How could the war in vietnam have been avoided?

Answer 1

By there not being corrupt people operating corrupt governments.

Answer 2

At the end of World War II Ho Chi Minh approached the Americans for assistance in attaining independence from France. He was rejected because the allies were committed to maintaining the pre-war colonial status quo (apart from places like Canada, New Zealand and Australia, independence has only come to much of the world after WW II). AAt that time the Viet Minh were a nationalist movement - not necessarily Communist although many of its members were communist. That was one missed opportunity.

The Viet Minh then turned to Russia and China, who gleefully bankrolled the struggle against France.

After Dien Bien Phu, when the French were defeated, there was to be a plebiscite in Vietnam to decide who would govern. As the now communist Viet Minh had the moral authority of being the victors it was inevitable that they would win the plebiscite and there would have been a communist state in South East Asia. This was unacceptable to the Americans, so they created and propped up a corrupt anti-communist regime in the South. The fight between North and South Vietnam was the result. Had the USA allowed democracy to play out there would have been a unified but communist Vietnam from about 1960, and the second phase of that long struggle would not have occurred.

That is not to say that a communist Vietnam at that time would have been a good thing, nor that the domino theory would not have played out. The Comintern were committed to fomenting revolution throughout the world, and no one can know what would have happened without the Vietnam war.

The real missed opportunity was not supporting Ho Chi Minh in 1947.

Answer 3

by not going to war, obviously. The domino theory was a joke from the start.

By the way, that war was already busy when the americans stepped in. The Vietnamese resisted the Japanese in WW II. When they left, it took a while for the french to return (to Indochina, an area much larger than vietnam alone). The powervacuum had been filled. And the war continued. To them, it was more of a freedom fight (with freedom beeing some sense of national sovereignity) than a fight for communism.

Answer 4

The U.S. could have minded its own business, or it could have cared more about the freedom of the Vietnamese than about trying to enslave them.

Answer 5

By not going to war... By deciding that communism should be allowed to spread...

Answer 6

the usa should have butted out and leave it to the vietnamese to be how they wanted to be,but the usa was paranoid about communism so they stuck their noses in where it wasn't wanted,

Answer 7

Yes, if we had told the French to fight their own war instead of helping them out and then watching them leave and letting us take the beating.

Answer 8

Easy answer, by not getting involved with other people's business.