why did the united states attack vietnam?
156565
The US was afraid of the "domino" effect.  They felt it necessary to stop the spread of communism because they felt if they did not stop it in Vietnam, the rest of the countries would be taken over by the communists.  I believe they took over from France.
879242
Nixon has been one of the best president the US had together with Reagan in the last 50 years. Honorable peace? You think that by leaving the South Vietnamese helpless, it's a honorable peace that he has achieved? The pressure from the American public was too big and he had to withdraw. But, was the cause just? What did the North achieve? What were they fighting for? Communism? Where is that communism now? The American cause was a cause that was right and in the end it has proved that it were the North Vietnamese who have for something that they now do not believe... So many lives lost.... Is that honorable?
1079626
Even though we had all the technology, we lost to peasants on bicycles.\n\nThe same is coming in Iraq\n\nAs for the idiot "Polaris" below:\n\nNot everyone in Vietnam was American. You just dragged other nations into it so that you could push the responsibility for it on to others. Once again, the same in Iraq
347402
The Vietcong and Insurgents both used massive guerilla warfare.\n\nI'd say way more IEDs in the iraq war.\n\nthe vietnameese beat us with technology [SAMS, ak-47, etc]\nand knowledge of the land.\n\nThe insurgents are just using household products.
604213
I don't know for sure about the Vietnam war other than South Vietnam wanted to be a democratic society and the north was communism and the US wanted to keep it from spreading, which is the same as what happened in Korea for the most part.  The reason for the Persian Gulf War was because Iraq invaded Kuwait saying that the country belonged to them and we came to Kuwaits defense.
640689
Hate to tell you Navy Officer, there were no insurgents in Iraq bedore we got there.\n\nAnd your pious attitude about the death of American Soldiers for illigeyimate reasons is sickening. Pick up a rifle my man and jump on a land mine.\n\nAnd your Vietnam statements are even worse. I didn't see you there! Nixon Withdrew the troops.\n\nSource:\n15th Field Artillery Regiment\nWWI WW2 Korea Vietnam\nPanama Bosnia Iraq\nVietnam War Timeline\n"An individual's political beliefs depend on when\nhe became politically aware."\nAUTHOR UNKNOWN\n\n1970 - War Powers - By the time Congress learned that the naval incident leading to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) had been misrepresented and moved to repeal the resolution in 1970, President Nixon had already shifted to another legal rationale -- his constitutional powers as "Commander in Chief" -- for his Vietnam policies. In its 1969 "national commitments" resolution, the Senate made a bid to reassert a congressional voice in decisions committing the US to the defense of foreign countries. The House passed war-powers measures in 1970, 1971 and 1972.\n27 Jan 73 - Official end of the Vietnam War.   Between 27 Jan and 29 Mar 73, a total of 587 military and civilian prisoners were released by the North Vietnamese, and during that same period, 23,500 US troops were withdrawn from South Vietnam\n29 Mar 73 - 67 more US P.O.W.'s were freed in Hanoi. The same day, the US withdrew its remaining 2,500 troops from South Vietnam. This date also marked the actual end of military involvement in Vietnam.\n10 May 73 - Due to continued bombing of Laos and Cambodia, the House voted (219-188) for the first time to cut-off Indochina funds\n31 May 73 - The Senate took strong action prohibiting the use of any funds appropriated by Congress to be used for combat activities in Laos or Cambodia\n7 Nov 73 - War Powers Act - Congress dealt President Nixon a stunning setback when it voted to override his veto of legislation limiting presidential powers to commit US forces abroad without congressional approval.   Congress, with the Vietnam War and the showdown over continued bombing in Cambodia behind it, was anxious to reassert its role in the conduct of the country's foreign affairs"\n\nYou have no idea of the total mess we have made in Iraq and in the world community.
835087
First of all,war was not declaired in Vietnam.We were the allies & were asked to help!\nSecond of all,no US president can declair war & send anyone to fight without the agreement of congress & all others involved.\nI bekieve that these folks bekieve like I do!The president was right,because if we sit back & take their BS,then they gain power over our will as well as our country.\nHow many of you will run & cower when we are threated again on our own soil?As for me,I will pick up my nearest gun,stick,nail gun,drill,basebal bat,or what ever I can get my hands on & start kicking butt until I die!
801687
It is a war, so there are common elements. But the situation is very different.\n\nVietnam was a proxy war between first, USA and USSR. USA won that one. Then it was between USA and China. Wisely enough, USA backed away. It ended in a draw. The Vietnamese people are better off without having a war going on.  \n\nIraq is a triple war, first USA and Saddam's regime. USA won. Then USA vs the Al-quada Insurgents. USA was about to win, but a civil war between the Sunnies an the Shites broke out. USA forces find them selves in the middle, without a strategy to win, lose, or draw.  I don't know what happens next.
