United States in the Vietnam War

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The involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War began in the 1950s and greatly escalated in 1965 until its withdrawal in 1973. The U.S. military presence in Vietnam peaked in April 1969, with 543,000 military personnel stationed in the country.^[1] By the end of the U.S. involvement, more than 3.1 million Americans had been stationed in Vietnam,^[2][3] and 58,279 had been killed.^[4]

After World War II ended in 1945, President Harry S. Truman declared his doctrine of "containment" of communism in 1947 at the start of the Cold War. U.S. involvement in Vietnam began in 1950, with Truman sending military advisors to assist France against Viet Minh guerrillas in the First Indochina War. The French withdrew in 1954, leaving North Vietnam in control of the country's northern half. President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered covert CIA activities in South Vietnam. Opposition to the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in the South was quashed with U.S. help, but from 1957 insurgents known as the Viet Cong launched a campaign against the state. North Vietnam supported the Viet Cong, which began fighting the South Vietnamese army. President John F. Kennedy, who subscribed to the "domino theory" that communism would spread to other countries if Vietnam fell, expanded U.S. aid to South Vietnam, increasing the number of advisors from 900 to 16,300, but this failed to produce results. In 1963, Diem was deposed and killed in a military coup tacitly approved by the U.S. North Vietnam began sending detachments of its own army, armed with Soviet and Chinese weapons, to assist the Viet Cong.

After the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered air strikes against North Vietnam, and Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized military intervention in defense of South Vietnam. From early 1965, U.S. involvement in Vietnam escalated rapidly, launching Operation Rolling Thunder against targets in the North and ordering 3,500 Marines to the region. It became clear that aerial strikes alone would not win the war, so ground troops were regularly augmented. General William Westmoreland, who commanded the U.S. forces, opted for a war of attrition. Opposition to the war in the U.S. was massive, and was strengthened as news reported on the use of napalm, a mounting death toll among soldiers and civilians, the effects of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, and U.S. war crimes such as the My Lai massacre. In 1968, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive, after which Westmoreland estimated that 200,000 more U.S. troops were needed for victory. Johnson rejected his request, announced he would not seek another term in office, and ordered an end to Rolling Thunder. Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, adopted a policy of "Vietnamization", training the South Vietnamese army so it could defend the country and starting a phased withdrawal of American troops. By 1972, there were only 69,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, and in 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed, removing the last of the troops. In 1975, the South fell to an invasion from the North, and Vietnam was reunited in 1976.

The costs of fighting the war for the U.S. were considerable. In addition to the 58,279 soldiers killed, the expenditure of about US$168 billion limited Johnson's Great Society program of domestic reforms and created a large federal budget deficit. Some historians blame the lack of military success on poor tactics, while others argue that the U.S. was not equipped to fight a determined guerilla enemy. The failure to win the war dispelled myths of U.S. military invincibility and divided the nation between those who supported and opposed the war. As of 2019, it was estimated that approximately 610,000 Vietnam veterans are still alive, making them the second largest group of military veterans behind those of the war on terror.^[3] The war has been portrayed in the thousands of movies, books, and video games centered on the conflict.^[5]