when were the us involved 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 The Vietnam War (Vietnamese: Chiến tranh Việt Nam), also known as the Second Indochina War,[59] and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America (Vietnamese: Kháng chiến chống Mỹ) or simply the American War, was a conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955[A 1] to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies and the South Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies.[60] The war is therefore considered a Cold War-era proxy war.[61] The war is considered a humiliation for the United States.[62][63]