US INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM

The Domino Theory was an American idea. It was created by President Eisenhower as a part of the USA`s foreign policy in 1954. It is the idea that if one country falls to communism, so will others around it.

France took over Vietnam in 1887 and ruled it until they gained independence during WW2. However, after gaining their freedom, the Japanese took over in 1940 and remained there till the end of the war until the Viet minh helped to liberate the country. Their communist values are what lead the US to involve themselves in Vietnam. 

The Geneva Conference was held in 1954 in Geneva, Switzerland. It produced the Geneva Accords - documents that decided that Vietnam was to be spilt in two with the north governed by the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh and the south by the State of Vietnam. It was attended by the US the UK, China, Laos, Cambodia, the Vietminh and the USSR

The US originally supported Diem as he was a capitalist. He was president from 1954 to 1963 despite only being supposed to have 2 years in office while elections were sorted, However these elections never took place as it was clear that Ho Chi Minh would have won due to his popularity among the people. The US ignored Diem`s problems as he was anti-communist until 1963 when president Kennedy used $40,000 to overthrow Diem. Although all they wanted was to get him out of government, Diem and his brother were shot during the takeover.

Strategic hamleting was a military stratagy that had the CIA move villages in the south away from communist areas from 1960-63. It was not a sucess as there was no way to tell the difference between a vietcong soldier and an innocent civilian, also the villagers moved hated the americans for forcing them from their land and livlelihoods so if anything support for the Vietcong increased.

The Gulf of Tonkin was made of two seperate incidents involving north Vietnamese and US ships. It is claimed that the US ships were attcked by NV . The americans were not supposed to be in the waters and the supposed attacks drew them further into the war. Controversy was created after it appeared that many of the allegations were false. However, the US used the attack to become more involved in the Vietnam war and as an excuse to attack the north.