America's Attempt to stop Communism in Vietnam

It all began in 1950 where the U.S. provided France with massive economic and military to stop the spread of communism in Indochina. Once France surrendered in May of 1954, America stepped in and gave the anti-communist South Vietnam economic and military strength. When the Kennedy administration took control in 1961, they sent miltary advisors to train South Vietnamese troops. Kennedy's intent was to withdraw from the war, until he was assasinated, which led to Lnydon Johnson being president who escalated the role of America in the vietnam war. In 1965, preisdent Johnson began sending larger numbers of troops to Vietnam, that number increasing to 536,000 in 1968 which was the peak of soldiers in Vietnam. The soldiers began to become frusturated with the guerilla warfare the and the brutal jungle conditions they were facing. Morale was low not only where the war was being fought but also back home in America, where people were questioning what the U.S. was doing in Vietnam. Protests emerged in America; in april of 1965, there was a march of 20,000 protesters in Washington D.C. Finally, when President Richard Nixon was elected in 1969, troops finally started to be withdrawed from the war. "We have to get rid of the nightmares we inherited. One is war without end," Richard Nixon told reporters. On March 29, 1973, the last troops left Vietnam, and the war was finally over for America.