Some raise doubts about whether Vietnam was really worth it, but argue that once the war had begun it became impossible to ‘get out’. So although the Communist threat was perhaps not as threatening as the President wanted people to believe, ‘to leave Vietnam to its fate would shake the value of an American commitment.’

Other suggest that the ‘rhetoric’ about protecting the South Vietnamese was a lie, and that actually ‘the US didn’t want an independent South Vietnam that was no longer dominated by America’ because ‘that would undermine American influence in the area.’ Critics of the war, of course would not say anything that would support America’s reasons

The Geneva Conference was held from April 26 to July 21, 1954 and officially registered France's defeat. This was not welcome to the US since it precluded any further military effort to defeat the Vietminh. The US was determined not to let Vietnam go communist as this would expose the Republicans to the same charges leveled against the Democrats in 1952, namely the ‘'loss of China to communism".

This minor incident was greatly exaggerated. ‘Naval units of the Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters, and have thereby created a serious threat to international peace’ This was done to persuade Congress to give the President authority ‘to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.’

On April 7, 1954, President Eisenhower said that Japan would turn "toward the Communist areas in order to live" if Communist expansion “takes away, in its economic aspects, that region that Japan must have as a trading area." The consequences would be "just incalculable to the free world”. “The loss of Southeast Asia…could result in such economic and political pressures in Japan as to make it extremely difficult to prevent Japan's eventual accommodation to communism." Communist domination of Southeast Asia "by whatever means" would "critically endanger" US "security interests". The "loss of Vietnam" would therefore be of great significance. This was known as the Domino Theory, and was mostly a result of the Secretary of State’s policy. John Dulles was an anti-Communist, but many Americans shared his views at the time, although this is strange because when China had become Communist, none of the ‘dominoes’ had toppled, so this made it unlikely that this would occur as a result of Vietnam becoming Communist.

Some topics in this essay:
Rolling Thunder, China Communist, China Indochina, Senator Fulbright, Geneva Conference, South Vietnam, South Viet-Nam, United Nations, North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, operation rolling, north vietnamese, operation rolling thunder, rolling thunder, cold war, ngo dinh diem, bao dai, military effort, domino theory, south viet-nam, dinh diem, dien bien phu, ngo dinh,