President Dwight Eisenhower pledged support for the new nation of South Vietnam in 1955. In the period between 1955 and 1961 the United States pumped seven billion dollars in aid into so that Vietnam would not “go over quickly” like a “row of dominoes” (McNamara 31). Over the next 6 years Vietnam would cost America billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the disaffection of much of the US public. However Ultimately, South Vietnam would fall to the North less than 2 years after the cessation of US military involvement. Since 1955, when the US vowed to help support South Vietnam's fight against the communists North, for a total of around 60,000 dead soldiers and 300,000 wounded. The soldiers who offered their lives were on average 23 years old, meaning that many abandoned education and families to fight for their lives in the bloody massacre we call the War of the North. Vietnam. At first the United States gave only minor assistance to South Vietnam, but as the years passed and as Northern communism began to cripple the South, the United States offered more military aid. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent a group of officials to evaluate progress in preventing the spread of communism. It became apparent that more military support was needed. "Working under the "domino theory," which held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, many others would follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, even as he refrained from engaging in military intervention on a large scale" (Story 1). After a group of generals overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem as president of the Vietnamese People's Government, the South Vietnamese government became very unstable. Three weeks later President John F. Kennedy was assassinated first... middle of paper... so many people were killed and paralyzed, and the billions of dollars spent are incomprehensible. The purpose of war is to defeat the enemy. Young lives should not be spent when war is fought for body counts, dictated by senseless rules of engagement. Who can blame the student protesters who don't want to continue a war that had no positive goal? Vietnam was a war fought in the wrong place for the wrong military and political objectives. Works Cited Brigham, Robert K. and E. Kenneth Hoffman. "Battlefield: Vietnam | History." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Network. 19 September 2011.Canfora, Alan. Kent 4 May Centre. 2011. Network. September 19, 2011.McNamara, Robert S. “The Early Years.” In retrospect. New York: Times, 1995. 1-390. Press."Vietnam War - Articles, videos, images and facts from History.com." History.com - History Made Every Day - American and World History. Network. 19 September. 2011.