It is simplistic, but to answer your question fully would be a book length answer.
I recommend these two books on the subject:
Amazon.com: Vietnam: A History (9780140265477): Stanley Karnow: Books
To try and give a brief answer:
The Domino theory was indeed at the core of American foreign policy thinking, so that is the overarching reason. Related to that is that many in the high level decision making circles simply could not fathom giving up or "losing" Vietnam. Only one of Lyndon Johnson's cabinet members, and not a prominent one at that, suggested that the USSR was not the driving force behind the Vietnamese communists and it might be okay to let it go. He was stifled.
The 1949 Chinese revolution, or "loss of China" was very traumatizing to Americans who held a lot of nostalgia for China's assistance during WWII. It was especially traumatizing for Democrats, since it happened during Harry Truman's administration. Lyndon Johnson often measured himself by Harry Truman's yardstick and was determined not to repeat what he thought were Truman's shortcomings and failures in both domestic affairs and foreign policy.
To try to put this into a modern context... look at how the Republicans see a 24 hour detention period of 10 sailors on the part of Iran as evidence of grave weakness. What if the U.S. were to actually try and back up that bluster? During the Cold War, that rhetoric was highly magnified and much more serious. The idea of giving an inch to "communism" was to be unforgivably weak. Giving in or giving up on Vietnam was not an option, period.
Read other related questions on Quora:
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- How deplorable were the actions of United States in the Vietnam War?
from Quora http://ift.tt/1PCnDLX
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