how long was america's involvement in the vietnam war
Role of the United States in the Vietnam War The role of the United States in the Vietnam War began after World War II and escalated into full commitment during the Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975. The U.S. involvement in South Vietnam stemmed from 20 long years of political and economic action. These had the common incentive of ending the growing communist domination in Vietnam. At the time, French forces, allies of the U.S., were backed by America â€” President Harry S. Truman provided progressively increasing amounts of financial and military assistance to French forces fighting in Vietnam. From the spring of 1950, their involvement increased from just assisting French troops to providing direct military assistance to the associated states (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia). Eventually, U.S. missions were carried out at a more constant rate by sending out increasing number of military assistance from the United States. Their main intent was to restrict the Communist domination that was present in the government of Vietnam as it would soon lead to a chain of neighbouring countries adopting the same. This would have resulted in a change in balance of power throughout Southeast Asia. Essentially, the U.S. saw their major security interests being disturbed due to the rise of the communist expansion and strived to take any measure to end it[1]. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000[2] to 3,812,000.[3] The conflict also resulted in 58,318 US soldiers dead.[4]
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 used by North Vietnam as supply routes and 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.