The Vietnam War was not only the first war that was covered by media it was also a war which the US was to show it’s supreme military might by stopping the communist development in Vietnam and it’s neighbours. The US feared that Asia would be a communist ruled continent with Vietnam as the first country to fall into the darkness of the communism. 
But the US war on Vietnam started decades before they actually moved in with US soldiers. Only 5 years after World war two France wanted to colonise Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The war costs for the France war on Vietnam were huge and was 78% financed by The United States. 
But after a while it became clear that France wouldn’t be able to conquer Vietnam. And so 1954 the French left after a 45 day long siege by the Vietnam army on the fortress of Diem Bien Phu. Officially the war started in the late sixties but the US war material was there since the French left. The French had invaded Vietnam before, and had Vietnam as one of their colonies until 1945 when the Japanese army gained control. Then only months after the invasion of Vietnam the US dropt the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and by that forcing Japan to surrender. When Vietnam then was “free” a power struggle began and many military warlords tried to take the rule over the country. 
But then the French came and again invaded Vietnam and tried to regain the rule. Although this time things didn’t smile for France. The Vietnamese fought back bravely and defeated the enemy armies. Vietnam then turned into 2 regimes, the US friendly South Vietnam, which was ruled by a puppet president for the U.S named Bao Dai, and the Soviet friendly North Vietnam ruled by the guerrilla forces. The guerrilla forces was led by Ho Chi Min, the man who 1941 actually formed the guerrilla forces. Min had been forced to retreat with his forces to the jungle when the French invaded, but when the last Frenchman had left after 8 years, Ho Chi Min returned and instantly gained control over North Vietnam. Right after the war against France the Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into two halves, South Vietnam and North Vietnam. 
The US war against Vietnam had a big part in the cold war. South Vietnam received shipments from the United States, meanwhile the Soviet Union was supporting Ho Chi Min and North Vietnam. A part of this support was used to buy weapons to fight the peasants in the peasant uprising in the year of 1956. Meanwhile the French who were supposed to have left about 6 years ago still had soldiers left in Vietnam. The following years after Ho Chi Min’s return turned out to be some of the bloodiest one’s in Vietnams history. 
And it was not just the peasant uprising that took lives. In 1955 the government killed thousands of landowners. Meanwhile South Vietnam tried to establish a better connection with the United States. In a visit in Washington by the president of the south, Eisenhower made this statement, “The cost of defending freedom, of defending America. Must be paid in many forms and in many places… military as well as economic help is needed in Vietnam”. In the year of 1959 Ho Chi Min with Soviet support was discussing however the possibility of invading South Vietnam existed. So then in March 1959, the communist regime of the North declared war against the South Vietnamese republic, and Ho Chi Min was well prepared. Around 4000 of Min’s soldiers infiltrated South Vietnam right after the war was declared. It was about this time when the United States of America decided to send American soldiers into Vietnam. About 400 American Green Beret special advisors to train South Vietnamese troops. Beside these 400 advisors, 8000 American combat soldiers and a large number of choppers are sent to aid the South. As the war raged the Soviet and American support increased. Especially the Americans sent tons of war materials, soldiers, bombers, choppers and military advisors for the South Vietnamese army. The army of the South was far from huge, only consisting of 200 000 soldiers including the us support troppers. And US support just increased as the days passed by, the cost of the war material to this army was over 1 million dollars/day. The overwhelming cost of the bombs and war material was one of the major reason for the US failure in Vietnam. But sticking with the reasons for the war and the background facts, the real reason behind all this was not that the US feared a communist ruled asia, the odds for that happening was minimum. It was not because the friendly relation between the South Vietnamese government and the white house. The real reason behind all this misery was just the US and its reputation as the mightiest superpower of the world. The us wanted to show its great military muscles by totaly whiping out North Vietnam in the same style as they whiped out the well organised rankings of the nazi empire in world war two . In world war 2 the Soviets reached Berlin first and got much of the glory for the fall of the Hitlers rule. The United States will always be number one and a country like North Vietnam would be a perfect example of the efficency of the US army. But what the United States did not anticipate was the jungle war. The big cities were quickly taken, but Vietnam is covered by jungle. And to not know were the enemy was, to walk around in a big forest, knowing that any second gunfire could come out of nowere and kill not only you, but your entire unit, that became the problems of Vietnam. But the US would have defeated the guerilla in months if i wasn´t for all the Soviet support. One thing hit the US, a thing no-one could have predicted. The fight was not against organised armys like in ww2, not against 200 000 or 400 000 soldiers. It was against the peopole of Vietnam, and the only way you can defeat a peopole so loyal to their country like the vietnamese, is to kill every last one of them. This could never happen and neither could the US ever be victourius.