The Beginning
The French had taken control of Vietnam in the 1880's. The French exploited and discriminated heavily against the Vietnamese. They hardly had any rights and were abused. The French were poisoning them with opium and other drugs that they controlled the supply of. By the 1920's the Vietnamese people had had enough. They wrote a Declaration of Independence to France in the 1940's. A man named Ho Chi Minh became the communist leader of North Vietnam and a man named Ngo Diem became the capitalist leader of South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh then turned his sights on unifying the country and started pushing South.
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh
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Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngo_Dinh_Diem
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The USA Enters the Picture
The US had several reasons for entering the war. Firstly, France is the United State's oldest ally and we wanted to keep our relationship with them. Secondly, the US was scared of communism and wanted to stop it in its tracks. The United States started sending "Advisers", which were really soldiers, into South Vietnam to keep President Kennedy informed on the situation. The advisers were ordered to work on training a military for South Vietnam to help fend off the attacking North. Not long after, the US government suspected Diem to be corrupt so they had him eliminated by the CIA. Soon after this, President Kennedy was assassinated and his Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson, became President.