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The fall of China to communism and the outbreak of the Korean War convinced the Truman administration to help France. Truman authorized a massive program of military aid to French forces fighting in Vietnam
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President Eisenhower was elected president in 1953. President Eisenhower continued to support the French military campaign against the Vietminh.
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The U.S. paid roughly three-fourths of France's war costs. Eisenhower defended the U.S policy in Vietnamn by stressing the domino theory.
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Despite getting aid from the U.S., the French struggled against the Vietminh. The Vietminh used the tactic guerilla. Guerilla were irregular troops who blends into the civilian populatiuon and often difficult for regular armies to fight.
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Election was held to put Vietnam back under one government. The Geneva Accord temporarily split Vietnam along the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh in control of North Vietnam and a pro-western regime in control of the South.
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When the elections started, Diem refused since he knew the north would not have free elections. Eisenhower supported the Diem and increase military aid and economic aid.
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Ho Chi Minh organized a new army called Vietcong since people opposed Diem's idea. Many people supported the Vietcong.
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Vietcong assassinated thousands of government officials and controlled many countryside. Diem looked increasing to the U.S. to keep South Vietnam from collapsing.
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Kennedy takes office and continues to support for South Vietnam. Kennedy wanted to reform many ideas all around the world.
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The number of American military reaches to 15,000. North Vietnam was still fighting with South Vietnam.
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Diem banned the traditional religious flags for Buddha's birthday. Diem police killed 9 people and injured 14 people and caused a monk to set himself on fire.
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Diem was executed which made matters worse since he was a respected nationalist. South Vietnam becamr weak. Later on 1963, Diem and Kennedy dies.
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President Johnson announced that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson was campaigning so he did not want to assume anything.
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Senate and the House passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing the president to repel any armed attack. After the resolution was passed, the Vietcong began to attack the base of the Americans.
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American troops used naplam, a jellied gasoline that explodes in contact. American forces also used Agent Orange which turns farmland into wasteland.
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More than 6,700 American soldiers had been killed. Many people came home and started questioning the nation's involvement in the war.
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William Westmoreland declared that the "army's hope are bankrupt" People saw pictures of the soldiers dying. 122 colleges held a "National Teach-In" by radio for more than 100,000 antiwar demonstrations.
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African American soldiers accounted for 20 percent of American combat deaths. The number has triggered many civil rights leader such as Martin Luther King Jr,
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Tet offensive attacked all American airbases. The North Vietnamese scored a major political victory.
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Richard Nixon becomes president. Nixon wants to unify the nation and restore law.
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U,S. spent $170 billion in the war and had psychological impact in the lives of the soldiers.
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Kissinger emerged to announce that "peace is at hand," but South Vietnam's president refused to agree to any plan.
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Warring sides signed an agreement " ending the war and restoring the peace in Vietnam."
