Ok so I have a question for my fellow historians. As im from the U.K they dont teach the Vietnam war here in schools often , it's quite rare. Any way I'm writing a book about the war and the aftermath. And I've done a lot of research that helps but a while back I remember hearing the fact that the U.S started the war to gain money and it was a pointless war to put money into the hands of some high class men. Ive done some research on the Pentagon papers but its not helped much . Can someone please evaluate on why the U.S would do this and the whole reasoning or give me some history or anything. I just want to know how they made a profit on the war and why it was started other than the domino effect.
Thanks :)
Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your novel, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists, based on past experience: some aspiring novelists have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.
Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.