the+Vietnam+War

VIETNAM - THE PATH TO WAR You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict in Vietnam during the Cold War ... but why? What was America's "path to war"? Using the resources below and __Creating America__, your task this evening is to write a description in YOUR OWN WORDS of the causes of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Pretend you are writing it as a summary for on online encyclopedia or textbook. Your description should ...
 * be between ** two and four complete, well written paragraphs **
 * ** contain the following terms ** - France, Ho Chi Minh, communism, Ngo Dinh Diem, military advisors, Gulf of Tonkin, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Rolling Thunder
 * be** IN YOUR OWN WORDS ** (remember, it's easy to check this online)
 * ** contain two images ** THAT RELATE TO YOUR WRITING
 * Should **end with the first Marines landing in Vietnam** in 1965

Vietnam used to be part of French Indochina. Indochina later became three separate countries, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. But they were a French colony. 1930 Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese version of gorge Washington, a revolutionist, leads a communist revolt against French. The French tried to arrest him and he was forced to flee to china. Later Ho Chi Minh led a goral war against Japan and he started to get support from US, but that did not last. After WWII china leaves Vietnam and the French decide that it was theirs before the war so it should be theirs after, and regain property. Ho Chi Minh was finally able to win their land back from the French, and he started a communist government for Vietnam. The US did not like that Vietnam had become communist and pushed for Vietnam to be split in half to try and contain communism. The south side of Vietnam becomes a democracy. The US put Ngo Dinh Diem as the leader of South Vietnam. It was supposed to be a democracy but a free election could never happen because the Vietnamese would elect Ho Chi Minh, and that would defeat the purpose. In late 1950 there is a civil war in Vietnam. This war is communist vs. democratic. Overall there were really five different presents who contributed to the Vietnam War. President Truman was the first man. His idea was a containment policy, to just try and keep communism from spreading. He sent money to French to try and help them have better control over their colonies. He thought that if they were in better control they would not let them fall to communism. Dwight Eisenhower’s idea it is a puppet state and sends in US military advisors to oversee the job. On Ikes watch there is the first American death in Vietnam. But things are not going very well in South Vietnam. Ngo Dinh Diem is catholic, while the majority in Vietnam is Buddhist. This makes many monks commit public self immolation; setting themselves on fire. Kennedy does not support Ngo Dinh Diem and while going to remove him Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated. Kennedy, not wanting to seem week on communism, continued to send advisers. President Johnson is the man who commits the US more fully to the war, he says that the US needs to stop communism. In the Gulf of Tonkin, there are some US ships floating out in the gulf, the last straw comes when some Vietnamese ships shoots missiles at our ships and our ships were there “completely innocently”. LBJ wants to “prevent further aggression” and basically asks congress for a blank check, he can do anything he wants, he can even wag war. In Operation rolling thunder the US continuously dropped bombs on North Vietnam. We dropped more bombs then, than we did on Germany. In 1965 first ground troops arrived in Vietnam.