United States in the Vietnam War

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United States involvement in the Vietnam War began shortly after the end of World War II in Asia, first in an extremely limited capacity and escalating over a period of 20 years. The U.S. military presence peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 American combat troops stationed in Vietnam.^[1] By the conclusion of the United States's involvement in 1973, over 3.1 million Americans had been stationed in Vietnam.^[2][3]

The U.S. involvement in Vietnam began due to a combination of factors: the U.S. war with Japan in the Pacific, domestic pressure to act against communism after the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong's pledge in 1950 to support the Viet Minh guerrilla forces in the First Indochina War against France's colonial rule, and the indecisive conclusion of the Korean War.^[4] However, Stalin and Mao's offer of support to the Viet Minh changed the battlefield dynamic and geopolitical character from an independence struggle to part of the Cold War. In September 1950, the U.S. started to supply the French.^[5] From 1950 until 1954, the United States poured more than $3 billion into the war, bankrolling "more than 80 percent of its material costs" over the four-year period.^[6] From the 1950s the Domino theory of geopolitics was prominent in U.S. foreign policy thinking. Thus it was feared that communism would spread to neighboring countries unless checked, the overall aim being to prevent communist domination in South-East Asia.^[7]

The conflict resulted in 58,279 U.S. military personnel deaths before the official end of U.S. combat operations in 1973.^[8] As of 2019, it was estimated that approximately 610,000 Vietnam veterans are still alive, making them the second largest group of American military veterans behind those of the war on terror.^[3] The war's lasting impact has been portrayed in the thousands of movies, books, and video games centered on the conflict.^[9]