Why Did the U.S Enter the Vietnam War

Why did the U.S enter the Vietnam War?
Background: Much of Vietnam was occupied by France before ww2, but these French territories were lost during the War as the Japanese set up a puppet regime in this time. The French tried to regain their former territories around the Early 50s, but failed in their attempt as they were defeated by the Communist general Vo Nguyen Giap. They left behind them a buffer zone splitting the North and South of Vietnam. After French troops had withdrawn the Vietnamese communists settled down in the north and in the south the self-proclaimed president, Ngo Dinh Diem had formed the Republic of Vietnam, the non communist part of the county.
Civil War broke out as the communists in the North wanted to take over the entirety of Vietnam and create on singular communist state. They were assisted in their efforts by the communist Vietcong guerrilla fighters of the south. But what propelled the war was the support they gained from China and the Soviet Union.
America’s involvement:
US involvement in the Vietnam War began in the early 1950’s a reaction to the communist victory in China .Washington decided to aid to the French to help defeat Ho Chi Minh’s communist let nationalist forces. It was at this point that America began to fear the worst: communist world domination. Aware that China and the Soviet Union were supporting the already powerful communist takeover in Vietnam, during a civil war which put the nation in an even more vulnerable position, the U.S grew steadily more cautious. Due to the Soviet sphere of influence spreading to Eastern Europe, China and America’s backyard, Cuba, the U.S felt surrounded by the fear of increasing communism. America’s main reason for deciding to involve itself was due to it’s fear of communism or more specifically communism spreading throughout Asia and the rest of the world. Many have argued that they were simply following foreign policy aims as Truman Doctrine in March 1947 signalled formal adoption by the U.S of a policy of containment of Communism ;
Domino Theory: This was the theory that along with the policy of containment, dominated America’s thoughts on the Vietnam situation. The idea is that of one Asian country falls to communism the rest will follow even quicker; the end result would be an entire communist continent. To make matters worse this communist continent would be allies with the largest country in the world and the only other superpower apart from the U.S: the Soviet Union.
The role of the Presidents:
 Eisenhower (1953-61): hard lined anti-communist, in stark contrast to the previous Truman administration, who were seen as too soft. He was determined to bring down the Iron Curtain of communism .Political expediency made it very hard for him to back out.
 Kennedy (1961-63): continued Eisenhower’s policies ‘…this will be a domino effect that will kick off a whole list of others.’
 Johnson (1963-69): he had taken the most vigorous approach after the Gulf of Tolkin incident; he sent thousands of troops to the Viet Cong, in response to an attack on a U.S. Marine barracks at Pleiku. America had became more engaged in war. Didn’t want this conflict to spiral out of control and cause a hot war between the superpowers
 Nixon (1969-74): It was with Nixon that the U.S ended the Vietnam conflict.

Conclusion:
Although the only actual threat from Vietnam itself at the time was an ideological one, from an American perspective, it could grow into a physical threat and a powerful one at that. National security was at risk and if this issue was not combated in its early stages, then it was very likely to grow stronger with the help of the Soviets. This would then result in communist world domination. Despite containment being the main reason America entered the wa, it was also to do with the fact that it was necessary to continue the war in order to keep its international prestige intact. But the main reason U.S got involved with the Vietnam War in order to contain communism to reduce the risk of it spreading to the rest of the world.