Why and for what reason was the vietnam war fought and why did usa support south vietnam?

Question

Why and for what reason was the vietnam war fought and why did usa support south vietnam?

Answer 1

It was fought because some idiots in DC though that if S. vietnam fell to N. Vietnam, that the whole of SE Asia would immediately become communist.  

It was just like the present war in Iraq, it was fought for false pretenses.

Answer 2

To fight the ugly and evil spread of communism.

Answer 3

The Vietnam war was fought to stop the spread of communism.(communism is where everyone gets equal amounts of money, housing, etc. no matter what your occupation) Americans thought that the Russians comunism ideas would spread into Asia, creating a whole communist area. So when North Vietnam( a communist ncountry) tried to take over South Vietnam., America allied forces with SV to help them win against NV. In the end, we lost and South Vietnam and North Vietnam joined together and formed one communist country. That was the first war the USA ever lost a war.

Answer 4

During this time the country was filled with Cold war hysteria, where many americans felt the russians were going to invade and spread communism. Because of this the U.S fought to stem communism in Southeast Asia. Whether or not we should have been there or not is a different argument, however, this was the reason Why the U.S began in Vietnam.

Answer 5

After World War II, the French wanted to regain control of Vietnam, which had been their colony. Most Vietnamese opposed this. The US needed France as an ally in Europe against the Soviet Union, so we supported the French. The Soviet Union supported the Viet Minh, a pro-communist Nationalist group. In 1954 The Viet Minh defeated the French, and the country was  split into North and South zones, the Viet Minh ruling the North and Vietnamese elements of the French Colonial administration ruling the South. Originally there was to be an election in 1956 to re-unify the country but that was never held because, according to President Eisenhower, the Viet Minh would have gotten over 80% of the vote. Instead, the US created a seperate govenment in South Vietnam to keep the Viet Minh from gaining control of the whole country. From the start, South Vietnam was dependent on the US to keep it propped up, and over time the level of US support necessary to keep them afloat increased from Military aid, to military advisers, and eventually hundreds of thousands of US Soldiers. But the Govenment of South Vietnam was never going to be able to survive on its own; we could have propped it up indefinitely but it's doubtful they would ever have gotten to the point they could have lasted more than 2 years on their own.

Answer 6

Domino theory and Marshall plan. In the simply, at the time the Americans didn't call it a war technically it was a 'Policing Action'

Don't think the French influence would've been a key issue as more the US want to usurp it once the French were battered hence the cloak of 'above'

Answer 7

The spread of comunism was the excuse.  The reason was that JFK wanted to help the french protect their interests in Viet Nam.

Answer 8

because North Vietman was communist, and to the USA anything is better than communisim.