Vietnam: Evolution of the American Role

Vietnam: Evolution of American Role

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Viet Minh soldiers shown raising flag after taking a French position at Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 Image: Wikimedia Commons/Vietnam Army People's Museum

Ho Chi Minh Image: Voice of Vietnam

Indochina after World War II

      During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the American military role in Vietnam emerged as one of the most divisive political issues of the 1960s and 1970s. But the origins of American involvement may be traced to the end of World War II, when the victorious Allies debated the future of Southeast Asia. In both public statements and private discussions with other Allies at the Cairo, Teheran, and Yalta Conferences, President Roosevelt personally advocated independence for the former European colonies of Indochina and urged that the French possessions seized by the Japanese should be turned over to an international trusteeship rather than returned to France, a position also endorsed by Chiang Kai-shek of China and Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union. Roosevelt's position, however, faced resistance from Prime Minister Winston Churchill and General Charles de Gaulle. After Roosevelt's death in 1945, U.S. policy continued to encourage France to move toward granting independence to its colonial holdings but--in the face of French opposition--American leaders backed off from pressing for the establishment of a trusteeship over the area.

Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Insurgency

       When Japan surrendered in August 1945, the Viet Minh, an acronym for the Vietnam Independence League primarily led by the Vietnamese communists under Ho Chi Minh, declared themselves to be Vietnam's new rulers and proclaimed the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. During World War II, the Viet Minh had attacked both the French and the Japanese in seeking to establish an independent Vietnam. They also secured the agreement of Bao Dai, the puppet ruler under the Japanese, to abdicate as emperor in exchange for an appointment as "supreme adviser" to Ho Chi Minh. With British cooperation, French military forces were re-established in South Vietnam in September, 1945. The nationalist forces led by Ho Chi Minh challenged the reassertion of colonial control, and guerrilla warfare soon broke out against the French authorities.

       Through the fall and winter of 1945-1946, the U.S. received a series of requests from Ho Chi Minh for intervention in Vietnam. While there was no official response to these requests, the U.S. declined to assist the French military effort, and prohibited American flag vessels from carrying troops or war materiel to Vietnam. In early 1946, the Chinese turned over their occupation rights in the North to France. Faced with increased French military power and Chinese withdrawal, Ho decided to negotiate with the French, and on March 6, 1946, Ho signed an accord providing for French re-entry into Vietnam for five years in return for recognizing the DRV as a "free state" within the French union. As of April 1946, allied occupation of Indochina was officially terminated, and the U.S. acknowledged to France that all of Indochina had reverted to French control.

France and Defeat at Dien Bien Phu

        In late 1946, however, despite the agreements signed in March, the French war with the Viet Minh escalated. The Viet Mih insurgency increasingly became linked with the larger issues of the conflicts with Communist post-War expansion. Ho Chi Minh's affiliation with the Communists, and concerns that a U.S. split with the French government would strengthen the internal political position of the French Communist Party, gradually led to an easing of the American pressure on the French to reach an accommodation that might lead to the Marxists assuming power under Ho Chi Minh. Priorities of U.S. policy increasingly focused on other areas of the world, such as supporting post-War European economic recovery and establishing collective security alliances in other areas to deter Communist expansion.

       In 1949, the victory of the Chinese Communists under Mao Zedong and the collapse of the Chinese Nationalist government sharpened American concerns over Communist expansion in the Far East. Also in 1949, at the invitation of the French, Bao Dai returned from a self-imposed exile in Hong Kong and China; the French re-installed Bao Dai with the titles of premier and emperor, hoping that he would rally nationalist sentiment away from Ho Chi Minh, whose guerrillas were increasing their strength among the peasants and escalating their harrassment of the French colonial army.

       As Cold War tensions escalated with the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, American policy firmly linked the Viet Minh as part of the worldwide Marxist movement to subvert existing governments. While the U.S military focus continued to be focused on the ongoing war in Korea, the Truman Administration also funneled substantial financial assistance to support the French in their battles against the Viet Minh.

Ngo Dinh Diem Image: National Archives

       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