To What Extent Was Does Fear of Communism Explain the Usa’s Increasing Role in Vietnam During the Years 1954-64?

The reason the USA became increasingly involved in Vietnam during the years 1954 -64 is for many reasons, although whether the fear of communism is the main factor is debatable as was it the need to contain communism at any cost due to the fear of the public, creating domestic pressure, political advisors or the weakness of the French armed forces in the conflict that truly enlarged the involvement of the USA in the Vietnam War? Fear of communism in itself had many influences such as previous failure in Korea, Anti – communist presidents and also the impact the media had on the “Red Scare” creating extensive domestic pressure. As during the 1950’s Communism was seen as threat to America’s way of life and it’s national security   interests, mainly as a large section of Asia had “fallen” to communism, supporting the domino theory in which Eisenhower’s administration firmly believed in, as a result of this the administration was solidly anti communist, hence no compromise could be made in South East Asia, as the   Geneva accords   were perceived by the US government as a win to communism, therefore wouldn’t sign and wouldn’t allow election, in consequence they became increasingly involved in south Vietnam. This political opinion carried on into both Kennedy’s and LBJ’s presidencies. Other reasons such as weak allies – the French and South Vietnamese – and extremist political advisors lead the USA to believe increased involvement was the only viable option to progress in the Vietnamese war.

The fear of communism explained the USA’s increasing role in Vietnam as the government worked to achieve what the public wanted, which at the time was physical security against what seemed to be an ever-growing spread of communism in south east Asia since the fall of china, then also Korea, which fully supported the ‘Domino Theory’ leading the public to believe that Vietnam would be next, followed by a host of other countries eventually creating a communist super power with the...