Key Events - U.S. Involvement

U.S. Enters the War:

The Vietnam War with U.S. involvement began in 1954, but there was a lot of conflict in the region over the past few years. Vietnam was split into two halves as communist forces took the north, and Ngo Dinh Diem pushed aside the previous emperor to become the president of south Vietnam. Diem began to hunt down Viet Minh sympathizers in the south, which he named Viet Cong. The Viet Cong then began to fight against Diem's army. President Kennedy began to provide aid to Diem's cause, as he believed in Domino theory, which is the idea that if one of the countries in Asia fell to communism, the rest would follow. President Johnson, after Kennedy's assassination and a coup of Diem, decided to enter in combat, using U.S. forces against the north Vietnam.

U.S. Withdrawals:

During the war, the anti-war movement in the U.S. grew as war crimes the U.S. was involved in began to be exposed, such as the My Lai massacre. In March of 1968, President Johnson announced that he would not go for reelection, as he felt he was the one who divided the country due to becoming involved with the war. President Richard Nixon then began to withdrawal U.S. troops, while continuing to try to cut off Vietnam supplies. In January, 1973, U.S. representatives, North and South Vietnam representatives, and Vietcong representatives signed a peace agreement in Paris, which ended direct U.S. involvement in the war. This would cause a cease-fire throughout Vietnam, prisoners of war being let go, and a unification of North and South Vietnam under peaceful means.