Reasons for US involvement in Vietnam

Reasons for US involvement in Vietnam

1. The French

   • Vietnam had originally been a French colony before Japan invaded it and took it during WW2
     • French rule had been strict and brutal for the Vietnamese and very few people had liked Vietnam being a French colony
     • The Vietnamese had already been deploying geurilla tactics against the Japanese before they had to surrender after WW2
     • Many of the Vietnamese saw the Japanese invasion as a chance to get independence from the French.
   • When WW2 ended and Japan surrendered and left Vietnam, Vietnam declared itself independent.
     • The French decided that they wanted their colony back in Indo-China and sent French troops to attempt to regain control of Vietnam
       • The Vietnamese started geurilla warfare against the French - little surprise raids against them. These tactics were successful against the French
       • They underestimated the amount of resistance they would meet from the Vietnamese.
     • America was originally sympathetic to their cause - it did not want to see colonialism rise again.
       • It switched it's support over to the French, however, when communism started to become a major issue in Vietnam
         • The USA was spending close to $1 Billion supplying the French with aid in Vietnam
       • Vietnam being independent was originally good for America for this reason - it was one less colony for the British and French and was one step closer to bringing about an end of colonialism
   • The French lost the battle of Dien Bien Phu and decided to leave Vietnam
     • America threatened no more aid if they did, but the French had made up their minds
     • America knew that Vietnam would become communist if they didn't stop them ; no other countries were willing to get involved
       • This caused America to get involved themselves as the USSR's spreading influence (and the spread of communism) was an extreme worry for the USA.

2. The Cold War

   • America was (and still is) an extremely capitalist country
     • Communism was against it's basic structure - capitalism v communism
     • The majority of the American public was staunchly anti-communism
     • Other capitalist countries, in part, expected it to help Vietnam avoid becoming communist
   • America had pledged to stop communism spreading to different countries
     • It feared a domino effect would happen, where, if one country became communist, so would others around it.
     • It also pledged to give aid to any countries trying to stop communism (apart from Balitc states already communist as it feared it would start a war between America and the USSR)
   • It knew that if another country became communist, then the USSR would gain more power due to it having more natural communist allies like China and Cuba
     • America did NOT want the USSR to gain any power as long as it could stop it, as it believed the USSR was evil.
   • China was already communist, meaning if Vietnam fell to communism as well, that would be two asian countries already communist.
     • America knew China could easily supply Vietnam with aid due to it's close proximity