At the same time they tried to create a strong non-communist South Vietnam under the leadership of Diem. By the late 1950s, the communist rebels in South Vietnam declared a revolutionary struggle against Diem, so as to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. In turn, by the 1960s the USA became more and more alarmed at this prospect, leading to further intervention in Vietnam to stop this. When Kennedy was inaugurated he inherited many crises around the globe, the most pertinent was the loss of Cuba. After the well known Bay of Pigs fiasco, he felt he was advised that he needed a foreign policy success.
It is very probable that once Johnson had escalated the war, he became aware of the underlying American military weaknesses. However, the initial escalation in the years 1965-68 was due to Johnson beliefs that military victory would be easy especially as credible large America was against a small Vietnam. The 1964 gulf of Tonkin resolution gave Johnson unlimited military power, which is clearly larger in the USA than Vietnam. The resolution had been drawn up before the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which indicates Johnson was hunting for an opportunity to get it passed, as he knew he could escalate with a strong military. Years later Johnson even admitted ‘for all I know, our navy was shooting at whales out there’.
President Eisenhower’s main objective was to gain international peace, this had been his previous focus while in NATO. On April 7, 1954 President Eisenhower gave a historic press conference trying to gain congressional and public support for the United States to increase their aid to the French. The United States officials were nervous that a victory by Ho Chi Minh may cause a communist regime that would gain control of Vietnam. Eisenhower was very concerned with something called the
How far do you agree that the ‘Domino Theory’ explains US intervention in South East Asia in the 1950’s? The Domino theory is a significant motive in explaining US intervention in Vietnam, as not only the government accepted it, but the wider American Public did as well. However, there are other factors that influenced the US at the time, such as the Power vacuum in Vietnam after Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva accords and the loss of China to communism. The Domino theory is the theory that if one country ‘falls’ to communism then that communism would spread until all the countries have ‘fallen’ to it. The US intervened because of this as there was a great fear of communism around at the time.
This is known as Ridgeways revival as he got the UN forces back in the war and stalemate for the rest of the war. This was a success as the Chinese attack overwhelmed the US/UN forces meaning they had to retreat, but Ridgeway got them back into the war. The main military failure was Macarthur Provoking the Chinese. As he ordered the troops to push further north towards the Yalu River, China saw this as the beginning of an attack on them so they intervened. Not only for this reason did China attack the US, but also Mao Zedong wanted to strengthen his position in china and thought attacking the US would do so.
President Kennedy increased US involvement in Vietnam for many reasons, varying from his strong hatred of communism to his need for proving the doubters that thought he was an insufficient president wrong. Historians such as Sanders, Betts and Bornet argue and stress several factors that lead to increased US involvement, stating that some factors had a greater influence over Kennedy’s involvement in Vietnam. For instance, Kennedy’s campaign rhetoric, the domino theory and insurgency in the 3rd world are all other explanations for Kennedy’s decisions in Vietnam, but some reasons have more significance than others. Kennedy was born in to a wealthy, Irish Catholic, democratic family. His catholic family loathed communism, he was taught to hate it as it went against his religion and jeopardised his family’s wealth.
How successful was the west in containing communism in Europe up to 1949? INTRODUCTION A successful American foreign policy must be able to contain threats of communism and at the same time win over allies. FIRST PARAGRAPH The Truman Doctrine was a policy established after President Roosevelt died in 1945 and Truman became his successor. After realizing that the USA could no longer continue with their policy of isolationism if the spread of communism was to be halted. To defend the US and other countries from the rapidly developing ideology Truman believed that the USA would have to become more active in world affairs and provide support to other countries, financially and military, that were under threat.
To help counter that threat Truman started secretly sending money as well as supplies to help back the French forces against Ho Chi Minh's forces (Schomp The Vietnam War 5). This led Ho to seek help from China and the Soviet Union, which made Ho favorable towards communism (Schomp The Vietnam War 5). Although the United States was not directly involved in the war until 1955, they did still indirectly play a role in the move against Ho Chi Minh's forces. In an attempt to regain control, France left the French educated, strongly anti-communist Bao Dai in control of the region ("Vietnam War"). This enraged Ho Chi Minh, and his forces immediately rose up seizing the northern city of Hanoi, creating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam ("Vietnam War").
I could blame the defeat which would have been the result of my action on him and come out as Peacemaker…But I had a greater obligation than to think only of the years of my administration and of the next election. I had to think of the effect of my decision on the next generation and on the future of peace and freedom in America and in the world.” However, this idealistic standpoint was mere propaganda. In private, President Nixon would favour a more militant and aggressive approach. This contradictory position not only exposed Nixon’s vulnerability to public opinion, but also his disillusion and misunderstanding of the complexities of such a war. It is imperative to understand the factors which influenced President Nixon’s strategies and decision making during the Vietnam War.
This meant more power for their empire. This is why Britain backed France as they didn’t want Germany to gain land as they could potentially get more land and a bigger empire than Britain. In the long term this caused problems between Britain and Germany because they was both power hungry and the thought of another country having a bigger empire or navy made them angry. Wilhelm tested the Entente Cordiale again in 1911 when he demanded compensation