Assignment Analysis: The Vietnam War

Juan Lemuz
Kent Andrade
English 101
9/14/2014
Essay #1 “Why are we in Vietnam” and “This is not our War” were on the minds of many Americans during the post-World War 2 era. After World War 2 the war had left Europe and other surrounding countries devastated, and to many countries adopting Communism ideals were their only option. Tensions were running high between the two “big nations” The Soviet Union and the United States, each of which wanted to spread their influence as much as possible. The European’s were in no shape to repel Communism and it was vital for France to play an active role in Europe’s recovery for which Vietnam was crucial not only to stabilize France but to place a halt on Communism. Thus leading into one of the
most questionable actions in American history, the decision to help France instead of a divided Vietnam who pleaded to Truman for help to be free of colonial rule. President Truman had many issues to consider, but his top priority was to halt Communism and France would be a key player in the fight against “commies”.
Truman was given little choice when he chose to help France since according to them it was essential to control Vietnam in order to stabilize themselves and to prevent themselves from becoming Communist which The United States strongly opposed. “We do not want to become Communist; we do not want to fall into the Russian orbit, but I hope you will not push us into it.” Said Charles De Gaulle to the United States as in making it clear that to help Vietnam would force France to succumb to Communism. Those words were all Truman needed to hear in order to send materials and financial aid to France. The southern part of Vietnam which had a non-Communist government was controlled by the French thanks to the British, but the north who was led by Ho Chi Minh and was being aided by China were Communist, this was a problem because now Minh had the support of a strong Communist Country. Furthermore Truman decided to help France because vital raw materials would be lost to the allies if the southern part of Vietnam was lost to the northern side, so basically Truman saw it beneficial to keep Vietnam under French control in which it was theorized that the northern part of Vietnam was being influenced by Russia.
Investigations were carried out in Vietnam, the purpose was to investigate a possible connection between Ho Chi Minh and Russia. Abbot Low Moffat was sent to Vietnam to explore that possibility and reported back to Acheson saying that “Ho might be an unrepentant Communist, but he was, first and foremost, a nationalist.” Although it was clear that Minh was a Communist there wasn’t any solid evidence that Minh was under “kremlin” control. Since Minh was a strong figure in Vietnam any other solution that didn’t involve him was out of the question because the outcome would be uncertain and Minh wouldn’t accept any proposition that kept Vietnam in French control. Young states “if there was no evidence Moscow was giving the orders, then obviously the Vietnamese didn’t even need orders; that’s how obedient they were.” All investigations that were made in North Vietnam were futile because even though no concrete evidence was ever found that linked Minh to Russia, assumptions were made in order to justify why the aid was given to France and how they saw them as an important ally in their fight against Communism.
Communism was viewed as a virus and in 1947 Truman announced what is known as the “Truman Doctrine” which is the idea that the United States would intervene, on a global basis, to prevent Communism from spreading, thus leading to the “Marshall Plan which provided financial aid to European countries in order to halt Communism.
To Truman it was more important to help France because in their eyes they were fighting communist and when Mao Zedong a communist revolutionary won the war in China the aid to help France take Vietnam was seen as fighting Communism, as Young noted “In Vietnam, the French fought Communism, not the Vietnamese.” Truman’s task was clear, to stand by the nations who wanted to “root out” Communism, simply put, to help Vietnam was to help Communist and to help France was to fight it. The fact that in August 1949 the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons of their own further solidified Truman’s stance and it was deemed necessary to give France everything they needed to regain its lost colony. For in the eyes of Truman The Soviet Union posed a threat to the “free” people of the world and any nation that wanted to have a government based on Communist ideals were seen as evil which made the aid to France all that more
important.
In the words of Young: “the United States invaded Vietnam against our stated values and ideals and that it did so secretly and deceptively, in order to impose its will on another sovereign nation.” it was contradictory to our beliefs to ignore the people of Vietnam who sought their freedom from French rule just as how the United States sought freedom From the British during the American revolution, but France was deemed more important on the grand scale of “freedom”. To help Vietnam would have made other nations that had colonies such as England uncomfortable and made Russia a welcome ally the economically ruined Europeans in turn some of the most powerful countries would accept a Communist based government, so it was necessary for the United States to aid France. In conclusion even if it prevented the freedom of the Vietnamese, Truman decided to help the French for they were essential to America’s vison of a “free world”.
Works Cited
Young, Marilyn Blatt. The Vietnam Wars. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.