This is who America decided was a threat that they wanted to stop before all of Indochina became communist. .
The Vietcong situation was already getting out of hand and there was a need for resistance against the Vietnamese communists. President Eisenhower had been sending aid to South Vietnam and helped them create the Army Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). With the help of the United States, there would hope in stopping the communist North Vietnamese from taking over. Although, the help needed was going to have to be a lot more than just money. South Vietnam was still being defeated and needed a serious intervention from America. "The most suitable tactical role for U. S. forces seemed to be one of taking on the regular, so-called main force units of the enemy. " (Palmer, pg. 57) If the Americans really wanted to make a difference and ensure that the communist would not take over not only South Vietnam but also all in Indochina, they would have to stop the forces themselves using our troops and weapons. .
With the Cold War, the United States had promised to keep communism from spreading. President Truman stated that any nation challenged by Communism would receive aid from the United States. The Truman Doctrine, which was initially meant for Europe and the Middle East, was adopted and used by future presidents and applied the new Vietnam conflict. We were afraid that the domino affect would happen, where if one country fell to communism many more would follow. It was now obvious that the problem of communism went much further than just Europe and the Middle East and this alone proved to America that communism anywhere was a threat. .
Vietnam was not a major issue yet when President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961. The bigger issue was the Cold War. The Vietnam conflict only became a larger issue when a civil war broke out in Laos, We needed to find out how serious this problem was so we sent vice president Johnson to Vietnam to assess the issue.
