The U.S. Enters the Vietnam War

1. Many neutral observers in Vietnam were critical of US policy. Explain why.
Lots of people were critical of US policy because their tactic of opposing the communist North Vietnamis was to provide support to anti-communist governments in South Vietnam, and these governments were corrupt and treated the people wrongly. Also, the US did not allow the people of Vietnam to hold free elections.

2. Explain how US politicians would have defended their policies.
The US politicians would have defended their policies by saying that they just made them in order to stop communism from spreading, and they would say that if Vietnam fell to communism that others would start to fall as well.

3. The following events are not listed in correct date order. Place them in the correct chronological order.

(1954) U.S. stops elections in Vietnam: political involvement.
The US refused to let them have free elections because we feared they would vote for communism.
(1955) Formation of South Vietnam: political involvement and financial support.
The US needed to support South Vietnam to have any chance of containing communism. This meant that the US supported all of the governments in South Vietnam.
(1960) Viet Cong formed: No direct involvement.
This forced the US to send military aid to the South in order to help fight the guerrila force of the viet cong.
(1961) Viet Cong attacks on U.S. and South Vietnam bases: military involvement
This forced the US to respond with immediate military involvement so as to defend the U.S's world standing and its troops that were stationed in Vietnam.
(1962) JFK sends military advisers: military involvement.
The military advisers were sent to help train the military in South Vietnam. This dragged the US farther and farther into the conflict as it became a target because were were helping the south vietnamis and had to continue because we had already started.
(1962) Number of 'advisers' reaches over 11,500: military involvement.
This caused more tension because the amount of people was less like advisors and more like a small military force.
(1963) U.S. supports South Vietnam government after army overthrow Diem: financial aid.
This caused the US to have to support another corrupt government.
(1963) Assassination of JFK - Johnson becomes president: no direct involvement
US policy towards Vietnam under Johnson became very aggressive and he was looking for an excuse to enter a war in Vietnam.
(1964) Gulf of Tonkin Incident: Military involvement
This was why the US sent a force of 3500 marines to Vietnam.
(1965) U.S. Marines land at Da Nang: military involvement.
The US was now involved in a war in Vietnam.

4. Choose two events that you think were critical in getting the U.S. involved in a war in Vietnam. Explain
your choice.
Two events that were critical in getting the U.S involved in the war in Vietnam were the U.S support of South Vietnamis governments and the assassination of JFK. The US support of the South Vietnamis governments caused us the enter the war because the support for the governments grew when we supported them. Also, the assasination of JFK made us enter the war because Johnson that took his place was much more agressive against the North Vietnamis.