ABSTRACT

The Vietnam War is one of America's greatest military traumas. Military advisers entered the country officially in 1961, and by 1963 the number of advisers had climbed to more than 17,000. From 1954 until 1964, the United States was willing to send large amounts of aid to bolster the South Vietnamese government and growing numbers of military advisers to train its army. French military and economic exhaustion coupled with political instability led eventually to the 1954 Geneva Accords that halted hostilities, divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, and called for elections within two years to determine the form of government for a reunited Vietnam. In the early days, when involvement was limited to economic and military assistance, the question was relatively unimportant because the sacrifice was minimal and unnoticed by most Americans anyway. The political objective of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), embodied in Ho Chi Minn, was the unification of Vietnam under its rule, by force if necessary.