Vietnam...+The+Path+to+War

You all know that the United States was involved in a major military conflict in Vietnam during the Cold War ... but why? What was America's "path to war"? Using the resources below and__Creating America__, your task this evening is to write a description in YOUR OWN WORDS of the causes of American involvement in Southeast Asia. Pretend you are writing it as a summary for on online encyclopedia or textbook. Your description should ...
 * be between two and four complete, well written paragraphs
 * contain the following terms - France, Ho Chi Minh, communism, Ngo Dinh Diem, military advisors, Gulf of Tonkin, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Rolling Thunder
 * be IN YOUR OWN WORDS (remember, it's easy to check this online)
 * contain two images THAT RELATE TO YOUR WRITING
 * Should end with the first Marines landing in Vietnam in 1965

The event that led to the Vietnam War was when Vietnam declared independence from france. They had leftover weapons when we gave them weapons in WWII to fend of the Japanese. When it was over Ho Chi Min took advantage of the opportunity and gathered other communists to help them gain power against France. Because of the support Vietnam was getting from the Soviet Union and China, France did not stand a chance. In order to help france, Eisenhower sent supplies to the French to stop the spread of communism. He and his advisors worried that all of SE asia would fall to communism. France however withdrew after they lost an important battle. In response to this they send supplies to the southern democratic part of vietnam for them to fight against the north. Kennedy saw that the only way to stop communism was to stop vietnam

//Creating America// [|This cool animation] [|Into Vietnam (Overview)] from ABC-CLIO [|Timeline of the Vietnam War] [|Vietnam Online Timeline] Causes of the Vietnam War video below

and this voicethread, made by your favorite 8th grade American history teacher that you have this year (I like to limit my competition)