Why is it called the "Vietnam war" in America, but the "American War" In Vietnam?

Point of view. To the Americans it was where we were sending our “boys” to fight. In Vietnam it was self defense against Yankee imperial aggression.

The French war in Vietnam was over before real American involvement. The French left in 1956.

While the US was training South Vietnamese troops in the late 1950’s, the US really didn’t escalate until the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964.

The US Civil War is called the Civil War in the North but parts of the South call it The War of Northern Aggression.

….‘cuz they wuzzint nuthin’ civil about it.

^^The incident for which the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” was named became suspect in retrospect, especially in light of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s claim that Johnson was soft when it came to the execution of the military action authorized by the resolution.

Vietnam War means that war happened in Vietnam. American War means that war was to fight against Americans.

But to be honest “American War” isn’t an accurate translation. I should be “The War Against America”, just like “The War against France”.

And France stopped involving in the war during the Vietnam war. But that isn’t really the point. The point is that Vietnamese were referring to the enemy who was directly doing the dirty work and who they needed to focus on.

As some of you know, I was in that country at that time, stationed on board a US Navy hospital ship. The propaganda we heard was that we were there to support the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (aka South Vietnam) to overthrow the “Godless Communist” government of the Peoples’ Republic of Vietnam (aka North Vietnam) and their insurgent group, the Viet Cong.

I couldn’t afford to go to college and get a draft deferment, so I enlisted in the Navy.

@Strauss

Did any non-Seal Navy personnel see any combat there?

I was with CINCLANTFLT from 1968–1972, and the only danger we faced was from friendly fire during a missile training exercise in the Caribbean

Many Naval personnel saw combat in the so-called Brown Water Navy. The riverboats were officially designated as Patrol Craft Fast, also known as Swift boats. These boats were manned by regular Navy personnel, for “counterinsurgent” operations, as well as SEAL insertions.

Assignment to Vietnam by the Navy was totally voluntary.That was one of the reasons I enlisted in the Navy. When I volunteered for assignment to CINCPAC, I knew I would probably get one of three assignments in Vietnam—Riverboats, landside base, or ship. I lucked out and was assigned to the hospital ship. As I have stated before, I did not see combat, but I saw a whole lot of the results.