What were the causes of U.S Intervention in the Vietnam war? What encouraged the U.S to enter that war? The French territory of Indochina which also contained the countries Cambodia and Laos was in turmoil, it looked as though the people wanted to establish their own country, Vietnam. The Vietnam finally succeed in defeating the French in 1954. Many people were okay with Vietnam being its own country at first, but when it showed Vietnam may take on communist leadership, some concern was voiced. Some countries even supported the potential leader until they found out of his possible communist intentions, but then quickly changed their opinion on him once they were further educated. The concern of communist leadership was voiced by people such as President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who brought up several good points in one of his speeches.One of these points was the “Domino Theory” which is the theory that if one country falls to communism, then the rest will follow. The fear with Vietnam was that it would be the first in a very large chain of “Dominos” to fall. An analysis of the Vietnam war shows that U.S intervention reflected only minor concern for South Vietnam, but was largely a result of anti-communist beliefs in the White House/US Gov’t.
In 1953, a congressional study mission reported: “The area of Indochina is immensely wealthy in rice, rubber, coal, and iron ore. Its position makes it a strategic key to the rest of Southeast Asia.” The United States realised this, and attempted to set up their own government in Vietnam, with hopes of securing Vietnam. This did not go the way they wanted though, and things proceeded to spiral out of control.     
The domino theory is the theory that as one country falls to Communism, others will follow. Such as knocking over one domino in a chain of dominos. “You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.” A good example of this is how Korea became a communist after the Chinese.In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party took control of China. With unity in mind, the nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen chose to join forces with the Chinese Communists whose reputation among the Chinese people had been increasing. The recently formed Soviet Union was a model of how a Communist Party could overthrow a monarchy. Many Chinese hoped and believed that the Communists would be able to modernize China and save it from the economic crisis that plagued the world in the 1930s.
    As the Domino Theory implies, if one country fell to the communists, then the other free stats would fall to communism as well. China and Korea are a perfect example of this. China fell to communism in 1949 and Korea not too long after. As people see the changes communism can bring in their neighboring countries, it affects them and encourages them to try and switch. If communism was to spread from Korea to Vietnam, Southeast Asia would be in jeopardy and it was determined urgent to stop Vietnam from becoming a communist country with the fears that they would lose most of Indo-China to communism. 
