Though Fog of War by no means justifies America's involvement in the Vietnam War, it gave more understanding of why it did happen. It allows us to see what the American gov't went through,the complex web of confusion that is war. Was the Maddox attacked by the North Vietnamese? Maybe once? The truth was they did feel threatened, and wanted to protect America..was it right to start bombing based on such unclear information? But what if they waited and more Americans were killed? They faced so many complex decisions that had to made quickly. I guess this allowed me to see some reasoning for how it began,even though it was largely a slippery slope fallacy--if we let them take Vietnam, Communism will inevitably spread to all surrounding areas.
But the fact remains: after they knew mistakes had been made, they chose not to try and correct them. They instead decided to shield the public from the truth, blatantly lying and continuing on in a losing battle.