Path+to+War

The rebel, Viet Minh, had just defeated France in a war over the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence. The last war when France admitted defeat was the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. A peace conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland where a line was made at the 17th parallel seperating the north and south halves of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the rebels in the north. Ngo Dinh Diem was the prime minister of the south. Ho Chi Minh declared war on the south half of Vietnam trying to reunite it and Ngo Dinh Diem asked for U.S. military assistance and advisers.

Since the U.S. sided with the non-communist side, south, they gave Ngo the assistance. Diem was assassinated on November 1, 1963 and the government remained corrupt. During this time, the Viet Cong continued to grow in size and the ARVN ( Army of the Republic of Vietnam) could no longer contain them. The insident in Vietnam created a lot of criticizing while some said they we shouldn't be there, while others said that we must make sure that communism does not spread.

In the August of 1964, the U.S. ship, USS Maddox, had been attacked unprovoked by northern Vietnamese soldiers in the Gulf of Tonkin. After this event, president Johnson was allowed to do whatever was necessary to defend the armed forces of the U.S. and the people of south Vietnam. Even though the U.S. was never in the Vietnam war, the Tonkin Gulf Resolution allowed them to participate. In the early 1965's, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had the US begin bombing missions over North Vietnam, it became known as //“Operation Rolling Thunder”//. March of 1965, U.S. marines were sent to Vietnam.

[] The USS Maddox was an American Destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin when it was elegidly attacked.

[] Operation Rolling Thunder consisted of bombing attacks on North Korea by U.S. aircrafts.