Watched the first installment of Ken Burns' The Vietnam War [View all]

[question everything]

and am still having a hard time wrapping any logic explanation around it.

Yes, Ho Chi Minn was trying to get assistance, but while he was out of the country, a Communist zealot took over. There were fractions that fought and killed each other a lot more than the French and we did.

I can now understand the reluctance to intervene in Syria for the last several years. There, too, were many fractions that fought each other.

Then, when Eisenhower had enough of Diem, the leader of South Vietnam, and was ready to order American troops (advisors) to leave, Diem cleansed the country and declared himself emperor of South Vietnam and Eisenhower changed his mind.

Why?

Spouse and I concluded then, that it was the "Domino effect" to prevent the spread of Communism to the whole Indochina region.

And I could not help but thinking: so what? I think that the Communism in these countries would be different from the one in the Soviet Union and China. I don't think that the Soviet Union would have a strong hold the way it was in Eastern Europe.

And, as it was mentioned with Korea, both China and the Soviet Union got tired of their losses there and did not continue to pursue one Korea.

I was watching it and could not help thinking: what a waste, of French, American, but mostly of Vietnamese lives. The brutality massacre and terror that the different factions of Vietnam inflicted on each other are hard to watch and to perceive.

My spouse's conclusion - it was all de Gaulle's fault He insisted of the French returning to Vietnam after the end of WWII.

The only thing I am not sure yet - is the lesson in Afghanistan. I am sure there is.

What a mess. This was the first part, out of ten!!