7. The Pentagon Papers revealed American activities in Vietnam which had long been secret
In the autumn of 1940 Imperial Japan invaded French Indochina, and fighting in Vietnam stemmed from that event. The Vietnamese people did not want to be ruled by Japan, and insurrections against Japanese occupation forces continued throughout the war. When the French returned in 1945, the Vietnamese weren’t eager to be ruled by them either, and the fighting continued, with well-organized forces supported by newly communist China battling the French colonial troops. They also received support from the Soviet Union. The Truman Administration, unable to support the French with troops due to Korea, provided covert military aid in equipment and money.
The beaten French and their enemy, the Viet Minh, reached an agreement in Geneva in 1954, in which Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam, separated by a Demilitarized Zone which became well-known in the United States in the 1960s as the DMZ. The official government of Vietnam rejected the agreement, as did the United States under President Eisenhower, but the military defeat of the French made it a reality. Officially South Vietnam remained the Republic of Vietnam, did not recognize the legitimacy of the North, and received the support of the United States. The level of support and covert operations by the United States were revealed in the Pentagon Papers.