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In the late 1800's the French ruled most of Indochina. Indochina included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. French colonists had went to the Vietnamese peasant land to extract rice and rubber for profit. Vietnamese peasants grew more and more restless and sooner or later French rulers reacted harshly by restricting freedom of speech and assembly and by jailing many Vietnamese nationalists. These measures failed to curb all dissent, and opposition continued to grow. -
An organization whose primary goal was to take back Vietnam's independence from the French was formed by Ho chi Minh and it was called Vietminh. In August of 1945 the Allied defeat of Japan forced the Japanese to flee to Vietnam. When this happened the goal that Vietminh planned for seemed to become a reality. So on September 2 of 1945 Ho chi Minh stood in the middle of a huge crowd and declared independence for Vietnam. -
In 1949 when communism hit hard in Asia, one of the leaders that took control was Mao Zedong. He seized china to extend communism throughout Asia as other leaders of Communism did as well. -
In 1953 Eisenhower took office to continue to support the French war effort. Around this time the Americans gave up with communism in Korea. This only stiffened America's resolve to halt the spread of communism. This is when Eisenhower Proposed the Domino Theory. He warned that if Vietnam fell to communism other southern Asian countries would follow suit. Despite more aid it was not enough and had to surrender in May 1954. -
Countries such as France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, China, Laos, and Cambodia met in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Vietminh and with South Vietnam’s anti-Communist nationalists to hammer out a peace agreement. This was called the Geneva Accords and temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel. Communists Ho chi Minh controlled the northern half while the anti-communists controlled the southern half.
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A strong anti-Communist, refused to take part in the countrywide election of 1956. The United States also sensed that a countrywide election might spell victory for Ho Chi Minh and supported canceling elections. The Eisenhower administration promised military aid and training to Diem in return for a stable reform government in the South. Diem failed to hold up his end of the bargain. He made a corrupt government that suppressed opposition of any kind and offered little or no land for peasants.
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By 1957 a Communist opposition group in the South, known as the
Vietcong, had begun attacks on the Diem government. Group members assassinated thousands of South Vietnamese government officials. Although the political arm of the group would later be called the National Liberation Front (NLF), the United States continued to refer to the fighters as the Vietcong. -
In 1959 he began supplying arms to the Vietcong via a network of paths along the borders of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia that became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As the fighters stepped up their surprise attacks, or guerrilla tactics, South Vietnam grew more unstable. The Eisenhower administration took little action, however, deciding to “sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem.”
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A North Vietnamese patrol boat fired a torpedo at the Maddox which in turn led to return fire, which inflicted heavy damage on the boat. Two days later, the Maddox and another destroyer were again off the
North Vietnamese coast. In spite of bad weather that could affect visibility, the crew reported enemy torpedoes. The alleged attack on the U.S. ships prompted President Johnson to launch bombing strikes on North Vietnam. -
Congress approved Johnson’s request and adopted the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on August 7. While not a declaration of war, the resolution granted Johnson broad military powers in Vietnam. Some felt it altered the U.S. Constitution’s system of checks and balances by allowing the executive branch to wage war without a formal declaration of war from the legislative branch. Johnson did not tell Congress or American people that the U.S had been leading secret raids against North Vietnam.
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