How did the Cold War lead to US involvement in Vietnam?

Question

Which side came out the victor in this conflict?

Answer 1

Vietnam after throwing out the French was going Communist because the Soviets help them throw out the French...BTW Ho Chi Minh originally approached the US for help but since we decided to side with the French, he went to the Soviets.

I would say that we lost because Vietnam went Communist.

Answer 2

The Cold War was basically a nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union. One of the reasons for the Cold War was that the United States was becoming concerned about the aggressive imperialism of the Soviets. They feared that the countries that they occupied would fall under control of the Soviet Union and adopt the Soviet system of communism. Many in the U.S believed in what was called the Domino Theory. This theory suggested that if one country, such as Vietnam, fell to communism, many surrounding countries would follow. The US became involved in the Vietnam War to help prevent the spread of communism. It was this fear that also fueled the Cold War. Vietnam, with the help of the Soviet Union ended up winning the war. The United States spent many months in the war and lost many soldiers but in the end were forced to pull the troops out of the country and admit defeat.

Answer 3

Damer pretty much has the right answer.

At the time there were two world powers, ourselves and the Soviet Union. The reason it was called a "cold" war was that the two powers were waging war, but weren't directly involved in military conflict. The reason, for the most part, was that it was a nuclear stand off, as Damer had said.

Part of it was that we were deathly afraid of commnism. The French had been fighting in South Viet Nam to prevent communist North Viet Nam from taking over South Viet Nam.

At the time there was this thing called the domino theory which meant that if South Viet Nam fell to the communists, then so would cambodia, Laos, and like a stack of dominos, all of southeast Asia would fall to the communists, then after that, Japan would fall, and who know's what else would happen?

The problem was that there was a prevailing attitude that we were unstoppable. We won WWII, we prevented North Korea from taking over South Korea, and after all, this was only the French, and what the hell did they know?

We were not prepared to fight a guerilla war, and the North Viet Namese proved to be a much more formidable enemy than we were willing to admit.

As the years went on, the fighting continued, and the deaths piled up, and many other things happened that I won't get into here, public opinion regarding the war started to change. For the most part, the public demanded that we get out of Viet Nam.

Eventually, even to the politicians and the military, it was realized that a military victory was impossible, and "Withdrawal with Honour" became the current mantra.

Eventually a withdrawl was negotiated and our toops were shipped out with the understanding that the "ARVN" troops (Army of the South Viet Namese) would protect the country. In effect this was sort of a sham, and it wasn't too long that we suffered the fall of Saigon to North Viet Nam.

Now, which side came out the victor in this conflict? Strangely enough this is still being debated. Certainly, right after the war, with South Viet Nam falling to North Viet Nam, and US troops leaving without a military victory, we didn't win. In fact it's considered a military defeat for the United States.

China was primarlily backing North Viet Nam and not Russia, and after the war, China cut much of their support to North Viet Nam, which had to curtail it's control of South Viet Nam. We sent tons of aid to South Viet Nam, who's economy is thriving as far as southeast Asian economies go, whereas North Viet Nam has many problems.

So as far as which side came out the victor, it really depends on the time frame. Are you talking about five years after the war or 20 years after the war?

Answer 4

maximum concisely: The U.S. needed to comprise the unfold of communism and the Soviet Union needed to unfold communism. Ronald Reagan and Mikail Gorbachev (sp?) by and massive ended the chilly conflict. Russia and the U.S. (the Soviet Union is extremely disolved) are extra friendly, yet i'd classify the courting as strained because of the fact the Soviet Union isn't in effect as lots of a democracy as they are on paper plus they are very friendly with many countries we are at direct odds with, including Iran, Cuba, China, Syria, a number of whom we classify as terrorist states - helping terrorism. They have been bitterly antagonistic to the invasion of Iraq.

Answer 5

Either look it up in your textbook or look it up in a more reliable source than Yahoo Answers. You will get more out of your education if you dig for accurate answers, yourself, rather than looking for easy answers here.