November 1, 1955 — President Eisenhower deploys the Military Assistance Advisory Group to train the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This marks the official beginning of American involvement in the war as recognized by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
July 8, 1959 — Charles Ovnand and Dale R. Buis become the first two American Advisers to die in Vietnam.
Sorry, but it started with Ike. And I am a great admirer of Eisenhower.
Thanks for the correction. It was still a Democrat who escalated it into a full war and it took Ike’s VP to eventually end it.
You are correct. Started a little slow but picked up speed over time. ;-) I shook Ike’s hand as a little kid when he came to Carmel/Monterey in the early 50’s. I think I was in like the 2nd grade or something.
Truman sent the OSS to Vietnam 1945.
Colonel A. Peter Dewey could be considered the first casualty in Vietnam
Interesting read here
http://apjjf.org/-Geoffrey-Gunn/3137/article.html
Ike sent career military, officers, often volunteers, after Dien Bien Phu, concerned about another “domino falling”. This was the height of the cold war, remember.
Using that fact to argue that he “started the war” is tenuous at best. We had “advisors” all over our hemisphere and all over the world then.
Lyndon Baines Johnson escalated this proxy conflict between superpowers, fired up the draft and responded each time General Westmoreland requested more troops.
Even Kennedy only sent advisors, the Green Berets were his idea.
This was Johnson’s war. Our troops did their jobs and followed their orders. LBJ and the `rats were the loosers: the same fierce hawks who ginned-up the war, like RFK, then became peaceful, love-dove hippies. We never lost a battle.
American involvement. But the French had been fighting it on and off for 100 years previous. It was already a "quagmire".
Well, sort of. Actually, it was Truman who had previous commitments to the French and the emperor of Vietnam, Bao Dai. Then, in 1954 the French suffered a great military defeat in the battle of Dien Bien Phu so Ike sent advisors.
It was Kennedy who amped things up, but in historical context, we had just emerged as a true super power this short time after WWII and there was now an active emerging Communist threat as the world was undergoing a shuffling of alliances. IMO, with the still burning afterglow of heroism and patriotism of WWII our over confidence following WWII led us to misread a lot of foreign policy and our own national will (a lot of people forget that many in the nation wanted no part of engaging in WWII -- until Pearl Harbor). At any rate, this afterglow led us into the failed adventures and outcomes in both Korea and Vietnam.
I have very dear friend who was an advisor in Vietnam in 1957.
Considering the metrics, Ike lost 9 people over 4 years. Kennedy lost 186 over 3 years, Johnson lost about 48,000 over 6 years and Nixon lost about 9,500 over 7 years.
It is clear to see a casualty spike with Kennedy and Johnson. They are not saints in this comparison.
Right-and De Gaul told him NOT to
And the US was unofficially involved in actual fighting much earlier. For example, US bombers flew off the record missions supporting the French during the battle of Bien Dien Phu in early 1954.