Johnson the power to employ conventional military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war. navy warships off the coast of North Vietnam on August 4 1964, led the U.S. The Gulf of Tonkin incident, an alleged attack by North Vietnamese forces on two U.S. Prior to 1964, the United States was largely involved in the conflict in Vietnam through the aid it provided to South Vietnam, as well as military advisors it had stationed in the country. ![]() military aid, South Vietnam was able to organize a crackdown on dissent, but by 1963 it was clear the communists had the upper hand, and Diệm was overthrown in a coup d'état organized by his own military. This conflict escalated from 1959 onwards, as North Vietnam endorsed the overthrow of Diệm’s regime and the Viet Cong’s campaign intensified. The war ended with the Geneva Conference of 1954, giving independence to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, although Vietnam was split into the North controlled by the Viet Minh communists, and the South under the rule of U.S.-backed Ngô Đình Diệm.įrom its inception, the South Vietnamese state struggled against a communist insurgency called the Viet Cong, which aimed to overthrow the regime and unite with Ho Chi Minh’s North. This declaration was not recognized by the French, leading to an eight year war of independence referred to as the First Indochina War (1946-54). In 1945, Vietnamese nationalists under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh declared the country independent of France. Origins of the conflict ‘Indochina’ (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam) had been a colony of France since the late 19 th century, with Vietnam being fully conquered by the French in 1887. government viewed defending its ally in South Vietnam as essential in preventing communism from spreading to other countries in Southeast Asia, containing Soviet influence, and preventing Vietnam from inspiring other communist movements across the world. This theory propagated the idea that if one country in a certain region would become a communist regime, then surrounding countries would quickly follow (as when one domino starts a chain reaction). should provide support to any regime threatened by communist forces backed by the Soviet Union.Īn idea known as ‘domino theory’ became popular in foreign policy circles in Washington. policy toward Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries can trace its roots to the Truman Doctrine, which stated that the U.S. The antagonism with the Soviet Union, known as the Cold War (1947-1991), manifested itself in a series of proxy conflicts in countries such as Turkey, Greece, and Cuba, as well as in two major wars involving the United States, in Korea (1950-53) and Vietnam (1964-75). The United States’ foreign policy in the aftermath of World War II was motivated by its desire to prevent the spread of communism to newly independent, post-colonial nations. anti-communist foreign policy ‘Domino Theory’ The United States officially ended its involvement in the war with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords by President Nixon in 1973, with the last American personnel leaving Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon in April 1975. ![]() involvement was controversial both at home and abroad, with public opinion turning decisively against the war in the late 1960s. military’s most significant engagement of the Cold War and the fourth most deadly conflict in its history. increased its financial and material support for South Vietnam, before entering the conflict in a full military capacity in 1964. As tensions rose between the North and South in the late 1950s, the U.S.
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