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country from Diem was to commit public suicide by bu ing them lves to death as a protest e suicides were given wide coverage in American newspa d on television Li ral advi rs in the administration of U.S. President John Kennedy persuaded him that Diem must ousted US. of ficials in Vietnam encouraged di ontented generals in the South Viet name army to overthrow Diem, which they did on Novem r 2, 1 3. In the cour of the coup, Diem and his brother were murdered, after ing promi d fe conduct out of Vietnam
Without Diem's firm han the uth Vietname gove ment fell into chao For the next two years, there was an average of one new gov ernment every two month As Co unists step d up military activity, the uth was increasingly unable to meet it effectively. Kennedy's succes r, Lyndon John n (Kennedy had en him lf a inated November 22, 1 3) ordered ma ive US. mbing of North Vietnam, and then in June 1 5 U.S. ound tr ps arrived in uth Vietnam n there were half a million U.S. rvicemen fighting in Vietnam
In the U.S op ition to involvement in the war erupted into vi lence especially on college and university campuse Though the cau w certainly just-helping ve the uth Vietname from Commu nism-li rals in the pre and on the campuses confu d the i ue and convinced large num rs of Americans that we had no busine ing in Vietnam. The ma media was even able to rtray U victories in early 1 as defeat e op ition me violent that Johnson opened peace negotiations and gan tr p withdrawal which were continued by his succe r, Richard Nixon (elected in Novem r 1 }
Nixon pursued a licy of detente, the idea that there are no signifi cant differences tween Communist countries and Western countries and that there re they should c perate wherever ible and no longer re gard them lves as enemie Nixon visited Communist China, the first U.S. President to grant legitimacy to the Peking government, and worked to end U.S. involvement in Vietn quickly as ible. His negotiators made the enormous conce ion of allowing North Vietname tr ps to remain in Vietnam after U.S. tr ps were withdrawn, a licy which al most guaranteed a Communist takeover.
The last U. com t tr were withdrawn in 1 In 1975 the Com munists launched a ma r offensive. U.S. gove ment officials evacuated only a ut a quarter of the uth Vietnam who had worked with the Americans, thereby d ming th remaining to alm t certain death. The Communists overran all of uth Vietnam and n had control of La
