Vietnam

The Vietnam War was the longest war in the history of the United States, and was a conflict that divided our country. The Vietnam conflict started when the French asked the United States for help in keeping their colony of Vietnam, but the US refused as it "regarded the war as France's problem and what France deserved for her colonial ambitions." (Stoessinger, pg. 82) It wasn't until the Soviet "iron curtain" reigned over Europe and divided the East and West even greater as well as the fall of China to Communism, that President Truman decided to stretch his policy of "containment" to Vietnam and gave France economic and military aid. Under the Eisenhower administration, aid increased to the United States paying about one-half of the cost of the war. France finally lost the war, and with the formation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), three independent countries of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were formed. Ho Chi Minh agreed to a general election held in Vietnam