Path+to+War

 = = =**VIETNAM - THE PATH TO WAR **=

You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict during the Cold War ... but why? What was America's "path to war"? Using the resources below and Creating America, your task this evening is to write a description in YOUR OWN WORDS of the causes of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Pretend you are writing it as a summary for on online encyclopedia or textbook. Your description should ...


 * be between two and four paragraphs
 * contain the following terms - France, Ho Chi Minh, communism, Ngo Dinh Diem, military advisors, Gulf of Tonkin
 * be IN YOUR OWN WORDS (remember, it's easy to check this online)
 * contain two images THAT RELATE TO YOUR WRITING
 * Should end with the first Marines landing in Vietnam in 1965

Need some help? How about ... //Creating America// [|Into Vietnam (Overview)] from ABC-CLIO [|**Vietnam War** - the **Causes**] [|Timeline of the Vietnam War] [|Vietnam Online Timeline] Causes of the Vietnam War video below





The US involvment in the Vietnam war started way back when the US helped drive Japan out of the country during World War II. It all started with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu when Vietnam was taken over by france. The US took a pledge to help France in order to keep communism out of Vietnam. After this battle, an international peace conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland which divided Vietnam at the 17th parrellel. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the north and Ngo Dinh Diem is the leader in the of the south. Ngo Dinh Diem was very corrupt and unpopular. He created communism in the south. He also has an army called, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and it was also very unpopular. The US had planned to assassinate Diem and they did successed with the death of Diem.

JFK was then assassinated and Johnson took over. He decided not to pull out of Vietnam since the past two presidents had devoted a great deal to make South Vietnam free of communism. There was then a new leader of South Vietnam that wasn't a very powerful leader. How could South Vietnam overcome communism with a weak leader? An american destroyer boat was on the Gulf of Tonkin in North Vietnam when a North Vietnam torpedo boat started firing at the American destroyer. Two days later they were then attacked again by the North Vietnamese. Johnson was upset about this so he started a air strike to get back at them. Johnson then passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which let Johnson send in troops to Vietnam without having to declare war. Johnson's military advisors pressured him to launch a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. They were going to do this because it was the US's way of punishing North Vietnam because of the Viet Kong that were killing people. After American marines were dropped off to defend an island, the viet kong attacked the US embassy. After this, the United States was involved in the war and was going to fight in it.