Revolution In Vietnam

The Vietnam War began soon after World War II. At first , in 1946, the war was between the Vietnamese and the French. The government was French, but many Vietnamese people did not want a French government. They wanted the French to leave so they could have their own government. The Vietnamese fought hard, and slowly they won more and more land. By 1953. The French army was in trouble. They were not winning the war. French soldiers were dying and the war was costing a lot of money. So, in 1954, the French army stopped fighting and left Vietnam.

Vietnam was a French colony dating back to mid 1800s. Vietnam was meant as a farming colony where they would grow things such as tobacco, tea, and coffee. The French treated their colony poorly by denying civil

For centuries the Vietnamese people resisted being controlled by their powerful Chinese neighbors. They struggled to unify their country as an independent state. Ultimately they freed themselves from China 's claim for control of political authority and achieved national unity only to fall victim to French imperialism (Anderson 1). French ruled Vietnam and neighboring kingdoms as colonies from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia during World War II influenced the Vietminh war against the French in 1945. September 2nd, 1945, Ho Chi Minh declares independence from French rule shortly after Japans surrender from World War II (www.history.com). France 's rule over its colony was incredibly brutal and exploitative (Anderson 6). French colonialism deprived the Vietnamese of their political independence, and it impoverished many of the Vietnamese people (Anderson 7). Many villagers lost their lands and became low-paid plantation

Today, our World is a lot safer than 1960s. With emerge of civil rights; The United States was at its own War in 1960s. Despite, the differences and political crisis inside the Country, American politicians denied the fact that Americans were at their own War. Chronically, the Government threatened most of Civil rights Movement leaders to death, but they fought for people’s rights against discrimination. Meanwhile, the United States was unrest with emerging Vietnamese War. With the help from Soviet Union, the Communist Government of Vietnam was trying to destroy Southern Vietnamese. To stop spreading out the Communism in Vietnam, the United States intervention required. In this essay I will talk about how American Government

The United States began to support South Vietnam, but Diem proved to be a horrible leader and in 1963 was killed during a coup issued by John F. Kennedy. The National Liberation

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War was a clash between communist forces who are allied with the Viet Cong and South Vietnam allied with the United States of America. The “roots” of the war started during the 1940’s when Japan “invaded and occupied Vietnam” which has been under French rule for more than 50 years. It all started with Ho Chi Minh, a communist revolutionary who established the Viet Minh, an organization “whose goal was to get rid Vietnam of the French and Japanese occupiers” .

To understand the origins of the Vietnam War we must go back to the period prior to 1954 which was when Vietnam was a French colony. The French had colonized the South Asia areas of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in the late 1880’s as part of their vast colonization movement. The French had justified this colonization movement by creating an ideology to support their expansion goals. This ideology was called “mission civilisatrice” which means civilizing mission in English. They felt that certain areas of the world were undeveloped and uncivilized and as such they required the oversight and management of France to help bring them modern ideas and social reforms. As a result of this expansion by France the country of Vietnam became a colony of France along with other locations. The area eventually controlled by the French was referred to as French Indochina.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Americans became uneasy not only about the troubled position of the United States in world affairs, but also about the disorder wrought at home byforeign entanglements. Vietnam, either because of the searing war experience itself or because of the lessons Americans later drew from the experience, drastically altered society during the1960s and 1970s. The belief in the right to influence the internal affairs of other countries led todisaster in Southeast Asia. This disaster would forever be known as the longest war in thenation 's history (lasted 25 years), in which the world 's most powerful military (United States)spent itself in a futile attempt to conquer the peasant population. Vietnam became an additional opponent in the containment of communism for America. Overlooking the native roots of the revolutionand the tenacity of the people fighting for their own land, American leaders are going to makethe mistake of looking at Vietnam from a globalist point-of-view, and the events through a ColdWar lens. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, came to recognize this as their flaw in the war, he statedthat the United States had "misconceived the nature of the war" (Doc. E). Ultimately, theVietnam War would come to heighten tensions in the social, political, and economic aspects of the United States during the mid-1960s and early 1970s.

