Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's history lesson.

My name is Mr. Merrett and I'll be guiding you through today's lesson.

So, let's get started.

In today's lesson, we're gonna be looking at containment and the domino theory.

And this is our second lesson in our USA: Why was the US involved in Vietnam units? In today's lesson, we're gonna be able to explain the importance of the Domino Theory.

And in order to do that, we're gonna be using some key terms. Our first key term is Containment.

And containment was a foreign policy strategy used by the US during the Cold War to try to prevent the spread of communism.

Our second key term is Domino Theory.

And the domino theory was the idea that if one country fell to communism more would follow.

And our final key term is Marshall Aid or sometimes known as the Marshall Plan.

And this was the American strategy of giving money to European countries to help them to recover after World War II.

Let's get started on the main content.

So our lesson today is gonna comprise of four distinct learning cycles.

And our first learning cycle is looking at the American fear of communism.

So from its very beginning, communism was opposed by the USA.

A communist party took power in Russia in 1917 and set about creating a state in which resources would be shared out equally between people.

That is the essence of communism.

Unfortunately, this is completely the opposite of the concept of the American Dream, which emphasised individuals working hard to support themselves and having no government interference at all, or at the very least, minimal government interference.

The first large scale anti-communist movements in the USA occurred in 1919.

And was known as the First Red Scare.

And the reason being is that red is the colour that's associated with communism.

People were afraid that communists were trying to take over the country and anti-communist feelings were put on hold during the Second World War, and the reason being is that the USA.

In the later part of the war were working alongside the USSR, which is the home of communism to fight Nazi Germany but shortly after the war had finished, anti-communist feelings returned in the US and actually returned even stronger than before.

The second Red Scare started in 1947 in the US and it reached its height in the mid 1950s.

The Red Scare resulted in countless American lives being ruined just by being accused of being a communist even if there was no evidence that this was true.

Hundreds of hundreds of people lost their jobs.

They lost their sense, their place in their community.

They lost their friends purely because they were accused of being communist.

Even if there was no evidence at all, it still had the power to ruin lives.

That's how strong anti-communist feeling was in America at this point in time.

Right, let's do a very quick knowledge check.

So true or false, the Red Scare refers to a time in the USA where an anti-communist panic took hold.

Is that true or is that false? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose true, then congratulations, you are correct.

But let's justify the answer now then, so why is it true? Is it true because A, Communist plans to invade the USA have been discovered? Or is it true because of B, Communism was very different from the concept of the American Dream? So choose your justification now.

All right, if you chose B, then well done.

That is indeed correct.

Let's go on then to our first task for today.

So I'd like you to match these events to the year in which they occurred.

So nice and simple, you just draw a line between the event and the correct year.

Pause the video now and I'll see you once you've completed that.

Okay, welcome back.

Let's go through these answers now then and hopefully you've got all these correct.

So the very first thing in 1917 was that Russia became a communist managed country.

In 1919, the First Red Scare occurred in the US.

In 1939, World War II began.

And in 1945, World War II ended.

And shortly after that, in 1947, the Second Red Scare began.

Hopefully you got all of those correct.

Let's move on now then to our second learning cycle for today.

We are gonna be thinking about was the USA right to fear communist expansion? So during the latest stages of World War II, the USSR's Red Army freed many countries in Eastern Europe from Nazi occupation.

Once the war had finished in many of these countries, the Red Army stayed behind to help introduce a communist government.

And as well as that other countries in Eastern Europe actually chose to become communists after local elections were held.

Regardless from the Western European perspective, communism appeared to be sweeping through Europe.

Certainly, almost all of Eastern Europe became communists one way or another.

In some western countries even, such as Italy and France, there were strong communist parties who came close to being voted into power.

And the USA looked on in horror as communism seemed to be sweeping across the continent.

It wasn't just in Britain or places like that, that was afraid of the spread of communism.

The USA even all the way across the Atlantic was afraid at how quickly communism was expanding.

So let's do a very quick knowledge check.

True or false, many countries in Western Europe became communist after World War II.

Is that true or false? Choose now.

Okay.

If you chose false, then that is correct.

Let's justify the answer first of all though.

So, is that because of A, several Western European countries had strong communist parties, but they did not form governments? Or is it because of B, several Western European countries outlawed communist parties to prevent them from taking over? So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose A, then that is correct.

There were indeed strong communist parties in Italy and France in particular, but they weren't quite strong enough to form their own governments.

Eastern Europe was where communism became prevalence.

Right, here we go then for us second task, here's what I'd like you to do.

I'd like you to use the table and the map, which is on the next slide.

I'll introduce that to you in just a moment.

And I'd like you to write in the date that each country became communist.

What you could do ideally is colour code each year and that'll give you a really strong idea about how communism spread through Eastern Europe.

