Explain why the United States became increasingly involved in the war in Vietnam?
The Vietnam war (1964-1973) was fought between the United States and the communist rebels in South Vietnam, the Vietcong. The United States had been involved in Vietnam since the 1940s in the form of aiding the French in their war against Vietnam’s independence, and by 1954 had already spent $2.6 billion dollars in Vietnam, but became increasingly involved after 1964 principally because of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and what they felt what their duty to stop communism spreading.
The first reason for why the United States chose to become more involved in Vietnam was to contain communism, a policy known as containment. The North Vietnamese government, led by Ho Chi Minh was communist, and in South Vietnam their approval was high. Fearful that the south too would fall to communism, the US placed a capitalist leader in the south. However, his approval was very low, and in 1959 the North Vietnamese government, the Vietminh felt the time was right to unite the country of Vietnam by armed force, thus creating a National Liberation Front known as the Vietcong. The Vietcong used guerrilla tactics against the South Vietnamese forces, who despite being supported by US military advisors were losing the struggle.
