The US intervened because of this as there was a great fear of communism around at the time. McCarthyism had just become a major issue, with many government officials being accused of being communist and as Truman had lost China, Eisenhower knew that if he ‘lost’ Vietnam, then his popularity would suffer greatly as the US public would think he was soft on communism. As a result, he would not be re-elected. The domino theory was significant because if Indochina fell to communism then there was a risk of the US losing Japan, after the effort the US put into restoring Japan after WW2 and all the trade that came from Japan, the US couldn’t afford for Japan to be threatened. Another significant reason why the US intervened in South East Asia was the power vacuum after Dien Bien Phu.
The world was left in a bipolar power struggle between the two main superpowers, America and the Soviet Union. Stalin, then the leader of the SU wanted to spread communism in order to strengthen the Unions hold on satellite states in Eastern Europe. The US were afraid of the threat of communism, fearful it would spread and cut all ties with their onetime allies. The Soviet Union hardened its attitude towards the West when NATO was formed in 1949 to battle the USSR. One of the major causes of tension was the Berlin blockade which caused an accelerated involvement of the US in Europe.
It significantly highlighted the true conflict involving the US and the USSR, and more importantly the ongoing battle between two opposing ideologies- capitalism and communism. The Korean War began with the communist North’s invasion of South Korea only years after the neighboring China ended its civil conflict and embraced a new Communist Regime under Mao Zedong. Whilst in the West communism had already been threatening to “swallow up” Europe seen through Stalin’s role in Czecoslovakinan Crisis; his disregard for the Yalta-Potsdam Agreements and the mobilized Red Army troops scattered over Eastern Europe. Consequently, the US where experiencing the beginnings of “anti-communist hysteria” due to the domino-effect Communist had had in Asia seen through the Sino-Soviet Pact (1950, and the possible threat of world-communism. In this sense, the Korean War is highly significant because it displayed the new terms of post-World War Two conflict and how difficult it would be to fight a contained War due to the snowballing effect of communism around the world.
To what extent was the Vietnam part of the Cold War? | | | | | | | | The Vietnam War can be seen to be part of the Cold War due to the Americans acting upon their policy of containment and their fear of the Domino Theory. This idea relates to many events in the Cold War. For example the Korean War, where the Americans became involved due to their fear of the Domino Theory, as communism had already spread in China and Indo-China, and now the Soviet-occupied North Korea had attacked the South. The US felt they had no other choice but to act on their policy of containment and fear of the Domino Theory.
However, you shouldn't make the assumption that devotion to ideology was all that was behind Cold War animosity; countries tend to be more complaint trading partners with countries that share their political systems and both Stalin and the Cold War Era presidents in the US knew this. The tension eventually built, but no one wanted to go to actual war again after the colossal massacre of WWII, hence the term Cold War. 2. Describe and explain the ideological differences between the United Stated and the Soviet Union. In 1917, Russia became a communist country with an agenda of converting the world to communism.
Containment was a foreign policy introduced at the start of the Cold War by the United States, aimed at stopping the spread of Communism and keeping it 'contained' and isolated within its current borders, otherwise the 'domino effect' would occur, where if one nation became Communist, the surrounding ones would follow. The doctrine was expanded to cover the world, leading to US involvement in Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan and several other nations. US direct involvement in Korea can be seen as a direct result of the policy of containment. The end of World War II brought the redrawing of boundaries all over the world. Korea, conquered by Japan during the war, was divided at the 38th parallel then given to the USSR in the north and the US in the south.
However, the reasons for US involvement in Korea can’t be explained simply by their interests in Japan. The USA was anti-appeasement as appeasement had failed in the past and they had learnt their lesson from World War 2. Kim in North Korea reminded the USA of Hitler, as Hitler could never be appeased and invaded anyway, just like Kim did when North Korea attacked the South. Also, Containment was part of US foreign policy in 1950, where Communism had to be contained to stop it spreading. This was similar to the Domino Theory
The fear of the spread of communism to Western Europe caused Western European countries to join forces to stop the spread. Communism was the direct opposite ideology of the democratic governments of Western Europe, the aggressive tactics of Russia to spread communism threatened them. If Communism was to enter Western Europe, the USA, Great Britain and other countries would loose crucial trade partners. To prevent this from happening they set up numerous organisations to prevent the economic threat communism portrayed. Most
Therefore, the Russo-Japanese War would be seen to be partly responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution, as the need for change was very clear. However, although it was a major input, the war was not the only reason for the need of a revolution. Huge military defeats were caused by the Russo-Japanese War, which highlighted the weakness of the military and caused national humiliation, thus contributing to the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. An example of such a defeat was in January 1905 when the army had to surrender their Port Arthur naval base in Northern China, which they had the power of before the start of the war. Another example of a great failure of the military was at the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905.
So for example if the allies in the west did not promise to rebuild Germany and try to stop every country from becoming communist when they threatened to even if it through fair vote (rare as it was). It can be argued that the cold war was an avoidable one. Firstly the Russians were very aggressive in creating a buffer zone and in fact created communist states practically all over Eastern Europe and made much more than a buffer zone and Stalin was at the heart of all these communist political movements and was trying to spread his influence to even Italy and France. This worried the west very much because they thought their very freedom was being threatened but more importantly the more states that became communist the less ttade there was. The west needed trade partners in the east and they couldn’t trade with communist states.