The Vietnam war started as an American effort to help the French. Vietnam was a French colony, and many Vietnamese wanted to self rule the colony. In 1941, Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam and formed the Vietminh, an organization whose goal was to obtain independence from France. France had no intention of relinquishing its colony; and as a result, they sent troops into Vietnam in 1945. In 1950, the United States entered the struggle and sent 15 million dollars in aid to France. Over the next few years, the United States sent over 1 billion dollars into France's war effort to defeat a "Man" the United States had once supported. In 1954, the French surrendered and the Vietminh controlled Vietnam. Many countries met in Geneva along with the Vietminh and the South Vietnam Anti- Communists to make a peace- agreement. The agreement divided Vietnam along the 17th parallel. Communists were in the north, while anti communists were in the south. By 1957, the communist group in the south, known as the Vietcong, began attacking the south vietnamese government. The north Vietnamese supported the group and began attacking the south Vietnamese government.
As the South Vietnamese government failed, because of ongoing corruption, the Vietcong presence in South Vietnam meant that the U.S. needed to get involved. In order for the South Vietnamese government to stabilize, the leader Diem would have to be assassinated. In 1963, the U.S. military killed him. Diem death ultimately brought more chaos The destroyer Maddocks was off the North Vietnamese coast, and the crew said that they saw torpedoes being launched. The alleged attack was an excuse for the U.S. to go into war.
The Vietnman war ended up lasting from 1959 until 1975. It is estimated that the U.S. killed 90,000 civilians in the war. 1,100,000 Vietnam's people army and the Nation Front for liberation of Vietnam were killed. 58, 260 american troops were killed in action, while 303, 644 were injured.
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