But one of the hardest battle’s for the US was to keep their own countries support. In this essay I will be exploring the main factors of the Vietnam war between 1960-1975, looking at how they changed before, during and after ORT. Before ORT took place the aims of the US Government were to stop communist taking over South Vietnam (SV). As they feared that the Domino Theory would affect countries who were still capitalist. The rise in communist countries was increasing as other countries close to each other would follow the same route as nearby countries.
Beginning in the 1950s, maintaining a non-Communist South Vietnam became crucial in American efforts to contain communism. What was the nation's justification for its actions in South Vietnam in the 1950s and its determination to abide by the outcome of free elections there only if those elections yielded a non-Communist leader? For a long time the United States were in fear of the threat of communism stemming from a direct attack and the aspect of the Cold War, played a vital role in the fears. In the beginning the Vietnam War was first thought to be just another Cold War between northern and southern Vietnam. While the United States was nervous of Communism consuming the entire globe.
It could also be argued that Truman continued to be involved due to the domestic opinion on communism at the time. The fear of communism was strong in the USA, due to China’s fall to communism; it could be asserted that it was a wakeup call for the president. Truman was slated for his lack of involvement in preventing the spread; as a result the Red Scare and McCarthyism emerged. Truman feared that he may lose elections as many of the population believed he was soft on communism, so he became increasingly involved to show that US was a defender of democracy and capitalism, attempting to ‘keep communism at bay’. The end of WW2 saw the USSR rearm and get nuclear weapons; there was also talk of communism seeking to expand.
One of the main reason's why Eisenhower decided to increase the involvement of the US in South east Asia was because France was threatening that if he did not send more troops to support the French in Dien Bien then French troops would pull out of indo china. If the French were to pull out of indo china, this would have resulted in the loss of a crucial ally in fighting communism for the US, and so this was one of the main reasons why Eisenhower increase US involvement in south east Asia in the years 1954-1963. However Kennedy holds far more responsibility for the escalation of the US involvement in South east Asia, as even though Eisenhower increased the number of US personnel in south east Asia, Kennedy dramatically increase the number, as in December 1962 there were 11,300 US military personnel stationed in south Vietnam. The aim of
They feared that communism would spread and become popular in the US. Their greatest fear of all was that the Americans themselves would become communists. The US didn't like Castro for two reasons. First, Castro's relationship with Nikita Khrushchev was very positive which the Americans did not like. Second, Castro was a charismatic communist and the US government feared that communism would spread.
Harry Truman is an important figure in relation to Vietnam as it was him who made the decision to oppose communism throughout the world. In relation to US support for France, the Truman administration concluded that the French were invaluable allies against Communism in both Indochina and Europe, and therefore deserving of American assistance. However, many articulate Vietnamese were unhappy with French rule, which resulted in a small Vietnamese nationalist group in espouse of Communism grown up in exile under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Consequently, Truman offered $10 million to support the French military effort, and established a US Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) in Saigon. This assistance then increased, as by the end of the year, the US had given France $100 million, along with aircraft, patrol boats, napalm bombs and ground combat machinery.
The main reason for the USA’s military intervention in the Korean war was that of containment. The American aims was to work with its allies to contain the spread of soviet and communist Chinese power using political, economic and if necessary military pressures. Any failure of containment was potentially disastrous. According to the USA the loss of SK might well lead to a chain reaction leading to the loss of much of the rest of Asia, including Japan. This was called the domino theory.
Many people ask the question, “Why did the U.S. even care about the Vietnam conflict, let alone fight a war there?” One Reason for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict was that the U.S. feared the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is where if one state falls to communism, then all the other states around it will fall into communism too. Because the U.S. feared this, they responded with containment. Containment means to keep communism from spreading to other countries. Another reason for U.S. involvement is imperialism, which was left over from WWI and WWII.
Another reason to why America is to blame is after the success of the atomic bomb the members of the Grand Alliance began to see changes in Truman’s behaviour as he started to control the meetings they had and Stalin refused to be bossed around so arguments between Stalin and Truman started, they started. The USSR is to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance for many reasons. One reason is that the USSR wanted to impose big respirations on Germany but America and Great Britain refused as they knew how it would affect Germany and could cause another war. A second reason is that Stalin wanted most of Europe to become communist, Roosevelt and Churchill didn’t agree. After Truman became Americas new President there was a lot of tension at the Potsdam Conference.
Mao criticised Khrushchev for his policies such as de-Stalinisation and his secret speech. He was also very critical of the policy of Peaceful Coexistence as he believed it was a way of being friendly with the United States (the enemy) and also Mao saw it abandoning millions of comrades struggling to free themselves of capitalist and imperialist oppression. This, therefore, made the USSR an ‘enemy’. How could two countries work together if they had such differing beliefs about how to run their countries? This problem had a big contribution to the split as they couldn’t agree on anything, and if they did, it was because their national interests were at risk.