This year marks a handful of important anniversaries in the history of the Vietnam War. The United States' initial involvement in the Republic of Vietnam began in November 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower first sent American advisers to the country. In the memory of most Americans, the conflict really began 10 years later in November 1965, when American and North Vietnamese troops met in their first major combat engagement at the Battle of Ia Drang and the U.S. Army first used the Air