Why did the United States aid the French in their efforts to keep control of Vietnam after world war 2?

Answer 1

If you look at photos of Frenchmen fighting in Indochina, many will be wearing US GI steel pots (M1 steel helmet). The US supplied M24 Chaffee light tanks, steel helments, Browning machineguns, prop driven WWII fighters (Bearcats), WWII half-tracks (a tracked vehicle with truck tires in the front/half track-half wheeled vehicle), etc. When the US discovered that the communists were involved, the French were assisted. The US could NOT send troops because the US was BUSY fighting the Korean War at the time.

Answer 2

Primarily with surplus US WWII equipment: Propeller driven WWII ex-USN Hellcats and Bearcats (originally carrier based fighter planes) which the French used for ground support (tactical bombers aka fighter bombers). US GI steel helmets (the M1 steel helmet), submachine guns, surplus USN landing craft which the French used as their riverine forces. However the French did DESIGN one completely un-American (or all French) riverine boat...the STCAN, which a US plastic model company marketed in the 1980s & 1990s as the RAG-Boat (River Assault Group). This riverine boat was interesting because this particular vessel was studied by the USN, which in turn influenced the USN to design, build, and purchase the only USN Brown Water Navy riverine boat that was also "designed, built, and purchased specifically for combat duty in South Vietnam"; the USN Alpha boat (ASPB-Assault Support Patrol Boat). This craft was the USN's "destroyer" of the riverine fleet (the Monitor was the battleship of the Brown Water Navy) and supplemented the Swift Boats, PBRs, Monitors, etc.

Finally the US supplied the French with WWII M24 Chaffee light tanks (50 of them), along with some obsolete WWII halftracks, artillery, and other infantry weapons.

Answer 3

Because the Reds were helping out the Viet Minh.