The Vietnam War was a armed conflict in Vietnam and its neighboring countries from 1955 to 1975. While officially a war between communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam, both the United States and China contributed to their respective allies, making the war one of the few instances of true fighting in the otherwise tense Cold War. The United States first became involved in the early 1960s with its support of the anti-communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem. The United States ramped up involvement and began to deploy troops to fight throughout the 1960s. The Vietnam War became extremely unpopular in the United States, with widespread anti-war protests as well as the rise of counterculture. The war had a great impact on the psyche of the nation, as the war, along with the Watergate incident, left many with a sense of distrust in the government. The interviews on this page tell the story of living through the war, both in America and in Vietnam.