Extremely Thorough College Paper on The Vietnam War
The Vietnam War
By
Shane Easton
U.S. History Term 2
1/2/02
From the 1880s until World War II, France governed Vietnam as part of French Indochina. In 1940 during part of World War II Japan invaded this French Indochina. In December of that year, Vietnamese nationalists established the League for the Independence of Vietnam, or Viet Minh, seeing the turmoil of the war as an opportunity for resistance to French colonial rule.
In an action against the Japanese invasion the United States demanded Japan leave or military action would take place. In guerrilla warfare against Japan the Viet Minh Quickly became a valuable ally to the United States. Viet Minh Interaction was so helpful that the Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh was made a special agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
When the Japanese signed their formal surrender on September 2, 1945, Ho used the occasion to declare the independence of Vietnam, which he called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam or DRV for short. This declaration of independence resulted in Emperor Bao Dai giving up the throne. The French, however, refused to acknowledge Vietnam’s independence, and later that year drove the Viet Minh into the north of the country.
Ho wrote eight letters to U.S. president Harry Truman, begging him to recognize Vietnam’s independence. Many OSS agents whom knew Ho from work earlier as and official OSS agent informed the U.S. administration that despite being a Communist, Ho Chi Minh was not a puppet of the USSR and that he could potentially become a valued ally in Asia. Shortly after this event Tensions between the United States and the USSR had mounted after World War II, resulting in what we refer to as the Cold War.
The United States around the Cold War had a great fear Communism spreading. Eastern Europe had fallen under Communism, and China was also ruled by Communists. United States policymakers could not afford to lose Southeast Asia as well. The United States in reaction to this condemned Ho Chi Minh as an agent of international Communism and offered to assist the French in recapturing Vietnam.
In 1946 United States warships carried elite French troops to Vietnam where they quickly regained control of the major cities including Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City),...