What incident helped trigger the start of the Vietnam War?

Answer 1

There was "no spark" that commenced US involvement in South Vietnam in 1955. The "spark" that kicked off the war between North Vietnam & America was the Tonkin Gulf Incident (naval battles) in August of 1964.

Answer 2

What "touched off" a direct war between the country of North Vietnam and the US was a naval engagement(s) between the NVN & USN in the Tonkin Gulf in August 1964; down-played (which was SOP during the cold war era) as an "incident." The Tonkin Gulf Incident to be exact.

Answer 3

WWII because it ended the existence of their Colony. Trying to restore their claims in Indochina failed but led to US involvement with Truman's loan of about 10 million dollars worth of surplus WWII military hardware. The CIA and their surrogate Air American Air Force aided the French under Eisenhower and escalation was on a role. Many will answer this question with the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, however the root causes of the war existed long before this bogus attempt to justify the war.

Additonal response: I think that the question was regarding the actual INCIDENT, not the overall history. Let me see if I can clarify:

Two incidents happened in the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox, while performing a DESOTO patrol, was engaged by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats of the 135th Torpedo Squadron. A sea battle resulted, involving cannon firing and fighter planes. One US aircraft was damaged, one 14.5mm round hit the destroyer, 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats were damaged, and 4 North Vietnamese sailors were killed and 6 were wounded; there were no U.S. casualties.

Two days later, on August 4, there was another incident that led to another sea battle; again, no major casualties were reported. But it was enough to trigger the war.

The outcome of these two incidents was the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces and engaging in warfare against North Vietnam.

That said, there is indeed controversy over what really happened, and how legitimate these "attacks" were on US vessels. Skeptics go on to claim that this incident was simply the excuse the US needed to go to war. For many years growing up, I was told that Communism was the "Great Evil" in the world, and we were taught to be terrified enough to justify war, if and when those in charge decided to do so.

Answer 4

Guerrilla war in South VN from '55 thru '64.

Conventional war in both North VN (air only) & South VN (both types) from 1964 thru 1975.

Answer 5

No spark, infiltration (a slowly growing cancer).

Answer 6

Tonkin Gulf incident touched off war between America and North Vietnam.

Previous to this, a guerrilla war was going on only in South Vietnam.