Ho chi minh, 1890-1969
Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890 when Indochina was under the control of the French. He was born to a fairly wealthy family and inherited his father’s negative views on the French. Ho, like his father, became a teacher. He then traveled and ended up in France. In France, he was involved in the politics of the time, and became a communist. After becoming a communist, in 1920, he helped to found the French Communist Party. The French rule was replaced by Japanese rule during WWII. During this time, Ho and others created the Vietminh. Their goal was to free Vietnam completely from the French rule. However, after WWII, the French continued to try to control Vietnam. Ho started the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, this led to fighting between Ho, North Vietnam, and those still in favor of the French, South Vietnam. Ho was the main leader of the Vietminh, who had created the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and he did not agree when the French tried to discuss a way to stop the conflict. The tides turned for Ho and the Vietminh when the French were defeated in The Battle of Dien Bien Phu. After this, it was decided between the Vietminh and the leaders of South Vietnam, that Vietnam would remain divided between North and South. However, Ho and the Vietminh leaders wanted Vietnam to be united. This was made very clear when in 1965, he sent troops to assist a Vietminh resistance in the South. This was when the United States joined the war. Ho Chi Minh died a few years later, in 1969. Ho Chi Minh was hugely significant to the overall conflict of the Vietnam War. He was the leader of the Vietminh, who wanted independence from France and then wanted a united Vietnam, which led to the Vietnam War.
The french and dien bien phu, 1954
The French had been struggling with maintaining control of Indochina because of uprisings against their rule. Dien Bien Phu was a French base in North Vietnam, near the Laotion border. Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh led a siege on Dien Bien Phu, which fell May 7, 1954. The French then left Vietnam. Other countries in Indochina, Laos and Cambodia had been given their independence from France. France had told Vietnam they would have their independence in 1949, however they only gave them partial independence and remained in Vietnam. Early in 1954, Dien Bien Phu was put under siege by Viet Minh. Over the next few months members of NATO refused to help France because they had given up on any chance of France succeeding. The United States was reluctant to help because they wanted to maintain a role of Isolationism and not be involved in other countries conflicts. Eventually the United States took on a more Internationalist role to stop the spread of Communism. After Dien Bien Phu fell out of the hands of the French in 1954, France, Vietnam and representatives from the United States and China met in Geneva to make an agreement on the future of Vietnam. This meeting ended the conflicts between France and Vietnam and divided the country into North and South. France was given control over South Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh was made the official leader of North Vietnam. Dien Bien Phu and France were significant in the start of the Vietnam War because the French occupation of Vietnam was the main reason there were uprisings. Dien Bien Phu was the one of the most influential points because it got the French to back out of Vietnam.
The domino theory
The domino theory, most simply put, was the idea that if one communist movement was successful that it would spread to other countries in Indochina. The United States was fairly afraid of that happening so they stayed close at France’s side when Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam announced that North Vietnam was its own communist state. President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined the term “domino theory” as his reasoning for staying so involved in Vietnam, his speech was in April 1954, before the fall of Dien Bien Phu. In 1954, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization was created, with the United States at the head, to assist those countries should there be a security problem. President John F. Kennedy, elected in 1961, firmly agreed with Eisenhower and sent U.S. resources to aid South Vietnam, at the time under control of Ngo Dinh Diem. He continued to support South Vietnam, with the domino theory as his reasoning, until President Diem was assassinated and Kennedy was shortly after assassinated. Following Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson also used the domino theory to justify U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. However, Johnson sent soldiers to Vietnam in 1965. The United States would not be out of Vietnam for another ten years. The Domino theory is significant particularly to the United States during the Vietnam War. It is the reason that the United States was involved in Vietnam to begin with, and it was used to justify sending soldiers to Vietnam.
vietnamese president diem and u.s. reaction
Ngo Dinh Diem was the president of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He became president by being appointed as Prime Minister by Emperor Bao Dai. There was then an election in which Diem became president in 1956. The United States was in support of Diem after his election, as he was against communism and from what they knew of his plans he seemed to be exactly the kind of person they wanted in power in Vietnam. At first, Diem was popular and liked, however the views of the vietnamese people quickly changed. Diem was raised Catholic and therefore did not agree with the views of Buddhists, this was his downfall. He ignored Buddhists, along with supporting the murders of them and his opposition in power, and this lead to most of the country opposing him. In 1963, Buddhists began heavily protesting, some by lighting themselves on fire. At this point the United States took away their support because of public shock in the American people, his failure as a leader and general embarrassment for having been involved with such a person. His reign was overthrown later in 1963, during which he attempted to flee from the country. He was then assassinated in late 1963. Ngo Dinh Diem was a prominent leader during the Vietnam War. His assassination led to chaos in South Vietnam and the fighting began between the North and South.
Kennedy assassination, Johnson changes US involvement
John F. Kennedy was the thirty fifth president of the United States and he was assassinated on November 22, 1963 in Dealey Plaza. At 12:30 p.m. Kennedy was shot once in the neck, and a second time, in the head. JFK was riding in a presidential motorcade with his wife Jacqueline, and Texas governor John Connolly. To this day Kennedy’s assassination is regarded one of the events that contributed to further United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. Later that day they found and charged Lee Harvey Oswald of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a police officer. Before Oswald was ever put on trial he was killed. Just before the assassination, Kennedy announced to his military leaders that he was planning on removing 1,000 US troops from Vietnam by the end of 1963, and also completely removing all US personal by the end of 1965. After the assassination these plans were renounced by the new president Lyndon B. Johnson. Some people have speculated that the Vietnam War was the reason for Kennedy’s murder thus allowing major armament corporations to continue gaining extensive sums of money. There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of this United States president, many of them having connections to the war in Vietnam.
Gulf of tonkin resolution
On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that the North Vietnamese had attacked U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin two days earlier. Johnson sent U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. The joint resolution “to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia” passed on August 7, with only two Senators (Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening) disagreeing with the policy. Soon this issue became the subject of a lot of political controversy in the course of the undeclared war that followed. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution stated that “Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repeal any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent any further aggression.” The Tonkin Gulf Resolution basically was the legal justification for the president to be able to declare war whenever he felt threatened, as long as it was to prevent any further damage. As a result, President Johnson, and later President Nixon, relied on the resolution as the legal basis for their military policies in Vietnam. As public resistance to the war heightened, the resolution was eventually repealed by Congress in January 1971