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With the Cold War intensifying, the United States hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union, and by 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_career_of_Dwight_D._Eisenhower
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In 1955, however, the strongly anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem pushed Bao aside to become president of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN). http://www.britannica.com/biography/Ngo-Dinh-Diem
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In December 1960, Diem’s opponents within South Vietnam–both communist and non-communist–formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime. http://www.redandgreen.org/personals.html
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The man sits impassively in the central market square, he has set himself on fire performing a ritual suicide in protest against governmental anti-Buddhist policies. http://www.vietnampix.com/fire1.htm
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A coup by some of his own generals succeeded in toppling and killing Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, in November 1963, three weeks before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. http://blog.richmond.edu/heroes/2013/12/10/john-f-kennedy-the-peace-president/
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In March 1965, Johnson made the decision–with solid support from the American public–to send U.S. combat forces into battle in Vietnam. http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history
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By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated as “free-fire zones,” from which all innocent civilians were supposed to have evacuated and only enemy remained. photo: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/35/3e/96/353e96b6e73aa2f56ab683b5b4305f25.jpg
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In October 1967, some 35,000 demonstrators staged a mass antiwar protest outside the Pentagon. http://blog.dreamchrono.com/2014/07/mr-jones-watches-flower-power/
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The North Vietnamese continued to insist on complete U.S. withdrawal as a condition of peace, however, and the next few years would bring even more carnage, including the horrifying revelation that U.S. soldiers had massacred more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968. Photo: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-american-war-crimes.php
