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"In 1954, the French implored Eisenhower to send the U.S. Navy to rescue Vietnam. Eisenhower refused. He acquiesced in the division of Vietnam into a Communist North and a South informally allied with the United States and sent a few hundred advisors."

If you can believe Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Eisenhower

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Ike was an old Asia hand, having served as MacArthur's chief of staff in the Philippines. He understood the vastness of Asia and felt strongly the U.S. should not be engaged there on the ground. He refused to intervene to help the French at Dien Bien Phu. Advisers, yes. But no way would he have gotten caught up in a ground war in Indo-China.

Kennedy was feckless and McNamara was an arrogant know-it-all who was great at counting widgets for Ford but clueless about how to run the military. Johnson was a ruthless politician who got a Silver Star from MacArthur for riding in a jump seat on a mission to New Guinea that was aborted. Combine that with a bunch of suck-up Chiefs who knew what we were getting into but wouldn't confront the President and you got Vietnam.