Why Did The Usa Get Involved In The Vietnam War?

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Why did USA get involved in the Vietnam War? 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. The USA entered the war to stop the spread of Communism in South East Asia. Americans fear of Communism meant that American governments in the 1950s and 1960s used their economic and military strength to support anti-Communists around the world. In South-East Asia, the USA became heavily involved in the defence of South Vietnam. In the early stages of the Vietnam War, many Americans supported US government policy. By 1968, however, over half a million US soldiers and marines were fighting in the jungles of South Vietnam and there had been thousands of US casualties. The Vietnam War turned into a major American defeat and helped change US policy in containing Communism. 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 the US felt they needed to take matters into their own hands but the 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 weak. But the United States supported it in order to keep the Communists from taking control of all of Vietnam. The Vietnamese had a long history of fighting occupying foreign forces. Before the Second World War, Vietnam was ruled by France. In 1942, Japan invaded and occupied the French and treated Vietnamese
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