The situation in Southeast Asia worsened during the 1960s. The Soviet Union was involving itself in a civil war in Laos. The Viet Cong (VC) were getting more active, using the Ho Chi Minh Trail (a supply trail that started in North Vietnam and wound its way through Laos and Cambodia) to deliver supplies to secret VC strongholds in South Vietnam in preparation for a coming conflict. President John F. Kennedy warned the world in his inaugural address in 1961 that the United States was absolutely opposed to communism. America, he proclaimed, "shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty." 4 To support his promises, the United States started sending military advisers to South Vietnam. In 1961, about nine hundred advisers were in South...