History 4630: Vietnam The goals of United States' military intervention were many things. The most pressing was to preserve a separate, independent, noncommunist government in South Vietnam. The reasoning for the United States involvement in Vietnam seemed logical. Following its success in World War II, the US faced the future with a certain amount of confidence. From the US perspective, the main threat to US security and world peace was communism emanating from the Soviet Union. Any communist, anywhere, was considered an enemy of the United States. Our security as a nation was at stake because we did not want to appear weak, thus making ourselves vulnerable and possibly end up under the attack of others. The American conception of Vietnam as a cold war battleground ignored the fact that these people were seeking social justice in their country. America's attention had been focused on Europe and on Asia beyond Vietnam.
United States
English: From George L. MacGarrigle, The United St...
Original caption: "Flying under radar control with...Everyone was watching how the US would respond to the fact that Truman had lost China and settled for a stalemate in Korea. Because of these occurrences, the US feared the political implications if we lost Vietnam.
As part of the foreign policy, the United States wanted to contain the Soviet threat. We realized that our technical superiority was constantly growing and because of this, we could use these things to foster economic development and opportunities for capital investment in Third World countries. These types of actions would benefit the US because past experience had shown that our commerce with other countries expands as they progress industrially and economically. People abroad thought that this policy was yet another form of economic imperialism designed to force Third World nations to increase their production for the benefit of Western industries.
America's goals evolved under Kennedy by him tripling American aid to...