Although most wars have a definitive beginning, such is not true with the Vietnam war. American involvement began in 1950 when President Harry Truman okayed economic and military aid to France, who were fighting communist takeover attempts in their former Indochina colonies. The French loss at Dienbienphu, Vietnam in 1954 gave the communists control of the northern part of the country. Shortly afterward, President Dwight Eisenhower ordered military advisors and CIA operatives to set up a U.S. backed government in the south.
President John F. Kennedy sent a Green Berets force to further train the southern army in 1961, and by late 1963 there were more than 15,000 American "advisors" in Vietnam. Following Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson added the first formal troops when he sent in a large Marine detachment. Johnson later ordered bombing in the north by American aircraft, and soon the undeclared war escalated even further.
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