What were several reasons for the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War?

Answer 1

Contrary to popular opinion, U.S. involvement in Vietnam goes back (primarily) to the collision of the Monroe Doctrine and the Geneva Accords, fueling American reaction to French colonization of Indochina.

French colonization of the region can be traced to the first century A.D.

Things heated up a bunch over Imperial Japanese rule of the region during WWII through a French “puppet-government” which became the ONLY government after Japanese surrender.

At the end of WWII, America’s leadership believed we would need backing from France against the Soviet Union and China. Fears of communist expansion from both were seen as a serious threat to American and world intrests. Assisting the French was supposed to garner their support in the global expansion crisis (yea, right!!!)

In response to this threat Green Beret “advisors” were sent to South Vietnam to advise and help train South Vietnamese troops to resist these efforts.

In 1954, the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) routed the French and threatened the complete takeover of the Republic of South Vietnam. The later was largely accomplished with terrorist strikes and several hundred assassinations carried out by he NVA and Chinese “regulars”.

This lead to the troop escalations in 1956/57 to protect existing U.S. bases and troops. The 1963 Tet Offensive forced JFK to further escalate U.S. involvement for the safety of the troops already there.

This is as concise and cogent an explanation as I can come up with. Hope it helps.

Answer 2

You will need to do your own research on Gen Vo Nguyen Giap. He was the mastermind of Dien Bien Phu a success against the French and TET 68 a defeat by the Allied Forces in South VietNam.

After the war he admitted he was all but defeated in 1967. TET 68 was a last charge similar to the Battle of the Bulge for the Germans. The difference was that the US press claimed that the North had achieved it's objective while it was running for Laos and Cambodia. A military loss won by politics.

I was also given personal perspective by Maj. Thomas(Trahn) Nguyen ARVN 1955-1975. He is the brother in law of my favorite brunette Helen (Dai). Their family's were in the Trah Vihn Province. They got real talkative during the 2004 election. Sen Kerry was not a popular man with most Vietnamese for his lies. (their words were a little more harsh and Thomas wanted to cut of Senators manhood).

Good luck trying to sort the BS from the truth. As I live in an area with lots of Vietnamese I have been told many stories of events from all over the South. Only one was anti American out of 80 or so stories. She had a brother that got hit by Marines clearing a village when he ran.

Answer 3

we were worried about the "domino effect" - we thought all of SE Asia would turn red. We were mostly right, but we may have actually helped the spread of communism by bombing the heck out of Cambodia and Laos, both of which turned communist, and in Cambodia led to the worst genocide in modern history. You asked for several reasons, so I guess we were also scared of an overly powerful China, whatever sort of government they had. I can't come up with a 3rd reason, except that Kennedy thought that wars make a great president, so he was eager to fight.

Answer 4

The biggest reason was the invasion of the South by the Communist military forces of North Viet Nam and their civilian militia the Viet Cong. The US was in the midst of it's anti-Communist furor and was trying to stop the spread of Communism where ever it could.
In addition the "westernization" of South East Asia was thought to be a boon to world trade and would provide a strategic spot to begin the process of creating regional democratic Republics in this area of valuable resources.

Answer 5

The French had included Viet Nam in their empire for decades, and were no longer interested. Since Viet Nam was essentially a colony, it was ripe for a new "strong man."

Who would fill it? Pro-Vietnamese socialists, or the anti-Soviet United States? The U.S. felt they had to act to prevent Vietnamese people from taking power who were not sympathetic to the U.S.

There was a vague intellectual argument about a left-wing Vietnamese government somehow infecting the rest of Asia and South America, and then magically turning into parts of the Soviet Union and isolating the U.S.

The U.S. killed more than 600,000 civilians in the war and failed in its goal. Viet Nam's socialist government never spread outside south-east Asia.

The U.S. Viet Nam war is one of the more evil moments in world history.

Answer 6

The Pentagon Papers would tell the truth, BUT they are still a secret.

Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty. LBJ interfered with the US military and that is why many died.

Answer 7

To thwart communist expansion and support a friendly country.

Answer 8

communism and to help an ally.