After World War II, The United States played a detrimental role in recognizing France’s right to colonial rule in Vietnam. As a result, the French instituted repressive control, and an estimated 600,000 to 2,000,000 Vietnamese were starved to death while Vietnamese rice was exported to France (Gunn). Oppressed and furious, the Vietnamese, led by Ho Chi Minh, a communist who had pursued Vietnamese autonomy all of his life, declared their independence in 1945 and overthrew the French five years later. However, France and the United States continued to instill their influence in South Vietnam by inserting their own democratic puppets (“The American Involvement…”). In essence, the United States, under the pretense of combating an oncoming “plague” of Communism, instigated a war in 1965 against North Vietnam with the intention to prevent the southern and northern portions of Vietnam from uniting and achieving sovereignty under one government. Kerry perceived the war as an illegitimate act against a people who have longed to be free from foreign intervention and thus, wants to end the war by calling on the Senate to begin withdrawing troops.

Since the 19th century, Vietnam had been under French rule. During World War II, Ho Chi Minh was the president who valued the

The takeover by the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnam Communist forces were in part the faults of the US. If we had stayed and better assisted the South Vietnamese, which the US government called Vietnamization, South Vietnam might still be in existence today. Vietnamization was in a sense the process of preparing South Vietnam to be able to take care of itself mainly by building up South Vietnam’s military defenses and was supposed to prepare South Vietnam for the long term defense it needed to hold up to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Vietnamization included the giving of heavy artillery and military supplies to South Vietnam, but some South Vietnamese referred to Vietnamization as a "U.S. Dollar and Vietnamese Blood Sharing Plan” (“Vietnam War”). A South Vietnamese military general accounts the events leading to the takeover in his journal and writes: “To give an idea of our abominable condition, a unit of rangers there had no communications equipment and thus had to abandon their positions; a battery of 105-mm howitzers could not shoot because they had no sights for the guns; and the aircraft had no bombs available to drop on readily identifiable targets” (Van Don). This proving the state of confusion the South Vietnamese military was in. They were

Instead, he declared himself “president” of the Republic of Vietnam. This created a feeling of dislike among Vietnamese civilians, both from the North and South, and the creation of Viet Cong, a group set to abolish Diem’s dictatorship. Viet Cong originated from the Viet Minh, and because of this, the group was strongly supported by the North. Eventually, Diem was assassinated, and North Vietnam took advantage of his death. The U.S. sent more troops in response, and U.S. soldiers were faced with harsh conditions, as well as booby traps sent by the Viet Cong. Because of this and the various protests at home, the U.S. “sought to achieve ‘peace with honor’ by combining a policy of ‘Vietnamization,’ or South Vietnamese self-reliance, with a policy of détente with the Soviet Union and China” (Lind). As the U.S. withdrew their troops, they hoped that South Vietnam would be able to fend for itself. However, South Vietnam lost the war, and a communist Vietnam followed.

The communist leader Ho Chi Minh led his forces based in the north and defeated the French in 1954. Agreements was signed, which divided the country into the pro-American South and communist north, with a demilitarized zone between them. Continue reading →

Starting in late 1946, a rebellion began in French Indochina. The French colony, only recently liberated from Japanese occupation, was eager to assert its independence from France. However, the French, wishing to retain their colonial empire, had no wish to let this happen. Backed by the United States who was afraid of the spread of communism in the area, France fought a brutal war to maintain its position of power over Indochina. Ultimately, just like the Vietnam War that succeeded it, the French Indochina War was a waste of time, money, and manpower.

This book was written by Margot Mabie and published in 1985 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc. It contains a total of 166 total pages including index. The book focuses on Vietnam before the war then shifts to the war in Vietnam between the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese. The United States came in support of the south. The conflict is not considered a actual war by many in the United States due to the fact that Congress did not declare war.