Why did the united States military get involved in Vietnam?

Answer 1

If you mean the war in vietnam, ie US involvment, then it is both interesting and sad. President Roosevelt had pledged to support small countries freeing themselves from their pre 2nd ww colonial rulers. The Vietnamese helped by a small contingent of US SOE helped encourage the Japanese army to leave.

Ho Chi Minh, a schoolteacher who had become the leader of the resistance to the Japanese, was elected head of state. (mostly by the army) The vietnamese decided to set up a republic modelled on the USA. HO was driven to the inauguration ceremony in an old Citroen flanked by bycycle outriders. Taking the honour salute were the US special forces. Ho was to read pieces from the Dec of Ind, and Gettysburg Address at the ceremony.

Meanwhile Roosevelt died and Truman took over. The world was changing fast. Truman did not have R's commitment to freedom to worry about. General De Gaulle the head of France came to see him to say he wanted Vietnam back. Truman said why? De Gaulle said France has lost its pride, colonies will give it its pride back, without them French Communists will probably take over. We have no transport planes.

Truman gave him a fleet of Dakotas. The French arrived at Hanoi airport in US marked planes and in those planes soldier, many of whom a few months earlier had been fighting for the Nazis.

They were greeted by 5,000 cheering Vietnamese, thinking this was the promised US aid. When the Frech finished slaughtering civilians they cut of heads and hung them in string baskets at the junction of every road. Hi! We're back.

Answer 2

Although the U.S. committed enormous resources to the war, there was a lack of will to do the things the have to be done to win a war: go on the offensive, advance into enemy territory, seized the military initiative, and so forth. In Korea, the U.S. advanced well north of the 38th parallel at one point, although it was later forced back. The communists worried the U.S. might do this again, so they had an initiative to keep the truce.

In Vietnam, various peace treaties got signed, but the communists weren't motivated to follow any of them because they weren't worried about the U.S. advancing into Laos or north of the 17th parallel. This is because President Johnson followed a defensive strategy called "containment", partly because he worried that a decisive victory would swing American politics to the right, leading to the rise of a Douglas MacArthur-like military hero.

As the war dragged on without result, it gradually lost public support. Democrats in Congress wanted a U.S. defeat to humiliate President Nixon. These two factors resulted in the passage of the Case-Church Amendment in 1973, which ended direct U.S. involvement in the war and left South Vietnam to fend for itself. This revived the hopes of China and the Soviets, who then poured resources into North Vietnam. The result was a communist victory two years later.

Answer 3

Fear that communism would take over Southeast Asia

Answer 4

January 1, 1963 to April 30, 1975