The Vietnam War was a very deadly conflict that was fought between the communist party of North Vietnam and their allies, the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its primary allies the U.S. The conflict began to occur in 1954 when Ho Chi Minh and his communist party came into power in North Vietnam. The U.S. government wanted to get involved in a war to prevent communist takeover of South Vietnam as it is declared in the Truman doctrine. North Vietnam and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under a communist government. This war was one of the major conflicts that affected the cold war. It is stated that three million people have died throughout the entire war. Throughout the war, the Viet Cong started to decrease in numbers due