In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh Died Of A Heart Attack In

Following the French return, the Communist regime of Vietnamese people had decided it was time for a rebellion and started waging war versus the French (Pendergast 14). With Vietnam’s neighbors to the north, China, following Russia’s principles and becoming a Communist nation, the Vietnamese Communist Regime, also known as the Viet Minh, gained strategic military support (Pendergast 15). The fighting between the Viet Minh and the French continued for many years and in the spring of 1954 the Viet Minh won a very decisive battle known as the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (Pendergast 17). This battle proved to bring the fighting between the French and Viet Minh to a close because in the summer of 1954 there was a conference held in Geneva, Switzerland to bring the fighting to a close (Pendergast 19). The results of this conference were the Geneva Accords which called for a temporary ceasefire, and a split of the country into a communist sector in the north and republic in the south along the 17th parallel (Pendergast 20). The plan however was not well liked and

Such coverage, along with the vivid images that emerge on T.V. led to a serious rise in anti-war protest that was merely strengthened by the events of 1968. The Tet Offensive of 1968 marked the greatest conflict in beliefs of the United Stated government and the media. In January, North Vietnamese troops attacked the North cities of South Vietnam and the U.S. embassy in Saigon. The media and the television, however, portrayed the attack as a brutal defeat for the U.S, totally altering the outcome of the war at the very moment when government officials were publicly stating that victory in Vietnam was "just around the corner" (Wyatt 167)[8]. The media covered all the events that immediately followed the Tet Offensive and the American public began wondering whether this war could be won. Don Oberdorfer a Washington reporter said that “there’s no doubt Tet was one of the biggest events in contemporary American history, within two months the, American body politically turned around on the war. And they were significantly

Ho Chi Minh otherwise known as Nguyen Sinh Cung was very important and divisive in the history of Vietnam.

The Geneva Peace Agreement in May 1954 set the foundation for the developments in the next coming years in Vietnam. The Agreement accorded that Vietnam was to be divided at the 17th parallel into communist North and democratic South Vietnam giving each country independence, a 200 day legal migration period and general elections to be held at both zones in 1956 to reunify Vietnam. The division would cause developments in each country including economic development through the growing nationalism in North Vietnam, political developments through political ineptitude and corruption in South Vietnam and social changes

The leader of this communist introduction and development in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh, born Nguyen Tat Thanh, grew up with a passion for freeing his country of the French. Ho Chi Minh worked hard on his French when his tutor told him, “If you want to defeat the French, you must understand them. To understand the French you must study the French language.” Ho Chi Minh’s patriotism developed mainly from his Chinese-language instructor, Hoang Thong, who was anti- French himself. Thong believed that losing one’s family was worse than losing one’s country. Ho Chi Minh’s first involvement against political action came on May 9, 1908 when he joined a peasant uprising as a translator. Attempting to translate in the front of the crowd, he was beaten and forced to hide at his friend’s house at night to prevent being arrested. In the following years, Ho Chi Minh yearned to go overseas; he said to journalist Anna Louise Strong, “The people of Vietnam, including my own father, often wondered who would help them to remove them the yoke of French control…I saw that I must go abroad to see for myself. After I had found out how they lived, I

Ending the war in Viet Nam, Richard Nixon believed himself the consul to succeed in presidency. In less than a year, Nixon effortlessly worked hard to bear troops on Northern Viet Nam and settle negations. Moreover, Nixon rallied troops, secretly settling B-52 bombings in North Vietnamese base camps in Cambodia. He began bringing diplomatic pressure onto the Soviet Union in order to persuade Northern Viet Nam to settle for negotiations. Nixon then used Vietnamization to strengthen forces for U.S troops in South Viet Nam. Furthermore, Nixon set up conferences in Paris, France for negations between North Viet Nam, South Viet Nam, and the United States. However, these public peace talks became “Propaganda Theater” to both sides. This lead to secret meetings in order for successful agreements to occur. In the end, it took until 1975 for the war between the United States and Viet Nam to be considered “over.”

While conducting intelligence missions along the coast of Vietnam, the USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy were attacked by Viet Cong forces. This attack prompted President Johnson to go to Congress and The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed, which gave the President the ability to conduct military operations in Vietnam without actually declaring war. Early in the war, many U.S citizens and troops did not know where or what Vietnam was. They thought since Vietnam was insignificant there is no reason to intervene. This ideology would be one of the root causes of the anti-war movement that is to come. The mindset of the U.S troops was the same as every previous conflict, ‘We’ll be home by Christmas’. The The early strategy in Vietnam was to bomb the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong into submission. After bombing target areas, the U.S would send troops in to perform search and destroy missions. After attacking their target they would return to their base. During the night, the Viet Cong would return to the area the U.S attacked and it would generate a cycle in which the U.S bombs, sends ground units, and withdraws. The early campaign in Vietnam was filled with many top officials being very arrogant about their chances of winning the war. They thought the Vietnamese were essentially savages with makeshift weapons who posed no threat. As the war progressed it became clear the path to victory would not be an easy one. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were holding strong against the American war machine and were even delivering decisive blows physically and to morale. With the North holding their own, the American Homefront was shifting. It was becoming clear America had no reason to be in Vietnam and the people were making it known through music and

