What ideal was America fighting Vietnam?
During the war years, America’s leaders insisted that military force was necessary to defend a sovereign nation — South Vietnam — from external Communist aggression. As President Lyndon B. Johnson put it in 1965, “The first reality is that North Vietnam has attacked the independent nation of South Vietnam.
Why did the US fail in Vietnam?
Failures for the USA
Failure of Operation Rolling Thunder: The bombing campaign failed because the bombs often fell into empty jungle, missing their Vietcong targets. … Lack of support back home: As the war dragged on more and more Americans began to oppose the war in Vietnam.
Who Started Vietnam War?
The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and ’50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France.
Why didn’t the US invade North Vietnam?
Why didn’t the US just roll over North Vietnam and occupy the entire country? The military was afraid of a repeat of Korea. US leadership knew that if a full scale invasion was launched, the Chinese and possibly the Russians would retaliate; Beijing made this very clear.
What dangers did American soldiers face in Vietnam?
Vietnam’s wildlife posed its own dangers. American soldiers encountered malarial mosquitoes, leeches, ticks, fire ants and 30 different kinds of venomous snake. One historian estimates between 150 and 300 US personnel died in Vietnam from the effects of snakebite.
How did Vietnam recover from the war?
The war in Vietnam finally ended in 1975, when North Vietnamese troops captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. The following year, the Communist leaders of North Vietnam reunited the two halves of the country to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV).