The squabble for territory between the Viet Minh and the French soon began and was known as the French-Viet Minh War. After an extremely devastating defeat for the French at the battle of Dim Bien Phu, peace talks held at Geneva concluded with the French leaving the country and Vietnam being divided at the 17th parallel into North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Unifying Elections were to be held in two years to decide which leader would completely rule the country as a whole. However; in the interim, the north and south began a violent and political civil war.
During this time, Ho Chi Minh had asked for the United States help in defending against the corrupt government of the south, but was refused. So, he turned to the Soviet Union and Communist China for aid and both countries were more than happy to help his cause. Being aided by these countries was the catalyst for Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnam adopting a communist government. The corruption in the South also formed a pro- communist group there who were supporters of Ho Chi Minh: the Viet Cong. Because of the Cold War, the United States believed that the Soviet Union was responsible for any communism in any country, and that the goal of this was to envelope the entire world in communism and wipe out capitalism and democracy. Many in the U.S. also believed in the Domino Theory: the idea that once one land became communist, the surrounding areas would follow suit. The theory was cause for fear in Americans that, like a disease, communism would one day spread to the United States as well. These now known to be over-exaggerated fears led Americans to be so against communism they were willing to support corruption in order to stop it. That is exactly what the U.S. did in the case of the Vietnam Civil War.
For fear that Ho Chi Minh's Communist party would win in the elections for Vietnamese leader, the United States postponed them indefinitely.