How and Why the Vietnam War Began and Unfolded

Vietnam War
A majority of the American wars have had obvious starting points like the capture of Fort Sumter in 1861, the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the invasion of North Korea into South Korea in June 1950. However, for the war in Vietnam, there is no fixed beginning. The United States got into that war incrementally via a series of steps that took place between 1950 and 1965 (Asselin 337). The Vietnam war is considered to be America's longest war and it took place for 25 years (1950-1975). This was a proxy war because the opposing powers were using third parties to fight on their behalf.
As has been pointed out the United States joined the war incrementally and it all begun in May 1950 when President Harry Truman sanctioned a modest program of military and economic aid to the French who at that time were fighting in order to retain control of their Indochina colony. This colony included Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The French forces were defeated by the Vietnamese Nationalist (and Communist-led) Viet Minh army forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 (Brown 15). This forced the French to yield to the creation of a Communist Vietnam north of the 17th parallel and leaving a non-Communist entity south of the line. While the French were okay with the arrangement, the United States did not accept this arrangement. In order to ensure that Vietnam does not fully become a communist nation, the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower attempted to build a nation from the plausible political entity that was South of Vietnam. This was done by fabricating some sort of government there that took over from the French. The United States dispatched some military advisers to train the South Vietnam army and it also unleashed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The CIA was charged with conducting psychological warfare against the North.
The reasoning behind sending help to the French was that President Dwight Eisenhower believed it the Domino Theory that stated that if one nation fell to communism the rest would also fall just like dominos (Lawrence 70). However, the Viet Minh launched a scathing and major offensive that resulted in the defeat of the French. After the defeat, there was talk that took place between the two sides and the United States was included at the Geneva Conference on April 26. The meetings did establish a provision for removing the French from Indochina and partitioning the country at the 17th parallel (Tonnesson 148). There was a call for reunification election in 1956. The country was renamed Vietnam from Indochina. The accords were not signed by the United States and this resulted in the creation of South Vietnam under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem. This was the United States shield against communist expansion in Southeast Asia. In order to protect its allies against the communist expansion, the United States created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Immediately after the Geneva Conference, President Eisenhower began infusing South Vietnam with materials and money to strengthen Diem's political clout and to create a viable army that could combat North Vietnam forces (Neu 132). With this support, Diem did manage to gain a significant amount of trust from the administration of Eisenhower. This support rose when Diem began eliminating the supporters of North Vietnam and snubbing the 1956 reunification elections. The snubbing of the reunification elections is what made Ho Chi Minh realize that his dream of unification was under threat. This prompted him to start operation against the United States and South Vietnam. The Viet Cong or the National Liberation Front that was the revolutionary political army of North Vietnam begun infiltrating South Vietnam around 1960 (Taylor 407). The infiltration was done along the Ho Chi Minh Trail that comprised of a series of elaborate trails that ran from North Vietnam to South Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia. The Viet Cong aimed at recruiting support for the war in South Vietnam.
Although President John Kennedy's presidency was short his presidency was marked with the expansion of the Vietnam war. Kennedy overhauled the whole war strategy. In early 1961, he sent 400 Green Berets to South Vietnam to teach the South Vietnamese how to fight the counterinsurgency war. Counterinsurgency uses force to destroy the enemy counterpart. President Kennedy also promoted the Strategic Hamlet Program that forced the South Vietnamese into protective reservations that were away from the Viet Cong influence. The Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) was revamped and converted into the Military Assistance Command Vietnam that was under the leadership of General Paul Harkins. For the first time, American advisers were allowed to return fire in self-defense. The war in Vietnam bordered on total tragedy when Diem was assassinated on November 2, 1963, and Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. These two events could have resulted in the defeat of South Vietnam in the war. However, this was not the case. By the time Kennedy was being assassinated, there were more than 16,00- United States military advisers in South Vietnam. More than 100 Americans had lost their lives in the war. The successor to Kennedy Lyndon Johnson committed the United States fully to the war. Johnson secured from Congress a functional declaration of war that was called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Logevall 67).
