Laotian Civil War Research Paper

Growing up without parents is a rough task, but growing up without parents amongst a raging war is absurd. Having to run and hide in fear as your village is raided by North Vietnam soldiers is something no one should have to experience, but to those such as my dad, who has experienced this, it can be terrorizing. My dad grew up in the little town of Long Cheng, Laos living day to day struggling to survive. Living conditions for the lower class in Laos was already harsh enough, but when the Vietnam War broke out in 1961 these conditions got even worse. My father and many other Hmongs in Laos were in great danger of the communist armies.

How significant was the Tet Offensive in achieving a communist victory in Vietnam by 1975?

The political instability in Vietnam from 1950 to 1975 between the communist North Vietnam and anti-communist South Vietnam during the Cold War era has led to the United States’ inevitable intervention in Vietnam. The main motivators for the United States’ incremental decision to intervene and commitment in Vietnam can be viewed as an accumulation of socio-political, political and economic catalysts. In recognition that there were many other factors that may have contributed to the U.S’s involvement in the conflict in Vietnam, this essay will largely focus on these three factors. As the cold war resonates, the American’s crusade was propelled by the fears of the domino theory and perception of Communist threat and expansion affected the

The Vietnam War was fought between North Vietnam communists led by their leader Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam anti-communists led by their president Ngo Dinh Diem. North Vietnam was trying to taking over South Vietnam to make it a communist country. That is when the U.S. came knocking on South Vietnam’s door and gave them much needed help in 1950. In Eric Foner’s and John A Garraty’s essay, “Vietnam War,” they explain, “from Washington’s perspective, . . . [a]ny communist anywhere, at home or abroad, was, by definition, an enemy of the United States” because of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “domino theory” (Foner). Eisenhower’s “domino theory,” was a theory that if communists took over Vietnam, they would gradually control all of Southeast Asia. The first aid given by the U.S. was to France. Willbanks explains in his essay that the U.S. provided France, a South Vietnamese ally, $2.6

The Vietnam War was fought between South and North Vietnam over the reunification of Vietnam. The North fought a more conventional warfare and it was supported by the Soviets and other communist countries while the South fought more of a guerilla war and was supported by the US and other anti-communist countries. Of course the US got involved and supported the South because of the Truman Doctrine in which aided any country who felt threatened by communism and prevented the spread of communism, the US got involved and supported them by going into war and using military tactics such as airstrikes and large stratgetic bombings. One major thing the US had going on was the Domino theory which applied to most US foreign policies, this justified their support for non-communist regimes. North Vietnam saw this war as something small while the US saw it as a way to prevent communism taking over another country and eventually the US got involved in the long run. Although the North Vietnamese won and unified Vietnam under communism, and the US had no success in preventing this, communism failed to spread through the rest of Southeast Asia.

During the Vietnam War, Hmong soldiers fought on the side of the United States against the Pathet Lao, the communist faction in the country. When the Vietnam War ended and the U.S. pulled out of the region, the Pathet Lao took control of Laos and persecuted the Hmong for being disloyal (Fadiman 1997). Hmong resisted forced assimilation at the hands of the communist government by fleeing to temporary

In the early 1960 with the war happening in Vietnam, American troops were landing in the outskirts of Laos, where at that time between 300,000 – 400,000 hill side villagers were living; these people were known as Hmong. Without much knowledge of the location, and with the guerilla warfare used by the Vietcong, the CIA recruited the Hmongs to help counter the Vietcong and to block off the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this war was known as the Secret War. This caused the war to eventually be pushed into Laos which was a neutral nation at the time. In return, the U.S promised to provide supply and support; however the Hmong were simply fighting for their freedom to live peacefully. When the U.S pulled out of the war, the communist were able to take over the

The US has been known to diverge from its once-isolationist state, engaging in international affairs like World War I and several other events alike. It’s therefore no surprise that the US intervened in the Vietnam War during the 1960’s. At the time, President Lyndon B. Johnson put forth new ideas, plans and tactics to help and protect the South Vietnamese and surrounding countries from communist influence. However, the United States’ initial goals and plans didn’t always go the way they had expected. Indeed, Johnson’s Vietnam policies failed because of his unreasonable military strategies and his inefficient political actions.

