​The Vietnam War

Why did the war happen? Why did we have to get involved? Was it the right thing to do? All of these questions roam the minds of the young and the old United States of America citizens. The reason short, the Vietnam war started as a result of U.S strategy of containment during the Cold War, which aimed to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world. The U.S and its Western allies considered Communism in form of the USSR as the greatest rival and post-war threat to their democracies and capitalism. Now to understand the reason for the war you have to understand the meaning of Communism. Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. In 1949 everything changed in China when they became a communist country. After Chinese communist rebels (led by Mao Zedong) won the civil war they took control of the chinese mainland. After 1950, the U.S started to support South Korea in the war against the Communist North. The north were backed by China and USSR as well as sending military aid to France in its war effort in French Indochina with the goal of containing communism spread. Vietnam was a French colony until 1954 when they signed a treaty which temporarily separated the North communists from the South anti-communists, after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. So when the North tried to regain and spread communism to the south the U.S. got involved, thus spawned the war.