Vietnam Than His Predecessors?

Again, this essay wasn't very good. I don't remember what mark I got for it, but I read through it briefly and it isn't good... lol

  Regarding American involvement, Truman was the person who began it. He sets up the Truman Doctrine, which stated that America would do anything in its power to help a country who was falling to communism and did not want to. It was proclaimed by Harry Truman on March 12th 1947, and stated that America would "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures". It was this, in a way, which meant that America was obliged to help Vietnam when it was invaded by communism. You could then put forwards to argument that it was inevitably Truman’s fault in the first place that America was involved in Vietnam to such an extent, even though it happened after his presidency.
  The beginning of the Truman Doctrine was roughly at the same time that he was receiving telegrams from Ho Chi Minh who was asking for help against the French. The French were trying to invade Vietnam to take it for themselves. Truman did not help Ho Chi Minh and instead backed the French, though this was because it was believed at the time that Ho Chi Minh was a communist and Truman wanted to contain communism so believed he was doing the right thing by not helping them.
  Though Truman did not get America involved exactly, it could be put as down to him that they had to get involved in the future. All Truman really wanted to do was contain communism, Eisenhower however wanted rollback.
  Eisenhower came into power in 1951, and rollback of communism was one of his policies. In 1953 the Korean War ends after only three years, and Korea is split in to a communist north and nationalist south. This was an American concept, which worked and is still in place today, though it merely went by Truman’s idea of containment rather than Eisenhower’s idea of rollback.
  It was also the same year that Eisenhower funds the French who were in Vietnam at the time. The entire French invasion on Vietnam could not have happened without American help as about 75% of what they had was given to them by America to contain the communism they thought was about to happen, so though America was not directly dealing with Vietnam at the time, it was down to Eisenhower that the French were and his fault that in the end the French were beaten by Vietnamese people in the end as if it had not been for him they probably wouldn’t have been there, and the Geneva Conference would not have had to go away.
  The following year was the year of the Geneva Conference, which split Vietnam into two and made Diem president of the south. This is when American becomes largely involved in Vietnam and the very next year they send in MAC-V, a group of advisors to help Diem run his half of the country. In 1956 there was supposed to be an election held to see which of the presidents were to run the country as a whole – communist Ho Chi Minh or nationalist Diem, though Diem refused to hold the election.
  By 1959, America doubts Diem’s government as a whole and already has 700 MAC-V advisors over there. Overall I only think Eisenhower continued what Truman had already started, though it was him who first sent people into Vietnam. Despite this, it was Kennedy who did the most when it comes to Vietnam.
  The first thing Kennedy does when he gets into power is send a further hundred MAC-V people into Vietnam. He also sends more weapons and advisors, as well as the helicopters to back up the ARVN and begins training Vietnamese men to be pilots and agrees to the use of Napalm and Agent Orange.
  It was Kennedy who set up the green berets who were like a special opps group and sent them to Vietnam to live with the South Vietnamese people and get them on side. Kennedy really made America put a lot more into Vietnam and continued everything that had gone before him.
Overall, I think Kennedy did more Vietnam wise because he sent more people in and set up groups etc and was therefore way more involved. However, I think that Truman is to blame for America’s involvement in Vietnam as he was the person who initially set up the doctrine which decided America’s involvement in the first place. If it had not been for the Truman Doctrine America may have never got involved in the first place and Eisenhower and Kennedy would not have done what they did to continue it.