Cont ain m entwasespeciallyimportant t o the
America nsinV ietn am.Thiswasbecau seof an Idea
t h atP re siden t Eise nho w ercalled the"domino
theory. "Thedominot heorywentliketh is : Asiahas
alotofunsettledcountries. If o n eo fthem~Vietna m ,
say-fellundercommunistrule,others w o u l d
follow.T he ywouldbeknockedoveronebyo ne ,
likeali m'o f fallingdominoes.
Ame ricanswereespeciallyafraidt h atcommunist
Chin amightt r y tola kecontrol inSouthea stAsia as
th eSovietU n ionhaddoneineaste rnEurope. So,III
the!tJ.')os andearly19605,firstP resid entEisenhower
and the n Presid en tKen ned y pouredAmerica n
mone yandweaponsint o SouthV ietna m .Ken nedy
sent s ol d ier s.too-n ortofig ht , them selves,b u tto
adviseandtr aintheSouthVietna m eseforces.
B yth e early1960s ,however.it w asd ea r th atth e
governmentofSourhVietnamwaslo singt he war.
110 Chi Minhhada g ue rillaarmyo f 1 OO,O(Xlmen
fightin gIIISouthVietnambythen.T he se guerill as
were calledtheVietcong.Manyw e recomm u m st s
fromt heNorthwhohad m a rchedlIUOt heSouth
alo ngsecretj unglet rails.Bv 19().')th e Vietcon g
controlledlargeareasofSouth V ietnam.T he
count r y' sA m e rican- back edgovernment w asclose to
collapse.
3 0 TilEVIHNAMYEA llSByn o wth eUnitedStateshadanewleader ,
President Lynd onB .Johnson. J o h nso n faced a
di ffi cul tcho ice.l iecould leaveVietn a mandlett he
commumst sta keover,orhe couldsendmAmerican
soldie rstot r ytos[Opth em.J oh ns o n was[00warned
abo ut thed ominotheory-a nd[0 0 p ro u d-[0m ake
th e firstchoice. H e h adalreadyorderedA merican
aircr afttobombrailwaysandbridgesinNorth
Viet nam .N o wh e scminAmericansoldiers.By 1968
ov e r.')00 ,000werefig ht in gInSouthV ietnam .The
Russ ia ns andtheC h i nesesent moreweap o nsa nd
suppl iesto 110 Chi Min h .Thousandsm o re oflus
communisttro op smarc he dsouthtod o bat tl e with
theAmerican s.
The VietnamWarwasoneo f ambushesandsu dd en
a tt acks. A ft e ran attacktheVietcongwouldm elt
awa yinth ejungle.orturnintopeacefu l villag ers.
Ordin ar y villager shelpedandprotectedthe
Vie t con g .So m e t im estheydi d (h is outoffear,
sometimesouto fsympathy."Thepeoplearc the
water, o u rarmiesarct he fish. " oneVietcongleader
said.
A gue rillawarlik et h is m eantthatth eAmerica ns
ofte ll had no enemy to strikebackat. As one sold ier
putit, to findtheVietcongwas"liketryingto
identify tearsIIIabucketo fwater."12 .')