They feared the Communists would win control.
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NO. Vietnam has never had truly free and democratic elections. In fact, the US was notable for effectively preventing voters in South Vietnam from voting for unification with North Vietnam in 1956.
During his term, Eisenhower will greatly increase U.S. military aid to the French in Vietnam to prevent a Communist victory. Or the US feared that Vietnam would vote for a communist government
The fear of being invaded was not a justification for the increase in US involvement in Vietnam. The US withdrew from Vietnam in 1975.
France made Vietnam a colony in the 1800s and it was called French Indochina. The Vietnamese managed to eject the French in 1954. The French had tried to return and reimpose a colonial regime after WWII. After the French gave up Vietnam was divided into North and South, though this was supposed to be temporary and elections were supposed to be held to select a national government to be over the entire country, both parts. The US realized that the candidates of the north, though communists, were more popular than the corrupt thieves the US was backing as leaders in the south, and so, the elections were never held. Before the French took over Vietnam was sometimes called Cochin China.
Nixon had been elected to begin withdrawing US troops from Vietnam and to turn over more of the fighting to the South Vietnam government. In 1972, North Vietnam finally realized that the war was a stalemate. The two sides met and arranged a cease fire. In January of 1973 the Paris Accords went into effect. The US agreed to withdraw all its troops from Vietnam in 60 days. Congress had stopped funding the war effort. The North Vietnamese government agreed to release all prisoners, which they never did. Free elections were to be held in Vietnam. The President of South Vietnam considered the agreement between North Vietnam and the US as a sell out. But it allowed President Nixon to save face and bring the soldiers home. By 1975, after US troops had been pulled out of South Vietnam, the ARVN (Army of the Republic of South Vietnam) collapsed and the North Vietnamese moved into Saigon, ending the war and finalizing the take over of the South by the North.