The United States Gets Involved in Vietnam By arunvir 1941 Ho Chi Minh forms Viet Minh, a group that opposed foreign occupation 1945 Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, and Vietnam declares its independence 1946 French warships kill about 6,000 Vietnamese citizens 1954 The Viet Minh launched a surprise attack on a large French military base at Dien Bien Phu, in the mountains of northern Vietnamese 1954 Eisenhower proposes the domino theory 1954 Fighting temporarily stopped in Vietnam, and it was divided along the 17th parallel 1955 Eisenhower provides some 350 U.S. military advisers to train and equip other nation's soldiers 1961 Kennedy sends an inspection team to South Vietnam to evaluate the situation 1963 Diem is assassinated 1964 President Johnson approved covert attacks on radar stations along North Vietnam's coast 1964 Barry Goldwater insisted that the United States should take a more active role in the war 1965 United States took over the main responsibility for fighting the war 1965 Johnson sends U.S. soldiers to war at a beach near Da Nang 1967 Nearly half a million Americans were serving in Vietnam