Once you've done that, once you've finished that timeline map of communist expansion in Eastern Europe, I want you to explain what you think might have happened next.

So if you look at the table here, I've got the country and I've got the year it became communist.

Then there's a map there of Europe and all of Eastern Europe has been labelled as well.

All you need to do is just colour code those countries.

So once you've done that, once you've got a fully color-coded timeline map, you then need to explain what you think will happen next.

Pause the video now and I'll see you once you completed that.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on fine with that task, so your map should look something similar to mine.

I've used reds and a variety of shades of reds.

It's a colour in my map purely because red and communism go together very nicely.

That is the colour that's associated with communism.

For my justification, I've said that "Looking at the timeline map of communist expansion in Eastern Europe, I predict that communism will continue to spread throughout Europe, either to the south into Greece and Turkey or west into Italy and France.

It might go both ways." The reality is that there was a very strong possibility that that's exactly what would happen.

Both Greece and Turkey potentially could have become communists.

Greece in particular was very close to becoming communists.

And in both France and Italy with democratic countries, the communist parties were particularly strong in those countries, they came very close to becoming elected.

Let's move on now though to our third learning cycle for today, which is American reaction to communist expansion.

The USA was convinced it had to do something to combat the spread of communism.

Directly removing communist governments was likely to provoke a war with USSR and coming so soon at the end of the second World War, absolutely nobody had any appetite for anymore fighting.

So instead, a policy of containing communism was agreed upon.

And that simply means that any country that was already communist would be allowed to remain communist but no new countries could become communists.

That's the American plan.

Much of Europe was badly damaged after the Second World War, and people were poor and struggling.

And American General called George Marshall, pinpointed this as the reason for the spread of communism so he proposed a solution.

Provide European countries with money and resources to rebuild.

If countries swiftly return to prosperity, there'd be no reason for people to turn to communism, which he believed was generally favoured by the poor.

And this plan was known as the Marshall Plan or Marshall Aid.

Marshall Aid proved remarkably successful in Europe.

However, whilst the USA was focused on stemming the tide of communism there, it was paying a lot less attention to events elsewhere in the world.

And in 1949, after a bitter civil war, which had begun in 1927 before World War II, communists and China succeeded in taking control of the country.

And this is a huge shock to the American people.

Further to this, in 1950, communist North Korea invaded Democratic South Korea in order to unite the country under a single communist government.

And America realised that the fight to contain communism had to spread beyond the borders of Europe if it was to succeed.

As a general feeling in America, they're kind of taking their foot off the gas a little bit.

They weren't really paying attention to events elsewhere outside of Europe.

And this had allowed communism to kind of spread almost under the radar.

And I wanna say almost because there was plenty of signs that the Americans weren't really paying attention to then, their focus was elsewhere.

Their focus was on preventing European countries from turning to communism.

So let's do a quick knowledge check now then.

So true or false, the US expected that China would become a communist state.

Decide now.

Okay, if you chose false, then congratulations.

That is indeed correct.

Okay, it was quite a shock to the American people, but let's justify this answer.

It's because of A, the USSR invaded China after World War II and set up a communist government.

Or is it because of B, Chinese Communists were victorious after a long civil war, which started before World War II.

So choose your justification now.

Okay, if you chose B, then very well done.

That is indeed the reason why China became communists.

Right, let's go for our next task for today then.

So I want you to think about what are the pros and cons of the USA's containment policy? What was good about it in your opinion? And what was bad about it in your opinion as well? And I'm gonna keep it nice and simple.

I want you to create the table that I've got on the screen in front of you, and just try and complete that.

Try and get at least three points for each side, if you can get more and that's fantastic.

But try and go for a minimum of three for each side.

So pause the video now and I'll see you once you've completed that.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got fine with that task.

Let's go through some potential answers now.

And maybe you've got these that I'm going to show you on the screen and maybe you've got something different and that's absolutely fine if yours are different to mine.

So one of the pros of the USA's containment policy was that the USA was rich, ridiculously rich at this point in time and it could afford to spend money to solve their problems. And from their perspective, the spread of communism problem, so let's just spend some money to make it go away.

The cons of that though is that it is expensive and that money could be spent on other things.

Another pro though was that it would make countries friendly with the USA.

People tend to like it when you give them money.

And certainly, this was a secondary benefit of America's plan, was that as well as stopping communism from spreading it was making other countries very happy in their relationship towards America.

The cons of that though is that, it's gonna make the USSSR very unhappy with America.

Stalin, the leader of the USSR has put in time, referred to it as dollar imperialism.

Imperialism being the idea of spreading an empire and dollar being the currency of choice in America at that point in time.

So the whole idea from standard perspective is that America is effectively buying an empire, buying an economic empire.

Another pro of their policy though, was that countries could receive money to help them rebuild and therefore, not turn communists.

That is the crux of the whole plan, and it was pretty successful as well.

