Reply #117: US involved monetarily as far back as Truman, and with advisors

[Obamanaut]

in-country with Eisenhower.

<snip>

No example of our advisory role before 1961, however, is better than the military training of South Vietnam's own Special Forces. The mission of the first American Special Forces in Vietnam was to train fewer than one hundred Vietnamese soldiers. The first training center was in Nha Trang. The Americans arrived from Okinawa in the summer of 1957, and by 1960 they were training more than fifty Ranger units of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Although this aspect of the advisory experience began in the Eisenhower presidency, it was greatly expanded under the keen interest and direction of President Kennedy later.

<snip> <more>

http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/MAAG2.html