Was America's involvement in the Vietnam War justified?

[Insaanistan]

The US has a habit of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”ing other countries into Civil War.
Begins singing mock Army cadence
“Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq!
(Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq)
I don’t care if I ever come back!
(I don’t care if I ever come back)”

[Kubra]

US did embed OSS agents with the Viet Minh, I don't recall any material support but I don't think it would have been uncalled for.
It wasn't in support of them against the French, it was in support of them against the Japanese. It's the same as America technically helping Al Qaeda in Yemen against the Houthi's.

Right it was support in their war against the Japanese, and I do believe some material support as well as training and medical support was provided ( long time since I looked at it)

The Americans put the French back in Vietnam, as Truman caved to de Gaulle and provided material and transportation. If truman had backed Minh i do wonder how communist Vietnam would have wound up.

Wouldn't have been worth it. No matter how you spin it, France is just more valuable.
A better outcome would have been letting the north reunite the country and *then* wooing them. France wouldn't be in a position to object, and Vietnam well there's only a few old grudges in Asia that have lasted, the rest becomes bygones.

[Ethel mermania]

Right it was support in their war against the Japanese, and I do believe some material support as well as training and medical support was provided ( long time since I looked at it)

The Americans put the French back in Vietnam, as Truman caved to de Gaulle and provided material and transportation. If truman had backed Minh i do wonder how communist Vietnam would have wound up.

Wouldn't have been worth it. No matter how you spin it, France is just more valuable.
A better outcome would have been letting the north reunite the country and *then* wooing them. France wouldn't be in a position to object, and Vietnam well there's only a few old grudges in Asia that have lasted, the rest becomes bygones.

A few old grudges, you mean like. China and vietnam hating each other?

[Kubra]

Wouldn't have been worth it. No matter how you spin it, France is just more valuable.
A better outcome would have been letting the north reunite the country and *then* wooing them. France wouldn't be in a position to object, and Vietnam well there's only a few old grudges in Asia that have lasted, the rest becomes bygones.

A few old grudges, you mean like. China and vietnam hating each other?

That grudge stays. That ones gonna stay. The vietnam war? Water under the bridge, now imagine if the US courted them without the war in the first place.
It'd make things difficult with China, but it's not as the US had spectral foresight and knew it was gonna make good with the PRC.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

If truman had backed Minh i do wonder how communist Vietnam would have wound up.

Complete idle speculation from a layman here, but had Communist Vietnam fallen under the American diplomatic sphere instead of the Soviet, it plausibly might have fallen under the American cultural sphere as well and absorbed some liberal values.

[Atheris]

Good question.

I can't say one way or another. On one hand, Vietnam at that time was (relatively) friendly to both China and the USSR and threatened American interests in the region. It also spread communism into Laos and Cambodia (before, ironically, fighting the Cambodians).

On the other hand, the Vietnamese communists were actually rather friendly to the US before the US's intervention in the Indochina War and Vietnam. The Domino Effect also didn't really come to pass and the war itself resulted in a countless loss of life.

[Mercatus]

The only reason it wasn’t justified is because we expended so much money, materials, and men only for us to lose to a bunch of 3rd world farmers. The veterans of Vietnam were treated like shit when they got home, as if it was their fault that the US looked bad in front of the world when in reality the people making decisions were the ones to blame.

[Cordel One]

The only reason it wasn’t justified is because we expended so much money, materials, and men only for us to lose to a bunch of 3rd world farmers. The veterans of Vietnam were treated like shit when they got home, as if it was their fault that the US looked bad in front of the world when in reality the people making decisions were the ones to blame.

They never should have been in Vietnam and I'm glad the United States lost.

[Zutaran]

Negative.

[Molither]

Yes, it was justified.

South Vietnam, an ally of The United States of America was invaded by North Vietnam.


Despite being justified I still think we should've stayed out of it - but that's with the benefit of hindsight.