He formed the Vietminh, trying to win Vietnam's independence. France, however did not want to release its grasp on Vietnam. French troops moved back into Vietnam and eventually controlled the cities of it's southern half. At this time the United States was at France's aid. During a conference meeting Eisenhower explained his domino theory.
How did we manage to do this? Wiest says in his book, “Across Saigon the Viet Cong used surprise to make initial gains, but failed in their overall objectives due to a quick reaction by powerful U.S. and ARVN forces”. The U.S. knew what was to be expected, but the communists didn’t believe we knew what was about to happen. In an article Zebecki states, “Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a tactical disaster for the Communists. By the end of the March 1968 they had not achieved a single one of their objectives” Not only did we achieve tactical victories but the Tet Offensive ended the Vietnam War
After the failure of that he introduced things such as the strategic hamlets (Agrovilles) which were villages that were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by troops, to isolate National Liberation Front (NFL) guerrillas from political recruits and other responses. In November 1961 Kennedy agreed to provide aircraft, intelligence equipment and additional economic aid which show that he was keen to introduce military forces to Vietnam. But due to the takeover of the NFL this meant that Kennedy had to up his enforcement in Vietnam so he left Johnson with a US military force of 16,000 troops and a commitment to the growing Vietnamese war. Source B also suggests that Kennedy was willing to use military force and it does this by saying “Kennedy would have agreed that withdrawal would case the fall of the dominos” this is suggestion that if Kennedy withdrew from Vietnam then this would be the realisation of the domino theory and everyone would see if Vietnam was the trigger that set of the domino theory. This source shows that Kennedy was willing to us military force and would not withdraw from
The conflict’s roots took shape in July 1954, when France was forced out of Vietnam after one hundred years of colonial rule. In the peace process, the country was partitioned into northern and southern sections, with a U.S.-supported government in the south and a communist republic in the north. On December 20, 1960, the northern Communist Party formed the National Liberation Front (NLF), with the ultimate goal of reunifying the country. In response, U.S. President John F. Kennedy began supplying military equipment and advisors in 1961. Matters escalated when North Vietnam launched an attack against the C. Turner Joy and the U.S.S.
This is because the whole reason Vietnam got involved in the first place was to aid France. Truman wanted to support France because he believed that Vietnam was important for the success of the Cold War as they didn’t want the Communists to expand. So even though there was a clear reason for why Truman should support France there is no clear reason why Eisenhower should stay involved in Vietnam. If he had removed troops earlier, then there would have been no US- Vietnam War. Also the war is Eisenhower’s War because Eisenhower changed tactics since Truman.
The French were not involved in this war but a played a role in how and why it started. After World War II the French had control of Vietnam, The French rule was harsh and once Ho Chi Minh came to rule he tried for independence from French and as this happened communism came about. The U.S.A was worried about the spread of communism in Asia and believed that they too should have a democratic government. What sparked the interest of the United States was the “Domino Theory” which meant that the goal of communism was
Ngo Dinh Diem and his actions had more responsibility as to why there was a growing US involvement in South East Asia. Diem seized power in South Vietnam and declarded himself as president before ruling as a dictator. Diem was a catholic who ruled in a nation where the majority were buddhists. However, this did not stop him from favouring the minority catholics and from setting up harsh policies for the buddhists. Monks began self immolating as a protest of his policies.
Nixon’s main argument is that he won the war in Vietnam but Congress lost it by cutting off aid to South Vietnam. Nixon says his plan all along was to give South Vietnam the tools to their own victory because American combat troops could not win the conflict for them. This would also enable the withdrawal of American troops already stationed in Vietnam. Soon afterwards once the Paris Peace Accords were signed and all troops were out of Vietnam, Nixon felt confident in his strategy. Soon enough though, the North broke its agreement and the U.S had to determine whether or not to start helping the South once again.
But it was not a declaration of war. Then by 1965, more troops were sent to South Vietnam to fight the Viet Cong. The war quickly became an American conflict. The U.S ended up looking bad, and many people opposed the war by 1968 due to the number of casualties of U.S soldiers. On 1973 the last troops were return to the United States by President Nixon promise to withdraw the troops.
The Indochina War (France-Vietnam) began after negotiations were suspended between the Viet-Minh and the French Republic in 1946. United States involvement only began in 1954 because the US wanted to stop the expansion of communism, and inevitably lead to its demise. Because of this, the US backed the South Vietnamese government to ignore the results of the independency negotiations of Geneva in 1954. These treaties specified a general election had to be organized in 1955; however, given the Viet-Minh methods, this election was likely to result in a crushing victory for the Viet-Minh in the North if any other party had been allowed to take part. During the late 1950s, the southern government, which had never been elected, became more and more unpopular.