For me it began the 28th of April 1965, the conflict it's self began before even I was born.
My earliest recollection of Vietnam was in grade school. It was customary on one Friday a month to show a movie in the auditorium. In the early 50's all movies still had the usual "Newsreel' news as a lead up to the feature film.
Being too young to grasp the politics of the war the only parts that stood out was the notion that America was going to rescue the oppressed Vietnamese from aggression of what was called the Viet-Min Communist.
I recall the newsreel depicting peasants fleeing their villages from the communists and how US Army Military advisers were training the Vietnamese soldiers how to defend themselves. At eight years of age this was a very noble cause. The press thought so as well and made it palatable to society as well.
The whole history of this conflict goes back centuries so I will leave the complete story for you to complete on your own . The following links give two timelines of the events that led up to the US involvement and the political failure that brought it to its end.
The first being The History Place
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html
The second being Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
