How Did US Involvement In Vietnam

American involvement in Vietnam was not fully analyzed, and thus caused an escalation in Vietnam to fail. Kissinger writes, “The nightmare of Vietnam was not the way in which America entered the war, but why did so without a more careful assessment of the likely costs and potential outcomes” (Kissinger 659). The United States was unaware of the full extent of the situation in Vietnam so they were unable to make appropriate decisions. The US should have analyzed all aspects of the war, such as public opinion, South Vietnam’s passion to survive, and logistics, and then decide whether it was worth it escalate the conflict, or even if the US could win the war. George W Hopkins writes, “U.S. involvement in Vietnam was not primarily a result of errors of judgment or the personality quirks of the policymakers, although these things existed in

It was a logical, if not inevitable, outgrowth of a world view and a policy—the policy of containment” (Hopkins 4). This article contradicts Kissinger’s because it says that America entering the war was a well- thought out action rather than a “careless assessment of outcomes”. This error of judgement in escalating the conflict, although a factor, was not the main factor that caused America to fail. The main factor was that they used an overused policy of America, containment, to make their decisions. This policy was flawed from the beginning, as it views communism like a chain of dominos. But, in reality, it’s a sophisticated political theory that will inevitably happen whether the US gets involved or not. This is inevitable as the people decide whether or not to adapt communism, not wars. This is the main problem with fighting a war against an ideology, it is not something tangible that can be defeated with tanks and