Why Did The Us Get Involved In The Vietnam War

Over thirty years ago the Vietnam War ended, and the U.S. came back home with their tails between their legs and nothing to show for other than a high number of casualties, and a huge pile of debt. The U.S. underestimated the North Vietnamese army, and it was costly. Many believe that the Vietnam War was none of the U.S. business, but on the contrary, many believe we should have tried to stop the spread of communism. The long-lasting Vietnam War was unnecessary for the U.S. to be a part of; it put many people through unneeded stress and hard times.

Reasons for United States' Involvement in Vietnam In this essay I will be writing about why America got involved in the Vietnam War, between the 1950s to the 1960s. This was a steady and slow process with many deaths all because of communism. It was very costly and bloody. This essay will focus on political reasons, military reasons and economy reasons.

Why the United States Became Increasingly Involved in the War in Vietnam In the years after the Second World War, it became necessary for the Allies to decide the future of the French colony, Indochina, when the Japanese who had been occupying the country, surrendered. Prior to the Second World War, the French had ruled over the regions of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The French ruling was unpopular, forcing ideas of democracy upon the Vietnamese people and the French overthrew any efforts of resistance.

The American involvement in the Vietnam War was a very controversial decision, with many people being for the war, however many people in the United States were also against the war. The Vietnam War was the longest lasting war in the United States history, before the Afghanistan War, in which most people felt strongly about, be them United States citizens, Vietnamese citizens, or just the global population. In order to better understand the ideas of those American citizens that are either for or against the war, one would have to look at the reasons that the United States was involved in the war, the impact of the Vietnam war on the American society, and the impact on the United States foreign policy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt served as the presidents of The United States of America who leading America though the great depression and the only prime minister who were elected to more than two term in office. During World War II Roosevelt met the soviet leader Josef Stalin which was an important ally but often problematic against Nazi Germany which later Roosevelt negotiated with Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill at Yalta 1945, which failed to establish a framework for peaceful post WW2 cooperation between the soviet and the west.

Why the United Sates Became Increasingly Involved in the Vietnam War The United States became involved in the war in Vietnam for many reasons. The main reason of which is the Cold War. No fighting between the two countries actually took place due to both countries owning nuclear weapons which were used as a deterrent but got at each other by involving themselves in the issues of other countries that had a knock on effect on each other. The Cold War was a war that initiated between the US and Russia after World War two.

“Why? Why was America involved in such brutal war to stop a brand new country from forming? Shouldn 't we support that because that 's what happened to us.” That was my very first question when my grandfather first told me about the most brutal and longest wars America has ever been in, the Vietnam War. America’s involvement in the conflict was to stop the evil and corrupt system of Communism. French forces were dead meat unless America teamed up with them. Unfortunately, this didn 't stop the nonmoral army under Ho Chi Minh. The United Sates did not win the Vietnam War due to strong motivation, Guerrilla warfare, and the political factors in the United States.

The Vietnamese War had no certain beginning. It was known as the second Indochina was and it took place throughout Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This war lasted for about twenty years, which basically made it the longest war in U.S. history. While the war had no certain beginning, it was estimated to have begun around November 1995. The war then ended to the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1973.

Lyndon B. Johnson inherited the war from Kennedy in 1963 and it was his responsibility to lead America through the Vietnam war and stop communism, he planned was to escalate the war. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution was what really involved the US in the war and made them a big part of it. The alleged attacks of North Vietnam on the USS Maddox angered America and it was a way for Johnson to organise attacks on North Vietnam. He now had an excuse and his main view on the war was to escalate it. Although he had a lot of support from US citizens, there were some people protesting against his approach towards the war later on.

The war dragged on from 1946 to 1954. The French had a certain deal of

The Vietnam War was a typical proxy war that occurred during the cold war period. It involved both the Soviet Union and the United States and in some ways China was also involved. The American involvement in the Vietnam War started just like most proxy wars do. President Truman and President Eisenhower sent military advisers to the region along with economic aid to support the French and South Vietnamese in their actions against the North Communists. Eventually, more and more aid and military advisors were sent to Vietnam under President Kennedy, who believed that the war was the place to help restore American Credibility. Kennedy was a strong believer that he as President had to contain communism and in his first speech as President he

Before America’s involvement, Vietnam was under French control until Nationalist Leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed independence in 1945, starting the Indochina War. After a Vietnamese victory in 1954, through the use of guerrilla warfare, France established an agreement to temporarily divide the country between a communist dominated north and an anti-communist south. Four years after the start, America joined the Vietnam War in 1959 in order to prevent the spread of communism. America feared the domino theory would cause the rest of Indochina to become Communist. At first America’s force was limited to bombings, but by the end of 1965 there were 185,000 troops sent to Vietnam, which later increased to over 500,00 by the end of 1968.

The Reason USA got Involved in Vietnam At the beginning of World War 2 Vietnam, a small country to the south of China, was under the control of the French. However, The Chinese had control before the war. The Chinese rule had influenced the Vietnamese who based their everyday lives on the Chinese ways of life. E.g. Language, as the French took power Vietnam had to take a dramatic change in the way that they lived.

Noam Chomsky said of the United States war in Indochina, “The battleground is ideological, not military.”[1] It seems his analysis was on target. The War in Vietnam began well before the 1960s. At the end of the Second World War, the great divide between Western and communist values began to appear, as Churchill famously noted, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an ‘Iron Curtain’ has descended across the continent.”[2] Soviet Union began actively extending their influence into Eastern Europe, to act as a buffer zone against the West. The defeat of the Nationalists in China by the Communists, led by Mao Zedong, was particularly important. The United States greatly feared the proliferation of communism. As the arms heated up between the US and the Soviets, the Cuban Missile Crisis made the dangers of communist influence palpable to the American public.

Ho hid out in Hong Kong for the next year, but heard the news of his father's death. He stopped taking care of himself, since he was so saddened by the news. He was caught a year later but Sir Stafford Cripps, his defender in court, was able to bring his sentence down to imprisonment. The Years following his imprisonment are unclear but word came out that Ho Chi Minh was dead. There was nation wide anxiety and mourning. These claims were meet with others saying that they had seen him in many areas of Vietnam (Yancey 14). These rumors were true. Somehow Ho had escaped, or secretly been set free. Ho was reunited with his party and laid low for a while. In February 1941, Ho finally returned to Vietnamese side of the Tonkin border, kissing the ground the second that he crossed. "On 10 May 1941, Ho met with a group of Communists on Marx Mt., to listen to his new plans to free the country (Yancey 16)." He planned to form a new group, Vietminh, to fight for the independence of Vietnam. They spent nine days on Marx Mt., discussing their plans to make Vietnam independent. After his summit at Mt. Marx his political career is over and here on out is purely military.