The Vietnam War began soon after World War ll.
At first, in 1946, the war was between the Vietnamese and the French.
The government of Vietnam was French.
The But the Vietnamese wanted the French to leave so they could have their own government.
The Vietnamese fought hard, and slowly they won more and more land.
By 1953, the French Army was in trouble.
They were not winning the war.
French soldiers were dying, and the war was costing a lot of money.
So, in 1954, The French Army stopped fighting and left Vietnam.
That was the end of the first part of the Vietnam War.
The second part of the Vietnam War began in 1954.
After the French left, there were two Vietnams: North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
There were also two governments.
Both governments wanted to be the only government for all of Vietnam.
So from 1954 until 1960, the North and the South were fighting all the time.
The North Vietnamese slowly grew stronger.
By the beginning of 1965, the North Vietnamese were winning the war.
But the U.S. government did not want the North Vietnamese to win.
So in March 1965, the United States began to help South Vietnam.
They sent guns and airplanes to help the South.
At first, the United States sent only a few soldiers, but by july 1965, there about 75,000 American soldiers in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War