Vietnam, following liberation from the French, was initially partitioned in two, with the North going to resistance leader and Marxist Ho Chi Minh and the south going to anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem. The USA feared a communist Vietnam and stepped in – first surreptitiously and then in all-out war – to thwart the North's efforts to unite the country under communist rule. The North won, but only after catastrophic loses on both sides.