The Vietnam War was fought between the Communist North Vietnamese Army and the South Vietnamese Army, with support from the United States. The North Vietnamese won the war in 1975.
The United States became involved in Vietnam when President John F. Kennedy sent military advisers to help train South Vietnamese soldiers to fight against Communist guerillas in 1961. By 1964, there were 16,000 U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson increased U.S. involvement by sending large numbers of American troops to Vietnam to fight alongside their South Vietnamese allies against the Communists. The United States also used air strikes and chemical weapons against the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces operating in South Vietnam.
In 1968, North Vietnam launched an invasion of South Vietnam but failed to gain control over any territory there before its leaders decided to withdraw their troops after two years of fighting with U.S.-backed forces. The United States also withdrew its forces from South Vietnam at this time because of opposition to the war at home as well as growing concerns about how long it would take for them to defeat the North Vietnamese army if they stayed longer than expected.
The United States withdrew its troops in 1973, and the North Vietnamese declared victory in 1975.
The war was very unpopular in America. Many soldiers were also unhappy about being sent to fight in a foreign country without having been given any reasons for why they were fighting there.
