The Conflict
The Vietnam War was a conflict between North Vietnam, backed by communist
revolutionaries and the Vietcong, and South Vietnam, supported by the United
States. The war had spread to the neighboring countries of Cambodia and
Laos before a 1973 ceasefire and final U.S. withdrawal. The south was overrun
and the war ended with the fall of Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the
victors) in May, 1975.
The French, who had many investments into the country of Vietnam, reached the bitterest crisis of their seven-year war against the communists in 1954. In March of that year, they asked the United States for massive additional support to avert a final disaster at the French fort of Dien Bien Phu. However, the fall of Dien Bien Phu on May 8 of 1954, effectively marked the end of French power in Indochina. It was then that Vietnam divided at the 17th. Parallel between Communist North and Nationalist South.
In June of 1954, Ngo Dinh Diem became premier of South Vietnam and assumed virtually all dictatorial powers. Though his regime was corrupt and oppressive, the United States began pouring in massive aid. Millions of dollars' worth of American arms were received, and by 1956, U.S. advisers had taken over military training responsibilities in South Vietnam from the French.
