The United States Focuses on
Vietnam
The Growth of Vietnamese Nationalism
• Japanese take power in Vietnam during World War II.
• China had controlled the region off and on for hundreds of years.
• By the early 1900’s, nationalism had become a powerful force in Vietnam.
• One of the leaders of the nationalist movement: Ho Chi Minh.
• Ho Chi Minh supported communism.
• He returned to Southeast Asia, where he helped find the Indochinese
Communist Party, and worked to overthrow French rule.
• Ho Chi Minh organized a nationalist group called the
Vietminh. The group united both Communist and
non-Communists in the struggle to expel the Japanese
forces.
The Growth of Vietnamese Nationalism
The United States Supports the French
• The Japanese surrendered control of Indochina
•
Vietnam becomes an independent nation.
• Two events convinced the Truman administration to help France
•
1. the fall of China to communism
•
2. the outbreak of the Korean War.
• Domino Theory•
the belief that if Vietnam fell to communism,
so too would the other nations of Southeast Asia
—like dominoes.
The Vietminh Drive Out the French
Defeat at Dien Bien Phu
• In 1954, the French commander ordered his forces to occupy the
mountain town of Dien Bien Phu.
• Vietminh’s supply lines force them into open battle.
• The French force at Dien Bien Phu fell to the Vietminh.
•
The defeat convinced the French to make peace and
withdraw from Indochina.
The Vietminh Drive Out the French
Geneva Accords
•Divided French Indochina into three nations• Vietnam,
• Laos
• Cambodia.
• The agreement also temporarily divided Vietnam along the 17th
parallel.
• The United States immediately stepped in
and became the principal protector of the
new government in the South, led by a
nationalist leader named Ngo Dinh Diem.