Why did the US get involved in the Vietnam War?
The United States entered the Vietnam War in an order to prevent communism from spreading across Southeast Asia, as it had done in Eastern Europe after 1945.
The US policy was driven by the principle of the domino theory, which claimed that the collapse of one country to communism would lead to the fall of other nearby countries, just as one toppled domino would lead to the fall of others in a row.
But foreign policy, economic interests, national fears, and geopolitical strategies also played major roles.
Preventing communism from spreading across Southeast Asia was the US’s main objective in the region. In 1949, China became a communist country, and communists ruled North Vietnam.
In order to stop the spread of communism to South Vietnam and the rest of Asia, the USA decided to send money, weapons and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese Government fight against communist forces.
The United States started to send more and more troops to Vietnam in the 1960s and took over the defense of South Vietnam.
It was a long bloody war which lasted for 19 years with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973, and ironically Vietnam ending up being a communist country.