er colonial mastery over Vietnam and the rest of
             Indochina. Harry S. Truman and other American leaders, having no
             sympathy for French colonialism, favored Vietnamese independence. But
             expanding communist control of Eastern Europe and the triumph of the
             communists in China's civil was made France's war against Ho seem an
             anticommunist rather than a colonialist effort. When France agreed to
             a quansi-independent Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai as an alternative to
             Ho's DRV, the United States decided to support the French position.
             The American conception of Vietnam as a cold war battleground largely
             ignored the struggle for social justice and national sovereignty
             occurring within the country. American attention focused primarily on
             Europe and on Asia beyond Vietnam. Aid to France in Indochina was a
             quid pro quo for French cooperation with America's plans for the
             defense of Europe through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
             After China became a communist state in 1949, the stability of Japan
             became of paramount importance to Washington, and Japanese development
             required access to the markets and raw materials of Southeast Asia.
             The outbreak of war in Korea in 1950 served primarily to confirm
             Washington's belief that communist aggression posed a great danger to
             Asia . Subsequent charges that Truman had "lost" China
             ...