During the 1950’s Americans were involved in the Vietnam War. In 1949 Vietnam won partial independence from France. By 1954 the country was divided into two sections. North Vietnam had a communist government and South Vietnam was an independent republic. The U.S. supported South Vietnam against the communist government in the north. At first the U.S. provided military aid to train South Vietnam forces. In 1960 U.S. president Kennedy sent military supplies to South Vietnam. U.S forces were sent to active combat in the jungles of Vietnam in 1965. U.S. President Johnson sent planes to bomb the North.. The Americans did their best to support South Vietnam. The war became so unpopular in America that American forces were finally pulled out of Vietnam in 1973. By 1975 South Vietnam was forced to surrender to the North Vietnamese.

The Vietnam War was part of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The U.S. fought the North Vietnamese government to stop the spread of communism. There were 58,168 American casualties in the unpopular Vietnam War. It was a long, hard war for the U.S.