Vietnam Commitment Response

Based on the article's content, I believe that entering the Vietnam War was a poor choice for the United States. One theory for U.S. involvement states that we entered to stop the expansion of communism, and the other theory states that the U.S. got involved to keep the economy booming. I feel that any war that people have to debate over the reason for involvement is most likely an avoidable situation. I would hope that the U.S. government wouldn't sacrifice the freedom and lives of individuals to spur the economy, and I also don't think that Vietnam was a power country that the U.S. had to worry about on an international level. I believe it is a plausible idea that Johnson got cornered into seeing a piece and not the entire picture of communist expansion. When the United States had already been established as a negotiator for the people of southern Vietnam, he could have felt that it was an obligation to back up his claims of support, but I feel it would have been a wiser decision for him to let the Vietnamese sort out their own issues, and have the US avoid the humiliation of losing lives as well as a war to unorganized guerilla warfare. The United States as well as any country with power tends to feel paranoia at the times when they need most to feel apathy, and this leads to decisions that are not completely processed on a long term scale. The United States tried to defuse communism by being active in international affairs, and this was not in the best interest of the people of the United States.