Why did America invade Vietnam. What were the USA's official reasons?

Question

What did the American Government tell its people why they invaded. They surely didn't say it was to just bring down the Communists?

Answer 1

the US Army didn't invade Vietnam really, but they invaded Loas and Cambodia.

They certainly outstayed their welcome. After the defeat of the French in 1954, the US began supporting the government of South Vietnam with funds and military advisors. The regime of Ngo Dinh Diem was extremely corrupt and very unpopular with the people of South Vietnam.

The US (CIA) did prevent the fair elections because they knew the communists would win. And they ignored the United Nations plebiscite too!


After the Gulf Of Tonkin incident in 1964 (when 'apparently' 2 US Navy destroyers were attacked by North Vietnam - see source below), President Johnson was given authority to support with frontline troops any Southeast Asian government in jeopardy. So he immediately sent in the US Marine Expeditionary Force, followed by the 101st Airborne, then other units followed.

In short, America never 'invaded' (although they did invade Cambodia secretly later on) Vietnam ... but they did manage to kill 58000 American troops, and up to a million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians ....

Good books to read on this would be one of the books by either Hal Moore, or Col. David Hackworth (About Face) - both deal quite well with the perspective of US infantry commanders. And these two, along with Emerson were among the best infantry commanders America had in Vietnam (certainly at the Battalion command or Brigade command levels)

As for Americas stated reasons, the authority for the troop buildup during Johnsons presidency came from the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress in 1964.

Answer 2

Yes they did.
It was to prevent communist North Viet Nam from conquering South Viet Nam. The North was considered to be backed by
China and by Russia (at different times). American leaders talked about the "domino principle", meaning that if South Viet Nam fell a whole lot of other countries in the region would fall immediately after, like a row of dominoes. This was the prevailing wisdom at the time.
They also talked about maintaining freedom for South Viet Nam, but after they overthrew the democratically elected South Vietnamese government and replaced it with a dictator, that kind of talk didn't wash. In fact that action gave a lot of strength to the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese who supported the North).
Many believe that if Viet nam had been left alone, the other countries in the region might not have gone communist. Hard to say if that is true or not.

Answer 3

Well, We certainly invaded South Vietnam - first around 1962 then en masse in 1965. We weren't trying to set up a democratic state there. The communists had popular support. We had "advisors" there dating back to the colonial period. They were just advising the puppet government we were trying to set up. If we were invited there at all, we were invited by the regime we failed to put in power or else maybe by the French. Well who invited them? The "official reasons" are the indoctrination we as Americans all get.

Answer 4

???? as far as I know the Vietnamese didn't "completely defeat" the USA the USA just pulled out. any way the viet cong were not capable of invading america because the force's they "defeated" were not the whole american army therefore to invade america they would have had to fight a lot more Americans and they wouldn't have had the resources or the equipment and man power to launch a full scale invasion on the USA.

Answer 5

There was no invasion. The first US military advisors were in Vietnam in 1950 assisting the French colonial troops. In 1956, US military advisors began training the Vietnam armed forces. After the country spiraled into civil war, large amounts of US troops began arriving in 1965.

At all times, we were in Vietnam with the blessing of the Vietnamese government, either French Colonial or RVN.

Answer 6

There never was a formal invasion. US military presence began during the Truman administration for advisory purposes and was steadily stepped up as the threat of north Vietnamese invasion of south Vietnam increased.

Ostensibly the US was involved to protect the democratic government of southern Vietnam. The government of southern Vietnam was however only nominally democratic and led by a corrupt and tyrannical government.

Answer 7

We didn't invade Vietnam. We got caught up in what was essentially their civil war. The north sought to impose a communist government on the south.
We began helping the French, who actually controlled Vietnam in the 1950s. But of course they bailed and stuck us with it.

If you haven't already, see "We Were Soldiers ..." or read "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young". It's about the first American battle in Vietnam in the early 1960s. Pretty enlightening.

Answer 8

To stop the spread of Evil Communism, that's at least what was said then, better to fight the commies over there than on our streets, at least that's what they said.,.................. also wanted a foothold in that section of the earth for our military bases. ..... Even though I was that age group but went in 6 months after the fall of Saigon, you know we only heard one side.

and if you chose to believe a UK newspaper, it says ......


After the French were defeated in 1954, Vietnam was split in two - the north was Communist, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the south was Capitalist under Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem's regime received billions of dollars from the US but remained deeply unpopular with most Vietnamese people.

The US prevented the elections that were promised under the Geneva conference because it knew that the Communists would win. Vietnamese Buddhist monks protested against American involvement by self-immolation.

Operation Phoenix was organised by the CIA. This led to the arrest and murder of thousands of Communists in the south. First the US sent in military advisers, then President Johnson sent in troops in huge numbers...............................................

You would have to ask the people who actually lived in vietnam for the truth

Answer 9

America did not invade Viet Nam. We had a policy to prevent the spread of communism. Initially, we responded to a call for help from the South's regime with supplies and weapons. Then we sent advisors. The advisors became involved in battles. Then we sent troops to support the advisors. It just grew until it was out of hand. We allowed ourselves to become trapped in Viet Nam like we are trapped in Iraq now. Of course, we did invade Iraq..

Answer 10

Because they wanted to make it demorcey