Brief Overview:
American advisors first arrived in Vietnam in 1950 to aid the French with their military presence in Vietnam. On August 2, 1964 the USS Maddox was attacked by North Vietnam. The United States responded with air strikes and starting a war that could go down in America's history as one of the most controversial. 1965 brought about Johnson's decision to institute a draft and intensify the number of troops overseas in Vietnam. The draft brought about civil unrest in America and sparked many public demonstrations. The morality of the war was also questioned by United States citizens. The war in the air was what brought about the most controversy. Bombs were dropped on foliage to drive out enemy soldiers, citizens were just collateral damage.
After the Tet offensive, a massive offensive all over the country of Vietnam by enemy forces, General Westmoreland claimed to need 200,000 more troops to achieve victory. This request brought the war under scrutiny by government officials and Westmoreland was replaced by General Creighton Adams. General Adams' tactics differed from Westmoreland's. Adams wanted to maintain absolute control over the territory occupied before expanding. It was under General Adams that "vietnamization" took place. Vietnamization is the method that slowly handed the war in Vietnam over to Vietnamese forces, and the recession of American troops. General Adams left Vietnam not long after and was replaced with General Frederick Weyand. Peace talks were finally put into motion, and the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 were born. The Paris Peace Accords instituted "a cease-fire, the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces within 60 days, the return of all captured personnel, efforts to locate missing persons on both sides, and the beginning of talks aimed at achieving "national conciliation and concord."" (www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com)