The Vietnam War was a conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Congs, against the western allied government of South Vietnam. The Vietnam War was also part of a larger regional conflict and a manifestation of the Cold War between democracy and communism. The conflicts of the 21st century will be one of the defining moments of the youth of the United States today when it is looked back on it several decades later; in much the same way the Vietnam War defined a generation of youth in the 1960s and the 1970s. Some questions that had arisen from the Vietnam War were how did the communist Vietnamese win against the Super Power of the United States? What were the social movements in …show more content…
The communist party did lead a mass mobilization of peasants which escalated into a revolution. Life was better under the communist party but at the same that the Vietnam economy was becoming liberalized, it was the communist party that mainly benefited from it and not the people. Neale argues that the three main factors that led to the defeat of the United States in Vietnam by the communist forces were because of (1) the peasants’ revolt, led by the Communists and guerillas, in which countless numbers of Vietnamese fought and lost their lives to bring a new and better future to their country; (2) the anti-war movement in the United States; and (3) the GI revolt. There have been many uprisings by the Vietnamese peasants throughout its history of being under repressive and exploitive regimes. Vietnam was traditionally an agricultural society that was self-sufficient and relied mostly on harvesting rice, the most important and abundant crop in Vietnam. Neale states that under the regimes of the French and the Japanese, the Vietnamese economy was exploited for its manpower and its rice. Vietnam experienced a forced-industrialization under the French rule to transform the traditional agrarian society into that of a capitalist society. The forced-industrialization drained the rural society of its
Before the Vietnam war, Vietnam was in a revolution because they did not want to be ruled by France. Vietnam wanted to be independent right after World War II ended in 1945. Japan had control of them, when Japan surrendered to the Allies the French never left Vietnam and claimed it as a territory(Mintz).
George Herring 's article " The legacy of Vietnam" talks about the military clash between the communist North Vietnam, backed by its allies and the government of South Vietnam, backed by the United States and other countries that are anti-communist that happened in Vietnam during Richard Nixon 's presidency. The Vietnam War was a terrible war, especially for Vietnamese because a millions of them died during the war. The author not just describes the war itself; he also analyzes the killing and the attack that occurred during the war. In general the Vietnam War was the most costly war contrast to other wars and it was the most shocking eras in American history. The Vietnam War had an impact in American history. It brought fear from the war
The Vietnam War was one of the most deadliest wars in America, many were killed and even more injured. The war began because of America’s efforts to stop the spread of communism. The Vietcong may of won the war but America showed that we will not let communism spread, the domino theory come into effect, and America’s faults in our war program and way to attack the Vietcong. The war was lost but from a overview of the war America learned from their lose.
The French were highly involved with Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) due to the abundant harvesting riches that were favorable with their own economy. Historically, Vietnam first established the communist party through the influence of China after their conversion into a Communist country in 1949. Ho Chi Min, a nationalist leader, had
The Vietnam War was one of the most famous proxy wars during the cold war, it was a battleground for opposing ideologies. The northern side was predominately controlled by the communist government and the southern side was controlled by the democracy government. The country never wanted to be divided, all they wanted was to recover after world war II, become an independent country and improve the living conditions of the Vietnamese citizens. But under the control of the two superpowers, Vietnam once again became the battlefield for two opposing ideologies.
In 1960s, the US was faced with another crisis of communist expansion in the war between North and South Vietnam. The Kennedy Administration decided to further pursue their containment strategy out of fear being seen by the international community as weak towards communism. During the Johnson Administration, an attack against American vessels that happened in the Gulf of Tonkin led to President Johnson being granted the ability to conduct broad military operations without congressional approval. The American public began to largely oppose American intervention in Vietnam because the optimistic statements made by the government ran contradictory to the reports of the violent fighting by American news outlets. During the Nixon administration, the US switched to a policy, later known as Vietnamization, where the main goal was to strengthen the South Vietnamese forces and provide them with better armaments so they can better defend themselves. Vietnamization proved to be ineffective as the South Vietnamese forces were unable to hold their own against the North without US air support as proven during Operation Lam Son 719 and the Easter Offensive. The signing of the Paris Peace Accords officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam War. The US followed containment policies during beginning of the war due to the underlying fear of the spread of communism and since the policies were inherited from previous
The Vietnam War struck the United States with a wave of shock in 1955 when the threat of communism became a reality. The war was between North Vietnam with the help of the Soviet Union and South Vietnam with the help of the United States. The government in the U.S put all efforts towards the war to eliminate communism, but soon people began to doubt the end of the war. The politics of the counterculture during the Vietnam War had many changes in the U.S. The anti-war movement, civil and equal rights for everyone, and many peace movements influenced the government throughout the war. The war has continued to be impacted by the voices of the people.
