First Indochina War (1945-1954)
The first Indochina War is what started it all. The first Indochinese war began in 1945 when Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the communist Vietnam, signed a Declaration of Independence stating that Vietnam would be free of French and American rule or control. The French didn't care, they violated the agreement and placed French troops in North Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh went to Paris to renegotiate the agreement and they put an end to the French-Vietnam clash. However, this agreement still did not work. In November,1946 shooting between the French and the Vietnamese began. Shortly after the Vietminh forces attacked the French in Hanoi, marking the beginning of the first Indochina War.
The war lasted for nine long years. It finally ended in 1954, after France suffered a humiliating defeat in an area of northern Vietnam known as Dien Bien Phu.
How did the U.S. get involved?
The U.S. was a country 9,000 miles away from Vietnam. The U.S. still thought they were being threatened enough to get involved. It was because at the time they feared the spread of communism. When the communist over-took china and defeated the French in Vietnam, many Americans feared communism was taking over the world. The U.S. government believed that if they supported the South Vietnamese government fight the North Vietnam communists, then it would help prevent the communist spread around the world. So In 1949, the U.S. helped the French set up a non-communist government in the South of Vietnam and the U.S. spent five-hundred million dollars a year on the French war effort. In 1954 the French were defeated in Dien Bien Phu and Vietnam split into two countries, South Vietnam and North Vietnam. U.S. president JFK increased the number of advisers from 100 to 1600 by 1963 and helped properly equip the South Vietnamese army. In 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem, the South Vietnam leader was overthrown and killed by his own people. After that attack after attack and troop after troop were being sent and done to Vietnam to help fight off the communist, but nothing really worked and the war ended in stalemate and U.S. defeat.