President Of South Vietnam example essay topic

The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was the longest war in America's history of involvement. Twenty years of hell, land mines, cross-fire, and death. Vietnam was divided by the Geneva Accord. The north being communist run by Ho Chi Minh. The south being anti-Communist run by Ngo Dinh Diem.

Before Vietnam was separated, it was run by France. France had ruled most of Indochina since the late 1800's. The Vietnamese were unhappy with the way the French were controlling, therefore, many of them took refuge in China. When in China, they began to follow the lead of Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to model the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence as that of the U.S. version. In the 1940's, Japan had taken over Vietnam which upset Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries when they had returned a year later. After returning, Minh had help from the Vietminh; an organization of communist that wanted freedom from other countries.

Their main goal was to turn Vietnam into a self-governed communist country. France wanted none of this non-sense. In 1945 they had moved back into southern Vietnam and ruled most of the cities. Ho Chi Minh swore to fight France to gain control of the whole country. U.S. promised to aid France, and sent almost $15 million worth of financial aid to France. The French fought for four years, being financially aided by the U.S. the whole time. The U.S. spent nearly one billion dollars in order to help France regain control of the tiny country.

The only reason that much effort was put into a small area was the fear of the y. Domino Theory. The Domino Theory first showed it's head during a 1954 news conference by U.S. President Eisenhower. The domino theory is the fear of the spread of communism from one country to the next, and so on.

Even with the assistance of the U.S. France could not gain the control it once had on Vietnam. When president of south Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem decided that the election of 1956 should be canceled, America strongly agreed so that Minh could not gain control of the whole country. Diem was a Catholic, which angered the country consisting mostly of Buddhist. In opposition to Diem, a new regime was conjured up in south Vietnam called the Vietcong. Vietcong were residents of South Vietnam who were in favor of the communist rule in North Vietnam. The Vietcong were an extremely violent group, they began to kill thousands of Diem government officials.

Minh was more than happy to hear of this radical group. He wanted to support their ways and began a trail to help supply them with anything they needed. The path was called the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail ran from North Vietnam through Thailand and Cambodia right down into Saigon, the capital of the south.

Diem was losing control of what little he had. All the fighting and death had upset the southern Vietnamese. The people of all the villages feared for their lives, and Diem came up with a plan to uproot them, and take them into safer areas. Before President Kennedy was assassinated, he had planned to pull out of Vietnam, but it was too late. President Lyndon B. Johnson was then in power, and America had officially entered the war, (although it was not called a war, it was more along the lines of 'military action') through the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

Vietnamese had allegedly torpedoed the USS Maddox, which was though to be reporting intelligence information to South Vietnam. Johnson needed to get the resolution okay-ed by congress, and on August 7th 1964, it was. Johnson had drafted the resolution long before the gulf incident, but needed the right time to strike. In March of 1965, America first began bombing the north. No less than 50,000 soldiers were in Vietnam by June of that same year.

America had officially began taking charge, and all hell broke loose. Many Americans were outraged by the news of America joining the war. Protesters lined the streets in the nations capital, but the government wasn't listening. America began to get deeper and deeper into the war. Johnson had gone back on his word, which helped him win the election of 1964. Although opposed to the spread of communism, Johnson had stated that he did not want to send any Americans to any war, but that was exactly what he was doing.