270201
1-There is no superpower (China and Soviet Union) actively supporting the insurgency through supplies and the regular army of a client state. In Vietnam, much of US Military policy was developed with the idea of defeating the Viet Cong and North Vietnam, while not drawing the Soviet Union into a larger war. For instance, the US resisted direct attacks or even laying of underwater mines in the harbor of Hai Phong in North Vietnam because the sailors on the Russian cargo ships might be killed. Many of the army units from Europe had been removed to Southeast Asia, leaving US security vulnerable elsewhere. The President today, by contrast, seems to be looking for a reason to begin direct military action against Iran and Syria, believed to be the main supporters of the Iraq insurgency.\n\nSecond, because the insurgency represents a wide, semi-cooperative coalition instead of a massed hierarchy, this war has no enemy chain of command for the American military to either interdict or to negotiate with. The United States was able to carry on (granted often ineffective because of the lack of commitment from the enemy side) intermittent peace talks in Paris with the Soviet Union, North Vietnam and even some representation of the Viet Cong leadership. That opportunity, even if it were welcome by the US which it is not, does not exist in this war. After the Tet Offensive, of course, the Viet Cong was so disrupted that they ceased to be even a semi-independent force.\n\nC-That should get you started.
241201
The U.S.A. went to Vietnam for almost the same reasons that it went into Iraq and Afghanistan, it is fighting an "evil ideology". Millions of Vietnamese died fighting for uniting their country under communism. In Iraq and Afghanistan, millions are not fighting the U.S.A. because U.S.A. is bringing democracy to those countries, to let the people decide. However, in Vietnam the U.S.A. did not allow their to be elections in South Vietnam, out of fear that communism might be voted into power. But I think the lesson is learned, that instead of denying democracy, they can allow it, and this will allow the people to give up fighting and decide their future. But we have to see if the U.S.A. will fully allow and accept the elections and democratization to flourish, or if the U.S.A. would simply set-up another puppet-regime through rigged elections.
757459
the United States.\n\nbut not before they destroed the country, long with Laos and Cambodia.\n\nthe Khmer Rouge came to power in the vacuum created and led to the genocide of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians.\n\nwhen the Vietnamese Army invaded to relieve the Cambodians, the US imposed further sanctions on the Vietnamese.\n\nso NO, they never did learn their lesson.\n\nbut its not the politicians who're paying the price.  it is the young American men and women who have to fight these wars on their behalf who end up getting blown up by IED's.\n\nsad.
865280
Vietnam was a French colony until WWII when it was captured by the Japanese. The main resistance group which eventually saw off the Japanese without Allied help was the Viet-minh, led by Ho Chi Minh. France tried to regain control after the war but was finally defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The Viet-minh communists were prevented from taking over the whole country by US and French-backed forces. The country was partitioned into North (Communist) Vietnam and South (anti-Communist) Vietnam.\n\nThe people of the south had little sympathy for their foreign-controlled government and, according to Richard Nixon himself, 80% of them supported the Viet-cong who wanted to unite with the Communist North. After a protracted war of intervention the US withdrew, defeated, in the late 1970s.
659439
America was there to aid the French in the beginning, and then were military advisers. Ho Chi Min started a cue that led to troops coming in from China, and Russia aided with weaponry. Lindon Johnson decided to send in more troops, and America started bombing Viet Nam for ten years. The rest is history. It all started a draft, and full scale war against Communism. We lost.
373642
The Truman Doctrine planted the seeds of our involvement in Vietnam. These seeds grew so that by the end of Eisenhower's presidency he placed it as one of the most important issues to face the incoming Kennedy Administration. An assasination and two presidents later we would know how accurate that was. \n\nOne of the cores of the Truman Doctrine was the domino theory, or the idea that as nations fell to communism, the border nations surrounding would as well. Therefore, it was of vital national importance to prevent the spread of communism by any means necessary. \n\nOur decision to back continued French control over South Vietnam was guided by the Truman Doctrine and the logic that any government was preferable to the pro-communist north assuming control. This self-serving support of a colonial power and subjugation of the indigenous power rightfully angered the vietnamese, an anger the north willfully stoked vis a vis the Viet Cong.  \n\nThis of course doesnt do Harry or the theory justice, of course.
758475
The American government decided that the Communism that was spreading into Viet Nam from China was unacceptable. They went in to try to stop it. The south of the country sided with the Americans in wanting to have democratic government. The north wanted to be Communist like their Chinese cousins. The war was fought. America lost and needed to evacuate quickly before being overrun by communist forces in 1975, abandoning their former allies (only SOME of whom were evacuated with them). South Viet Nam was converted to communism and absorbed into one country.\n\nAny of this sound familiar?
897625
Well, after Vietnam one would have thought the American government learnt its lesson.  But I guess not.  In Vietnam, the Americans were so thoroughly whipped that it taught them a lesson for about 15 years and they didn't do any bullying.  I guess they got arrogant again and needed another lesson.\n\nThey are now trying go get out of Iraq.  The indomitable human spirit always wins  :)
623353
Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. The war began soon after the Geneva Conference provisionally divided (1954) Vietnam at 17° N lat. into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It escalated from a Vietnamese civil war into a limited international conflict in which the United States was deeply involved, and did not end, despite peace agreements in 1973, until North Vietnam's successful offensive in 1975 resulted in South Vietnam's collapse and the unification of Vietnam by the North.