The Viet Minh And The French example essay topic

Was the Vietnam War really a result of communist expansionism and was the United States intellectually and morally justified for its intervention? This Essay will discuss and examine the causes of the Vietnam War specifically addressing the notion that communist expansionism played a major role. It will also look at the role that the United States undertook in the war and if its intervention was intellectually and morally justified. The origins of the Vietnam War date back to post World War 2 1945 when the French endeavoured to reinstate colonial rule in the indo-China region of Vietnam. Prior to this the French had colonized Vietnam in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, however under French rule the Vietnamese people where greatly oppressed.

Over time a number of uprisings against the French were staged, only to be defeated by the French foreign Legion. The Viet Minh, a Vietnamese military force primarily consisting of Guerillas, led by Ho chi Minh, a staunch Nationalist and Communist fought against Japanese troops who remained in Vietnam after WWII, the Japanese surrendered on 14th August 1945. Ho Chi Minh formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and took a measure of control in the North. Up until this time The Vichy French had run the administration of Vietnam but with Ho Chi Minh and the newly formed communist DRV, the country was artificially divided into North and South. Ho Chi Minh began diplomatic negotiations with the French, it was agreed that the DRV would continue in existence as part of the Indochinese federation and French Union.

However these talks soon broke down and the Viet Minh and the French were again embroiled in war. America threw its support behind the French as it perceived the Viet Minh to be a surrogate for communist expansionism in IndoChina and ultimately the south east Asian region. France was also a member of the free world and therefore must be supported. The USA backed France with much needed financial support and eventually sent troops to Vietnam when the Viet Minh convincingly defeated France at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The war would drag on for another 20 years. The previous has been a simple and brief overview of the Vietnam War in what really was a complicated scenario and series of events, but is necessary to provide a base.

Was the Vietnam War really a result of communist expansionism? This is a question that has created much contention and publicity and has been exacerbated by America's intervention in the war. Although Ho chi Minh was a communist, he was essentially a nationalist, this points to the notion that he, and the Viet Minh were not fighting to expand Soviet or Chinese ideologies but, in essence, merely fighting against French colonisation to gain independence. The Vietnam War seemed to have more attributes of a civil war not unlike the American civil war, than a war of contesting ideologies, . Ho chi Minh had the conviction that Imperialists whether white or yellow had to be fought by the people of Indochina if they hoped to avoid extinction (Marr).

Some new revisionist contest that Ho Chi Minh was a pawn for communist masters, however Vietnam's relationship with China could best be described as mutual hatred, The American Governments view of the Vietnam War was quite the contrary. American President Dwight Eisen hauser developed the Domino Theory based on America's policy of containment, it implied that if Vietnam was to be run by a communist regime then countries neighbouring Vietnam such as Loan and Cambodia, would succumb to communism hence the Domino effect.