Reasons for early involvement in Vietnam

Economic and Ideological reasons:

• Communism is a threat to the US trade and Democracy.
• Therefore a threat to the safety and wellbeing of America.

Containment Policy

• Truman feared expansion and conflict from Communism
• Into China and East Europe, Greece, Iran, Turkey.
• Truman believed Ho Chi Minh would become puppet to Russian Gov. Kremlin.

US Hostility to China

• 1949 Communist revolution under Chairman Maos, illustrated Communist expansion in Asia.

McCarthy Hysteria and Korean War

• In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy began whipping up a frenzy; fear of communists in the USA.
• In the Korean War, China poured troops into Korea, and American fears of Chinese expansion were confirmed.

Value of French

• Even before the Korean War, America conclued that the French were invaluable allies against communism in Indochina and Europe.
• France was also very important to the stability of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)

By the end of 1950, The USA had given France $100million, aircraft, patrol boats, napalm bombs, and ground combat machinery. Truman had got the USA involved in French dominated Vietnam.