Vietnam: Evolution of American Role
Profiles * Political Thought * Colonial Government * Revolution * Constitution * Birth of Party Politics * War of 1812 * James Monroe: "Era of Good Feeling" and Monroe Doctrine * Jacksonian Democracy * Regional Conflict and Compromise * 1860 Election of Abraham Lincoln * Civil War 1861-62 * Civil War 1863-65 * Reconstruction and Impeachment of President Johnson * Gilded Age and Progressive Era * 1912 Election of Woodrow Wilson * 1916 Election and World War I * Women's Suffrage * Depression and 1932 Election of Franklin D. Roosevelt * Prelude to World War II * Pearl Harbor and Mobilization * World War II: European Theater * World War II: Pacific Theater * Atomic Bomb and End of World War II * 1948 Truman-Dewey Election * 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election * 1964 Johnson-Goldwater Election * Civil Rights Movement * Vietnam: Evolution of the American Role * Vietnam: Kennedy Administration and Intervention * Vietnam: Johnson Administration and Escalation * Vietnam: Nixon, Ford and Fall of South Vietnam * 1968 Humphrey-Nixon Election * Watergate Scandal and Resignation of President Nixon * 1976 Carter-Ford Election * 1980 & 1984 Reagan Elections * Clinton Impeachment * 2000 Bush-Gore Election * War in Iraq * 2008 Obama-McCain Election |
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In late 1953,
planning proceeded for an international peace conference to be held in Geneva
to seek a more permanent resolution of the cease-fire then in effect in Korea;
at the request of the French, the conference agenda was later expanded to
include the situation in Indochina. To strengthen their respective negotiating positions at the
conference, both the French and the Viet Minh also prepared to launch military
offensives. The French hoped to lure the Viet Minh into a
classic battle at Dien Bien Phu, a village in northwestern Vietnam where the French believed their superiority in air
power and heavy weapons would prove decisive, along with some 16,000 troops. The French commanders assumed that the guerillas lacked the
capability to transport artillery and other heavy equipment over the rugged
hills surrounding the village, but Ho Chi Minh's soldiers succeeded in
hauling their weapons and other supplies up the steep slopes to the hilltops, from which they could bombard the French soldiers. After a 57-day siege beginning in March 1954 which also cut off re-supply from the
air, the French surrendered on May 7, effectively bringing an end
to French rule in Indochina.
Evolution of American role With the collapse of the French, American foreign policy considered a more direct U.S. strategic role in Southeast Asia, with the most frequent justification based on linking the region's control to opposing supposed Communist objectives for global domination. At a press conference on April 7, 1954, President Eisenhower articulated the "domino" theory that failure to confront the Communists in one nation could lead to ultimate loss of the entire region. Q. Robert Richards, Copley Press: Mr. President, would you mind commenting on the strategic importance of Indochina for the free world? I think there has been, across the country, some lack of understanding on just what it means to us. The President. You have, of course, both the specific and the general when you talk about such things. First of all, you have the specific value of a locality in its production of materials that the world needs. Then you have the possibility that many human beings pass under a dictatorship that is inimical to the free world. Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. See Press Conference of President Eisenhower April 7, 1954, American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara; see also Rhetoric and Reality: A History of the Formation of the 'Domino' Theory On July 20, 1954, an Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Viet-Nam was signed by the parties in Geneva. The Geneva Accords provided for the cessation of hostilities; the establishment of a demarcation line in the middle of a demilitarized zone intended to separate the Viet Cong from the South Vietnamese and the French forces; the prohibition of infiltration of troops into areas controlled by the respective parties on each side of the demarcation line; creation of an International Commission for overseeing the application of the agreement and the cessation of hostilities; and the holding in 1956 of internationally supervised elections to re-unify Vietnam under a single government. Ngo Dinh Diem and the Republic of Vietnam Although it was intended to be temporary, the demarcation line established under the Geneva Accords effectively divided Vietnam under two governments. In the south, a referendum was held in October 1955 to determine whether the country would continue as a monarchy under Emperor Bao Dai or become a republic headed by Ngo Dinh Diem, a member of an influential family who had been appointed by Bao Dai, under American pressure, as his prime minister. The election was tainted by widespread fraud, with Diem claiming to have been elected president of the new republic by over 98% of the votes, a result allegedly aided by the role of Diem's brother as the supervisor of the election count. In the face of continuing incidents where the South Vietnamese alleged numerous Viet Cong violations of the July agreement, President Eisenhower agreed to step up U.S. aid to the new Republic of Vietnam under President Diem. Following his election, Diem announced that he would not comply with the election which had been scheduled for 1956 under the Geneva Accords to reunify the country, claiming that a free election could not be held under Communist control of North Vietnam. The oppressive Diem government also faced internal opposition from an armed insurgency, which later received support from the North. Privately, President Eisenhower and other American officials also reportedly expressed their belief that any election in 1956 to reunify the two Vietnams would have resulted in a victory for the Communists. |
In response to Diem's actions,
Ho Chi Minh supported guerilla attacks against the South Vietnamese government by the Viet Cong, the rebel force based in the south.
The Communists also announced
formation of a separate party for the south, the People's Revolutionary Party,
and a broader front organization, the National Front for the Liberation of
South Vietnam-NLF. The United States began to increase its aid to the
South Vietnamese, primarily through providing training and equipment to the
military, despite the misgivings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "...that the
limitations imposed by the Geneva agreements on the number of U.S. military
personnel would make it impractical to attempt to train a new Army-particularly
given the paucity of experienced leaders which was the legacy of French
colonialism." See The Pentagon Papers, National Archives
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