Vietnam+-+The+Path+to+War

French had control of Vietnam for quite some time, but in 1930, a man named Ho Chi Minh brought together three communist groups to create the ICP (Indochinese Communist Party). The ICP wanted independence for Vietnam, and if they succeeded, it would become a communist nation. This is why Truman decided to get the U.S. involved in the war. He thought if Vietnam fell to communism, then it would spread all over Southeast Asia. But, the war was put on hold as a DMZ was created between North and South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh remained the leader of North Vietnam while Ngo Dinh Diem became the prime minister of South Vietnam. Later in the war, when Kennedy became president, the U.S. sent troops to Vietnam, and Kennedy began facing threats from communists.

After Kennedy’s assassination, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson became president, and he got the U.S. much more involved in Vietnam. In 1964, President Johnson’s military advisors planned to bomb North Vietnam. In 1965, after the U.S. destroyer “Maddox” had been supposedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the Golf of Tonkin, President Johnson went through with the bombing and sent many more troops to Vietnam.