Notes 4: The Vietnam War Modern US History Unit 4 The Cold War May 03, 2011

Initially, the United became involved with Vietnam in order to support France after WWII. Vietnam had been a French colony for years, and the French intended to keep it that way. In 1929 however, a man named Ho Chi Minh, the Indochinese Communist Party, began to advocate for an independent communist Vietnam. With the invasion of the Japanese in 1941, Ho Chi Minh joined with other nationalist groups to create the Vietminh – a group whose sole purpose was to fight for Vietnamese independence.

It was not until after WWII that this dream became a possibility. When the Japanese were defeated, Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent nation.

The French however had no intention of giving up their colony. With the US aid to the tune of $2.6 billion dollars, the French were able to drive the Vietminh out of the southern regions of the country.

When President Eisenhower took office, he chose to continue the policy of supplying aid to the French effort, in homes of stopping communism from spreading in Asia based on the Domino Theory. This theory compared the countries in Asia to dominos – if one falls the others will fall and so forth.