Us Policy Of Containment Flashcards
Topic Sentence:
The policy of containment was a underlying (long-term) cause of the US military involvement in Vietnam
Link:
As we haven’t got to the event itself yet, you might like to end your link part with something like this:
“US Involvement began with financial support for the French in the First Indocina war but cluminated in American ‘boots on ground’ in Vietnam by 1965
Timothy Lynch
“What compelled and justified America’s escalation was competition with global communism”
Nick Turse
“The United States wasn’t inserting itself into a far away civil war but taking steps to contain a communist menacw”
Max Hastings
On the significance of US aid to the French in the first Indochina war notes,
“Without military aid, Paris’s colonial policy would have collapsed overnight”
Explanation of cause
The cold war, on the side of the USA, was to stop the spread of communism as quickly as possible with a phenomenon known as the ‘red scare’ coming about. As the Chinese Civil War came to a close and the communists won, it demonstrated to the US how communism was spreading and that the power balance was shifting in Asia.
The Korean War
The US backed the democratic south of Korea during The Korean War (1950-53), important due to despite the war coming at a terrible cost, it showed the US that military intervention could stop the spread of communism.
Eisenhower on Domino Theory
“You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly” - Eisenhower, April7, 1954
He felt that if the French failed to stop the Viet Minh and Vietnam falls to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow.
The Truman Doctrine
Harry S. Truman was the President of the US following WW2 from 1945-1953.
His response to Soviet expansion, known as the ‘Truman Doctrine’ came to define how the Cold War would be fought. It was a policy of containment that urged the US government to do everything in its power to stop the spread of the Soviet Union and communism.
US funding for First Indochina War
In response to the Chinese Communists taking over in 1949, US contributed $23 million in 1949 to support France fighting against the Viet Minh.
By 1954 they were funding 80% of the French War. While congress refused to send military support for French at Dien Bien Phu, President Eisenhower covertly sent unmarked US planes to drop supplies for the French.
S Karnow on Navarre’s fundamental error
“Summing up Navarre’s fundamental error, a French War College study concluded that he and his staff had wrongly disregarded intelligence that did not fit their prejudices, and instead subsituted their preconceived idea of the Viet Minh for the facts […] He misread Giap’s ability to move a huge force rapidly […] He rejected the notion that the Viet Minh could devastate his men with artillery deployed on the hills aboce Dien Bien Phu […] He failed to anticipate that Giap’s howitzers, poised with easy range of his airstrip could cut off flights in and out of the valley […] He chose a terrain presumed suitable for tanks only to discover that its cover of thick bush entangled armoured vehicles.” - S Karnow, Vietnam, A History, Penguin, 1984
What did France hope for in Dien Bien Phu
- Hoped for a decisive defeat of the Viet Minh
- Negotiate from a position of strength at the Paris Peace Conference to be held in Geneva
What did Viet Minh hope for in Dien Bien Phu
- Hoped for an advantage at the negotiating table
- End of French dominance within Vietnam
- Bolster their efforts for gaining independence at the Peace conference in Geneva
Viet Minh Tactics
- ‘Steady attack, steady advance’ General Giap
- French strength lay in its defensive formations, but this left them exposed and vulnerable
- Took control of all roads to Dien Bien Phu, meaning France could only rely on the use of their air-field
- Held the high ground
- Use of Guerrilla warfare
- Camouflage; remaning hidden by jungle and mountains
57 Days of Hell
- Underground trenches from the mountains down to the plains to within 400m of the French positions
- Viet Minh slowly suffocate French resources and army
- 13 March 1954 outpost of Beatrice, had been taken. Two days later Gabrielle and Anne-Marie followed.
- 27th March Viet Minh artillery had closed the airfield and the French central command post
