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Who and why were people supporting the Vietnam War? What reasons were there?

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americans supporting vietnam war

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  1. Half the world were Communist They were making inroads in Latin America They told us they wanted to destroy our way of life They brutally enforce their system on others We [the free world] came close to being enslaved You know what is taking place in north Korea  Now what would you want us to do today if north Korea invaded the south? Sit back and watch? When we pulled out Thailand told us to get our bases out of their country China was calling us running dogs paper tigers to this day many over the pond love to tell us we lost in Vietnam

      Mr Reagan came along and restored America to it's rightful place that is the reason he is still hated over the pond


  2. The "domino theory" that one state after another would collapse if Communism was allowed to spread.

  3. I was going to write about the this, but it seems that "malinmoch" has given a good account (although briefer than I would have given).

    People supported the Vietnam War initially because they did not know the facts, and were being fed a lot of mis-information and lies about Vietnam and the conflicts. Truman sent troops into Vietnam in support of the French followed by Eisenhower. It was Eisenhower that sent advisers and who initially violated the 1954 Geneva Agreements and it was JFK, LBJ and Nixon who continued the trend..

  4. North Vietnam was Communist and was trying to force South Vietnam under their rule.  France had troops helping South Vietnam fight North Vietnam in the 50s and then the US got involved in the 60s.  As a previous poster said, the fear of communism creeping throughout the world was a huge issue for the US (still is) and our government wanted to help the South Vietnamese stay free from communist rule.

    Just like the Iraq mess we're in now, what started out as good intentions dragged on and on and on.  We've been in Iraq for a few years.   Our involvement in the Vietnam War went on for close to 20 years.  The number of Americans killed was staggering and the longer it went on, the more Americans protested the war.  It got so bad, the veterans were not respected by many civilians.

    Horror stories of American troops torturing/raping/pillaging villages, the use of Agent Orange to defoliate the tropical forests but which also poisoned thousands of our troops, our troops getting killed by friendly fire and many becoming drug addicts out in the jungles--these are all well-documented atrocities which disgusted the American civilians.

    As you probably know, we finally did withdraw from Vietnam in 1973.  North Vietnam did indeed overtake South Vietnam in spite of decades of resistance by France, America and other countries.  That's why people say America lost the Vietnam War.

    One thing people in their 50s and older can tell younger Americans: We learned that whether we believe in the assignments our troops are given or not, we should always respect our military.  Congress makes the decisions of who/where/when to go to war and if we don't agree with those decisions, we should protest to our government--not hold it against our military.

  5. People were at first supporting the Vietnam War because of the "Domino Theory."  Which was:

    If Sout Viet. (or was it North? w/e one) falls to communism, the surrounding countries would fall to communism.

    Eventually, in theory, communism would spread to islands in the Pacific and end up on the shores of CA.

    Then the U.S. would gradually fall to communism.

  6. I feel that "Cavyslave2000" should get her facts correct.

    Firstly, The French were not supporting the south to fight the north during the "First Indochina War" or as some called it, the "War of Independence".

    Vietnam was ONE COUNTRY, and the Viet Minh (Vietnamese Nationalists) led by the communist, Ho Chi Minh, had attempted to gain independence from France following WW-2, but the French would have nothing of that. The Viet Minh then started fighting the French from mid 1948 onwards, and the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954.

    Secondly, the "1954 Geneva Agreements on Indochina", which came out of the peace conference held in Geneva following the French defeat DID NOT SEPARATE VIETNAM INTO TWO COUNTRIES, it divided the country into two "TEMPORARY MILITARY DEMARCATION ZONES" with elections to take place Nationally before June 1956.

    Thirdly,  the US violated every aspects of the "1954 Geneva Agreements", even before they were signed, and this inevitably led to the Second Indochina (Vietnam) War.

    Fourth -- The US had been engaged in Vietnam almost continuously from 1944 onwards.  From 1944 the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA) trained and armed the Viet Minh in the fight against the Japanese, and were standing along-side Ho Chi Minh when he declared independence on the steps of the French Governors-General's residence on September 2, 1945. A fly-past of US Army-air force planes accompanied the declaration.

    There was a break in military activity by the US until 1948 when the US started sending arms and ammunition to the French under the "Marshall Plan" and initially had air force personnel flying supply missions for the French. Later it was also combat missions.

    The US remained in Vietnam (with the CIA initially) then later with advisers, then combat soldiers etc. ALL in violation of international law and the 1954 Geneva Agreements.

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