Why Did America Fight the Vietnam War? | 5 Minute Video

Why did America fight the Vietnam War? The military suffered over 58,000 casualties, and America withdrew in defeat. What for? Historian Victor Davis Hanson explains.

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Script:

The Vietnam War lasted ten years, cost America 58,000 lives and over a trillion dollars, adjusted for inflation. It brought down a president, stirred social unrest, and ended in defeat.

No one in hindsight believes fighting a losing war is ever worth the cost. Consequently, the Vietnam War is usually written off as a colossal strategic blunder and a humanitarian disaster.

Yet, historical appraisals might have been much different had the Vietnam War followed the pattern of the Korean War, which the United States fought for almost identical reasons: the defense of freedom in Asia.

The U.S. had military advisors in Vietnam during the 1950s, but didn’t become involved in a major way until 1963. President John F. Kennedy firmly believed in the “domino effect,” the foreign policy theory that vulnerable nations without help would fall, one after another, like dominos, to external communist aggression.

Kennedy thus hoped to stop Soviet- and Chinese-backed communist invasions in the manner President Harry Truman had in Korea by taking a stand in Vietnam.

As with Korea, it was a war the United States did not seek. As with Korea, Vietnam presented no “imperial” advantages: no natural resources, or resources of any kind, that the United States needed to protect or wished to obtain. As with Korea, the aggressor was a communist government in the North intent on taking control of the South, and its military crossed an internationally recognized border to do so.

Following Kennedy’s assassination in November of 1963, President Lyndon Johnson vastly escalated America’s role in 1964. But even as he did so, Johnson prosecuted the war with deep ambivalence, authorizing significantly more troops and money for the war, but never pushing for total victory. In contrast, the North Vietnamese never wavered. They ignored every one of Johnson’s many offers to negotiate a settlement.

By 1971, the war was at a stalemate, neither side able to establish a clear advantage. The president, Richard Nixon, pursued a two-prong strategy -- to turn over combat operations to the South Vietnamese, and to bomb North Vietnam. The effort brought the communists to the Paris Peace Talks. And by 1973, the North agreed to a general settlement, establishing two autonomous Vietnamese nations – one communist, one non-communist—in the manner of North and South Korea.

However, the Watergate scandal, the subsequent resignation of President Nixon, and the Democrats’ sweeping congressional victory in the 1974 mid-term election all helped to convince the North Vietnamese that America would not enforce the peace agreement.

They were right.

Without U.S. air support and material aid, the South Vietnamese had no chance against the North. Well supplied by the Soviet Union and the Chinese, the communists gained full control over the country in April 1975.

The war proved far more costly than Korea because the geography and landscapes of Vietnam were far more conducive to insurgency operations. There were also far more restrictions placed on American commanders than during the Korean War. And the United States in the 1960s was a far less conservative and cohesive country than America of the 1950s.

[wrexchicane]

Did Vietnam really fight because they "hated" capitalism or was it that they wanted a united and independent Vietnam? There are a lot of details missing about the whole picture in this video. This video comes off too biased.

[fenrir]

Also, another fun fact. There was a country that intervened to stop the Cambodian genocide. Wasn't America. It was communist Vietnam. Thanks for mentioning it.

[ashwanichandra]

This narrative should start with french colonial occupation of vietnam and its struggle for freedom.

[chrispswann]

A few things he conveniently forgets to mention:
1) He mentions that 58, 000 Americans died in the war, yet forgot to mention the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who died
2) He forgot to mention the numerous war crimes committed by US troops. Most famous is the My Lei Massacre, but it wasn't the only one
3) He forgot to mention that many of the soldiers who served were drafted and didn't want to be there. Ironically many of them were African American and lived under Jim Crow laws. So they were fighting for freedom in Vietnam yet had no freedom in their own country
4) Many of the people who supported the war were rich white people who refused to serve. Many of the wars biggest cheerleaders were draft dodgers. A trend that continues to this day

[RyGoofies]

everybody gangsta until the trees start speaking vietnamese

[WuhanMan]

I lived in Vietnam for many years. My Vietnamese friends told me many times that what they wanted more than anything else was for all Vietnamese to live as one country. The choice of capitalism or communism was not that important, but communism was necessary for a time to overcome the legacy of colonialism created and left by the French. All Vietnamese consider themselves as one family, it is apparent in the pronouns they use to describe each other even when they meet for the first time: older brother, uncle, little sister, etc. The Americans never thought they could lose, but the Vietnamese never thought they could win. The Vietnamese thought that they could fight to a stalemate and in the end, the Americans would leave. And the Vietnamese were right.

[brianlevine]

My father volunteered for Vietnam.He was part of the IVth Infantry that went over in September 1966.I asked my father what was toughest part of being there:"Knowing a five year old is your enemy".

[anonymousmobster]

Q: *Why did America fight the Vietnam War?*

A: *BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO DRILL SERGEANT*

[MazdaRX]

Don't forget about all the soldiers they drafted and forced into the war, eventhough the soldiers didn't even believe in the war.

