What were two causes of the war?

Answer 1

Following the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, President Lyndon B. Johnson also believed in containment and the domino theory. If one nation falls to communism, the next nation will fall, and the next, etc. It became the aim of the Johnson administration to prevent a communist takeover in Southeast Asia.

In August, 1964, President Johnson reported to the nation that American ships had been attacked by North Vietnam gunboats in the Gulf of Tonkin, in international waters. The Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the President the power to use whatever force necessary to protect our interests in the area. At the time, the truth was not reported. Rather than being on a routine patrol Aug. 2, the US destroyer Maddox was actually engaged in aggressive intelligence-gathering maneuvers - in sync with coordinated attacks on North Vietnam by the South Vietnamese navy and the Laotian air force.

In February, 1965, the Viet Cong attacked an American military base near Pleiku. Using the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, President Johnson sent in 3,500 Marines, the first official troops, to South Vietnam. By the end of the year, there were 200,000 US troops in Vietnam.
1. Communist aggression

2. Communist aggression