Motivation in Vietnam

War? What is it good for? Why did the United States go to war in Vietnam? These questions remain open. Why did the U.S. feel that they needed to get involved with a war that did not involve them directly? Didn’t America’s first president warn us of entangling alliances? There are many different reasons for our motivation for war. I think that the most important is anti-communism, domino theory, Eisenhower administration, and the United States arrogance of power.
George Herring believes that our conflict with Vietnam found its roots in the Cold War. He says, “U.S. involvement in Vietnam stemmed from the interaction of two major phenomena of the post-World War II era: decolonization- the breakup of the old colonial empire- and the Cold War” (460). He thinks that we always had communism in the back of our minds and any decisions we were making could potentially affect the future of communism. The United States knew the importance of communism and would not let it have i...