which president started the vietnam war?

"Wayne C" and "Litthrs" have given the closet correct answers.

FDR sent members of the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA) to Vietnam in 1944 to train and arm the Viet Minh (Ho Chi Minh and the schoolteacher, General Giap) in the fight against the Japanese.

Harry Truman refused to recognise the Viet Minh as the rulers of Vietnam in 1945 although FDR had promised to do so, and the OSS supported the recognition of Vietnamese Independence.

Harry Truman sent arms, and later planes and pilots to assist the French in the fight against the Viet Minh so the French could reestablish their colony. This was the First Indochina War or the "War of Independence". The arms were initially sent under the "Marshall Plan". Later they were just sent to assist the French. US military pilots were flying supply missions as early as 1948 and combat missions as early as late 1949.

Eisenhower refused to abide by the "1954 Geneva Agreements on Indochina", and violated every aspect of it. Some historians give the start date of the Second Indochina (Vietnam) War as May 1954. There are other start dates -- 1956, 1959, 1960 and Feb 1961 which is the date the US military use and when the "First US soldier was killed in Vietnam". In fact seven other US servicemen had been killed between 1957 and 1961.

SO, If you are asking who started the Second Indochina (Vietnam) War, then it is Eisenhower.

I have to agree with "Walter B". His answer is totally correct. I lived through the Cambodian part of the "Vietnam War". Like Walter B, my husband knows more about Southeast Asia and its history than most people I know.

President Truman gets that award. Had he recognized Ho Chi Minh and the new republic he claimed in post WWII Viet Nam and not supported the French as a bribe for the French to support NATO who knows what would not have happened!

The US funded 80% of the cost of the French fighting known as the First IndoChina War.

President Eisenhower sent the first advisers around 1955 and 1956. there were around 750 until President Kennedy got the number to around 16,000.

President Johnson sent the first combat troops:

Feb/Mar 1965 the 9th MEB was to Da Nang to guard the Air Base.

May 1965 the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate) became the first Army combat troops to arrive. In 1967? they made the only airborne assault of the war.

The US was not the first ot send troops. South Korea was.

The Allied Forces were The Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN), S. Korea, US, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand. Cambodia and Laos did some minimal fighting in their own countries and the Philippines provided non combat troops.

Well actually no president started the Vietnam war.

But if your asking which president committed American soldiers into combat.

It was Johnson.

Roosevelt sent OSS advisers to Vietnam during WW ll

Eisenhower sent logistics soldiers to help France withdraw

Kennedy sent advisers to train the South Vietnamese Army

Johnson sent the first Ground combat troops in 1965 when he sent the 1st Cavalry Division, 101st Airborne Division and a Marine Amphibious unit to Vietnam.

All of the above have a bit of truth.

But FDR committed the OSS to Vietnam to organize operations against the Japs in the early 40s. From that point, all other presidents escalated until Nixon. And America was entwined in that colonial basket-case.

Truman gave the French his support for their return to Vietnam in exchange for support of NATO.

Eisenhower helped bail the French out of their misguided policy, and thus engaged the US more.

Kennedy added overt military advisors.

Johnson made the advisors 'military assistance', and added about 500,000 more.

Nixon rolled it all back and removed them all.

Ford did nothing while the NVA rolled over the south, and thus made it all pointless.

We had American military personnel in Viet Nam as early as 1945, and the first American killed was killed in 1946.

Eisenhower sent military equipment to help the French, who were defeated in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu.

Kennedy sent military advisors, and Lyndon Johnson sent the first of 500,000 combat troops in 1965 after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

Richard Nixon ended the war.

Eisenhower made the initial commitments to France (the colonial power controlling Vietnam), Kennedy upped the commitments after France withdrew (arms and advisors), Johnson and Nixon escalated it to full-on war. Nixon finally withdrew most troops and Ford closed the books.

The United States was involved in small ways beginning in the fifties. Kennedy sent a small number of troops to help train the South Vietnamese, but it was LBJ who committed us to war.

Nixon said he would end the war, but went on to escalate it and bomb Cambodia.

None. It was already occurring between France and Vietnam before we even got involved. Eisenhower sent over advisers and generals to help, so I guess you could argue he got us involved. Or you could shift the blame to Kennedy for sending troops over. Ultimately, I guess it depends on what political party you support. LOL!

Kennedy was the first. He sent advisers over, then started sending troops over.