At the end of World War II in 1945, The United States government was, seemingly, intent on eradicating Communism from the world. The government was, in a Machiavellian but sometimes inept way, using any means necessary to achieve this goal. In the process, the United States nearly engaged in nuclear war with the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, sacrificed over 58,000 American lives and some 300,000 causalities (not to mention the untold millions of Asian lives), and created "feelings of disillusionment among many Americans who believed that they had been betrayed by their leaders" (Opposing Viewpoints, pg. 17). Despite these costs, the United States government constantly reaffirmed its anti-communist stance. Throughout the nearly two decades of United States involvement in Vietnam, the United States government entered into, and remained in, the Vietnam War, due to the fear of Communist world domination, and the resolve to halt the spread of Communism before it was too late, something not done to Nazism prior to World War II.
             Following WWII, France found itself in another war, this time in an attempt to regain Imperialist control over its former colony of Vietnam. The Western World, wary of the possibility of Communist control of Asia and the domino effect, committed to help the French in their effort against Ho Chi Minh and his regime. Truman and Eisenhower both agreed to spend exorbitant amounts of money on France's war, but refused to send troops. In 1954, the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and agreed to withdraw from Indochina. After the French defeat in Vietnam, an agreement was struck in Geneva. Vietnam was to be divided into two sections, the North going to Ho Chi Minh and his Communist regime, while the South was placed under control of Ngo Dinh Diem. Furthermore, the Geneva conference established that by July 1956, an election was to take place, unifying the north and south under one govern...