2. US policy and intervention, 1954-64

Key learning objectives
Students should be able to explain:

• The reasons for US involvement in south-east Asia
• The impact of increasing US involvement on policies followed by Ho Chi Minh

Key processes to be learned and understood

• The aims of the Geneva Conference (1954) and the US response
• Eisenhower and the Domino Theory
• The formation of South Vietnam
• Life in North and South Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem
• The impact of Ho’s policies to unite Vietnam
• The NLF, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail
• The response of US
• The Strategic Hamlet Programme
• The fall of Diem (1963)
• the Gulf of Tonkin incident (1964)

Key events

• 1955: The pro-American Ngo Dinh Diem became President of South Vietnam in October.America agreed to train Diem’s army.
• 1956: Diem started to arrest anyone suspected of being in the Vietminh
• 1957: the Vietminh started a campaign of guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam
• 1959: American military advisors were killed in Vietnam – the first US
  casualties; the Ho Chi Minh Trail was first used
• 1960: the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed in Hanoi though in the South, they were known as the Vietcong (VC)
• 1961: US President Kennedy pledged extra aid to South Vietnam
• 1962: The number of US military advisors increased from 700 to 12,000
• 1963: President Diem was killed in a military coup
  15,000 US military advisors were in South Vietnam
• 1964: the Gulf of Tonkin incident; Congress passed the ‘Gulf of Tonkin
  Resolution’; America bombs targets in North Vietnam; NLF attacked US air bases