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The Chinese attempted to take control over Vietnam but a Vietnam general, Le Lio took charge and they drove the Chinese out of his country and became the emporer.
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Vietnamese had to give up their country to France and combine with Laos and Cambodi to create the French Indochina. it was one of the richest colonial possessions.
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Ho Chi Mihn committed to the ideals of communism throughout the 1920 and 1930s. He worked for Vietnamese independence until 1940 when the Japanese ary occupied all of indochina and threatened the rest of Southeast Asia.
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By 1946 the French and the Vietnamese were once again locked in battle. President Truman ignored Ho's pleas for assistance and threw U.S. support behind France. Truman viewed France as a vital ally in the struggle against the spread of communism in postwar Europe. He also was unwilling to back the Vietminh because of Ho's Communist Party connections
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By 1950 the United States was caught up in a bloody ground war, trying to turn back communist North Korea's invasion of South Korea. Meanwhile, Communist-led nationalist revolts rocked Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaya.
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The Vietminh defeated the French and on May 7, 1954, forced their surrender.
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Money and military equipment were of limited use against Vietminh guerrilla tactics. The Vietminh chose when and where to attack, struck without warning, and then disappeared into the jungle.
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South of the line, the French regained control. General elections to reunify the country were scheduled for July 1956. Fearing that the Communists would win a nationwide election, the United States refused to support the agreement.
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In 1959 military assistance began flowing from the north to the Vietminh who had stayed in the south. In 1960 the southern Vietminh formed the National Liberation Front (NLF).
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As a result, the number of Americans killed or wounded climbed from 14 in 1961 to nearly 500 in 1963.
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In 1963 Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara had advised President Johnson that he would have to increase the U.S. military commitment to South Vietnam to prevent a Communist victory
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In 1965, for example, African Americans accounted for almost 24 percent of all battle deaths, even though they made up just 11 percent of the U.S. population.
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The air war. President Johnson hoped that air power could secure a quick victory
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In March 1965 he launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a bombing campaign against military targets in the North. The goal was to weaken the enemy's will to fight. Johnson also wanted to assure the South Vietnamese of the U.S. commitment to them.
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Between 1965 and the end of 1967 the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam grew from about 185,000 to some 486,000.
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January 30, 1968, marked the start of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. In past years the holiday had been honored by a lull in fighting.
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Early in 1969 Nixon ordered the widespread bombing of Cambodia.
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Early in 1968 Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, a critic of the war, challenged Johnson for the Democratic presidential nomination.