Oral+History

US involvement in Vietnam began in WWII when they aided Vietnamese militants to liberate themselves from Japanese rule. The Leader of these troops was Ho Chi Minh. After they successfully liberated themselves, they also decided to liberate themselves from the French, who had colonized Vietnam. A peace conference later held in Geneva dictated that the French had to take the southern part of Vietnam, and prepare for their decolonization. In a year, the whole of Vietnam was to take a free election to unite the whole Country.Ho Chi Minh believed in Communism, where as the leader of the North, Ngo Dinh Diem, was democratic. Ngo Dinh Diem knew that if a free election was held, the Communists would win, so he refused to have an election. The US and France backed Diem, but because free elections were not held in the south, Minh reverted to war to unite the Country. Diem asked the US for military advisors, and he got them. IN 1960 they got 900 and by 1962 there were 11,000. Diem's government was corrupt though, and he was eventually assassinated. The government became increasingly unstable though, and the US was worried that a domino effect would occur if Vietnam fell. The president Lyndon B Johnson announced that the USS maddox had been fired on unprovoked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson ordered that US planes bomb Vietnam. Congress granted him the right to send Marines into Vietnam. General Westmoreland took control of the army, and his strategy was mostly search and destroy missions. He asked for more troops constantly so that there would be a faster rate of incoming US soldiers than there were vietnamese soldiers. Most of his requests were denied or scaled back significantly. Despite this, American involvement in Vietnam grew with each year. Then in January 1968 the Viet cong launched a massive attack against strategic areas in what was known as the tet offensive. The US won overall, but Westmoreland asked for 200,000 more troops which seemed to undermine the fact that the US had won the Tet Offensive. Because of this, Westmoreland was replaced by General Abrams. Peter's UNcle only served to about this point.

Sources: http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Eras/Display.aspx?categoryid=41&entryid=1187612&searchtext=ho+chi+minh&type=simple&option=all&filterid= http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=21&entryid=263283&searchtext=vietnam&type=simple&option=all