"Why did America fight in the Vietnam War?" Hmmm...'cuz we're not all that bright? (And I say that nicely). Okay, okay, let's actually look this thing up...:
AH. Go figure. It was because we couldn't mind our own business and were concerned about Vietnam and its political issues. Bah. A little while after WWII, Vietnam wanted to be recognized as an independent and free country, as fought France to that point. After it became its own country, Vietnam experienced a divide in its government: northern Vietnam was a Communist state, and the souther part was trying hard to resist the north's pressuring to become the same.
The U.S. of A., a young idealist country with a democratic government, of course looked down on Communism and readily jumped to southern VIetnam's aid...
I don't really know why or how we got into Vietnam's business. Apparently we supported them in getting away from France, giving them $2.6 billion in financial support during that little revolt (Digital History).
$2.6 billion....and at the same time we were fighting the Cold War AND recovering from WWII. And we wonder why America's in so much debt.
That pretty much covers the questions...right? I don't really know what/which "opposition" is specified on Edline, but since I generally conclude that it was over Communism and between Northern Vietnam and its allies and Southern Vietnam and America and allies, I will also go over internal opposition slightly here...
Um, WE DIDN'T WANT THE WAR. A lot of the Americans at that time, anyway. After the Tet Offensive many were especially against American involvement in the Vietnam War. It cost America almost 60,000 deaths, and we'd involved 500,000 military personnel.
After all that fighting, Pres. Nixon recalled U.S. forces from the warring country, leaving Southern Vietnam to fend for itself. Then Northern Vietnam captured Saigon, and yeah. United Communist Vietnam is born.
I'm totally against war, so you actually get a short post this time around! :)
Sites I used: http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/vietnam/index.cfm
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