Increased Involvement in Vietnam Under President Eisenhower, 1953-1961 (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Note

Summary

The USA’s involvement in Vietnam was a gradual process. In the decades that followed World War II a new conflict was fought between the USA and the USSR. This became known as the Cold War. Both sides tried to exert power and influence over other nations worldwide. If a country was organised along capitalist and democratic lines, it would likely become an ally of the USA. If a country had a communist government, it could be an ally of the USSR. As a result, both the USA and USSR tried to influence the struggles and wars within nations to ensure they became their allies. As Vietnam fought against France to win its independence in the 1950s, it appeared likely that it would become a communist nation. To prevent this from happening, and to stop the further spread of communism, the USA was slowly dragged into fighting in Vietnam.

The USA and the Cold War

• The USA’s involvement in Vietnam needs to be understood in the context of the Cold War

• Before World War II, several influential countries were known as the ‘Great Powers’

  • The ‘Great Powers’ included:

  • Britain

  • France

  • The USA

  • Germany

  • The USSR

• When World War II ended, the USA and the USSR emerged as the two global superpowers

  • As soon as Germany was defeated, these former war-time allies became locked in a struggle to become the most powerful country in the world

• The invention of nuclear bombs meant fighting a ‘hot war’ would lead to the total destruction of both countries and destroy the world

  • As a result, both sides entered a struggle to control and influence other countries around the world to become their allies

  • This struggle for dominance without directly fighting battles with each other became known as the Cold War

• The world became split into three different types of countries:

  • Democratic, capitalist countries that were allied with the USA

  • Communist countries that were allied with the USSR

  • Non-aligned countries that did not directly support either side

• The more allies that each superpower had, the stronger they became

  • Much of the fighting that occurred during the Cold War took place to prevent either democracy or communism from becoming established

  • These wars, such as the Vietnam War, are known as proxy wars

The ‘Domino’ Theory & Vietnam

• During the 1950s and 1960s, the spread of communism to countries around the world caused great alarm in the USA

  • Communist countries almost always became close allies of the USSR and therefore made the USSR more powerful

  • It appeared to many Americans that if one country became communist, the neighbouring countries soon followed them

  • They likened the spread of communism to a row of dominos falling over and it became known as the ‘Domino’ theory

• People who believed in the theory argued that if the USA intervened and stopped a country from becoming communist, or the domino from falling, they would stop its spread to other nations

  • Many Americans, including President Eisenhower, began to see the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam as being a ‘domino’ that needed to be held up

• Along with Britain, France, Australia and four other countries, President Eisenhower set up the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) in September 1954

  • SEATO was an alliance whose goal was to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia

Vietnam During the First Half of the Twentieth Century

• Vietnam had been part of France’s Empire since the 1800s

  • During World War II, Japan captured Vietnam and it became part of the Japanese Empire

  • When Japan was defeated at the end of World War II, France tried to take back control of Vietnam

• The Vietminh, a communist group led by a man named Ho Chi Minh, was established and went to war with France to establish an independent Vietnam free from foreign control

The Establishment of North and South Vietnam

• The war between France and the Vietminh dragged on for nine years 

  • The guerilla tactics of the Vietminh meant France found it difficult to find and defeat their enemy

  • The Vietminh were supported by the neighbouring communist county of China

  • France was supported by the USA who paid 80% of the cost of the war

• In May 1954 France suffered a defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu

  • Dien Bien Phu convinced the French public and politicians that they should admit defeat and leave Vietnam

• A conference was held in Geneva in 1954 to resolve the situation

  • It was agreed at the Geneva Conference that Vietnam would be divided into two

  • The land north of the 17th parallel would be ruled by Ho Chi Minh and become the communist-controlled Democratic Republic of Vietnam (or North Vietnam)

  • The land south of the 17th parallel was to become the Republic of Vietnam (or South Vietnam) and be led by the anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem

  • Elections were set for 1956 when the people of Vietnam would decide on which government would unite the country

  • These agreements were known as the Geneva Accords

The weakness of Diem’s government

• Ngo Dinh Diem was a Catholic leader of a country that was mostly Buddhist

  • The US backed Ngo Dinh Diem and paid millions of dollars

    • He used the money to enrich himself and his supporters rather than help the poor

  • He brutally persecuted Buddhists and his political opponents which caused him to be increasingly unpopular

  • Buddhist monks protested against the oppression they suffered from Diem by publicly setting themselves on fire 

• Eisenhower feared that Ho Chi Minh would win the upcoming elections so he backed Diem when he refused to hold the vote in 1956 as promised in the Geneva Accords

The emergence of the Vietcong & the Ho Chi Minh Trail

• Diem’s regime was further destabilised by attacks from the Vietcong

  • The Vietcong were communist guerilla soldiers who lived and fought in South Vietnam 

  • They were supported and funded by North Vietnam who sent weapons and supplies along a route that passed through neighbouring Laos and Cambodia

  • This supply route became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail

The National Liberation Front (NLF)

• Diem also came under political attack from the National Liberation Front (NLF)

  • Formed in December 1960, the NLF was a political party that combined nationalists, Buddhists and communists who were united in their desire to overthrow Diem’s government