N)+Vietnam+Path+to+War-+5.24.10

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

You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict in Vietnam 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 complete, well written paragraphs
 * contain the following terms - France, Ho Chi Minh, communism, Ngo Dinh Diem, military advisors, Gulf of Tonkin, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Rolling Thunder
 * 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// [|This cool animation] [|Into Vietnam (Overview)] from ABC-CLIO [|Timeline of the Vietnam War] [|Vietnam Online Timeline]

The northern part of Vietnam was lead by the leader of the Revolutionary Army, Hgo Dinh Diem. He then became the prime minister in the south. Diem feared that the population of Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh would lead the election of communistic form of government so he cancelled the election of 1956. The US backed up what Diem was doing because we agreed with what the French were doing as well. Because Diem cancelled the election the Peace Accord was broken and the Viet Minh went back to war to try to reunite the country. Diem asked the US for military support and advisers. As the war raged on President Eisenhower sent in 900 US advisers in 1960 and that number increased to 11,000 by 1962 when President Kennedy took over.

As the war went on Diems government became very unpopular along with his entire army. The Viet Cong guerrilla fighters and the National Frong broke out, they wanted Vietnam to be liberated. They wanted to reunite the country and overthrow the corrupt leader who refused to hold democratic elections for power. The US saw them as communists trying to take over. The US new there was a plot to assassinate Diem but they did nothing about it. Diem was killed November 1, 1963, leading to the unstable South Vietnamese government. The Viet Cong grew stronger as it gained more military forces from the north and south. The ARVN outnumbered the Viet Cong 10 to 1 but they could not stop or contain the guerrillas.

The US feared communist takeover of Vietnam, they thought that if Vietnam did fall to communism than so would all of the surrounding countries in southeast Asia. The war was very controversial for americans. Some thought that the war was always wrong, and others said that the US shouldn't have gotten involved in a war as far as they had, and some said that they US shouldn't have supported and Dictatorship in Vietnam like they had.