The Vietnam War was the longest war ever fought by the United States. It lasted more than 15 years, from 1959 to 1975. It was also the first war that the United States lost. There are many debates as to why the US became involved in the war with Vietnam.
The United States entered the war to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. American leaders feared that Communist forces would gain control of Vietnam. After that, nation after nation might fall to Communism. Communism is a political and economic system that the United States strongly opposed. Vietnam had been split in half in 1954, after fighting a war to gain independence from France. When French forces withdrew, Vietnamese Communists gained control of North Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the North Vietnamese Communists. South Vietnam had a non-Communist government. This government was believed to be weak but the United States supported it in order to keep the Communists from taking control of all of Vietnam thus preventing the alleged domino effect.
However, another debated reason for the involvement of the USA in the Vietnam War was for the simple fact that the US provided France with a lot of money to provide them with weapons and equipment within the war. Therefore, they wanted to insure that they got a victory in return for their money. Thus suggesting that they got involved with the war to redeem themselves for the money which they gave to France. Contrary to this, the reason the USA gave France the money in the first place was to prevent the spreading of Communism onto the USA. Thus relating back to the first theory that the USA wanted to stop the spreading of communism and halt the domino effect.
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