The Vietnam War started in 1963 and lasted until 1973, lasting ten years. This war was America's first and only defeat. This war was fought in the jungle, which American soldiers weren't used to fighting. The Vietcong soldiers would hide in small holes in the ground that were connected by tunnels and planned surprised attacks on the American soldiers. The reason why America fought along side the South Vietnamese was because Ho Chi-Minh was a communist man and they were afraid that if they let Ho Chi-Minh take over South Vietnam that he will not only turn that into a communist country, but that it will also take over other countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Russia, creating the Domino Affect. This is like a line of dominoes. When you take over one country with communism, that all the rest of the countries would fall under the communism economy.