Vietnam

12 Pages 3057 Words

endence. Many advisors told the U. S. administration that despite being a Communist, Ho Chi Minh was not a puppet of the Soviets and that he could become a valued ally in Asia.
Tensions between the U.S. and the USSR had mounted after World War II, resulting in the Cold War. The foreign policy of the U.S. during the Cold War was driven by a fear of the spread of Communism. Eastern Europe had fallen under the domination of the Communist USSR, and China was ruled by the Communists. U.S. policymakers felt they could not afford to lose Southeast Asia as well to the Communists. The U.S. therefore labeled Ho Chi Minh as an agent of international Communism and offered to assist the French in recapturing Vietnam.
When Dwight D. Eisenhower became President in 1952, war was still raging in Vietnam. Because Truman had supported France, Eisenhower saw no reason to change policy. By 1954 the U.S. had more than three hundred advisors in Vietnam and was paying nearly 78 percent of the war’s costs. Eisenhower believed in the domino theory, that is, if Indochina fell to the Communists then Burma, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, and Indonesia would follow, threatening Australia and New Zealand and other major world powers
That passage there show, that unlike wars and conflicts of today. Conflicts were not fought for more or less control of money (like the Gulf Wars of Today) The U.S was very concerned with the this Domino effect that communist Control of Vietnam would create. The U.S would lose even more ground in South-East Asia and that could not be tolerated. So Americas attitude towards Vietnam was not to control important assets for it’s own Financial gain cause lets face it Vietnams main export was rice and that’s not really a multi billion -dollar industry it was truly to stop the spread of Communism.

In May 1954 the French suffered a humiliating defeat at Dienbienphu. Eisenhower transferred...