Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s?

... Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s? The Vietnam War, like any other war, was extremely ugly. But unlike other wars, there were many soldiers involved in the fighting who opposed it. There was also a tremendous cross-section of the American public that came to oppose it - not on the grounds that they were going to lose - but on the grounds that it was immoral and just plain wrong. This gathering of people from all walks of life and economic backgrounds together in cities all across the country to oppose immoral governmental foreign policy was, a fantastic exercise of real democracy, and may well have been the most blatant exercise of democracy to occur in this century. The reason repeatedly given to the American people was the "domino theory" - if Vietnam fell to Communism, countries across Southeast Asia down through Australia and

want to read more? →