In simple terms,what started the war in Vietnam & why did the US feel the need to get involved but not the UK?

Question

I've tried searching on the web but haven't got the time to read a history lesson!. Im just after the simple facts!

I left school 15 years ago and this isn't for homework!! I just wanted to find out what the war was all about thats all.

Answer 1

Communism

Answer 2

That's an interesting question and there is no answer in the simple terms you request. I left school 43 years ago so I remember the start and finish of that pointless conflict. At the time the story that the USA fed us was that the Vietnamese were supported by communist China and that the spread of communism must be stopped. Interestingly, there was no "war" as it was understood in the West at the time as the USA did not "declare" it.

To understand why the USA did what it did (rather than making war to protect it's markets/energy supplies as it does today) you need to remember that it was little more than a decade since the Mc Carthy trials and also to reflect on the reasons why all non native Americans settled there.

It follows that the reason that the UK did not feel the need to become involved was that we did not feel threatened.

Some would call the whole mess a manifestation of American paranoia. Those who come after us will judge.

Answer 3

Forget all that rubbish. The Vietnam war was a war of liberation from colonialism as most wars with the third world are. First the Viets were colonised by the French. Then Communist China offered the Viets help to throw them out. Partially succeeding. Then the Americans, another with colonial ambitions told the French they will help "liberate" it and share the spoils. But the Communists, as they were from the north of the country defeated the Americans and had them thrown out. As the then leader of the Viet Cons said after the war, " We never lost a single jet fighter, because we never had any." That is the real history in a nut shell. And Britain quite rightly told the Americans to forget about help when things started to Iraq.

Answer 4

Harold Wilson kept Britain out of the Vietnam war. The French were pushed out of Vietnam and the USA feared a domino effect of communism spreading throughout Asia. This carry on with the Taliban makes the commies appear jolly nice bed fellows

Answer 5

North Vietnam was communist - the South wasn't, the North wanted to reunite the South. America had what it called a 'domino' theory, that just like a row of dominoes stacked up when the first one falls it knocks over all the others, hence if the South fell so would other non communist countries and America would lose its influence in that part of the world. Wilson the British Prime Minister was made of sterner stuff than Blair and said no to America's request for troops.

Answer 6

The USA was supporting the government of South Vietnam in an effort to prevent the spread of Communism in Asia as it felt that the domino effect of spreading Communism would eventually impact on American interests. Unfortunately North Vietnam had the support of Russia and more importantly China.

Answer 7

The USA at that time were paraniod about communism, hence the reason that 65,000 americans lost their lifes in that war. Millions died in the whole conflict. The Vietnamese have never lost a war, they kicked out the chinese, the french, and then the americans. The most pointless ,wastefull war in history. Now life go,s on in Vietnam ,like nothing happened.

Answer 8

Just noticed most of the answers say ( to stop the spread of Communism in Asia !) The USA didn't do too well then , the list of ASIAN COMMUNIST COUNTRIES , BURMA , LAOS ,VIETNAM ,CAMBODIA , AND DONT FORGET NORTH KOREA , so to sum up 2 wars in ASIA AND NO RESULTS ! Reasons for the Vietnam war / Korean war and all the others the yanks have been involved in after this is the USA thinking they can control the world !

Answer 9

In a nut shell President Eisenhower, got us involved with some kind of treaty.
South Vietnam asked for help due to this treaty and president Kennedy, sent in advisers to help the locals.
It escalated from that point.
President Eisenhower threw Nixon where involved with the Vietnam war.
Now do some research on your own and stop waiting till the last min.

Answer 10

The same reason for involvement in WW1 and WW2... the French couldn't handle their own colony!

Vietnam was colonised by the French, who were unable to deal with the rebellion by the VietCong, the communist faction who wanted to take over.

The Americans, being paranoid about communist expansion (which at the time was quite valid) went in to try and police the situation, but ended up fighting a war.

Their so called "puppets" Britian refused to get involved, partly because the Americans refused to help Britain over the Suez crisis. Plus the fact, Britain had enough with Korea.