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Michael Santos American Foreign Relations 27 Mar 2023 Professor Neel Baumgardner Vietnam Journal: U.S. Foreign Relations The United States became involved in Vietnam (specifically aiding South Vietnam to promote democratic capitalism) in response to an increase of Chinese involvement with North Vietnam. After China came to be under communist control in 1949, they started to influence other southeast nations to adopt a similar economic and political structure. Following the defeat of French forces, the Vietnamese people gravitated toward communist leader Ho Chi Minh, who had the military support of the Vietminh - who defeated the French. 1 Ho Chi Minh and the communists occupied North Vietnam, while most of South Vietnam stood behind Ngo Dinh Diem, who led a capitalist regime following a rigged state referendum. This division inevitably resulted in the Vietnam War in 1955, fought between the communists of the North and the capitalists of the South. As a result, the United States supported the south of Vietnam with military advisers, funding and war stock to combat the growing influence of the communists and Ho Chi Minh. On the other hand, North Vietnam enjoyed the economic and militaristic support of China and the Soviet Union during the war. South Vietnam’s leader Dinh was corrupt and discriminated against the peasant class along with the Buddhist population - who both turned against him and began to rebel. As a result, the South made itself enemies within its jurisdiction along with the fight against the northerners. The United States declared war on North Vietnam once they were attacked by them in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964 as the U.S.S. Maddox was patrolling the area. 2 The United States began to mobilize its troops into the region, and at one point they were spending $77 billion a year on war efforts. This affected LBJ’s Great Society 1 Hunt, Michael H. 2011. Lyndon Johnson’s War: America’s Cold War Crusade in Vietnam, 1945-1968 . Hill & Wang. 2 Lindaman, Dana, and Kyle Ward. 2004. History Lessons: How Textbooks from around the World Portray America . New York, NY: New Press. 316.

agenda because the money that was meant to fund these programs were ultimately depleted by the war. President Johnson created these programs to elevate plenty of Americans out of poverty, but many of them failed due to the lack of funding. Many Americans consider the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War to be a failure that affected its own economy, and a detriment to the reputation of its military. The perspective of North Vietnam was formed through a desire to efficiently distribute resources to its people in order to avoid the exploitation that they endured at the hands of France and Japan. They were also able to gain much of the country’s support because they were the ones who defeated France. South Vietnam promoted capitalist ideologies to gain the support of the United States, and because they feared the implementation of communism into the country’s operations. The United States Congress eventually decreased the financial support of South Vietnam, which fell to the North - which had the continued support of China and the Soviet Union.

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