Origins of the Vietnam War

No politician in the US wanted to tarred and feathered with "being soft on Communism" given the anti-Communism rhetoric that flourished after World War II to whip up American public opinion to support a balance-of power-presence in Europe after World War II, which was counter to traditional American isolationism.  The rhetoric took on a reality and dynamic of its own; to keep their places at the trough, the politicians plunged an entire generation into needless bloodshed in Vietnam.  What else is new?