What events , policies and goals led the United States to involve itself in Vietnam to escalate, and to waver in its commitment by 1968

Vietnam - In Brief There were a number of reasons for the United States ' involvement in the Vietnam War and the two main reasons were to provide a strong front in the Cold War as well as protecting vital American economic interests in the Asian sector of the world

The United States was a superpower and had signed a defensive treaty with the democratic regime of South Vietnam to protect the regime from any communist aggression . The communist North , angered that a general election designed to unify South and North Vietnam had been

aborted because of the significant possibility of a communist victory , invaded the South

This put President Lyndon Johnson in a precarious position as he felt that if the United States did not honor its commitment to defend the South , then the US would appear weak in the face of communist aggression . This was something the United States drastically needed to avoid during the height of the Cold War

Furthermore , the expansion of communism would close off markets to the United States as democracies fell . This would harm the economic infrastructure of the United States as well as limit the United States ability to acquire precious natural resources . Fear of the loss of Asian markets if a domino effect ' of various Asian countries falling to communist hands further moved the United States to take action in Vietnam

The major turning point in the Vietnam War was the Tet Offensive , a military strike by the North Vietnamese on the South that was unexpected and dramatic . What is most intriguing about the Tet Offensive was the fact that it was an unmitigated disaster for the North Vietnamese forces and should have been a turning point where the United States should have gained huge momentum . However , this was not to be because the United States had essentially set itself up for a fall and certain unethical members of the media capitalized on the situation

For many months , the population of the United States had been questioning the reasons for United States involvement in Vietnam . The goals were never made clear to the public beyond sweeping generalizations of containing the spread of communism . In to placate the public , the Johnson Administration repeated ad nausea that victory was at hand and that the North Vietnamese were on the defensive This was patently untrue as the situation was at a stalemate . The blatant myth that the USA was on the verge of victory was spread simply to gain more support for the war as it dragged on . When the Tet Offensive occurred , it was a complete shock to the American public because it was clear that the North Vietnamese were not on the verge of collapse . The Johnson Administration now was caught having spread a mistruth and this completely turned the public against the war

The irony of this situation was the fact that the North Vietnamese gained nothing tactically from the Tet Offensive . In fact , they suffered massive casualities that greatly exceeded the...