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5.6 | Cold War Conflicts: The Vietnam War In the decades after World War II, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union spread, creating military alliances and defining the postwar era. The competition between the superpowers also aǣected "hot" wars, especially in Korea and Vietnam. The Vietnam War By 1963, the United States had been drawn into a new struggle that had an important impact on the Cold War—the Vietnam War. After World War II, most states in Southeast Asia gained independence from their colonial rulers. The Philippines became independent of the United States in 1946. Great Britain also ended its colonial rule in Southeast Asia. France refused, however, to let go of Indochina. This led to a long war in Vietnam. Leading the struggle against French colonial rule was the local Communist Party, headed by Ho Chi Minh . In August 1945, the Vietminh, an alliance of forces under Communist leadership, seized power throughout most of Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was elected president of a new republic in Hanoi. Refusing to accept the new government, France seized the southern part of the country. For years, France fought Ho Chi Minh’s Vietminh for control of Vietnam without success. In 1954, after a huge defeat at Dien Bien Phu, France agreed to sign the Geneva Peace Accords. Because of the Korean War, China and the Soviet Union wanted to avoid another conﬂict with the United States. They pressured Vietnam to agree to a temporary partition of Vietnam. This was meant to save French pride and satisfy the Americans. Vietnam was divided into two parts. In the north were the Communists, based in Hanoi; in the south, the non-Communists, based in Saigon. Both sides agreed to hold elections in two years to create a single government. Instead, the conﬂict continued, and Vietnam soon became part of the Cold War. The United States, opposed to the spread of communism, aided South Vietnam under nationalist leader Ngo Dinh Diem. In spite of this aid, the Viet Cong, South Vietnamese Communist guerrillas supported by North Vietnam, were on the verge of seizing control of the entire country by early 1965. Their forces also received military aid from China. 1. How was Vietnam separated after the Communist Revolution led by Ho Chi Minh? 2. How was the United States involved in the early portions of this conﬂict? Vietnam would be divided by a demilitarised zone (the DMZ), with the French withdrawing their forces from Vietnam north of the zone and the Viet Minh withdrawing their forces from the south. In 1917, when German submarines began sinking American ships, the U.S. declared war on Germany and its partners. American soldiers joined the fighting.

In March 1965, President Johnson sent troops to South Vietnam to keep the Communist regime of North Vietnam from gaining control of South Vietnam. U.S. policy makers saw the conﬂict in terms of a domino theory concerning the spread of communism. If the Communists succeeded in South Vietnam, the argument went, all the other countries in Asia that were freeing themselves from colonial domination would likewise fall (like dominoes) to communism. North Vietnam responded to the American troops by sending more forces into the south. Despite the massive superiority in equipment and firepower of the American forces, the United States failed to defeat the North Vietnamese. This was due in large part to their use of guerilla tactics, using the jungle and their knowledge of the terrain to their advantage. The growing number of American troops in Vietnam soon produced an antiwar movement in the United States, especially among college students of draft age. The mounting destruction of the conﬂict, seen on television, also turned public opinion against the war. President Johnson, condemned for his handling of the costly and indecisive war, decided not to run for reelection. Former vice president Richard M. Nixon won the election with his pledge to stop the war and bring the American people together. Finally, in 1973, President Nixon reached an agreement with North Vietnam in the Paris Peace Accords that allowed the United States to withdraw its forces. Within two years after the American withdrawal, Communist armies from the North had forcibly reunited Vietnam. Despite the success of the North Vietnamese Communists, the domino theory proved to be unfounded. A noisy split between Communist China and the Soviet Union put an end to the Western idea that there was a single form of communism directed by Moscow. Under President Nixon, American relations with China were resumed. New nations in Southeast Asia also managed to avoid Communist governments. Above all, Vietnam helped show the limitations of American power. By the end of the Vietnam War, a new era in American-Soviet relations had begun to emerge. 3. What was the U.S. foreign policy view of Domino Theory? 4. What TWO things led to the U.S. withdrawing their troops from Vietnam in 1973? 5. What happened to Vietnam after the war? when one nation falls to communism the impact is such as to weaken the resistance of other countries and facilitate, if not cause, their fall to communism. The Army had to fight in unfamiliar territory, was lacking in moral, were not prepared for the conditions, could not shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and were untrained to respond to guerilla warfare. Communist forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year

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