November 1st 1955-April 30 1975
The United States entered the war under the view that American involvement was necessary to prevent communism to take over Southern Vietnam. The United States had a domino theory where they believed if one state turned communist, then the states around it would follow. The U.S. policy ruled that communism in all of Vietnam was unacceptable. The war costed vast amounts of money for the U.S. and was very unpopular at home. The war was drawn out and the Viet Cong’s guerrilla warfare made it hard for American troops to gain a foothold in North Vietnam. The communists launched a counterattack called the Tet Offensive that was aimed to overthrow the South Vietnam government. They failed but it was a turning point in where the U.S. people realized that they where losing the war and the government had been deceiving them. This led to gradual withdrawal of the troops while trying to remove American involvement in Vietnam. Under President Nixon in the early 1970s the U.S. transferred the task of fighting communism in Vietnam to South Vietnam.
This war was the longest war in American history. We were involved in some way for close to 20 years. There was a lot of anti-war movement on the home front for this war because many people where against it. I feel that the U.S. should have withdrawn its troops a lot earlier due to the anti-war protests throughout the nation. Although I understand the containment of communism, it is also important that the government listen to the people at home. The war wasted a lot of money and did not accomplish as much as they had hoped. I also do not understand how South Vietnam were to deal with the situation themselves after the U.S. withdrew their troops. The U.S. was a stronger nation than South Vietnam and still could not defeat the North, how did the U.S. expect the South to do it without their support.
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history
