The Vietnam War was dishonest from the beginning. It has been called a proxy war, and not without reason—deep in the Cold War, the U.S., Soviet Union, and Red China were unwilling to fight each other directly (nuclear war was a pretty bleak prospect), so they got out their aggression at the expense of smaller nations.
Vietnam was one such nation. While it's true that the Communists were doing their best to appropriate the southern half of the country, and equally true that the government of South Vietnam asked for and welcomed U.S. aid, it's also the case that the Soviets and Chinese were deeply involved on the other side, and the good ol' United States of A were just itching to get at them.
To be fair, an anti-Communist program had already been in place in the U.S. for some time, and Vietnam wasn't the first nation to experience war on their behalf from outside forces. The Korean War was a similar case (though with the singular distinction of having been mostly successful); wars of this kind have come to be known as proxy wars, because the host nation wasn't always the most interested nation.
Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews
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