Path+To+Vietnam

VIETNAM - THE PATH TO WAR You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict in Vietnam during the Cold War ... but why? What was America's "path to war"? Using the resources below and __Creating America__, your task this evening is to write a description in YOUR OWN WORDS of the causes of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Pretend you are writing it as a summary for on online encyclopedia or textbook. Your description should ...
 * be between ** two and four complete, well written paragraphs **
 * ** contain the following terms ** - France, Ho Chi Minh, communism, Ngo Dinh Diem, military advisors, Gulf of Tonkin, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Rolling Thunder
 * be** IN YOUR OWN WORDS ** (remember, it's easy to check this online)
 * ** contain two images ** THAT RELATE TO YOUR WRITING
 * Should **end with the first Marines landing in Vietnam** in 1965

During The Cold War, The Vietnam War was fought. There are many cuases of the war, one reason is because **France** ruled vietnam as a french colony called Indochina. Vietnam was used as a money maker because of their agricultural nature, but they weren't ever content with the fremch rule, they wanted to be an independent country. In 1930, a great revolutionary leader raised, his name was Ho Chi Minh. He formed the Indochinese Communist Party. The ICP organized protests against the French government, and The French punished the up-risers by arresting them. Ho Chi Minh flees to the USSR to gains support of the communist leader. Japan takes over Indochina in WW2 and but Indochina tries to resist by fighting back. Ho Chi Minh forms the Viet Minh Party and declares Vietnam's independence in 1945, they modeled their DOI after America's Declaration of Independence. France wanted help from the US in defeating Vietnam, of course, US agrees because it wanted to stop the spread of communism in the East.

Eventually, Vietnam defeat the French and communism is established in North Vietnam. In 1954 Vietnam is temporarily split and in 1956 free elections would be held to re-unite the nation. Ngo Dinh Diem is the leader of South Vietnam and he is an anti-communist leader and was supported by the United States. . Eisenhower increased military because he had a "Domino Theory" that if one country fell to communism, the other small near-lying countries would follow. Even though Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated, John F. Kennedy still continued to send military advisors to Vietnam. "Supposedly" (sarcasm intended), at the Gulf of Tonkin there were North Vietnamese torpedo boats that attacked a US ship during a "patrol". Johnson was the actual first president US very involved in the war and he asked congress to protect Americans and prevent further aggression by letting him do everything necessary to protect Democracy and USA. They agreed and they were basically giving Johnson a blank check. Operation Rolling Thunder was to basically drop bombs over Vietnam and in 1965 marines march into Vietnam...into the unknown.