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President Truman authorizes plan to aid the French with 23 million dollars in order to contain communism. This was largely due to the fact the the country of China had recently fell to communism. -
The Geneva Convention was meant to settle issues resulting from the Korean War. These Accords addressed the problems in Vietnam as they decided to split the country at the 17th parallel just like Korea. -
Despite tremendous aid from the United States the French still struggled against the Vietminh forces. This made the war very unpopular to the French public. The French were eventually surrounded at they town of Dien Bien Phu and were forced to make peace and withdraw from Indochina. -
The Vietcong needed support from the North Vietnamese who found a way to get it to them by creating a supply line through Cambodia and Laos. And North Vietnam was supported by China and the Soviet Union who were both communist. -
President Kennedy took office in 1961, and when he did he heavily supported the Southern Vietnamese. The amount of American troops in Vietnam skyrocketed when Kennedy took office as it went from only 2,000 to 15,000. -
President Diem of South Vietnam is overthrown with the help of the CIA and others who did not agree with how Diem was handling South Vietnam. This significantly weakened the South Vietnamese Government. -
The Gulf of Tonkin resolution gave the president power to send troops if they believe it necessary to keep the peace and order of a region. This was passed by congress due to the Gulf of Tonkin incident where a North Vietnamese patrol boat torpedoed an American destroyer while in the Gulf of Tonkin which was labeled as international waters. -
Johnson took over the Presidency in late 1963 after President Kennedy's assassination. After the Gulf of Tonkin resolution President Johnson sent 100,000 troops followed by another 100,000 in 1966. -
Operation Rolling Thunder was approved by President Johnson and was a bombing raid on the supply lines flowing from Northern Vietnam to their allies in the Vietcong. -
In 1966 more than 360,000 American combat troops were in Vietnam. These troops were very well armed compared to their opponents and had high confidence going into battle. Despite this the war came to a stalemate as the United States power met the Vietcong's war tactics. These "Guerilla" tactics confused American troops.