How Did The United States Fight In The Vietnam War?

The Vietnam war was a long, deadly and costly war that was fought to stop the spread of communism by the North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh. The War lasted around 20 years. The United states Participated in the war 17.4 years making it the one of the longest U.S war participations.
To Begin With, Why did the Vietnam war start and why Did the United States get involved? In the early 1880s France conquered Vietnam and combined it with the neighboring countries Cambodia and Laos to create a colony called French Indochina. However, in World War II the Japanese drove the French out of Indochina and occupied Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh a communist leader in Vietnam didn't want to be controlled by another foreign power, so he lead a revolt against the
When Lyndon Johnson became President of the United States he was determined to eliminate the communists before they took over South Vietnam. But, before Johnson could do anything he had to wait for something to happen with Vietminh and The Tonkin Gulf resolution was just that. On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox reportedly exchanged gunfire with the North Vietnamese boats on the Gulf of Tonkin, which is located of the North Vietnamese coast. Two days later U.S ships reported a second attack, President Johnson declared this as an act of war. Johnson went to congress and asked them if he could take military action. Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution giving Johnson the authority to take a necessary measures to repel against any armed attack on the United States. Johnson sent the first U.S combat troops to South vietnam in March of 1965. At the same time, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder, a mission in which U.S planes would do air raids in North Vietnam to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail a major route that consisted of paths and tunnels. The route led from North Vietnam, through Laos and Cambodia, and then into South Vietnam. Some of the Ho Chi Trials were located in neutral countries so therefore U.S troops could not surround it on the ground. The U.S planes bombed the route, with napalm, or jellied gasoline, to kill troops and destroy supplies. Since Vietnam is covered with thick brush and trees the U.S didn't have as good as visibility from the air, so they used toxic chemicals and pesticides such as agent orange to kill the dense forests and increase visibility. By 1968 more than a million tons of explosives and thousands of pounds of chemicals were dropped on Vietnam and 500,000 U.S troops were in