They quickly started to take control of Laos and forced their way into power. The Laotian government, instead of continuing a losing war, surrendered to prevent any further casualties, under an agreement that no one oppose the Pathet Laos forces and no one harmed. They handed over control. With the new change, the Hmong refugees flee Laos in fear of their safety. United States tried to help evacuate refugees into Thailand. The problem was that there were limited resources to accomplish this, leaving many Hmong refugees still in Laos. With the Pathet Lao, now in control and not forgetting, or forgiving the Hmong people for fighting alongside of the Americans. They now started to carry out their revenge, on the betrayers to their country. There have been stories of the Pathet Lao exacting attacks on the Hmong people by murders or gunfire. Nevertheless, that will change around the summer of 1975. Reports start coming to the United State, Stating that chemical weapon used on Hmong people in Laos. In order to move the Hmong people out of their strongholds in the mountains, The Pathet Lao had used Chemical weapons received from their communist ally Russia. This information was coming from relief workers stationed in Thailand working with Hmong Refugees. As time went on, more and more similar reports started to generate. These stories passed on from refugees making it into Thailand refugee camps. Most of who lived in the Phu Bia Mountains.

The Vietnam War was an antagonism war that took place in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia for around 20 years – 1954 to 1975. It was a hostile struggle that not only lasted many years, but also an expensive one. The Vietnam War had radical outcomes for the U.S and the various countries who took part in it. The war was between South Vietnam backed by the United States of America and many other countries that opposed communism ideologies, and North Vietnam backed by China, The Soviet Union and supporters of communism. The reason for the start of the Vietnam War rotates around the notion at that time held by America that communism was extending to all parts of south East Asia. The US government considered American participation in the war as a strategy to preclude a communist seize of South Vietnam. This was a component of a broader restraint strategy, with the declared aim of blocking diffusion of communism and a way to repress nationalist self-determination (Eldridge, 2012, p.18-20).

South Vietnam became detached from the Communist North in 1954. Seeing their opportunities, the Americans decided to make a move against the North Vietnamese “to stop the spread of communism all over south-east Asia” (Trueman). They mainly targeted the third-world nations around their mighty Communist enemy, the Russians. The competition started between the two parties

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era conflict that started in 1946 and ended in 1974, taking nearly 30 years to resolve. The war was fundamentally a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, where the North was communist and South was not. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other non-communist allies supported the non-communist South Vietnam. China, Russia (USSR), Cuba, Cambodia and other Communist allies supported the regime in the north. North Vietnam saw the United States involvement in the North as foreign aggression, so they fought guerilla wars against the anti-communist forces in the region. Guerilla forces (the Viet Cong) and the regular North Vietnamese Army were responsible for fighting the anticommunist forces. The conflict mainly consisted of small battles until the onset of air attacks -- part of an overall strategy of massive bombing and search-and-destroy operations, which South Vietnam and the Americans hoped would win the war.

By 1964, the US—desperate to contain communism—had already sent troops to support South Vietnamese leader, Ngo Dinh Diem. Ngo Dinh Diem couldn’t end communist infiltrations of the South; such infiltrations were otherwise known as the Viet Cong (South Vietnamese communist guerillas), who made their debut to the South in 1959. Diem did not receive loyalty and his rule was so “deteriorated that he was overthrown and assassinated by several of his generals with the tacit approval of the Kennedy Administrations”¹ in 1963;

Imagery and politics are two closely related concepts. “Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be” (McLuhan, 1971). The image has the power to make or break the politician. The impact of imagery also applies to the Government as a whole. The image created by the government influences the support of the population; because of this correlation, information regarding government affairs goes through filters; information that could negatively impact the image of the government may not be provided to the public depending on how important it may be for the general population to know. In the beginning

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