<P> 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 -- 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 . Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3,812,000 . The conflict also resulted in 58,318 US soldiers dead . </P>
<P> 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 -- 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 . Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3,812,000 . The conflict also resulted in 58,318 US soldiers dead . </P>
when did us involvement in the vietnam war start
when did us involvement in the vietnam war start
spring of 1950
spring of 1950