Vietnam+-+Path+To+war

Vietnam - The Path To War During the cold war the U.S was involved in a major military conflict in Vietnam. Why did we get involved with what was happening in southeast asia? In the late 1800s vietnam was a french colony. Then, in the 1930s Ho Chi Minh led a communist revolt and fled to China and USSR, due to the fear of being arrested by the french. After that, in the 1940s indochina was taken over by the Japanese in WW11. Ho Chi Minh led a geurilla war against japan. After WWII is over, the french return and gain control of indochina again. Ho Chi Minh forms a vietminh party in order to liberate vietnam, and declare independence in 1945. After a 9 year war, the Vietminh successfully defeated the french in north vietnam and established a communist government in the north.

This all happened in a time when the U.S was working to contain the spread of communism. In 1954 Vietnam is split, and started to have free elctions to unite Vietnam. The elections never happened because Ho Chi Minh would be elected, and ion the late 1950s there is a civil war between the communist north and the american supported south, which leads to war. In the gulf of tonkin tiki boats fired on U.S ships and this stirred anger in the U.S. 5 presidents, including truman, kennedy, and Johnson were very stern on containing and ridding the world of communism. Lyndon Johnson’s first plan was operation rolling thunder, where we could continously drop bombs on vietnam, more bombs than WWII. In 1965, the first U.S ground troops were sent in, and 3,500 marines join 20,000 military advisors. All of these factors started the conflict with Vietnam.