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was achieved after North Vietnamese attack boats fired on the United States destroyer, Maddox that was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin. A couple of days after, destroyer Turner and Maddox were allegedly being fired on again. These two events are what necessitated for the resolution and Congress gave Johnson the permission to take any necessary action to combat the North Vietnamese. In February and March 1965, Johnson authorized the continued bombing of targets north of the 17th parallel by United States aircraft. The air campaign was referred to as Operation Rolling Thunder. On 8 March 1965, he dispatched 3,500 Marines to South Vietnam (Dinh 51). The United States was now at war, whether there was a legal declaration or not. Operation Rolling Thunder lasted for three years. The Operation dropped hundreds of thousands of bombs on North Vietnam. With all the massive bombing the operation was ineffective and this necessitated for ground troops to join the war. Operation Rolling Thunder is considered to be the United States largest air campaign in history. While the campaign was the largest, its impact on the enemy was not as expected. The massive campaign was ineffective and for this reason, numerous ground troops had to be involved in the war. By July 1965, Johnson had approved the transfer of 125,000 American soldiers to Vietnam.
Why the War Begun
The war has multiple start dates and this complicate the efforts for describing the causes for United States entry into the war. There are a number of reasons that caused the United States to enter into the war and these reasons did evolve over time. What is most consistent is that each American president did regard the enemy in Vietnam to be the Viet Minh. They were seen as agents of global communism. A majority of Americans and United States policymakers regarded communism as the antithesis of all they held dear. Communists did scorn democracy, they violated human rights, created closed state economies that did not trade with capitalist countries, and pursued military aggression. Communism was seen as a contagious disease by most Americans. If it was allowed to take hold in one nation, United States policymakers expected that contiguous nations would also fall to communism. When the Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, Washington feared the next Asia domino would be Vietnam. This was the reason why Truman made the decision in 1950 to assist the French who were at the moment fighting the Viet Minh.
By assisting the French in Vietnam, Truman hoped that this would help to shore up the developed, non-Communist nations (Isaacs 86). The fate of these nations was tied to the preservation of Vietnam. Without Communist leadership in the region, the markets would open up and numerous countries would benefit. The presidents who took office after maintained the conflict. However, the initial ambitions were forgotten. Losing the country to communism was the one thing that all presidents did not want to happen in Vietnam. Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy all stood by the word they had given to their South Vietnamese allies that the United States would stand by South Vietnam (Price 180). Had the United States abandoned them, other countries would have regarded the United States as unreliable. Therefore, there was need to maintain credibility and this was another reason for the war in Vietnam.
The temperament, personality, and experience of each president did play a role in deepening the commitment of the United States. Eisenhower, having commanded troops in battle doubted the United States could fight a land war in Southeast Asia. Kennedy, on the other hand, used his youthfulness to prove his resolve to the American people. Johnson saw the Vietnam war as a test of his mettle. He likened victory to a successful hunting expedition.


References
Asselin, Pierre. "The Vietnam War: A Documentary Reader." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 48.2 (2017): 337-38. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-495561064/the-vietnam-war-a-documentary-reader. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Brown, T. Louise. War & Aftermath in Vietnam. New York, NY: Routledge, 1991. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/103455040/war-and-aftermath-in-vietnam. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Dinh, Viet D. "How We Won in Vietnam." Policy Review.104 (2000): 51. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-70712109/how-we-won-in-vietnam. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Isaacs, Arnold R. "Remembering Vietnam." Military Review 93.5 (2013): 86. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-346007659/remembering-vietnam. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Lawrence, Mark Atwood. The Vietnam War: A Concise International History. Oxford University Press, 2008. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/121288043/the-vietnam-war-a-concise-international-history. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Logevall, Fredrik. The Origins of the Vietnam War. New York, NY: Routledge, 2013. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/126018883/the-origins-of-the-vietnam-war. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Neu, Charles E. America's Lost War: Vietnam, 1945 - 1975. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 2005. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/117980132/america-s-lost-war-vietnam-1945-1975. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Price, Joanna. "Remembering Vietnam: Subjectivity and Mourning in American New Realist Writing." Journal of American Studies 27.2 (1993): 173-86. Print.
Taylor, Keith W. "Vietnam: A New History by Christopher Goscha." Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 32.2 (2017): 405-11. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/1G1-500163643/vietnam-a-new-history. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.
Tonnesson, Stein. Vietnam 1946: How the War Began. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2010. Print. Questia School, www.questiaschool.com/read/124874429/vietnam-1946-how-the-war-began. Accessed 9 Apr. 2019.