Originally Posted by ibex

No, it wasn't. Our involvement started after WWII and was simply an effort to protect the status quo of European colonialism in the Third World. Ultimately, the burden of aiding the French and then a few puppet regimes in South Vietnam proved unsustainable. Our government relied on the domino theory to bolster its arguments for remaining in Vietnam, making incursions into Cambodia and turning Laos into the most bombed country in history at that time. We were warned by hawks that China and Vietnam would create a super alliance that would turn all of Southeast Asia Communist. In reality, the two countries were at the brink of all out war less than four years after the fall of Saigon to the VC and the North Vietnamese. All wars of aggression are started by the ruling elite of the aggressor nation taking the military option to protect what it sees are its own geopolitical and economic interests, Vietnam was no exception. If anything, our actions in Cambodia, deposing Prince Sihanouk in 1969 and replacing him with a thuggish junta, ultimately resulted in the triumph of the Khmer Rouge and the genocide that followed, but try telling that to the "America can do no wrong" crowd.You'd think Vietnam would have taught the American public not to trust the government so willingly when it comes to these seemingly pointless foreign ventures, but we apparently learned nothing. Just look where the pigs in charge have taken us today.