Us Involvement in Vietnam

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U.S. Involvement in Vietnam By: Courtney Comstock The Cold War was a war that had many smaller battles that took place in it. The overall two countries at war were the U.S. and the U.S.S. R. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were at war because the U.S. had a capitalist government ran country, while the U.S.S.R. had a communist government ran country. The Vietnam War that took place in the Cold War was that the North and South were divided on the 17th Parallel because of communism. Many people ask the question, “Why did the U.S. even care about the Vietnam conflict, let alone fight a war there?” One Reason for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict was that the U.S. feared the Domino Theory. The Domino Theory is where if one state falls to communism, then all the other states around it will fall into communism too. Because the U.S. feared this, they responded with containment. Containment means to keep communism from spreading to other countries. Another reason for U.S. involvement is imperialism, which was left over from WWI and WWII. Imperialism is the desire to control as many nations as possible. The Soviet Union not only wanted to spread communism, but also wanted to take over smaller countries, including Vietnam so that the Soviet Union would have more power. The U.S. did not want communism to spread, nor did they want the Soviet Union to gain more power than them. If the Soviet Union were to gain more power than the U.S., that power would allow the Soviet Union to take over. The last reason for U.S. involvement is nationalism, which was also left over from WWI and WWII. Nationalism is having pride in one’s own nation. The U.S. wanted Vietnam to be able to have the chance of having nationalism, but something stood in the way. Communism had divided the countries of Vietnam, causing them to never be able to have Vietnam pride. The U.S. got involved in the
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