The Vietnam War 1

What was the background to the Vietnam War?

- Vietnam was ruled by the French till 1954, then it was divided into two countries.

-  The communist ruler of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, wanted to unite the North and South under his control. He supported the Vietcong in South Vietnam.

- President Diem ruled South Vietnam. He was strongly anti-communist, but was also a corrupt and unpopular leader. 

Who were the Vietcong?

- The Vietcong were the communist branch of the Guerilla Army fighting to overthrow President Diem and his government in the South.

- By 1964, there were over 100,000 Vietcong in the South and they were killing thousands of South Vietnamese officials every year. Diem's army could not get rid of them. 

 - They were ruled by Ho Chi Minh and supported by Russia and China due to their communist beliefs. 

Why did the Americans get involved? 

• - America said it wanted to ‘save’ the South Vietnamese people from the evils of Communism. Remember that this was the time of the Cold War. Americans were obsessed with stopping Communism, both abroad and at home in the USA.

• -  The Americans wanted to "contain" (stop) the spread of Communism in the world (under the poicy of the Truman Doctrine). The USA wanted to support non-Communist governments which were threatened by Communists, such as Diem. It knew that the USSR and China, both Communist-ruled, were sending aid to Communist North Vietnam.

• -  The Americans also believed in the "domino theory". If Vietnam became Communist, they were sure that neighbouring countries (e.g. Laos, Cambodia, Thailand) would do so too, and therefore further threaten the rest of the world, too, and the Red Scare was whipped up by Senator John McCarthy. 

• -  Diem was a corrupt and brutal leader, who was very unpopular. He was a Catholic ruling a mainly Buddhist country and gave Catholics all the best jobs. This meant lots of South Vietnamese people did not like him and were more likely to start supporting the Vietcong. 

• -   The Golf of Tonkin incident in 1964…