Vietnam War

2 . How did the United States become involved in Vietnam and why did Vietnam represent a cornerstone of Free World in Southeast Asia

After World War II , President Truman and other western allies viewed the Communism popularized by the Soviet Union and China would pose as the greatest postwar threat . A turning point for Asia came in December 1949 when Chinese communist forces won the civil war in China and U .S had widespread fears about Southeast Asia (Vietnam , Laos , Cambodia , and Thailand ) falling prey into the hands of communism . To avoid the

"domino effect , the U .S . assumed a policy of "containment " regarding communism . Containment of the Soviet Union became the American policy in the postwar years . In the Truman Doctrine , he declared that US needs to support people who are fighting against communism . He asked Congress to provide 400 million for economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey and this money was then appropriated (Schulzinger , 1997

In 1945 , France had attempted to regain control of its Southeast Asian colonies (including Vietnam . They were fighting Ho Chi Minh and his communist rebels . Starting in 1950 , the U .S . started to send military aid to France to help in its effort against the Viet Minh (the communist rebels . This was part of the U .S . goal of "containment " of the spread of communism . When France pulled-out of Vietnam in 1955-56 , the U .S basically felt it had to fill the void in to prevent Ho Chi Minh from unifying Vietnam under communist rule (the peace accords with France had divided Vietnam in half . So starting in 1955 , the U .S . began sending military advisors to assist the South Vietnamese Army (FAQ Farm Website

President Kennedy said that Vietnam represents the cornerstone of the Free World in Southeast Asia , the Keystone to the arch , the finger in the dike . Burma , Thailand , India , Japan , the Philippines and , obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the red tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam ' This explains the huge concern of the U .S . in detonating the spread of communism in the region

3 . Why did President Eisenhower support President Ngo Dinh Diem ? How did Diem consolidate his power base and were his policies and programs effective in gaining the support of the local populace

United States president Dwight D . Eisenhower 's open commitment to the South Vietnamese government at the end of the First Indochina War (1946-1954 ) became one reason for continued U .S . involvement in the region . Eisenhower and his advisors hoped to contain the spread of Communism by providing political support and economic aid to Ngo Dinh Diem , South Vietnam 's prime minister

In the wake of the Geneva Accords , Eisenhower promises South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem support in resisting Communist subversion or aggression -- which subversion and aggression Washington correctly expected to take place . They based this policy on the domino theory which suggested that if one Southeast Asian nation fell to...