Indochina from the American perspective (1 Viewer)

[Slatteryexpress]

Hey,
Got an assignment tomorrow, just why America entered the war? I know about the Domino Theory and all that, but are there any other reasons to support America's entry into Indochina?

 

[cait33]

what like the americans using Indochina as a test case for how to fight off communism seeing as they had totally failed in Berlin and Korea. the Americans had proclaimed themselves 'protectors of the free world'.

is that the sort of thing?

 

[allyio123]

Truman (1946 -1952)
Reasons for Involvement
IDEOLOGY; The Cold War

ECONOMY; Trade in A-P region would be difficult with a communist Vietnam (opposing ideologies)

ANTI-COMMUNIST; Didn’t see the difference between Communist USSR and NAtionalist/Communist Ho Chi MInh. Felt need to appear decisive when responding to communism.

FRENCH; appealed for assistance, claiming communism in Vietnam is part of world-wide expansion plan.

CHINA; felt they had already “lost” China.

Eisenhower (1952 - 1960)
Reasons for Involvement
COLD WAR; French failure left US as defender of democracy in SV East Asia

DOMINO THEORY; Eisenhower 1954 ‘You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly’ There was no evidence for this theory despite this most washington analysts agreed with it.

V-P NIXON; 1953 (before Dien Bien Phu) Nixon visited Vietnam and saw French victory as a necessity.

SEATO; 1955 - assist third world nations to build economy and resist communism.