The landing of 3,500 U.S. Marines on March 8, 1965 just north of Danang may be instilled in the minds of some as the initial U.S. involvement in the second Indochina War; however, events, ideologies, and developments that led up to that day actually began some twenty years earlier. Ever since September 2, 1945 in Hanoi, when Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), Vietnamese had aspirations of U.S. assistance in maintaining an independent state of Vietnam. Understanding that more historical, diplomatic, and political incidents had transpired before President Johnson ever escalated any part of our military involvement on the other side of the world in 1965 is vital to appreciating and discerning the United States’ role in the war in Vietnam.
The United States government has long held the belief in its moral worldview and oath to the democratization of other nations and bodies of government that protecting the principles of free and democratic, global coexistence is of the utmost importance to our future prosperity. In short, the goals and aspirations of the United States have been to spread the ideals of democracy in as many other areas of the world as possible, and contain or eliminate the growth of threatening or oppositional forms of government, such as communism. The involvement of the U.S. in Vietnam, therefore, was an unmitigated attempt to secure and protect the democratic intentions of the South Vietnamese government from the spread of communism, the latter being led by Ho Chi Minh. The United States’ active engagement in and commitment to the Vietnam conflict from 1950-1975 has reshaped some of the foreign policy decisions made by its leaders, as well as realigned the American public’s opinion of U.S. involvement in other nations’ conflicts.
