US Involvement in Vietnam

?

Background – Before and during WWII

  • France ruled Indochina (Vietnam) before WWII
  • During war, Japanease ruled Vietman brutally (causing a strong Japanease ressitance called Viet Minh) until the end of WWII
  • When WWII ended, Viet Minh controlled the north of Vietnam, in 1945 VM entered city of Hanoi and declared Vietnamease indipendance and wanted to rule Vietnam again.
  • This caused 9 years of war between the Vietnamease and French
1 of 7

French involvement and Dien Bien Phu

  • China used Viet Minh as their communist puppets
  • Because of this, America poured $500 million a year into the French war effort
  • France underestimated Viet Minh who were heavily helped by Russian and Chinese millitary support
  • Battle of Dien Bien Phu, November 1953
2 of 7

Geneva Conference

  • Because of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, May 1954 Britain, France, China, USSR, USA and Vietnam met in Geneva, Switzerland
  • They were to decide future of Vietnam
  • Agreed on withdrawl of French troops, ceasefire and a new territory settlement
  • New countries Laos and Cambodia formed
3 of 7

Domino Theory

  • The idea that neighbouring countries will follow communism
  • US government used theogy to justify supoort of South Vietnam as it was against the communist North Vietmnam
  • Though communist regimes did arise in Laos and Cambodia after 1975 when North Korea wins, communism failed to spread throughout the rest of Southeast Asia
4 of 7

Supporting and overthrowing Diem

  • Ngo Dinh Diem was president of Vietnam 1954 - 1963
  • Votes for election were rigged for him
  • Anti-Communist, rich Catholic, unlike most Vietnamese (mostly poor Buddhists)
  • Diem supported rich land-ownders and persecuted monks (some monks protested by setting themselves on fire)
  • Hunted Viet Minh and supporters, executed and locked up enemies
  • Viet Minh (now Viet Cong.) started guerrilla war against Diem
  • 1963, CIA agreed to an operation that gave a group of SV army generals $40,000 to overthrow Diem
  • He ended up getting shot
  • By 1961, 20,000 VC guerrillas in SV
5 of 7

Military advisers and Strategic Hamlets

  • American soldiers were known as advisers, weren't meant to to send troops offically, 60,000 in SV in 1964
  • The strategic hamlet programme was to isolate the rural population and local villages from contact with and influence by the Viet Cong
  • Moved whole villages in fenced (barb wire), enclosure-like, millitary bases
  • Was a faliure as it alienated more rural Vietnamese than it helped and contributing to the growth in influence of the VC
  • After Diem was overthrown in 1963, the program was cancelled.
6 of 7

Gulf of Tonkin and military involvement

  • Turning point
  • Gulf of Tonkin, busy waterway, 2nd August 1964, NV torpeado boats attacks US warship USS Maddox
  • Torpeado didn't explode
  • Maddox fires back, fighter planes sink 1 torpeado boat and damage 2 more
  • 4th August, USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report being fired on by torpeado boats
  • President Johnson ordered air force to attack NV gunboat bases
  • Johnson proposed 'Gulf of Tonkin Resolution', gave him power to defend US forces and SV in whatever he see fit
7 of 7

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar History resources:

See all History resources »See all The USA - twentieth century change resources »