Download Just as in the Korean War, Vietnam was also caught in the same

CONTAINING
COMMUNISM
VIETNAM
Just as in Japan and Korea, Vietnam was caught up in the Cold War worry about
the spread of communism. According to the domino theory, if one country fell to
communism, all other nearby countries would fall like dominos as well. The Soviet
Union and China were already communist nations and the United States worried
that if any additional countries in Southeast Asia went to a communist form of
government, others in the area like Korea, Vietnam, and Japan would follow quickly.
Ho Chi Minh
Before World War II, Vietnam was a colony under French control. But by the end of
World War II, many in Vietnam wanted to reorganize the country under the
leadership of a popular nationalist, Ho Chi Minh, who had spend many years
fighting French colonialism in the Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was a communist
and the United States did not want any new communist countries forming in
Southeast Asia. The United States supported French efforts to reclaim
control of Vietnam in the years after the war ended.
17th
Parallel
In 1954, when the French decided to give up the fight for
colonial control over Vietnam, the United States stepped in.
Decisions were made at an international conference in the city
of Geneva, Switzerland to temporarily divide the country into
North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The plan was that within a
year, nationwide elected would be held to let the Vietnamese
people decide what kind of government they wanted. However,
the Untied States worried that they would choose Ho Chi Minh
as the communists, so the elections were never held and the
country remained divided until 1975.
As part of the United States containment policy to contain or
keep communism from spreading to other nations in
Southeast Asia, the Untied States lost many years, billions of
dollars, and thousands of lives fighting in Vietnam. The main
reason the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War was to
prevent the country from becoming a communist nation. In the
end, the country did reunite after the United States ended the
war in 1975. After reunification, The People’s Republic of
Vietnam was declared a communist country.