why did the united states send troops to fight in vietnam
Vietnam War There are several competing views on the conflict, with some on the North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front side viewing the struggle against US forces as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States[79] especially the light of the failed Geneva Conference calls for elections. Other interpretations of the North Vietnamese side include viewing it as a civil war especially in the early and later phases following the U.S interlude between 1965 and 1970[80] as well as a war of liberation.[79] The perspective of some Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, the successor to the Viet Cong were motivated in part by significant social changes in the post-WW2 Vietnam, and had initially saw it as a revolutionary war supported by Hanoi[81][82] The pro-government side in South Vietnam viewed it as a civil war, a defensive war against communism[80][83] or were motivated to fight to defend their homes and families.[84] The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism.[85]
Vietnam War Beginning in 1970, American troops were withdrawn from border areas where most of the fighting took place, instead redeployed along the coast and interior, and US casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969 casualties after being relegated to less active combat.[285] At the same time that US forces were deployed, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam took over combat operations throughout the country, with casualties doubled US casualties in 1969, and more than tripled US ones in 1970.[286] The post-Tet environment saw a rise in membership in Regional Force and Popular Force militias, now more capable of providing village security which the Americans could not under Westmoreland.[287] In 1970 Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing the number of Americans to 265,500.[285] By 1970 the Viet Cong forces were no-longer southern-majority, and nearly 70% of units were northerners.[288] Between 1969 to 1971 the Viet Cong and some PAVN units had reverted to small unit tactics typical of 1967 and prior instead of nation-wide grand offensives.[267] In 1971 Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers and U.S. troop count was further reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972. The United States also reduced support troops and in March 1971 the 5th Special Forces Group, the first American unit deployed to South Vietnam, withdrew to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.[289] [A 4]
Paris Peace Accords
Vietnam War Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina.[63][A 3] Most of the funding for the French war effort was provided by the U.S.[64] U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962.[65] U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a U.S. destroyer clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft, which was followed by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the U.S. president authorization to increase U.S. military presence. Regular U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations crossed international borders: bordering areas of Laos and Cambodia were heavily bombed by U.S. forces as American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, the same year that the communist side launched the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive failed in its goal of overthrowing the South Vietnamese government, but became the turning point in the war, as it persuaded a large segment of the U.S. population that its government's claims of progress toward winning the war were illusory despite many years of massive U.S. military aid to South Vietnam.