What was USA's real motive of invading Vietnam??

Question

There r no resources they went after like oil in Iraq. as weopons of mass destruction,fighting communism must have surely been used as a flimsy pretext. what did the US really intend on gaining from Vietnam??

Answer 1

The US had a presence there since 1950's, even before that if you count the OSS operatives during WWII. Our involvement was to stem the tide of Communism, and also to step in to fill the gap after the French were leaving to comply with the Geneva Accord of 1954.
In the context of the times, fighting Communism was a more important and justifiable pretext than oil.
It seems apparent that actual motives changed and got muddied as the scope of involvement became lengthy.
In the end, US objectives are actually beginning to be realized, and that area of the world moves to more of a self determined free-market based economy. It is a shame that there had to be so much suffering of the general population AFTER US withdrawal to see this come about.
I have read memoirs and interviews from former Viet Cong of how they were immediately disenfranchised when the South was overrun, (and they were on the same side as the North, and did much of the dying at the hands of the US!), so one can imagine how bad it must have been for the remainder of the population.

Answer 2

At that time, in the early and mid 1960's (it all started with JFK) creeping communism was a rallying cry for the country. The Cuban missile crisis, Russia's atom bomb threat, the Berlin wall were all big, heavy news back then. It was because of that REAL THREAT that JFK decided to send "advisers" to Viet Nam. There was no invasion! The French got their *** kicked at Dien Bien Fo (sorry for the spelling) and consequentially lost their war, and we became the 911 policemen for the world. Who else was going to stop the communists?

Of course Linden Johnson escalated the whole thing into the mess it became, not JFK

Answer 3

They thought that other nations would fall to communism if they lost south vietnam, communism was a much bigger threat than from today. People were actually worried about a world war three with communist and capitalist nations nuking each other. It was the same reason we helped South Korea stay capitalist when they got invaded.

Answer 4

The US never "invaded" Vietnam.

Vietnam was split into two countries after the French left, The North was Communist and allied to China and Russia, and the South was allied to America and Australia.

The U.S were invited in by the South vietnamese government to help their own army fight the north.

There was an escalation from there.....but it wasn't an invasion at all.

Answer 5

Vietnam wasn't 'invaded.' As i recall, the democratic government of South Vietnam called upon us to protect them from their communists brothers from the north. We let S. Vietnam and our soldiers down by not fighting a war to win.. We did not put ground forces in the north, we didn't 'chase' enemy planes over international boundaries, we didn't go into Laos and Cambodia to stop the supply chain from the north, we didn't train our guys for fighting a jungle/guerilla type of warfare.

Answer 6

FYI - we did not invade Vietnam. We were attempting to stop S. Vietnam from being invaded and conquered by N. Vietnam.

Answer 7

the usa wanted to have a base near China,hust to put a chain around china usa has bases in south korea and taiwan

Answer 8

We had French support, then France did what they usually do (they gave up) and we got stuck all alone, while people back home protested which lowered troop moral, and this led to us losing.

Answer 9

US did not invade Viet Nam. They were invited. An invitation they should have turned down. Reason: politics.

Answer 10

The US was living up to its obligations to support its NATO ally, France, who was in there. They left, and we got stuck with it.