Vietnam, a Southeast Asian country, became a Cold War battlefield for the Second Indochina War which involved both U.S. and US interests. of Russia. Once again it was about the capitalist struggle against communism. The Vietnam War was the direct result of the communist presence and pressure from the USSR and China. America feared that a chain reaction was taking place among other Asian countries that would make them turn to communism one after another. America wanted to prevent this from happening and that is why it was so willing to help the South fight the communist North. Ultimately, however, their attempts were unsuccessful because they were unable to overthrow or prevent the spread of communism throughout Vietnam. The roots of the Vietnam War began after the First Indochina War and the Geneva Accords. After the First Indochina War, the French who had colonized Vietnam withdrew from the country, leaving its former colony with two different and combative parties, the communist Vietminh Party and the Southern Capitalist Party. These two parts divide Vietnam into two different countries, the North and the South, with two different rulers, Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho Chi Minh consolidated his power in the north after the Vietminh, the revolutionary group that defeated the French in the First Indochina War. Diem was the nationalist leader of the South and had been elected by the French with much support from the United States because he was a strong anti-communist and his belief in Catholicism appealed to members of the American government. Diem founded the Republic of Vietnam following the Geneva Accords. The South, however, continued to suffer guerrilla attacks from the Vietcong, rebels who were part of the North but were in the jungle of the South. The Vietcong were disruptive due to... middle of paper... they could not win due to all the chemical substances used and the bombings left Vietnam in ruins, all because of their determination to stop the spread of communism. Vietnam found itself in a very bad financial situation and its population suffered greatly due to the Cold War. The Soviets and China, on the other hand, benefited greatly from this proxy war, not only because their communist way of governance continued to spread, but also because their adversary, the United States, was dealt a severe blow to morale and the country as a whole due to financial difficulties. losses.Works CitedGriffith, Robert, ed. Major Issues in American History since 1945. Lexington, MA: DC Heath and Company, 1992. “Guerilla Wars.” Century of the people. PBS, 1998. VHS.Staff, History.com. "Domino Theory". History. A&E Television Networks, 2009.Web. April 21, 2014.domino theory>.