From Decolonization To Anti-communist:the Evolution Of American Policy Towards Vietnam(1945-1950)

Indochina is located in the Indochina Peninsula,between China and the South Asian subcontinent,and is a bridge between the East Asian continent and the archipelago,and has important geo-economic and political values due to its rich natural resources and strategic location.As early as the end of World War I,the President Wilson proposed the principle of national self-determination and tried to enter the vast colonies of the traditional European colonial powers,including Indochina,under the banner of anti-colonialism.However,they were opposed by the vested interests of Britain,France,and the Netherlands and were aborted.An important result of World War II was that the United States became a superpower and the traditional colonial powers,Britain,France and the Netherlands,fell into decline,creating an opportunity for the United States to enter Southeast Asia and line up with Britain and France.On the issue of post-war arrangements,in view of the future fate of Indochina,U.S.President Roosevelt proposed a trusteeship policy,which was approved by Soviet leader Stalin,but was strongly opposed by Britain and France,especially by the British Prime Minister.On the one hand,the U.S.and Soviet powers gradually moved from cooperation to confrontation in 1945-1947,and on the other hand,the "August Revolution" in Vietnam,after the revolution,Ho Chi Minh dissolved the Indochinese Communist Party,declared an equidistant foreign policy between the U.S.and the Soviet Union,and made several overtures to the United States.The U.S.government had not formed a definite opinion in the North Vietnamese regime,and since Europe was the center of U.S.global strategy,giving France the status of great power would facilitate the competition with the Soviet Union in Europe.During this period,the U.S.policy on Indochina showed signs of a gradual shift from decolonization to anti-communist,and the European Division and the Far East Division quarreled over this issue.After the outbreak of the Cold War,the U.S.increased its assistance to France,prompting France to put forward the “Bao Dai Solution” to solve the Indochina problem.1949 saw the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in the revolution and the recognition of the Ho Chi Minh regime by China and the Soviet Union,which highlighted the geopolitical significance of Indochina,and the U.S.regarded Indochina as a bridgehead to prevent the expansion of communism into Southeast Asia.The issuance of NSC 64 marked the completion of the transformation of U.S.policy toward Indochina from decolonization to anti-communist.After that,Indochina became a place of contention between the two blocs of the U.S.and the Soviet Union,and the eventual full-scale involvement of the U.S.in the Vietnam War in 1965 was the rational logic of the policy in this period.