Why did the vietnam war begin?

Answer 1

[Very potted history]

A Viet independence movement in French Indochina, turned into a military struggle after the Japanese invasion during the second world war.

The US supported and trained the Viet Minh, but after the war for expedient reasons gave the area back to the French rather than support their desire for independence.

A second war against the French enused for 9 years until the defeat At Dien Bien Phu in 1954 with over 100,000 French deaths (almost double US losses). The country was split into North and South, but the corrupt and inept government in the south managed to turn many of their people against them and looked like it may fall to an insurgency backed by the communist North.

Eventually from the 1963/4 the US sent more military advisers to prop up the military and even backed a coup to install a more hardline government, but little was done to stem the corruption.

Under Johnson, after the fabricated 'incident' in the Gulf of Tonkin the US military presence was vastly escalated, but war was never declared, it was always considered a police action, rather than a war and North Vietnam was never invaded for fear of sparking Chinese or Russian involvement (Chinese involvement in the Korean conflict brought the sides to a stalemate).

By 1968 the US was doing the bulk of the fighting but after the Tet Offensive and with the war spilling over into neighbouring Laos and Cambodia, support for the war in the US began to dwindle.

As troops were gradually withdrawn Nixon attempted to bomb the north to the negotiating table, kiling hundreds of thousands, but within 2 years of the last US soldiers leaving, South Vietnam finally fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975.

Answer 2

1. VietNamese wanted to liberate themselves from France.
2. When France abandoned them the country (previously called French IndoChina) broke up into civil war.
3.We landed advisors there to help the President keep order.
4. We assassinate that president and use the Gulf of Tonkin incident as an excuse to invade the country.
5. Since military commanders cannot admit mistakes to the public, we escalate the invasion during the 60's and 70's when we should pull out.
6. The Pentagon leadership screws the pooch yet again!

Answer 3

It didn't. No declaration was ever issued by either side. It was therefore a conflict.

Initially, the US moved troops into the country to shore up the failing US friendly govt. The VC were also mobilizing.

The VC attempted to repeat their earlier success at Dien Ben Fu (I think thats how you say it), against the French. Unfortunately, US air support was able to keep ground forces supplied. This meant that the previous tactics did not work (See "We Were Solidiers")

Primarily however, it was an escalation.

Answer 4

yes to everything the guy ahead of me said, but he left out the idealogical reason for being there in the first place.
The Viet Nam War occured during the Cold War, so it was "us" versus "them." Us being the US and the other western democracies, and them being the Soviet Union and their communist/socialist allies, ie, the Eastern Bloc.
The theory in the West was called the Domino Effect. This was the fear that if one country fell to communism, there would be a domino effect which would lead to another then another then another falling to communist till the whole region was communist. North Viet Nam was communist and was being supported by the Red Chinese.
The American Policy was to keep Viet Nam from falling to communism at all costs so as to keep communism out of east Asia.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident that was mentioned was an exuse to escalate US involvment from military advisors to active combat troops. Once they were there, it was very hard to extricate them, both politically and logistically, but mostly politically.