-+Vietnam+the+path+to+war

Americas path to war in the involvement of South Asia or Indochina is an interesting one. Vietnam is not a peninsula so an attack is harder than it would be if it were. Vietnam was a french colony. Here they have good markets and good resources. But later in the 1930's Communist leader Ho Chi Minh is going to lead a communist revolt against the French government. The French are going to arrest him and he flees to china and then to the Soviet Union. Later in the !940's Indochina was taken over by the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh started to fight back against the Japanese and was starting to get US support. After WW2 is over the Japanese leave and the French return. Vietnam then declares independence in 1945. HO Chi Minh started a group called the Vietminh and in 1954 they successfully took over northern Vietnam. Here they established a communist government which the US does not like. Communism spreading is not good no matter where it goes the US thought. SInce the US wants to contain Communism they force Vietnam to be split in two parts. North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The leader of this new territory is Ngo Dinh Diem. He will be more US friendly than North Vietnam.Then in the late 1950's there is a civil war between North and South Vietnam. That is what really got the US involved. Americas involvement in the war is just a story of 5 presidents. Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, Linden Johnson, and Richard Nixon. All of the presidents did something to affect this war. But in 1964 for some odd reason there is American Ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Then Vietnamise boats attacked one of the ships. EBJ will go to congress and ask for the ability of all further actions to stop further aggression. He will get this. Johnson says that we don't want war but he had a plan called Rolling Thunder in which they dropped bombs constantly, more than ever dropped before. Then in 1965 the first ground troops were sent in to Vietnam. 3,500 marines join the 20,000+ military advisors. Now the plan not have war doesn't seem to be working very well. The goal was to fight a "limited war." Most people supported the war at the start, but now that is starting to be false. The Us honestly did not know what or where they were really going in this war.