In Nixon’s effort to end the war, his first policy was to send a message to Hanoi that he meant business. His policy consisted of escalated strategic bombings near the border of Cambodia in hopes to get the North Vietnamese to fear that the United States was capable of doing anything to achieve victory. Even Johnson was skeptical of expanding the war into Cambodia but Nixon’s first policy in full effect. Unfortunately, America was blinded by the corruptness of Nixon’s “peaceful presidency” since

Fearing that the U.S. peace movement would use the bombings to build opposition to the war to new heights, Nixon tried to keep the bombings secret. But in May, with U.S. forces taking heavy losses on “Hamburger Hill” in the A-Shau Valley, news of the bombings leaked out. It was time to change the subject. (Karnow 1983, 591, 601)

All this was still not enough to force the US government to leave the war that they could not win. Instead the US turned to massive bombing attacks which were called operation “Rolling Thunder”. This operations main goal was to obliterate all signs of communist rule in North Vietnam. The US would use tons and tons of explosives on a daily basis, destroying everything but their enemies. These bomb raids continued for years costing not only innocent lives but also billions and billions of dollars.

Nixon presidency the United States decided to bring forth the “Vietnamization” policy. A strategy that pledge to strengthen the South Vietnamese military by training them and eventually reducing the United States combat troops until complete withdrawal. Nixon believed this negotiation would give the give them “a better, shorter path to peace”. Although, the United States had cut all military supplies and funding to South Vietnam resulting in a lack of funds to buy equipments such as bullet, bombs, rockets, weapons etc.. In addition the gradual removal of troops made matters worse. It left South Vietnam without the proper equipments and trained troops to succeed. By 1973, the Paris Peace Accords was signed to establish peace in Vietnamese and end

On March 29 in 1973, the last American troops left Vietnam, leaving thousands of missing behind. The same day, a few hundreds of war prisoners were released in Hanoi. Within a couple of months, the war between the North and the South was restored and it was soon apparent that the communists are more unified and have a military dominance. In Cambodia and Laos, where the fights were not so strong, the communist victory also seemed unavoidable. In March 1975 the northern Vietnam commenced a complete military invasion in the South. Southern president Thieu asked Washington for help, but the democratic majority in the Congress refused and on March 30, the Americans could watch on TV how North-Vietnamese tanks enter Saigon, which was soon renamed to Ho-Chi-Min’s town. Scenes in American embassy in Saigon, where thousands of scared Vietnamese fought for places on board of last American helicopters were a sad ending of the biggest American foreign policy catastrophe.

In 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, eventually known as the Viet Cong, began to battle the government of the South Vietnamese. The United States then sent 2,000 military advisors t support South Vietnam’s government. This number grew to 16,3000 by 1963. The military force slowly deteriorated. By 1963 the fertile Mekong Delta was lost to the overpowering Viet Cong. The war rose in 1965, when President Johnson issued commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and ground forces, which had risen to 536,000 by 1968. The Tet Offensive by North Vietnam turned many Americans against the waging war. President Nixon, following Johnson, promoted Vietnamization, the withdrawing of American troops and handing over the great responsibility of the war to South Vietnam. Protesting of the war dramatically increased, especially after Nixon’s attempt to slow North Vietnam forces and supplies into the South by sending American forces to destroy supply bases in Cambodia in 1970, which violated Cambodian neutrality. This provoked antiwar protests on many of the United Stats’ college campuses. In 1968 through 1973 attempts were made to end the ongoing conflict through diplomacy. Then in January 1973, an agreement was reached. U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam and the U.S. POWs were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North and Vietnam was once again united. The Vietnam War ended, but it took the lives of 58,000

In 1965, the United States of America officially enter the war against North Vietnam. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident where North Vietnamese attacked two U.S. ships on August 2nd and 4th, 1964, this event was a chance for U.S. President Lyndon Johnson to give authority for U.S. to enter war in Vietnam. United State involvement in Vietnam War was an approach to seize the communist aggression. A campaign authorized by President Johnson called “Operation Rolling Thunder” which started on February 24th, 1965 is a series of extensive bombing directed towards the North Vietnamese predicted to be eight weeks long until the North Vietnamese surrender to U.S. power. However, this campaign lasted two years longer than expected.

There was not much serious thought in escalating the Vietnam War until the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred. In the Gulf of Tonkin it was reported “that two American destroyers had been attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats on August 4, 1964,” (Friedman 293). Shortly after these incidents, “Johnson immediately escalated the war by ordering airstrikes on North Vietnam” (Friedman 293). These events made it so Johnson could raise United States involvement in Vietnam without congressional backing on his decisions. Increasing involvement in the war was appealing though because after the Tonkin Gulf incident support of military involvement in North Vietnam raised from thirty one percent approvals to fifty percent approval (Moise 226). Although approval of the amount in favor immediately after the Gulf of Tonkin incident rose, it was a “mistake on Johnson’s part… assuming that the