jan 1, 1945 - Origins of the Vietnam War

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Background info:
- Before the second world war, Vietnam was ruled by the French. During the war, the region was conquered by the Japanese, who treated the Vietnamese people savagely. As a result, a strong anti-Japanese resistance movement called the Viet Minh emerged under a communist called Ho Chi Minh. Ho inspired the Vietnamese people to fight the Japanese. The war ended, and the Viet Minh entered the northern city of Hanoi in 1945 and declared Vietnam independent. However, the French had other ideas. In 1945 they came back, wanting to rule Vietnam again, but Ho was not prepared to let that happen. 9 years of war followed between the Viet Mihn (who controlled the north) and the French (who controlled the south).

From 1949, Ho was supported by China, which became communist in 1949. As seen in the Cold War, the US aided those who were being attacked by communists. And so, the US sent the French 500 million USD a year. Despite the help from the US, the French were unable to hold on to the country and pulled out of Vietnam in 1954. A peace conference was held in Geneva, and the country was divided into 2 (north and south Vietnam) until elections could be held.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, elections were to be held within 2 years, to reunite the country. However, in 1954 the US applied a different rule, no elections would be taking place. this was very ironic of the US because not long before this war, the US criticized the USSR for not allowing free elections in eastern Europe, so why did the US do this? Well, because the US was afraid that the elections would win to the communist side, and if they did, communism could spread to countries surrounding Vietnam (India, Thailand, Cambodia, etc.), the US did not want to risk this. They called it the domino theory; however, it also showed the ignorance of the Vietnamese people.

And so, in 1955, the Americans helped a man called Ngo Dinh Diem to set up the Republic of South Vietnam. They supported him because he was very anti-communist. However, Diem's regime was very unpopular amongst the Vietnamese people, because he belonged to the landlord class that was very ruthless to Vietnamese peasants, and he was Christian and showed very little respect for the Buddhist religion of most Vietnamese peasants. The US was concerned about Diem's actions but had no one else to choose from. The US supported Diem by sending around 1.6 billion USD in the 1950s. However, Diem was overthrown by his own army in 1963, but the governments that followed were equally as corrupt, and still received US aid.

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