The United States got involved with the fight in Vietnam mostly as a result of three things: Eisenhower believed in what’s known as the domino theory, which is the belief that if one country in southeast Asia gave into communism more and more would start to follow suit, just like falling dominoes. Eisenhower said in his speech “This would lead to disintegration in Southeast Asia, with the "loss of Indochina, of Burma, of Thailand, of the Peninsula, and Indonesia following” (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-gives-famous-domino-theory-speech). This was then his excuse to send soldiers in to aid South Vietnam. Later during Nixon’s administration the North Vietnamese began bombarding the south with a series of surprise attacks in what’s known as the Tet Offensive. “It was considered to be a turning point in the Vietnam War” (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1862.html). In reaction to this Nixon authorized “vietnamization,” which was a plan to help build up the South Vietnamese army, and prepare them for taking on the North “in order to facilitate a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops” (http://www.history.com/topics/vietnamization). And finally, during LBJ’s presidency the U.S. began to actually fight in the war because it was believed that the Vietnamese attacked one of our ships while we were patrolling in the Tonkin Gulf, setting forth the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that the congress passed, giving Johnson the authority to do whatever he though necessary to stop the Vietnamese.
Most people know the Vietnam war for the protests and chaos in America during the war, but what many don’t know is the “protests… did not start when America declared her open involvement in the war in 1964…the first protests came in October 1965 when the draft was increased;” and after that there was protesting everywhere in the U.S.
Most people know the Vietnam war for the protests and chaos in America during the war, but what many don’t know is the “protests… did not start when America declared her open involvement in the war in 1964…the first protests came in October 1965 when the draft was increased;” and after that there was protesting everywhere in the U.S.