The cons of that though is that countries could potentially waste money as well.

They could spend money on things which aren't necessary, could make the people unhappy.

And because of that, the people could therefore choose to turn to communism 'cause they're unhappy with their current government.

So that is a potential downside of this plan there as well.

Right, let's move on now then to our final learning cycle for today.

And in this learning cycle, we're gonna think about how does it actually impact the Vietnam? That's what this whole unit is about.

So this containment, this domino theory, how is that actually having an impact on Vietnam? Well, America supported the French against the Viet Minh.

And whilst they're uncomfortable with the idea of supporting colonialism, they were happy to lend aid against a communist force.

America traditionally was very anti-colonial.

Famously they became a country because they fought off a colonial power.

They fought off Britain and gained their independence.

And generally speaking, they were quite keen to help other countries do the same as them.

So for the fact that they are now fighting on the side of a colonial force, it frustrated some Americans, but their fear of communism overcame that frustration.

So getting rid of communism or preventing communism from spreading was far more important than trying to help this colonial power.

Sorry, this anti-colonial movement.

In total, almost $3 billion in aid was given to the French.

Ultimately, though, as we know in vain.

After Vietnam was split in two at the Geneva Conference, the USA supported the anti-communist South Vietnamese governments.

And at first this was led by the Vietnamese emperor Bao Dai, but he was quickly replaced by his prime minister, Ngo Dinh Diem.

Diem was problematic for the Americans.

He proved to be a corrupt dictator who persecuted Vietnamese Buddhists.

But he was anti-communist, so the USA gave him their backing.

And the US president at the time, Dwight D.

Eisenhower, sent approximately 1,000 military advisors to train the South Vietnamese army.

And they were known by the acronym the ARVN or ARVN for shorts.

As well as providing nearly $2 billion in money and equipment.

And that's a very, very similar policy which had been so successful in Europe.

It's pretty worth pointing out these military advisors, generally speaking, they were members of the military.

They were soldiers, but they weren't there to fight.

They were there to train, and they were there to advise.

This is a little bit confusing for some people at the time because they generally did this in their military uniform.

So for some people, American soldiers are there in Vietnam.

In reality though, they were there to help, to advise, they weren't necessarily there to fight.

But you can kind of see why it could be confusing for some people.

In any case, it wasn't just that.

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation or SEATO was also created to encourage other countries in the region to resist the spread of communism.

And the US' fear for Southeast Asia was summarised by Eisenhower as the Domino Theory.

And he saw one Southeast Asian country becoming communist as causing another Southeast Asian country nearby to also become communist, and the USA was determined not to let any more dominoes fall.

So if you look at the image on the screen there, because see that China is a domino at the front there, it's become communist.

North Korea became communists very shortly afterwards.

Vietnam potentially is turning communist.

And if that happens, maybe Laos, maybe Cambodia falls to communism.

That could mean that Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and so on and so forth could all become communists as well.

And that was the big fear amongst American circles, is that by one country becoming communist, its neighbours would naturally follow suits.

So from an American perspective, you need to stop those dominoes from falling.

And here is South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem.

So our final knowledge check for today, what support was sent by the USA to South Vietnam? I'd like you to choose two examples here.

So was it A, radios and televisions? Was it B, $2 billion in aid? Was it C, 1,000 military advisors? Or was it D, nuclear weapons? Make your choice now.

Okay, if you chose B and C, then congratulations that is indeed correct.

So our final task for today.

I want you to explain why the USA supported the South Vietnamese government after 1954? And I'd like you to write at least a paragraph doing this, using these particular key terms, containment, domino theory and Marshall Aid or Marshall Plan.

So pause the video now, have a go at writing that extended answer and I'll see you once you've completed that.

Okay, welcome back.

Hopefully you got on fine with that task and hopefully your answer looks somewhat similar to mine up on the screen here.

So my answer was this.

"The USA's belief in the Domino Theory in Southeast Asia led to them supporting the anti-communist government of South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem.

Diem was given nearly $2 billion to fight against communism.

America was opposed to communism long before it got involved in Vietnam.

Red Scares had happened in America as far back as 1919 and continued after World War II.

America was also concerned about the spread of communism in Eastern Europe and East Asia after World War II, and responded with the policy of containment, which included Marshall Aid given to European countries wrecked by war so that they could repair the damage and not become communists." So hopefully, you've got a similar answer to that one there.

Right, just to summarise our lesson for today then.

So the USA had been opposed to communism long before the Cold War started.

Communism spread rapidly after World War II and the USA committed itself to containing the spread of communism.

Eisenhower believed that communism might spread in Southeast Asia, and so he committed large amounts of money to supporting Diem to stop the spread of communism in Vietnam.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

I hope you enjoyed yourself.

I hope you learned a lot.

And I hope to see you in our next lesson.

Bye-bye.