The Vietnam War was a long lasting one that started in an attempt to try to prevent Vietnam from joining the Socialist Republic, but at the end the United States lost the war and a lot of credibility towards other countries. This opposition and the fact that the first military defeat of the United States being, created a feeling of bad conscience in the US population considered against an unjust war, said Vietnam syndrome. Syndrome gave way to a movement for peace and lasted until the mandates of Ronald Reagan. The Vietnam War became a symbol, and still is, social groups and leftist parties in many parts of the world, then imitated an example of
For centuries Vietnam had been under Chinese rule. The Vietnamese people were an oppressed society and were exploited by the Chinese. Forced labour was brought upon the Vietnamese people, and there were many tyrannical Chinese governers along with constant demands of tribute for the Chinese rulers. There had been many revolts by
economy was primarily agrarian; which is a farm based lifestyle, reliant on the growing and farming of food for consumption and trade as well as raising animals. This type of economy is known as homesteading. In following the homesteading lifestyle, Vietnam followed what is called a subsistence economy which is a non-monetary based economy that relies of the natural resources to be used as both basic needs and as trade for other items that are needed or desired.
A quarter of a century after the Fall of Saigon, Vietnam continues to exercise a powerful hold of the American psyche. No deployment of American troops abroad is considered without the infusion of the Vietnam question. No formulation of strategic policy can be completed without weighing the possibility of Vietnanization. Even the politics of a person cannot be discussed without taking into account his opinion on the Vietnam Ware. This national obsession with Vietnam is perfectly national when viewed from a far. It was the only war that the United States has ever lost. It defined an era of American history that must rank with the depression as one of this nation’s most traumatic. It concluded with Watergate and led many to believe that the
Vietnam was a country divided into two by communism in the North and capitalism in the South. The Vietnam War, fought between the years 1959 and 1975, was, in essence, a struggle by nationalists in the north to unify the nation under a communist government. This was a long standing conflict between the two sides that had been occurring for years. It wasn’t until 1959 when the USA, stepped in, on the side of southern Vietnamese, to stop the spread of communism. It was a war that did not capture the hearts and minds of the American people as it was viewed as a war that the US army couldn’t win and so the government lost the peoples support for the war. This ultimately led to the withdrawal of the US army from Vietnam. Some people, like
In 1949, Mao Zedong led the Peoples Revolution, which established a Communist State in China. Communism has now been introduced to Asia. In this period, after World War II, Communism was a popular ideology being introduced throughout the world. Vietnam was one of the many countries under the threat of Communism. At this time, Vietnam was a French Colony. As time went on tension started to come between the French and the Vietnamese people. As tension increased so did the fighting between the French and The Vietnamese. Finally in 1954, The French decided that they could no longer withstand the revolts of the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese were now free of French rule. However, many problems still remained in Vietnam. After the war there was a
The United States intervention in Vietnam is seen by the world as America’s greatest loss and longest war. Before the start of the war in Vietnam, the thought of the United States losing this war was unheard of because America was technologically superior, no country in south East Asia could contend with them. Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not be the president to allow South East Asia to go Communist . Why the United States lost the war has been a huge debate since the end of the war, because there were so many factors affecting why they lost; the war was a loss politically, after losing support from not only the American public but also the South Vietnamese and losing a political mandate for the war by 1973, when the last
Socialism and communism ideologies became popular in Southeast Asia and other parts of the colonial world because they acted like an ideology of removing colonialism and putting the power back into the hands of the citizens. This is due to the core battle of capitalism vs nationalism, which could be shown from the bureaucratic view that professor Culliane, where the bureaucrats who control the Means of Production (MOP) (lecture, 1/26). For example, Ho Chi Minh wanted to get Vietnam out of French colonialism because they were getting taxed very hard, which could have increased especially due to the necessities needed when the European markets, like France, Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, were struggling during the end of WWII (Leffer, 68). Therefore, if Vietnam could get out of colonialism rule they could become their individual nation without having strict rules imposed on them, even if it meant losing the ease of protection or aspects of modern industrialism (lecture, 1/26). Therefore, a new ideology needed to be put into play, and many of the revolutionary leaders found great interests in Lenin’s beliefs and communism, in general. The reasons being is because it was almost an opposite of what was happening to them, and it focused more on having the working class come into power for the country, which was a majority of the people on the side of people like Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong during their revolutions. The combination of removing colonialism and regaining a sense