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After World War Two Ho Chi Minh captured Hanoi in 1945 and declared Vietnam independent. The French tried to take control again. Peace was discussed at Geneva and the Treaty of Geneva agreed that the French would leave Vietnam.
The elections were never held and the country remained divided:

North Vietnam was a communist republic led by Ho Chi Minh.

South Vietnam was a capitalist republic led by Ngo Dinh Diem

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The North Vietnamese attacked the US Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin. This incident gave the USA the excuse it needed to escalate the war. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - US Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson permission to wage war on North Vietnam. The first major contingent of US Marines arrived in 1965. For the next ten years the USA's involvement increased. By 1968 over half a million American troops were in Vietnam and the war was costing $77 billion a year.

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Diem was a corrupt leader who refused to give peasants land. He did not like Buddhism and treated the mainly Buddhist population badly. In 1963, President John F Kennedy sent 16,000 military ‘advisers’ to help the South Vietnamese army. Diem’s Government was overthrown. After this, there was no strong capitalist government in control of the South.

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Learning Target Prompt: What were some of the leading causes or events that led the US to involvement in Vietnam?

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Learning Target Prompt: What were some of the leading causes or events that led the US to involvement in Vietnam?

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There were a number of long-term and short-term reasons to explain why the USA became involved in Vietnam. This includes, Vietnamese independence,  Civil war, The domino theory,  The weak South Vietnamese Government, and The Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964. Although there are reasons for US involvement, the US shouldn't have been as deeply involved as they became.

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The Vietminh wanted to unite the country under communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Many of the South Vietnamese people supported Ho Chi Minh as they were unhappy with Ngo Dinh Diem. War broke out between the North and South. From 1958 onwards, the South came under increasing attacks from communists in South Vietnam itself. They were called the National Liberation Front.

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The domino theory was the belief that if one country fell to communism, it was likely that the neighboring one would also fall. The USA was afraid that communism would spread to South Vietnam and then the rest of Asia. It decided to send money, supplies and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese Government.