actions that United States politicians would take concerning Vietnam. Americans became interested in Southeast Asia and Vietnam at the turn of the 20th century, when they became involved in Hawaii and the Philippines. However, it was not largely until the 1930’s did Americans become largely involved in mainland Southeast Asia. This was due to their increasing alarm over Japanese forced acquisitions of territories, sections of China and surrounding countries, and their move into Indochina. Americans relied on Southeast Asia for “about 90 percent of [their] crude rubber and 75 percent of [their] tin” (George Herring, 9). As long as politicians of allied countries of the United States controlled these territories, the independent countries’ politicians were allied with Americans, or Americans controlled …show more content…
For example, in 1884 Jules Ferry justified the desire for continued colonialism through three sets of ideas. “…Colonial expansion is a political and economic system…that can be connected to three sets of ideas: economic ideas; the most far reaching ideas of civilization; and the ideas of a political and patriotic sort.” They needed natural resources for the endless amounts the industrial revolution caused for them. Along with the belief they were superior to citizens of countries that were not industrialized. Finally, they needed to establish more military presence around the world to complete with other Western European countries (Jules Ferry,
“President Franklin D. Roosevelt seems instinctively to have recognized that colonialism was doomed and that the United States should identify with the forces of nationalism in Asia” (Herring, 9). These words seem so ironic would compared the course of actions that United States politicians would take concerning Vietnam. Americans became interested in Southeast Asia and Vietnam at the turn of the 20th century, when they became involved in Hawaii and the Philippines. However, it was not largely until the 1930’s did Americans become largely involved in mainland Southeast Asia. This was due to their increasing alarm over Japanese forced acquisitions of territories, sections of China and surrounding countries, and their move into Indochina. Americans relied on Southeast Asia for “about 90 percent of [their] crude rubber and 75 percent of [their] tin” (George Herring, 9). As long as politicians of allied countries of the United States controlled these territories, the independent countries’ politicians were allied with Americans, or Americans controlled …show more content…
For example, in 1884 Jules Ferry justified the desire for continued colonialism through three sets of ideas. “…Colonial expansion is a political and economic system…that can be connected to three sets of ideas: economic ideas; the most far reaching ideas of civilization; and the ideas of a political and patriotic sort.” They needed natural resources for the endless amounts the industrial revolution caused for them. Along with the belief they were superior to citizens of countries that were not industrialized. Finally, they needed to establish more military presence around the world to complete with other Western European countries (Jules Ferry,