The Vietnam War began in 1957 as a battle for control of South Vietnam between that nation's non-Communist government and Communists. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the United States sent military aid and advisers to support the South Vietnam government. Later in the l960's, thousands of American troops arrived to help South Vietnam fight the Communists. By the mid-1960's, the United States was deeply involved in the war.<NP> A majority of Americans supported the war effort at first, but others bitterly opposed it. In the late 1960's, opposition to the war grew. The war's critics argued that the United States had no right to interfere in Vietnamese affairs. Throughout the nation, college students and others staged antiwar demonstrations. The last U.S. ground forces finally left Vietnam in 1973. Two years later, South Vietnam fell to the Communists.
