Why & what were the reasons that led USA to start the War against Vietnam in 1965 or 1966?

Answer 1

You should know this answer to this question, but oh well...as a high school social studies teacher, I'll do what I can to tell you:

The U.S. was committed to a policy of "containment" of Communism in the post World War II era. That means we were trying to stop the spread of Stalinism-Marxism wherever we found it: the Suez, Cuba, 'Nam, et cetera. In some ways we suceeded, sort of, in other ways we failed (sic. Bay of Pigs, Cuba). As the Republic of South Vietnam was our ally at the time, we (the U.S.) were engaged in a series of diplomatic and legal agreements to defend them from Communist incursions. Think about the North Koreans rushing across the 38th parallel in 1950 to invade Seoul, and you get the idea. Basically, it was a dual concept of containment and escalation. To use a medical analogy, to stop a virus, you contain it, stop its growth, then kill it. Same thing with communist insurgencies.

Why did we "fail?" Because you have to be throroughly, ruthlessly committed to providing enough resources to stop the "virus." One sees frightening similarities in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can't give half of the required medication to a patient. You either don't treat the patient at all, or you follow through on a curative methodology/regime to cure them of the "sickness" once and for all. Oh yeah, and try not to direct the cure from thousands of miles away (i.e., Washington to Saigon. doesn't work very well.)

I must add that one of the bloodiest (next to the Tet Offensive) battles of the Vietnam War (not a conflict, people, it was a WAR) was the Battle of Ia Drang during November 14-16, 1964. This was the first major engagment between American and North Vietnamese forces. It was hell. See "We were Soldiers Once...and Young," written by Lt. Gen. Harold "Hal" Moore (ret.) and Joseph Galloway, circa 1993. Good read. Also the Mel Gibson movie "We Were Soldiers" will provide you with an excellent framework for understanding the whole situation.

I offer a humble and measly salute to the men of LZ X Ray, LZ Albany and the Air Mobile soldiers of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, US Army (AirMobile). Jimmy Nakayama, Hal Moore, Joey Galloway, all the other heroes...I'm a tofu eating Democrat. And I DO believe in supporting our men and women in uniform!!!

Answer 2

the Vietnam War truly began in !945 when the National forces that fought the Japanese on the side of the allies wanted full independence from France. So the french with USA funding fought the Viet-Min and after 10 or so years the French with US backing were beaten.
The reason the US supported the french was because the leader of the Viet -Min was Communist, and the US were afraid that all of Asia would fall under Communism control.
After the french left the US supported the South Vietnamese government against the north, firstly with money, then with military advisers, then with troops.
The North won in 1975, and the government was Communist, but is become capitalist again

They seem to be making the same mistake again in the middle east, except now its fundamentalism they are dealing with, this time the war is being fought world wide (terrorism)

Answer 3

The USA didn't start the war in Vietnam. The French colonized Indo-China in the 40's or 50's (can't remember).

Anyway, the French had trouble with the Communists, and imperialism was becoming unfashionable, so they left. There were two nations, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. As was fashionable in the 40s and 50s, the West block and the East block split up territory into two camps to maintain the status quo and the global balance of power.

Are you with me so far? Well, people in poor countries like the appeal of socialism, like food and stuff like that. The Viet Mihn were successful in setting up a legitimate communist state in the North, but the south still had a puppet government the west was trying to keep in power.

We, the United States, tried to help them maintain control of their country. We were motivated by something called "The Domino" effect... i.e we were trying to keep more and more poor countries from joining the Soviet economic model.

We sent first military advisors (in 1962?) and kept sending more and more "help" until finally we were well embroied in the war. The war in Vietnam had been going on for about 10 years before we got there.

Answer 4

There are some great answers given here. It's nice to see that a lot of people know the truth about Viet Nam. This is a great place to enlighten those who only know what they have been told by people who know nothing about VietNam.

By the way, The VietNam people call it their Thirty-Years War.

When you discuss this subject, make sure you understand that our military forces did not lose the war in VietNam. The military succeeded in gaining their objective, which was returning the 17th parallel border to its rightful position. Our Military won their war. Our politicians and Washington noodles loss that war

When our military left VietNam in1972, that border was secure. It was two years later, after ALL US Military left the country, that the North Viet Nam gang attacked south and the South VietnNam army collapsed.

By the way, those pictures of our "Embassy evacuating people and refugees by helicopter s on the Embassy rooftop" are actual pictures except they are not from the Embassy and are from civilian groups working in VietNam.

Answer 5

the Vietnam war officially started in 1965, but americans were fighting there since 1963! it started because the Communist North Vietnam army started to invade the Democratic South Vietnam!
the U.S. didnt want communism to spread to South Vietnam because they thought that it would later spread to other asian countries as well! so thats is why the U.S. backed up South Vietnam! China and the USSR backed up North Vietnam because they were communists too!

Answer 6

The US did not START anything. The government of North Vietnam commenced hostilities against the government of the South soon after partition and elections in the South that the Communists did not win. The US was invited in by the Government of S. Vietnam to assist it in its defense.

Answer 7

Nothing.......IN 1959 ho Chi MInh and the communist party of the north gave orders to southern Vietcong forces to change their strategy. Up to this time they had been attacking the forces of Diem the president of South Vietnam. July of 1959 was designated anti american month and communist forces attacked on July 8th i beleive at the battle of green tea house as it has sometimes been called. From that point forward fighting esculated until ground troops were commited in March of 1965. As to why was our forces in Vietnam in 1959, we were helping the southern governemtn strengthen and stabilize against the communist forces that was allowed to remain in the south after the fighting from the first indo china war ended in 1954.

Answer 8

I thought it was a civil war and we went to help. Back at that time the US was so afriad of communism that when they saw that Russia was helping out the Communistic guy we couldn't let it spread so once agian we stuck our nose in (I'm not sure but my roommate just said that the Veitcong attacked one of our ships) either way it was a long war that killed alot of people and destroyed alot more familys.

Answer 9

From what I know of the History of that period, The French colonized Vietnam and when they got their butts kicked, they invited us in as advisors only... We escalated it after the French pulled out. Basically we went there to stop the spread of Communism.

Answer 10

Fear of the Red. We didn't necessarily start the war. More like France couldn't get their stuff straight so we choose to get involved to prevent the spread of communism. Its the domino theory, if one country becomes communist, then it will set off other countries into becoming communist.