The United States first got involved in Vietnam when President Harry
             Truman extended official international recognition of Vietnam, Laos, and
             Cambodia on Feb. 7, 1950 (according to Professor Sandra Whittman, Oakton
             Community College, Des Plaines Illinois). This recognition by Truman was by
             way of taking sides with the south, as the north's communist-led aggression
             led American presidents to fear the "Domino Theory": when one country falls
             to the communists, such as Korea, others will fall like dominos, too; and
             if Vietnam was to fall, Truman, and later Eisenhower believed, all of
             Truman set up a group of "advisors" known as the Military Assistance
             and Advisory Group (MAAG), to advise the French, as they fought communist-
             led insurgents (Viet Minh) in the north of Vietnam. Truman initiated the
             training of "unconventional warfare operations and forces." And when the
             French were defeated by the Viet Minh at the battle of Dien Bien Phu,
             President Dwight D. Eisenhower established a CIA military mission in
             In July, 1959, the first American military deaths occurred as two
             "advisors" (soldiers) were killed. By 1961, under President John Kennedy,
             there were 1,500 Americans in South Vietnam. In August, 1964, President
             Johnson responds to an alleged attack on the U.S. Navy (in the Gulf of
             Tonkin) by getting Congress to approve the bombing of North Vietnam and
             later (in 1965), Johnson sends ground troops. Up to a half a million troops
             are engaged by the late 1960s. Question: What was the common link between
             all four U.S. presidents' Answer: Communism and the "Domino Theory." What
             caused the U.S. to commit to the war' The goal was stopping the communists.
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