1860s-1939: Vietnam had been colonised by the French and ruled by them, they had to suffer many hardships such as brutal treatments and poverty.

1940-1945: Vietnam was occupied by the Japanese during WW2, they had to then endure even harsher treatment and severe punishments by the Japanese when the Vietnamese people stepped out of line.

1940-1945: A strong anti-Japanese movement devepoped as a result of this harsh treatment called the VIETMINH under the control of the communist HO CHI MINH. By the end of WW2 the VIETMINH controlled the North of the country and were determined to take control of the whole country and become an INDEPENDENT VIETNAM.In 1945 the VIETMINH entered the city of Hanoi and declared Vietnam as independent.

The French wanted to rule Vietnam again in 1945 but Ho was not going to let this happen, a war broke out between the VIETMINH and the French.

1949: China became a Communist state under Mao Zedong and supplied the VIETMINH with arms and money to help them fight the French.

1949: The Americans saw the VIETMINH as puppets of Mao and the Chinese Communists so they sent $500 million a year to the French to help them fight the war.

1949-1954: The French had underestimated the power of the VIETMINH who were supported by Communist China and the USSR and were slowly losing control of the county.

The French wanted Dien Bien Phu, so they built a big millitary bace there with three small artillitary baces around it. In hopes that the VIETMINH would attack the large bace and then, the French could attack from the smaller baces. However, the VIETMINH saw through their plan and took guns up to the montains. They then accembled the guns once they got up high enough. They used the guns to destoy the air-*****, that the French baces used for supplies, this was easy for the VIETMINH as it was a valley- the French on flat ground. The VIETMINH used 15,000 men to move 200 anti-aircraft guns around the hilly tarrain. Early March 1954, 49,000 VIETMINH men had been deployed around the French bases. As the weeks went on the VIETMINH'S firepower continued. Not even counter fire and air-strikes could get rid of the VIETMINH guns, they were to well dug into the hill-sides. On March 13th 1954, the VIETMINH launched their main attack. After 3 days they had taken the Northern baces and the air-*****. After 2 weeks, the VIETMINH started to fire again for another 2 weeks- lots of VIETMINH casualties- French casualties were stuck in appaling conditions. The French asked the USA for help but as non of the other allies would help they refused to help. The VIETMINH  dug more than 50 miles of tunnels around the French. Six days after the final attack, the VIETMINH took the last French strong hold. May 7th the French surrendered. However, about 10 VIETMINH (8,000 dead, 12,000 injured) died for every 1 French soldier killed. 

• Vietnam would be devided (Temporerily) into North and South
• North Vietnam would be ruled by Ho Chi Minh
• South Vietnam would be ruled by Ngo Dinh Diem
• French troops would fully withdraw from Vietnam
• The Vietminh would withdraw from South Vietnam
• The Vietnamese people could choose to live in the North or the South
• A general election for the whole of Vietnam would be held before July 1956, under the supervision of an international body.

The domino theory held that a communist victory in one nation would quickly lead to a chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states.

In Southeast Asia, the US government used the domino theory to justify its support of a non-communist regime in South Vietnam against the communist government of the North, and ultimately its increasing involvement in the Vietnam War (1954-75). In fact, the American failure to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam had much less of a global impact than had been assumed by the domino theory. Though communist regimes did arise in Laos and Cambodia after 1975, communism failed to spread throughout the rest of Southeast Asia.

Supporting Diem: The US supported Diem, the new leader of the South, despite him being a brutal leader.

Overthrowing Diem: Many of the South Vietnamese people supported Ho Chi Minh. Diem was a corrupt leader who refused to give peasants land. He didn't like Buddhism and treated the majority Buddhist population badly. This meant that, much of South Vietnam’s population was rebelling against him. The peasants wanted communism and supported the VIETMINH. In 1963, Kennedy agreed to a CIA operation that gave a group of South Vietnamese army gernerals $40,000 to overthrow Diem's goverment (called a 'coup'). This lead to Diem’s Government was overthrown. Even though it was not in Kennedy's plans, Diem and his brother ended upgetting shot. After this, there was no strong capitalist government in the South. Over the next few years the country (the South) had 10 differnt goverments.  

To prevent the VIETCONG from hiding in southern villages, the South Vietnamese peasants were taken from their villages and settled in ‘strategic hamlets’. These were surrounded by barbed wire and controlled by the Americans. The peasants were opposed to this as they were far from their ancestral burial grounds and their farms. This also gave them another reason to support the North and VIETCONG and not the US.

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Vietnam: U.S. Advisors 1955-1965

The US military advisory effort in Vietnam had a modest beginning in September 1950, when the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Vietnam, was established in Saigon. Its mission was to supervise the issuance and employment of $10 million of military equipment to support French legionnaires in their effort to combat VIETMINH forces. By 1953 the amount of US military aid had jumped to over $350 million and was used to replace the old WWII equipment that France, still suffering economically from the devastation of that war, was still using.

The North Vietnamese attacked the US Navy in the Gulf of Tonkin. This incident gave the US the excuse it needed to escalate the war.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - US Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson permission to wage war on North Vietnam. The first major contingent of US Marines arrived in 1965.

For the next ten years the US's involvement increased. By 1968 over half a million American troops were in Vietnam and the war was costing $77 billion a year.