Question

why did the United States get involved in the Vietnamese conflict?

Answer 1

Prior to World War II, the region had been a French colony. The Japanese drove out the French during World War II, and US forces gave aid to Vietnamese forces in their fight against the Japanese, including saving the life of Ho Chi Minh, who would go on to be the leader of North Vietnam and the greatest enemy of the US in the Vietnam War. After World War II, the French returned to their colony and attempted to reassert control, but the Vietnamese, who had just spent so much time and effort fighting the Japanese, were in no mood to be subjected to foreign dominion again.

US involvement began with light military aid and advisement of French forces, but escalated at the same time France grew weary and began withdrawing its own forces from the region. The US became committed to propping up the government of South Vietnam, which was the democratic puppet state set up by French and US forces, because of the Containment and Domino theories. Containment was the strategy by which the US sought to prevent Communism from spreading beyond where it already had, and the Domino theory posited that if one country in a region fell to Communism, then it threatened to spread through the entire region like wildfire. Similar motivations were the cause of the Korean War, too.

So, the US quickly became embroiled in a fight to prop up the extremely incompetent South Vietnamese government while fighting off the advances of the North Vietnamese, who sought to unify the country under their rule. In terms of raw strength, the US could easily best the North Vietnamese in battle, but the Vietnamese knew this and never waged a conventional war until the end. The superior firepower of the US forces counted for little when the North Vietnamese simply fought with hit and run and ambush tactics, and had no large industrial base in their territory that was vulnerable to strategic bombings. The US sought to fight Vietnam like it was still fighting World War II, failing to recognize the need to adjust its tactics and strategy to meet the vastly different conditions.

The war was of course very unpopular, but the US government tried to keep fighting it because they were so adamant about Containment and Domino theory. The whole episode was basically a huge failure that accomplished little, and by the end it wasn't even clear what US troops were dying for. Despite what some people tell you, America lost the war plain and simple. When we left the North Vietnamese launched a full invasion of South Vietnam and unified the country. Ironically enough, relations Between the US and Vietnam are today improving and the country is leaning more and more towards democracy.