Vietnampathtowar

=**VIETNAM - THE PATH TO WAR **=

You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict during the Cold War ... but why? What was America's "path to war"? Using the resources below and Creating America, your task this evening is to write a description in YOUR OWN WORDS of the causes of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Pretend you are writing it as a summary for on online encyclopedia or textbook. Your description should ...


 * be between two and four paragraphs
 * contain the following terms - France, Ho Chi Minh, communism, Ngo Dinh Diem, military advisors, Gulf of Tonkin
 * be IN YOUR OWN WORDS (remember, it's easy to check this online)
 * contain two images THAT RELATE TO YOUR WRITING
 * Should end with the first Marines landing in Vietnam in 1965

The Vietnam Wat was a horribly tragic affair that lasted for many years. People wonder why it started and why it lasted so long. The truth is, the War really began in WWII. The US was trying to prevent the Japanese from expanding any more into Southeast Asia, which caused them to get involved with Vietnam. To stop the spread of Japanese power, the US gave money to a group of Japanese Gorilla fighters, led by Ho Chi Minh. This group of fighters, along with their communist leader, won over many large areas in the Northern parts of Vietnam. When Japan eventually surrendered in WWII, they pulled their troops from Vietnam, which gave Vietnamese fighters a chance to stand up to the French men that ruled them. Ho wrote a Declaration of Independence that made Vietnam a free country.

Amidst all of this, the US had many problems of its own. President Truman was worried about the growing power of the Soviet Union; they had spread communism throughout many parts of Eastern Europe. Truman thought that it was America's duty to stop the spread of communism. French was more widly viewed as a democracy, and soon became America's ally. The French also wanted to regain their colonies in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. So when Ho Chi Minh started asking for help the the US, and when Truman didn't respond, he turned to other communist powers for help. Then, when a communist leader took over China, the US started to pay more attention to the communist powers spreading in Southeast Asia. While all this was happening, the French were fighting the Vietamese to regain control over them. Many communist powers were backing Vietnam, and so the US gave economic support to the French to prevent Vietnam from becoming a communist power. When Dwight D. Eisenhower becames President, he and his military advisors worried that if vietnam became communist, that the rest of Southeast Asia would follow. This was called the domino theory. To prevent the French from getting involved in a war, Vietnam was divided at the 17th paralell. The Vietnamese people were going to elect a leader, but the US didn't want them to have a communist leader, so the elections never took place.

The US began to provide support for Southern Vietnam, and to Ngo Dinh Diem. Although the southern half of Vietnam was not communist, there were many people that were for communism. They formed a group called the Nation Liberation Front, and they wanted to overthrow Ngo, and make North and South Vietnam. The NLF then, with the help of North Vietnam, carried out many horrible attacks. The leader of the Soviet Union then gave some terrifying news, but not surprising; he would back all groups that were spreading communism. This solidified America's fear that the communists were set on taking over the world. JFK saw that South Vietnam was the only was to stop the spreading of communism. He sent troops over to Vietnam to teach them how to fight. North Korea was getting upset about the American favoritism for the South, and Diem was loosing all support he had for his rule. The US decided to remove him from power. A new leader was placed in South Vietnam, and the US supported him in hopes of building a strong government in the South. It was hard, and their leader wasn't strong enough to do so.

Then, when a US destroyer was patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin, a Northern Vietnamese boat started firing torpedoes at the Destroyer. Two weeks later, they reported being attacked again. President Johnson sent out planes to air raid on North Vietnam, and congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave him the right to do whatever necessary to stop attacks on the US. Even because of this, North Vietnam was still making attacks on Americans. They then made an attack that killed 8 Americans, and wounded others. South Vietnam had also gotten a new leader, which didn't make them any stronger. President Johnson then agreed to the air raid bombing of North Vietnam, called Operation Rolling Thunder. The US hoped this would push the North to peace talks, which it didn't. The south's army was also failing, so the President sent in troops. Truman eventually sent more troops, including the marines.