The North Vietnamese embarked on radical land reforms, persecuting and imprisoning landowners and aggravating a refugee crisis. By 1955, close to a million people had fled south.

In South Vietnam, the United States supported the regime of President Ngo Dinh Diem, an autocratic anti-communist determined to resist Hanoi. To fight Diem and unite Vietnam under the Hanoi government, the communists in 1960 created the National Liberation Front -- the guerrilla organization also known as the Viet Cong.

Groups such as the Viet Cong were encouraged by Moscow. U.S. President John F. Kennedy, after suffering a setback against the communists in Cuba and trying to control the crisis in Berlin, wanted to show U.S. resolve in Asia. He sent American military advisers to South Vietnam.
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