The Vietnam War was a clash between communism and democracy. Vietnam had been a French colony since the 1880s, and they fought for their freedom for years. In 1954, the Vietnamese nationalist leader, Ho Chi Minh, proclaimed Vietnam’s independence which lead to Vietnam splitting into the communist North and the non-communist South. The war started that same year when the North Vietnamese Army created a group of communist soldiers in the South called the Viet Cong.
They fought to turn the entire country communist, and tried to overthrow the government in the 1960s. The United States sent military advisors and supplies to help South Vietnam fight the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. In 1965, the United States sent troops with better technology and weapons such as jet bombers, tanks, and helicopters. The Viet Cong fought in small groups that hid in the jungle, and they controlled most of South Vietnam ("Vietnam War." HistoryNet, 2017).