The atrocities that took place in Vietnam fifty years ago have left physical and mental scars on the people that were afflicted by the war. Regardless of whether an individual was a civilian or a soldier, both experienced horrors. With over 1.3 million casualties, the war has stricken locals in Vietnam, to families across the United States. The majority of Vietnam 's history has been a challenge for freedom, whether it was from the Chinese around 900 years AD or the French just after World War II. After Ho Chi Minh, a soon to be leader of Vietnam was tired of the Frenchman’s tyranny, declared war and launched attacks against the French in April of 1954. This was the start of the Vietnam war. When the French began to see the casualties …show more content…
Toward the end of the 19th century the French military overcame the Vietnamese and took control over Vietnam. Vietnamese emperors were powerless and French ruled them with tyranny. In 1890 Nguyen Tat Thanh was born. He was well educated and had aspirations of traveling the world. In fact he lived in Brooklyn, New York for nearly a year. His career as a politician started at the treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. He started a petition to make Vietnam independant, unfortunately for him as a young 29-year-old no one in Versaille listened. After the defeat of Nazis during World War II the Soviet Union began to expand their dictatorship. This is when Nguyen Tat Thanh, now known as Ho Chi Minh took it to his advantage and allied with the Soviets by ultimately making Vietnam communist. By the end of the First Indochina War, Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh forces came out victorious against the French. However, due to France’s alliance with the United States, the U.S. was obligated to step in. This is when the “The Vietnam War ” for the United States and the “Second Indochina War” for the Viet Minh has begun.
During March of 1965, the United States had begun air-raiding North Vietnam and other Communist-controlled areas in the South. By 1966 there were almost 200,000 troops deployed by the U.S. in South Vietnam; Meanwhile, North Vietnam was getting weapons such as the popular widespread rifle the AK-47
The Vietnam war, also called the Indochina War , may be said to have started in 1957 when Communist-led rebels began mounting terrorists attacks against the government of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The rebel forces, commonly called the Vietcong, were later aided by troops of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). American combat personnel were formally committed to the defense of the South in 1965. An agreement calling for a ceasefire was signed in January 1973, and by March the few remaining U.S. millitary personnel in Vietnam were withdrawn. However, the war between the two Vietnamese sides persisted inconclusively for two additional years before South Vietnamese resistance
There had been fighting in Vietnam decades before the Vietnam War began. Vietnam had been occupied by the French until their defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the Japanese from 1941 until 1945. After the Geneva agreement in 1954 Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel into North and South Vietnam. Diem became president in the South in 1955 which is when it is considered America really got involved, because they now had to support Diem’s government with supplies, military equipment and money. The reason America got involved was because of
The Vietnam War and active United States involvement in the war began in 1954, although the ongoing conflict in the region had stretched back several decades. It wasn’t until 1965 that President Johnson, with the support of the general public, decided to deploy US combat forces to battle in Vietnam. Eventually, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam, and soon military leaders were calling for 175,000 more men by the end of 1965 to help aid the struggling South Vietnamese army. Disregarding
The declaration of Vietnamese independence made by Ho Chi Minh in 1945 served as a milestone in what was a century-old struggle against foreign control. In its history Vietnam had spent 1000 years under control of the Chinese and had resisted this control vehemently. Revolts and rebellions against China finally lead to Vietnamese independence in the tenth century. In the thirteenth century the Vietnamese drove back Kublai Khan three times under the leadership Dao. Tran Hung Dao not only led the Vietnamese people in driving Kublai Khan back, but did so by pioneering the guerrilla warfare methods that would later be employed against both the French and the United States. It is thus evident from this brief history of Vietnams that its
The Vietnam War was a bloody dispute that lasted 20 years, from 1955 to 1975. After winning its own independence from France in 1954, the country itself split into two parts, North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, a communist leader who lead his country into its revolution against the French. The North had a communist style government styled off of the successful Communist revolution in Russia. The South on the other hand, was backed up by the United States and had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was a very repressive leader though, and soon enough a guerilla force made up of communists now called the ‘Viet Cong’ started to attack and kill Southern Vietnamese government officials. The Viet Cong
