The United States had sent destroyers to the Gulf of Tonkin to have a military threat. In August of 1964 North Vietnamense gunboats had attacked the American destroyer Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. President Johnson had asked Congress to repel armed attacks against the forces of the United States. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution had been passed by Congress. Johnson made a bad decision by ordering the bombing of selected targets in North Vietnam. A few months later American forces in Vietnam were ordered to seek out and kill the Vietnam Communist(Viet Cong). At the end of 1965 185,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam. The president was eculating the war for three years. The United States had thought that the Vietnam War was going to be won by the United States becuase of the size and wealth of North Vietnam and the United States. The American people also thought the United States could win the war in Vietnam. But as the war went on the United States was without a victory. The American people started to think that the war was a big mistake. In 1968 the Viet Cong had attacked cities in South Vietnam on Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. The American counterstrike had stopped the Tet Offensive. This was Americans first major victory in the Vietnam War. The Tet Offensive had been the turning point of the war. The tide of opinion had turned against the war.
Since the United States was losing the Vietnam War against the Viet Cong. President Johnson decided not to seek reelection in the Presidential Election of 1968. Now that Johnson was out of the race Richard Nixon would be the next President of the United States. Nixon wanted to shift the burden of fighting to the South Vietnamese army. This was called Vietnamization. The Vietnamization would end the war in Vietnam. Henry Kissenger, the Secretary of State under President Nixon, was negotiating a peace treaty with North Vietnam. In January 1973 a treaty was signed between North Vietnam and the United States. The cost of the war to the United States was $100 billion dollars and the lives of over 58,000 soldiers.