reasons for the US involvement in vietnam

Question 1

what was the background of the vietnam war?

Answer 1

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 viet cong in south vietnam

president Diem ruled south vietnam. he was strongly anti-communist but was also a brutal and unpopular leader

Question 2

who were the viet cong?

Answer 2

the Viet cong or (national liberation front) were the communist guerilla soldiers fighting to overthrow president Diem and his government

by 1964, there were over 100,000 vietcong in the south and they were killing thousands of south vietnamese officials every year

Diems army could not get rid of them

Question 3

why did the americans get involved?

Answer 3

• America said it wanted to “save” the south vietnamese people from the evils of communism
• the americans wanted to ‘contain’ the spread of communism in the world (truman doctrine)
• the us wanted to support non-communist governments which were threatened by communist. it knew that USSR and China, both communis, were sending aid to communist north vietnam
• the americans believed in domino theory - scared that vietnams neighbouring countries - laos, cambodia, thailand would become communist
• Diem was a corrupt and brutal leader who was unpopular. He was a catholic ruling a mainly buddhist country and gave catholics all the best jobs. This meant lots of south vietnamese people didn’t like him and were more likely to start supporting the vietcong

Question 4

what did the americans do to help Diem?

Answer 4

• at first they sent military advisors to train the south vietnamese army (ARVN)
• by november 1963, when johnson took over as president, there were 16,000 military advisors (but many were by now involved in fighting, e.g as helicopter pilots)
• the americans encouraged Diem to force the peasants in areas dominated by the viet cong to live in “strategic hamlets” - villages that were heavily defended against attack, this didn’t work - by 1963 the vietcong controlled about 40% of the rural areas in south vietnam
• Diem was very unpopular because of his corrupt and cruel government. He was killed in 1963 but the leaders who followed were not much better

Question 5

how did johnson escalate the war after 1963?

Answer 5

• at first he just continued the policy of using military advisors as started by kennedy
• but them Ho chi minh sent units of the north vietnamese army into the south to back up the vietcong, Johnson decided to increase american involvement
• the gulf of tonkin incident in august 1964 gave his the excuse to attack the north
• in 1965 he ordered the bombing of north vietnam
• he then ordered US combat troops into action to back up the weak south viet army. Johnson believed that they would lead to a quick defeat of the viet cong
• in march 1965, 3500 marines arrived in vietnam. From now on general westmoreland directed the war in vietnam. by 1968 there were over 500,000 US troops in south vietnam