okay so.... I am aware of a few (potentially half) truths about this subject. I'd like to lay them bare as possible in order to have my titular question answered more fully.
dad's a Vietnam vet. He says Vietnam was due to American and French colonies on rubber plantations, not Communism, that there was a physical resource there and so it resembles, like, Iraq for oil (in my mind).
I learned in high school that Joseph McCarthy led the 'witch hunts' regarding Communism. Which in movies I've seen appears to resemble 'Communism' only insofar as Marxism as a political entity is usually taken to be furthering Communistic goals.
But the ultimate takeaway I have is that life in the Soviet Union doesn't appear much less inundated with horrific figures than the United States does, so I'd say the USSR was ultimately a failure by critical theory's standards.
However idk really what sponsored this sentiment in the beginning. Who were the Communists in Vietnam that had called themselves as such and were they seen as threatening to Americans, French, both, or somebody else? What exactly led to the anti-Communist wars that preceded our current wars? Thanks
Hopefully someone actually knowledgeable comes along, but I’ll take a stab.
In an effort to secure their borders after WW2 the Soviets installed communist leadership in countries along its western border, mostly comprised of land previously occupied by nazi Germany.
In an effort to help war torn nations recover and create a lasting peace (and concerned about the rapid increase in communist expansion), the US starts throwing money around in what is known as The Martial Plan.
Not wanting the west interfering in their affairs the soviets forbade their newly communist states from accepting US aid.
Allegedly, some of this Marshal plan money also went to the CIA to fund anti communist operations in places like Ukraine.
By 1950, the soviets have developed their own atomic bomb. So a direct conflict with the United States will almost certainly end in atomic warfare, and destruction on a scale previously unknown. So instead they (US and USSR) decide to play chess with smaller nations.
In 1950 Soviet backed North Korea invades US backed South Korea (at the end of WW2 US and USSR divide up Korea, USSR occupying north, US occupying south) Neither side can secure a clear victory, eventually a treaty is signed in 1953.
Now to your actual question. The French did have a colony in Vietnam (then French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)
After WW2 Vietnam sought independence from France, and ultimately communist backed Vietnamese end up kicking France out in 1954. With France on the out, Vietnam is still divided about what government should rule.
US president Dwight Eisenhower coins the “domino theory” stating that if Vietnam falls to communism, so will all of Southeast Asia.
Rubber: I’d never actually heard of this theory before, Rubber was historically a valuable resource, but synthetic rubber had been around for a while by ww2, so I’m not sure how much water this holds.