How did the vietnam war begin?

Answer 1

Vietnam was ruled by the French since the 19th century. Communist Vietnamese forces fought back and kicked out the French forces in the 1950's. Vietnam was split into the Northern Communist part and the southern republic. This was when the U.S. was in the middle of it's red scare, so the U.S. began to prop up the southern Vietnamese regime in an effort to block a northern Communist takeover, even thought the southern regime was corrupt and oppressive to it's people.

Aiding the anti-communist southern Vietnamese powers was sold to the American people by the domino theory, which was an idea that if Communism took hold in Vietnam, it would keep taking over countries until it spred to the U.S. American leaders said they wanted to make the world safe for democracy. (Think of it as their version of people who today say, "We got to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.")

First the U.S. only sent over money, supplies and advisors. Eventually, U.S. combat troops were sent in in order to secure an airport, and from there on, they just kept bombing and sending in more troops.

(Btw, the communist forces finally did defeat American forces and took over. All those domino theory proponents who said that if Vietnam fell to Communism, it would spread throughout the neighboring countries and lead to commies on our doorstep were dead wrong. Communism as a world power has been effectively dead for decades now.)

Answer 2

The Vietnamese fought for their independance fom the Japanese during World War Two. When the War ended, the French returned and did not allow them to remain free and independant. The North Vietnamese had been aided by Russian and Chinese Communists and felt that Communism was a better choice but in reality they simply wanted their freedom.

As the French lost more and more ground to the resistance movement the Americans began trying to help stop the Communist forces from spreading that belief. Ho Chi Minh actually came to America in the very late 1950's to seek aid, but unfortunately we had an agreement with the stupid French that prevented us from helping Ho Chi Minh.

By the early 1960's France had given up and we were left to help defend the new South Vietnamese government. We succeeded until the news media began portraying only the losses and not the victories in Vietnam.

Answer 3

All I remember is it was something to do with the rice.