Vietnam War’s leading cause was the Indochina War. Many countries tried to seize control of Vietnam, leading to many conflicts. For a long period of time Indochina was overrun by the French, which was a region of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They continued to have power over the country until the World War 2. Japan invaded but their power was short-lived due to the defeat of the war. Emperor Bao who was a French leader then took control of Indochina. The communist political leader named Ho Chi Minh decided it was time to take action and sent his army known as the Viet Minh to attack a northern city called Hanoi. Winning the battle in 1945 Ho Chi Minh became president, created Hanoi as capital and announced the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The Vietnam war was a long, armed conflict which heated between communist rule of North Vietnam, allied by Viet Cong and South Vietnam and its principle ally, the United States of America. The region was in fog of conflict from mid-1940’s, when the Viet Minh party was formed by Ho Chi Minh, a communist leader who was inspired by the Soviet Communism, to fight Japan and French Colonial administration during the World War II. After the Japanese forces left Vietnam, and French Emperor Bao Dai was in control of an independent region, Ho Chi Min rose to power, and declared himself as president of a Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Starting off with what was going on in Vietnam, before the war ever happened. There already had been fighting for decades in Vietnam. The Vietnamese have suffered under the ruling of the French for nearly 6 decades, then the Japanese decided to join in by invading portions of Vietnam in 1940. After a 30 year long traveling trip, Ho Chi Minh came back to Vietnam in 1941. Once he was back, Ho Chi Minh setup base in Northern Vietnam and established the Viet Minh, goal was to rid Vietnam of the French and Japanese. Once they gained support and tried to establish a new government. The French wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
The Vietnam War (1954-1975) was one of the most publicized wars of all time and was what they called the first “television war.” It was a prolonged conflict that eroded the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States (Britannica). This war lasted nearly 20 years and was by no means a cheap or peaceful war, more than 3 million people, including 58,000 American soldiers, were killed which lead to the U.S. forces withdrawing in 1973. The war was costing the U.S. some $25 billion per year (History). Veterans were highly mistreated when they returned from the war.
The Vietnam War, lasting almost twenty years and deploying 2.7 million troops to the front lines, was one of the largest wars in United States history. Beginning August 2nd, 1964, the war killed 58,000 American soldiers and disabled twice that number. The war brought humiliation to our great nation, and created very overwhelming tensions, in a quote by President Nixon, “Let us be united against defeat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that” (Doc G). These tensions grew immensely over the course of the war. In terms of political tensions, the trust and credibility of the war and government began to seem very questionable. Socially, the public began to acknowledge
Throughout the 1960’s, the United States of America was in the midst of change, advancements, and struggle. It was America vs. the Soviet Union, always trying to one up each other in both weaponry and space technology, but the main conflict was the spread of Communism. As the battle between Communists and Non-Communists raged on, America attempted to do everything in its power to stop the spread of communism all around the world. This is what lead to the gruesome war that lasted over a decade in Vietnam. A great deal of social changed happened all over the world, but particularly in America as the Vietnam War dragged on. As people became more aware of the atrocities going on in Southeast Asia, the endless domestic support turned into
The American involvement in the Vietnam War created widespread division between the American people. There were many United States citizens who believed that the United States was involved in the Vietnam struggle for the right reasons, in order to prevent communism from taking over South Vietnam. There were also other citizens who believed that the United States was involved over there for the wrong reasons, due to the feeling that it was none of our business, and that it was considered another form of American imperialism. These same differing opinions were also seen in various songs written during the war years. During the sixties, songwriters, composers and musicians were all involved in lending their talents towards either support of
The U.S. first sent American advisors to Vietnam after the Viet Cong, Viet Minh sympathizers, started becoming a threat in South Vietnam (“Vietnam War History”). At first, President John F. Kennedy sent military advisors to Vietnam to report the conditions there. They advised aid and the American military to help stop the Viet Cong. President Kennedy was a firm believer in the “Domino Theory,” and as a result, he increased aid. U.S. military in South Vietnam grew up to 9,000 troops by 1962 (“Vietnam War History”.) The U.S. started sending combat forces in 1965 (Tucker). Thereafter, the number of troops continued to increase, in the article, “Vietnam War,” the author comments, “At the end of 1964, about 23,500 Americans had been serving in Vietnam, but by the close of 1968, that number would grow to 525,000 in a steady stream of additional deployments” (Tucker). Thousands of Americans were sent to serve in the war, and after only four years that number went up to hundreds of thousands American soldiers. Initially, the U.S. was staying out of
Vietnam a few months before they were called to My Lai. Americans were fighting against North
The Vietnam War lasted from 1954 through 1975, and was the longest war ever fought in American History which lasted for 21 years. This war was long and costly and was mainly fought against the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies known as the Vietcong, against its war rival South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. More than 3 million people were killed in the Vietnam War, including 58,000 Americans (Staff). Although this war was mainly fought towards the impact of stopping the spread of communism, there were many other factors that contributed to the start of the war.