Us Involvement in the Vietnam War

United States' Involvement in the Vietnam War
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Vietnam in South East Asia had always been a desirable country. Since
the 19th century, it was ruled by France and called Indo China. Apart
form one rebellion in 1930, France had total control of the country
until they surrendered to Germany in the Second World War in 1940.
Japan, Germany's ally, took control of Vietnam and the resources in
it, such as coal, rice, rubber, railways and roads. An anti-Japanese
resistance organisation, which was called the Viet Minh and led by Ho
Chi Minh, a communist, was formed. At the end of the war, the Viet
Minh controlled the North Vietnam and had ambitions to control the
rest. Japan had gone when they entered Hanoi in 1945 and declared
Vietnamese independence. When war broke out between France and Vietnam
in 1946 because the French wanted to regain control of Vietnam, the
Viet Cong, which was a communist-supporting group against the
Americans set up in the South of Vietnam, used guerrilla tactics
against the French. These involved hit and run raids and other tactics
that the French hadn't experienced before and made them almost
impossible to beat.

To begin with, the USA was sympathetic towards the Viet Minh because
they viewed the situation as Vietnam wanting to have independence and
they did not agree with countries having colonies anyway. However in
1949, when communists took over China and began to give help to Ho Chi
Minh, the USA became afraid that the Viet Minh were the puppets of
China. The Americans then became increasingly involved in Vietnam
because they hated communism and were very much afraid of a communist
spread. They feared the Domino effect, which meant that if Vietnam
fell to communism, they expected nearby countries such as Cambodia,
Laos, Thailand, Burma and India to become communist one after the
other, very quickly. The USA had a policy known as the Truman
Doctrine, which meant that they... [continues]

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