North Vietnam was very communist. The USA believed that communism stifled the rights and freedoms of people and were therefore against it. They knew no-one could be ahead of anyone in that kind of system and believed it was wrong to make everything government controlled. Also, they were afraid that this kind of system would become prominent in the world despite its flaws, and would become too powerful and could beat the USA. It could spread to the USA so they were scared.
Why would they want to get involved in Vietnam in the 1950s?
They wanted to get involved because they saw Vietnam as the first domino in the row to spread communism to Southeast Asia. This is called 'the Domino Theory'. They were desperate to resist communism spreading so they got involved.
DOMINO THEORY - The Domino theory is the belief that an event in one country, such as the spread of communism in Vietnam, would cause similar actions in neighbouring countries, such as the spread of communism in the rest of Southeast Asia.
Why did the USA support Diem and why did he prove to be a disaster as a leader of Vietnam?
Diem was the first President of South Vietnam. The USA was afraid of communism spreading in Southeast Asia and needed an anti communist leader to control the south to keep communism in place. Ngo Dinh Diem fit this criteria. He was anti communist and was a powerful leader who could keep communism in check. This gave the USA no choice but to support him if they did not want communism to spread. They also had to support him because they knew that if actual elections were to take place, Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader of the North, would emerge victorious. This would then lead to Vietnam becoming communist, and then it could possibly start a domino effect. The USA were determined not to let this happened, so they supported Ngo Dinh Diem.
He proved to be a disaster because he was unpopular because he was unsuccessful. He was a Roman Catholic but most Vietnamese were Buddhists. His government was filled with Roman Catholics and he was a very strict leader. For example, he persecuted Buddhists and did not even let them fly the Buddhist flag on the Buddha’s birthday. He hunted down supporters of the Vietminh and ‘re-educated’ them in prison camps. Those who would not change their views were executed. The peasants were also treated badly. For example, land was taken from peasants and was given to Diem’s supporters. The peasants had to work extremely hard and got very little pay, sometimes working for nothing. They also had very high taxes set by the landowners. Clearly, Diem was quite a failure.
Presidents that came after Diem were just as corrupt
Why did the USA get involved in Vietnam?
Why did US involvement increase in the early 1960’s?
Why would they want to get involved in Vietnam in the 1950s?
They wanted to get involved because they saw Vietnam as the first domino in the row to spread communism to Southeast Asia. This is called 'the Domino Theory'. They were desperate to resist communism spreading so they got involved.
DOMINO THEORY - The Domino theory is the belief that an event in one country, such as the spread of communism in Vietnam, would cause similar actions in neighbouring countries, such as the spread of communism in the rest of Southeast Asia.
Why did the USA support Diem and why did he prove to be a disaster as a leader of Vietnam?
Diem was the first President of South Vietnam. The USA was afraid of communism spreading in Southeast Asia and needed an anti communist leader to control the south to keep communism in place. Ngo Dinh Diem fit this criteria. He was anti communist and was a powerful leader who could keep communism in check. This gave the USA no choice but to support him if they did not want communism to spread. They also had to support him because they knew that if actual elections were to take place, Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader of the North, would emerge victorious. This would then lead to Vietnam becoming communist, and then it could possibly start a domino effect. The USA were determined not to let this happened, so they supported Ngo Dinh Diem.
He proved to be a disaster because he was unpopular because he was unsuccessful. He was a Roman Catholic but most Vietnamese were Buddhists. His government was filled with Roman Catholics and he was a very strict leader. For example, he persecuted Buddhists and did not even let them fly the Buddhist flag on the Buddha’s birthday. He hunted down supporters of the Vietminh and ‘re-educated’ them in prison camps. Those who would not change their views were executed. The peasants were also treated badly. For example, land was taken from peasants and was given to Diem’s supporters. The peasants had to work extremely hard and got very little pay, sometimes working for nothing. They also had very high taxes set by the landowners. Clearly, Diem was quite a failure.
Presidents that came after Diem were just as corrupt
Why did the USA get involved in Vietnam?
- To stop the spreading of Communism
- To keep southeast Asia under control
- To stop the domino effect
- They claimed that they were helping Vietnam
- To avoid a much larger war southeast Asia
Why did US involvement increase in the early 1960’s?
- The Vietcong (the enemy South-Vietnamese rebels that were against the US and the ARVN) were getting too powerful because their guerilla tactics were quite strong, and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam could not beat it very easily, so Kennedy aided them to stop communism
- He wanted the National Liberation Front and the Vietcong taken care of
- Diem was too unpopular and corrupt, so the US had to sort him out and therefore aided the effort to overthrow him. They needed a more popular leader to fight the communist forces
- North Vietnamese fired at US intelligence ships which gave Johnson (Kennedy’s successor) a reason to persuade the US congress and US public to let him take military actions to defend south Vietnam. This was the Gulf of Tonkin incident