Why was there so much public outcry during Vietnam war?

Question:

Why was there so much public outcry during Vietnam war?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The Vietnam war started when the US sent advisers to Vietnam to help the French military defend their colony. The reason the US sent these advisers, later sending soldiers to defend a colony form a local uprising (Playing the role of the British in the American Revolution) was because the local rebels wanted to set up a Communist government.

Over time, the French pulled out, but the US forces stayed.

Strategically, Vietnam wasn't very important and it's industry, such as it was, had been largely destroyed by the war. The US, however stayed to "Fight Communism" as a vague, theoretical idea.

There was never a "victory" plan and the successive presidential administrations (Starting with JFK's disastrous "Wiz Kids) ran the war, ignoring the advice form the generals.

A common metaphor for the war was the image of a Hippo wading across a pond to get at a tiny flower, only to get entangled in a deep, muddy quagmire. Instead of backing out of the quagmire, it blunders on towards a tiny flower.

The locals didn't want the US there, the US had nothing to gain from the war, and it was being used as a rallying point for communist nations to demonize capitalism and US style Democracy.