How was vietnam a strategic military point in the fight against cold war communism?

The truely main interest for entering vietnam was to gain a military strongpoint against communism. How was it a strongpoint?How was vietnam a strategic military point in the fight against cold war communism?It was just to support South Vietnam who did not want communism. And which would then spread to other surrounding countries.



Democratic nationwide elections mandated by the Geneva Conference of 1954 having been thwarted by Ngo Dinh Diem, the communist nationalist National Liberation Front began a guerrilla campaign in the late 1950s, assisted by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, to overthrow Diem's government, which the NLF's official statement described as a "disguised colonial regime"[9].



In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diem's pro-Catholic discrimination erupted following the banning of the Buddhist flag and the Hue Vesak shootings. This resulted in a series of mass demonstrations known as the Buddhist crisis. With Diem unwilling to bend, his brother orchestrated the Xa Loi Pagoda raids. As a result, the US' relationship with Diem broke down and resulted in coup that saw Diem killed.



Diem was followed by a series of military regimes that often lasted only months before being toppled by another. With this instability, the communists began to gain ground.



To support South Vietnam's struggle against the communist insurgency, the US began increasing its contribution of military advisers. US forces became embroiled in combat operations in 1965 and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000.[10] North Vietnamese forces attacked most major targets in southern Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive.[11] Communist forces supplying the NLF carried supplies along the Truong Son Road, which passed through Laos and Cambodia. The US president authorized Operation Menu, a SAC bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia, which he kept secret from the US Congress.[12] [13]



Its own casualties mounting, and facing opposition to the war at home and condemnation abroad, the U.S. began transferring combat roles to the South Vietnamese military according to the Nixon Doctrine; the process was subsequently called Vietnamization. The effort had mixed results. The Paris Peace Accords of January 27, 1973, formally recognized the sovereignty of Vietnam "as recognized by the 1954 Geneva Agreements". Under the terms of the accords all American combat troops were withdrawn by March 29, 1973. Limited fighting continued, but all major fighting ended until the North once again sent troops to the South during the Spring of 1975, culminating in the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. South Vietnam briefly became the Republic of South Vietnam, under military occupation by North Vietnam, before being officially integrated with the North under communist rule as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on July 2, 1976.How was vietnam a strategic military point in the fight against cold war communism?According to the Domino Theory, once one nation falls to communism, bordering nations will fall to communism as well. By that theory, were Vietnam to fall, the chain would continue throughout the indochinese peninsula - ultimately extending to the Philippines and, of course, beyond.