Vietnam’s independence took a back seat after WW2 for the US because France made regaining its colony contingent upon playing along with NATO. France floated the idea of aligning with the USSR to scare its Western allies. So for the US it decided Europe was the more important sphere.
The US’s main strategy with the communism was one of containment - see George Kennan’s Security Council memo.
Why containment? Because the USSR was exporting revolution. The US could take the stance of doing nothing, but then the USSR would have free rein. And it wasn’t a matter of “let the people in those countries go communist if they want to”, because with USSR support a minority of people could impose communism on a population that wasn’t interested in it. Hence containment - just slow or stop other countries from going communist by matching what the USSR was doing - bankrolling and training political groups in those countries.
So doing nothing with Vietnam and letting France regain their colony aligned with containing further expansion of communist in South East Asia. If Vietnam went back to a French colony, then communism wouldn’t take hold (or it would at least be difficult for it).
Vietnam’s independence took a back seat after WW2 for the US because France made regaining its colony contingent upon playing along with NATO. France floated the idea of aligning with the USSR to scare its Western allies. So for the US it decided Europe was the more important sphere.
The US’s main strategy with the communism was one of containment - see George Kennan’s Security Council memo.
Why containment? Because the USSR was exporting revolution. The US could take the stance of doing nothing, but then the USSR would have free rein. And it wasn’t a matter of “let the people in those countries go communist if they want to”, because with USSR support a minority of people could impose communism on a population that wasn’t interested in it. Hence containment - just slow or stop other countries from going communist by matching what the USSR was doing - bankrolling and training political groups in those countries.
So doing nothing with Vietnam and letting France regain their colony aligned with containing further expansion of communist in South East Asia. If Vietnam went back to a French colony, then communism wouldn’t take hold (or it would at least be difficult for it).