How did Vietnam get involved in the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

The northern vietnamese, ruled by Ho Chi Minh, shared the same ideolegy as the Soviets. These groups were both communist. So support was given to North Vietnamese troops by the Soviet Union. Also, because of the nuclear tension between USSR and USA, the support of the Soviets in Vietnam prvented a major intervention of American troops. Americans feared the Soviets would pose nuclear threat. The Soviets also dispatched a reported 3,000 troops to Vietnam.

Answer 2

Unlike the Korean War, Red China was not directly involved in the Vietnam War. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Chinese provided significant food and logistical (construction and transport) aid to the Communist North. Some moderate amounts of war material were also provided during this period.

By the late 1960s, due to a long history of animosity between the Vietnamese and Chinese (mostly due to a repeated historical propensity for Imperial China to attempt to annex Vietnam into the Chinese Empire, and the Vietnamese resisting this), the People's Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) instead sought help from the U.S.S.R., even though the P.R.C. was far closer.

While this may seem a bit strange, remember that the Vietnam War (a.k.a. the Second Indochina War) was fought during the political falling out between Red China and the Soviet Union. At the time of the Vietnam War, China and the Soviet Union were not in any mood to cooperate on anything.

Note that the P.R.C. did give significantly more aid to the Laosian and Cambodian Communists next door to Vietnam.

Answer 3

If China hadn't gotten involved the UN forces would have taken the entire Korean peninsula. China was worried that the UN would keep going into China once it got to the border and decided to fight on the side of the North Koreans.

Answer 4

This is a bit of a complex issue, and requires a bit of history.

Prior to the Second World War, the current-day country of Vietnam was part of the French Empire, being called French Indochina (which encompassed Vietnam and parts of Laos and Cambodia). French Indochina was occupied by the Japanese during WW2.

After the defeat of Japan, many Vietnamese (rightly) believed that they should have self-rule and be an independent country, as was happening to many other former colonies of the various Empires. However, France wished to remain an Imperial power, and desired the return the country to its former colonial status.

As it became apparent to the Vietnamese that they were not to be granted independence, a Communist-led revolt in the northern portion of the country began. From the late 1940s to mid-1950s, these communist revolutionaries fought French forces in what is known as the First Indochina War. A peace settlement was signed in Geneva in 1954, dissolving French control, and setting up two new countries: a Communist-controlled North Vietnam, and an anti-Communist South Vietnam.

The Communist North saw this partition as but a small pause in the greater revolution to establish a single, united Vietnam, rather than a permanent partition. Conflict between the two Vietnams broke out almost immediately. Escalating fighting turned into a full-fledged was starting about 1960. The conflict was wided as both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. saw Vietnam as a post-Korea test of international power and influence. Thus, increasing American and Soviet aid turned a regional civil war into an internationally-sponsored slaughter.

So, to summarize: Vietnam was a French Colony, then occupied by Japan, then underwent a revolutionary war for independence, followed by a partition into Communist and anti-Communist areas, then underwent a Civil War, then became a Cold War proxy war, and finally ended as a Civil War where the North was victorious, resulting in a single Communist nation.

Answer 5

Red China trained North Vietnamese MiG pilots and supplied their air force with MiG19s (J6 versions).