The region had been French Indochina before WWII. Japan conquered it, and after their defeat France returned.
There had been a long going anti-French, anti-Japan insurgency movement, the Viet Minh, led by Communists Ho Chi Minh and Vo Giap. The French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Vietnam split in half, a Communist north ruled by Ho Chi Minh and a pro-Western south ruled by President Diem. The United States aligned with South Vietnam at this time.
Ho Chi Minh’s Communists wanted to unify the country and began waging an insurgency campaign against South Vietnam using the Viet Cong as a proxy army. They killed village leaders and other South Vietnam officials. We began sending advisors and ordnance to help South Vietnam defend itself from the Communist insurgents. President Eisenhower gave his “falling domino” speech stating that we intended to defend South Vietnam in order to prevent all of Southeast Asia being conquered by the Soviet bloc.
President Kennedy continued our policy of sending military advisors and equipment to South Vietnam. The Viet Cong insurgency continued. In November 1963 President Diem of South Vietnam was deposed in a coup, likely engineered by Kennedy, and killed. President Kennedy was assassinated three weeks later.
South Vietnam was essentially leaderless and out of control when Lyndon Johnson took office. Johnson made the decision to send the first American ground combat troops to Vietnam, arriving in early 1965. But as McMaster documents in his book LBJ was not willing to commit the troops and money it would take to defeat Hanoi. Despite what the American public would be led to believe this would be nothing more than a “display of resolve”. All that Ho Chi Minh and Giap had to do is outwait us.
Flr
And many fine young patriotic boys and men who were forced to fight in a jungle they knew nothing about died for nothing. It makes me cry to think of it.
“Ho Chi Minh’s Communists wanted to unify the country”
They wanted to rule the entire country, would be a better way to put it. They weren’t noble patriots seeking unity. They were communist filth set on a blood bath.
Eventually they got it. Sooner, if you count Hue.