The Vietnam conflict began in the late nineteenth century. The
French conquered Vietnam and made it a protectorate. For nearly forty
years, Vietnam had not experienced settled peace. The League for the
Independence of Vietnam ( Viet Minh ) was formed in 1941, seeking
independence from the French. On September 2nd,1945, Ho Chi Minh
proclaimed it independent of France. The French opposed their
independence from 1945 to 1954. The first representatives of de
Gualle's government landed by parachute in Saigon and Hanoi on August
23rd, 1945. The French wanted to reestablish their rule in Vietnam but
were beaten at the battle of Dien Bien Phu on May 7th, 1954. The
French Expeditionary Force tried to prevent the Viet Minh from
entering Laos and Dien Bien Phu was the place chosen to do so. The
French were not very careful and this allowed the Viet Minh to cut off
their airway to Hanoi. After a siege that had lasted for fifty - five
days, the French surrendered. Ho Chi Minh led the war against France
and won.
After the war there was a conference in Geneva where Vietnam was
divided into two parts along the seventeenth parallel. North Vietnam
was mainly Communist and supported Ho Chi Minh, while the south was
supported by the United States and the French were based there. There
was still some Communist rebels within South Vietnam. These were the
Viet Cong. The South Vietnam ruler was Ngo Dinh Diem who was anti -
Communist. At the conference, Laos and Cambodia became independent
states.
North Vietnam wished to unify North and South Vietnam through
military force. Since the United States feared the spread of communism
in Asia, John F. Kennedy provided economic and military aid to South
Vietman to prevent the takeover by North Vietnam. At this time, this
was still a civil war. The United States were not yet officially
involved.
The North Vietnamese resented the little i...