In 100-150 words, respond to the prompt below. Make sure to include an open-ended discussion question for your classmates to reply to.
1. Consider what would have happened had the United States supported Ho Chi Minh during his anti-French war of resistance. Would U.S. security interests have been compromised by a nationalist presence in Southeast Asia from the 1940s to the 1970s? Would U.S. administrations have been doomed for being “soft on communism”? Would communism have spread throughout the region, undermining the stability the United States sought? Keep in mind that the U.S. policymakers feared that Ho Chi Minh was bent on territorial conquest. Was Ho Chi Minh another Adolf Hitler?
