Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to war and death.

Following the end of French colonialism in July 1954, Vietnam was divided into northern and southern sections. The North, led by Ho Chi Minh, was Communist and sought to unify the country, while the South was capitalist and allied with the French and Americans. Ngo Dinh Diem assumed the Presidency of the South but was assassinated in 1963, and leadership in the South remained unstable for the duration of the war. In 1961, a team of United States (US) military advisors reported the need for military and economic aid to help Diem defeat the Communist threat from the North’s military forces, the Viet Cong. By 1962, there were 9,000 US soldiers in Vietnam. In 1963, two US warships were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, prompting the Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. This resolution gave President Johnson broad powers to wage war. Bombing raids commenced, and US combat forces were deployed beginning in March 1965.

The sympathies of the Vietnamese people were more aligned with the Viet Cong, as the South was associated with foreigners and colonialism. The Viet Cong waged