Vietnam “War”

The Vietnam "War" was never officially called a war, simply because Congress had never officially declared it one. It would begin with US involvement in the 1950, when the US allied with the French when France attempted to reassert its rule in attempt to keep communism from spreading. The Vietminh, the communist group in Vietnam the time, eventually drove out the French in May 1954, and the US began to take a direct hand.

The US stepped in and interfered with elections to keep a communist leader from taking leadership of Vietnamese. Diem, the US puppet reneged on the agreement and set up a corrupt government, fomenting dissent among the people. Diem was assassinated due to his policies, but this only increased the chaos. On August 2, 1964, the US ship USS Maddox was supposedly attacked. The alleged attacked allowed the current president, Johnson to begin attacks in Vietnam. On February of 1965, President Johnson began "Operation Rolling Thunder". This would mark the beginning of the "war".

The war would continue to escalate. By 1967, the number of US troops in Vietnam would increase to 500,000. The war would take a heavy toll moral as American troops fought a war that had different rules than they had fought before. America, both in the field and at home, grew increasingly reluctant to fight.

The war continued to drag on several years after the public insisted on withdrawal as negotiations came to a halt. Finally, on April 30, 1975, the war ended.