Why was the vietnam war important to the United States?

The USA became involved in Vietnam because it feared the spread of communism. The USA were unable to defeat the Vietcong and were met with growing opposition to the war back home.

It resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths. It was the first war to come into American living rooms nightly, and the only conflict that ended in defeat for American arms. The war caused turmoil on the home front, as anti-war protests became a feature of American life.