An election to reunify Vietnam was supposed to happen in 1956. Eisenhower believed that if it had taken place, Ho would have won and the country would have been reunified then.
Ho Chi Minh was a Comintern agent from 1917, and a founding member of the French Communist Party.
Yes, history is messy. But, in retrospect, we won the war in Vietnam in the long run.
I often wonder if it was the direct experience with the decent United States soldiers, their obvious goodness and the obvious benefits of Capitalsism, which lead to the de-facto capitalism of Vietnam today. Americans are welcome in Vietnam today.