Most Americans had never heard of Vietnam in 1956, let alone understood the level of involvement by their government in the politics of this little nation in Southeast Asia. From 1955 to 1961, the Eisenhower Administration gave South Vietnam more than $7 billon in economic and military aid. The investment sent to Diem’s government was supported by thousands of U.S. personnel, known as “advisors”, who over time, would attempt to drastically reshape Vietnamese society. Eventually idealistic young GI’s were added to compliment the advisors, helping to transform a nation of peasants and rice farmers into a democratic success story. However the resolve and allegiance of the Vietnamese would prove to be widely perplexing for the United States. The Madison Avenue “soft sell” approach employed by U.S. personnel did not compliment the cultural and linguistic nuances of Vietnamese culture. The Vietnamese language created a gap between what was said and what was understood, making language the “first line of defense” against their opponents. It helped them to preserve an “inner privacy”, which acted as a “cohesive force uniting the Vietnamese people at a time when their external world was being fragmented.”

PHOTOS: The images seen here are from a pamphlet entitled: The Quiet Warriors, created by the State Department in 1965. The Foreign Service Officer pictured, David A. Engel, was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, serving as a provincial “reporter” covering the Vinh Binh Province. Engel was trained in the Vietnamese language for a single year before taking his post in Vietnam, which was his first overseas assignment.