The U.S. misjudged Vietnam’s revolution as a colonial fight.

Evidence

America had first joined the wrong side by equipping and financing the French in their venture to reimpose colonial rule. America was now becoming the wrong side by moving directly into Vietnam to install Diem and his family as the representatives of its power. — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 391

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 391
• XREF: connects to: American officials underestimated Vietnamese resilience — Marianne DeKoven, Utopia Limited: The Sixties and the…, 699