<P> There are several competing views on the conflict , with some on the North Vietnam ese and National Liberation Front side viewing the struggle against US forces as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States especially the light of the failed Geneva Conference calls for elections . Other interpretations of the North Vietnamese side include viewing it as a civil war especially in the early and later phases following the U.S interlude between 1965 and 1970 as well as a war of liberation . The perspective of some Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam , the successor to the Viet Cong were motivated in part by significant social changes in the post-WW2 Vietnam , and had initially saw it as a revolutionary war supported by Hanoi The pro-government side in South Vietnam viewed it as a civil war , a defensive war against communism or were motivated to fight to defend their homes and families . The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam . This was part of the domino theory of a wider containment policy , with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism . </P>
<P> There are several competing views on the conflict , with some on the North Vietnam ese and National Liberation Front side viewing the struggle against US forces as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States especially the light of the failed Geneva Conference calls for elections . Other interpretations of the North Vietnamese side include viewing it as a civil war especially in the early and later phases following the U.S interlude between 1965 and 1970 as well as a war of liberation . The perspective of some Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam , the successor to the Viet Cong were motivated in part by significant social changes in the post-WW2 Vietnam , and had initially saw it as a revolutionary war supported by Hanoi The pro-government side in South Vietnam viewed it as a civil war , a defensive war against communism or were motivated to fight to defend their homes and families . The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam . This was part of the domino theory of a wider containment policy , with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism . </P>
why did the united states send troops to fight in vietnam
why did the united states send troops to fight in vietnam
to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam
to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam