U.S. History 1877-Present 12.1b: The Cold War Revisited
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Upon entering office, Eisenhower had to decide whether to engage in conflict in Vietnam or risk plunging humanity into a domino effect of world communist domination... Eh, at least dominos are fun.
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he had what it took to, as one American military advisor phrased it, "put the
squeeze" on the French to get them off their fannies. Now that's diplomacy... And [hand squeezes water balloon]
no, no actual fanny squeezing was done. More like Fanny kicking. Despite [fanny gets kicked]
increased economic and military aid in 1953, a French defeat appeared inevitable, [France inflates and pops]
but the U.S. refused to abandon our beret-wearing brethren. Heck,
President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower even pronounced to the nation, "Destiny has laid [Eisenhower speaks]
upon our country the responsibility of the free world's leadership." And we wonder
why people say we're full of ourselves... Eisenhower and Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles agreed that U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam would have dangerous global [Dulles and Eisenhower speak]
consequences and would certainly lead to the worldwide spread of communism. Ike told [Communism spreads]
the American people to think of it like a row of dominoes. If Vietnam fell, [dominoes fall]
another country would quickly follow until the entire free world tumbled into
communism. But how far would Eisenhower be willing to go to plug what he called
"the leaky dike in Indochina?" Should he send American troops? If so, how many? Or [dike leaks]
should he just send really big corks? And like an endless game of Jeopardy, the [cork plugs leak]
questions kept coming. If the U.S. were to intervene directly and perhaps to [countries fight]
declare its own war against the Viet Minh, would America win where the French
had failed? Could the U.S. with its new role as leader of the free world afford
to be defeated by a communist enemy, or would such a loss have worldwide
repercussions? Well, the answer to that one was a big ol' yes. By early 1954,
the leak began to gush. For the first time, the U.S. government [leak gets bigger]
considered the option of sending American troops to Vietnam, a decision
that all leading officials had hoped to avoid like the plague. We bet some of [officials meet]
them even started wearing those terrifying beaked plague masks to meetings. Well, [person in plague mask leans in]
Eisenhower's administration may have been tempted to step in [Eisenhower doesn't gamble]
but in the end voted against direct military action. The stakes were far too
high. Just one month after President Eisenhower delivered his foreboding
domino theory statement, Indochina fell. Without American firepower, the French [dominoes fall]
army surrendered, and Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh declared victory the U.S. was [Minh beats France]
not at all pleased with the peace agreement. It refused to endorse the
Geneva peace accords, arguing that they gave too much power to communist [Geneva Peace Accords signed]
leadership in Vietnam. Much to the U.S. government's dismay, France and the Viet
Minh agreed to divide the region nearly in half, with Ho Chi Minh controlling the [Vietnam divided]
North and France maintaining its influence over the South. And furthermore,
according to the terms of the Accords, national elections would be held in two
years in an effort to reunify the country. Well, the U.S. predicted that if
the elections took place, Ho Chi Minh and the communist party of Vietnam would [newspaper headline]
certainly win, and a democratically elected communist leader would be, in the
words of U.S. Secretary of State Dulles, "something to gag about..." Or maybe he was
just talking about Mamie Eisenhower's meatloaf. [Mamie Eisenhower serves dinner]