Why Did the USA invade Vietnam?
After the second world war, The USA and The USSR emerged as the world's two great superpowers. However, the two nation's political systems conflicted and a war of words and threat broke out. This was known as
the cold war. America became increasingly fearful of the Soviet Union's communist system spreading across the world, one country at a time. This theory was known as the 'domino theory'. When China went communist in 1949, America felt that the threat of communism was very real. As a result, they entered Korea and were partially successful; The ROK (South Korea) remains a capitalist state today. They then turned their attentions too Vietnam, where a communist group known as the Viet Minh had emerged, founded by Ho Chi Minh. France were already present in Vietnam as it had been a colony of their's prior to WW2. However, even after a vast amount of support given by the USA, the French were
eventually driven out by the Viet Minh. America's response to this was to help Ngo Dinh Diem to power in south Vietnam. Diem was a
ruthless dictator who was cruel to the peasant population of Vietnam, but he was
anti-communist, and so the USA helped him. Before long, a new communist militia group was set up called the Viet Cong, again founded by Ho Chi Minh. America began to send military 'advisers' to combat the Viet Cong. This continued for a few year until
eventually, in 1965, The USA was fully at war with communist forces in Vietnam.
