Examine early U.S. involvement in Vietnam under the Eisenhower administration during the First Indochina War
French defeat by Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, northern Vietnam, 1954.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: When Dwight D. Eisenhower became president, the French had been fighting the Viet Minh for six years. Like President Truman, President Eisenhower considered Indochina of vital interest to the United States. Since 1945, the United States had paid for 80 percent of the costs of the war, and it had sent the French planes, tanks, arms, even military advisors--and still the French were losing the war.
Then in 1954, in April and May, the Viet Minh trapped and surrounded a large French force at a western outpost: Dien Bien Phu. President Eisenhower almost sent American troops and bombers to rescue the French, but he did not. The French cause--to win back Indochina--like Dien Bien Phu, was finished. For France, the war was over.
Then in 1954, in April and May, the Viet Minh trapped and surrounded a large French force at a western outpost: Dien Bien Phu. President Eisenhower almost sent American troops and bombers to rescue the French, but he did not. The French cause--to win back Indochina--like Dien Bien Phu, was finished. For France, the war was over.
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