[binhminhnguyenvan]

In my point of view
History are written by winner.
And in Vietnam war there was no winner, both loss one way or another.
So all these truth and fact are all meaningless.
In my school they taught us that the Vietnam war is full of blood from both sides, yellow, white corpses everywhere; and worse is that we have to fight our own people,
Like pulling a trigger at your brother. The war is meaningless.
US soldiers burning our houses and village,
Our people burning our own houses and village
We made boobie traps toward your people and our people
We fuel a flame of hatrest toward our own people and that flame is still burning ( VN and VN///)
...
I went to the museum and seeing victims of Agent orange,
I still can't believe what i saw was human.
I even saw babies in bottles.
I went home seeing my grandpa recall how he join the army when he was just 16; how he become half deaf and how happy he is seeing that the war is over.
...
Then i asked myself that my people have suffer alot throughout many generations.
So what about you?
And i search the internet and i saw the old soldier telling stories about how he being sent miles around the world to fight a war on a foreign country that simply did nothing to their country. He told how his friends die before his own eyes, how my people fighting like animals. Confuse, range, madness soon they become insane and did things that beyond moral limits.
I read papers and seeing so many mother losing their sons, so many bones of unnamed soldiers still lies in every grant of soil of my country.
So what I'm saying here is that i don't want to see history on only one side but i want to see it as a viewer
I won't judge who's right and who's wrong because no matter who's right; after the war we all bury our soldiers.

[ebdhudnav]

LBJ lied about the Gulf of Tonkin incident....

[googleaccount]

"The defend of freedom in Asia" thats when I left.

[skynet_cyberdyne_systems]

False propaganda video. America did not fight for people's freedom. It was exact opposite of this. When Vietnam was fighting for it's independence from French colonizers, US was supporting French.

[thihienmainguyen]

Some people seem to be puzzled, or bemused, or scornful, or derisive, or upset, or hateful, ... that socialist Vietnam adopts the market economy even with much capitalistic flavor. They fail to understand the following
# For the Vietnamese
Uncompromised priority: Independence and Integrity of their Country
Other goals and priorities
Priority #1: Freedom and Democracy
Priority #2: Happiness
Priority #3: Security
Priority #4: Peace
Priority #5: Prosperity
Priority #6: International Standing
# The rest, whether it's Monarchy, Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, a Mixture of those, ... could easily be negotiable to serve those above goals.
# Thus, the Vietnamese had endured unbelievable sacrifice and hardship in their long wars against capitalist French colonialists, and fascist Japanese militarists, and capitalist American neo-colonialists, and communist Chinese expansionists, not because of socialism or capitalism or communism, but because of their country's Independence and Integrity.

Putting it simply, the Vietnamese just wanted their country's independence and integrity, and to be left alone, IF NOT FRIEND TO EVERYONE. ALL ELSE IS NEGOTIABLE.
# They'd go to any length, endure any sacrifice, hardship, suffering, ... for their country's independence and integrity.

[davidgray]

I have read that Ho Chi Min's favorite document was our Bill of Right. Also that Ho requested asistance from Truman and Eisenhower six times, but was turned down in favor of the French. Yet he went to the communists and asked once and was given every thing he asked for. I have also read the Joint Chiefs told LBJ he couldn't win a war in Vietnam; based on MacNamara's strategy.
I severed in USN 7th fleet 1970, 71, 72.

[jayyyzeee]

So in the end, Vietnam worked out its own problems. The takeaway is the U.S. should stay the hell out of everyone's business.

[Ryan-gnge]

The “Rubber Tree War” (a.k.a. Vietnam War – America), began in 1945, France, recently freed from Nazi rule wanted resources to rebuild its war torn country. Prior to WWII, Vietnam was a French colony, companies like Michelin had rubber tree plantations in Southern Vietnam. Rubber is a very important and in the 1940’s it was chiefly harvested from rubber trees, today we call this “Natural Rubber”.
In 1940 Synthetic rubber, a man-made version of rubber produced from petroleum began production for the war effort. Since that time synthetic rubber improved to the point where it became far superior and cheaper to produce than natural rubber. By the late 1950’s and early 1960’s there was no longer a reason for rubber tree plantations.
There is a good series called “The Ten Thousand Day War: Vietnam, 1945-1975”, a 26-part documentary about the war in Vietnam, produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It give a better understanding without the American propaganda.

[roguemonk]

I'm not the smartest person, but having one party promising one thing and then another party comes along and does the opposite has got to be the most stupidest thing.

[AxmanGamingHD]

Do a video on how Germany is struggling with the refugees both culturally and economically

[thihienmainguyen]

Some people say "The US have LITERALLY NO BUSINESS starting that War vs. Vietnam ..." -- Please consider again regarding "BUSINESS", as per below

Domino theory ? Stop the spread of communism ? Protect the "free world" ? ...
# Maybe. But please consider the following first.
# Imagine I was the owner of a company that makes ammunition for the US-army guns, plus canned food for the US Military.
# If the war in Vietnam went ahead (i.e. killing people, Vietnamese and Americans; expected to last years), I'd stand to make maybe 100 billion dollars in total (makers of helicopter gunships, artillery shells, military clothing, ... would probably make more money)
# If there wasn't any war, then I would not have that 100 billion dollars.
# In that case (no war) I would try to destroy any obstacle on my way of getting that 100 billion dollars.
# President John F Kennedy was hesitant about invading Vietnam and starting a war (he knew about Vietnamese people's history and spirits), and about to declare USA's no-war and non-involvement (or drastically reduced involvement)
# Please suggest what I do to get my 100 billion dollars. Thanks.