On May 7, 1954, Viet Minh forces won the conflict of the Dien Bien Phu and
ended French involvement in Indochina. The Vietnam War and active U.S.
involvement in the war started in 1954. This victory led to the Geneva
Conference where the French and Viet Minh negotiated a ceasefire agreement.
Back in 1950, it was clear that the United States was not available in the war in
any serious way.
The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify
vietnam. They viewed the warfare as a colonial war and a continuation of the
first indochina war facing forces from France and later on the United States. The
U.S. government seen its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a
communist takeover of the south vietnam. This was a factor of the
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Most likely the Vietnam war had traced their roots back to
the end of world war 2. A French colony indochina vietnam, laos, & cambodia
had been occupied by the japanese during the war.
The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. In 1995,
vietnam release its official estimate of war dead 2 million civilians on both sides
and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Vietcong fighters. The U.S. military
had predicted an estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 south vietnamese
soldiers died in the war. This amount is more than twice as many as the U.S.
government estimate of 30,000 people killed in North Vietnam. Anyhow,
according to the official estimate of Hanoi in 1995, the number of civilian deaths
in the entire war were almost 2 million people, which is four time higher than
other estimates.
After the world war 2, the vietnamese expected the allies to support their claims
to independence. China which had traditionally seen itself as vietnam’s protector
opposed the return of France to indochina. While an anti colonialist nation,
more money to spend on music and fashion, and so they had more say in
Many soldiers have been lost in the different wars that the United States has been involved. Although there have been many wars only one is unique from the others, it is known as the war that was never won or lost. The Vietnam War started out as a conflict but soon escalated into a full-fledged war. Many soldiers have been lost in the Vietnam War. The United States sent many soldiers into the jungles of Indochina trying to stop the spread of communism from the North Vietnamese. It all seems clear-cut, with the motives and sides easily seen but as the war lagged on, it seemed that the United States became involved, and essentially needed a draft. The United States involvement in the Vietnam War became
In the middle 1960s, every male in America had to register for Selective Service Draft at age 18. He would then be eligible for the draft and could be inducted into the Army for a period of two years. If you were a college student, you could receive a deferment and would be able to finish college without the fear of being drafted. However, once finished with college, a students name would be put to the very top of the draft list and could be deployed at anytime. The anti-war movement was about young men being drafted and then sent into war that most Americans did not believe threatened the security of the US. The Vietnam War was America’s rebellious war, a war without popular support
During World War II, many people died on both sides. “The numbers do not lie- World War 2 was one of the largest conflicts in recorded history with no corner of
The way that this war was fought also had an effect on the soldiers, in a normal war there
Between 1914 and 1918, over nine million soldiers and five civilians were killed and seven million men disabled permanently (Mintz). This tragic phenomenon is known as World War I. Leaving the world with $186 billion direct costs and $251 billion indirect costs, this World War is known to be the most expensive war in history (Mintz). These four years also impacted the civilians not involved in the war severely. Women were given a chance to have a job in the workforce, children had to work in order to feed themselves, and an influenza epidemic was brought into communities (Mintz and Wotherspoon). World War I soon turned into a “group effort”; it turned into a Total War. Initially starting off as an encouraging and positive experience, World War I eventually turned into a brutal, selfish, and chaotic battle, and left millions of
After the deaths of 37,508,686 soldiers by the end of World War I, Europe was a mess. Countries had been dissolved and rearranged, governments had fallen and been replaced, and economies were thriving then crashing, all as a result from World War I. One of the main goals at the end of World War I was to prevent another tragedy like World War I from happening again. Clearly that did not happen, as World War II still happened, causing over 50 million deaths. The repercussions of World War I caused World War II due to radical ideology, bad economic conditions, and nationalism to the point of extremity.
Reasons for United States' Involvement in Vietnam In this essay I will be writing about why America got involved in the Vietnam War, between the 1950s to the 1960s. This was a steady and slow process with many deaths all because of communism. It was very costly and bloody. This essay will focus on political reasons, military reasons and economy reasons.
Vietnam was so significant to the United States partly as it would be the first war they would lose. It also had a tremendous financial impact on the country and the casualties were also more in the public eye than ever before due to the media. They learnt that: "a long war for limited objectives, with its steady stream of body bags, will not be supported by the American people" (Martino, 1996, p37). Some suggest that the US should have avoided any involvement in the war.
As sad as it is to say, both wars ended with countless death totals. No one expected each war to turn out as deadly as they did, but the statistics speak for themselves. According to (Doc 8), a statistics chart depicting the evidence of the war, Russia lost 76.3% of their men in battle during WW1. That leaves only a quarter of the 12,000,000 soldiers sent to war, coming home to their families. WW2 was the same way, and it caused many effects on the countries themselves. According to (Doc 9), anywhere from 6.6-8.8 million died over the course of the war. At this point if you were able to come home, you were rare. But one thing we have to remember is that these soldiers were not coming home in fresh clothes and washed up faces. These men were coming home with limbs missing and every traumatizing memory from the war etched in their brains. With all that said, both wars were alike in the way that they were affected by the consequence of
Secondly, during the war which lasted 4 years, 3 weeks and 6 days many men died but these deaths weren’t only caused by fighting on the battlefield. During the war, “2% of the U.S. population died. This is equivalent to 6 million men today. While rifles were the deadliest weapons during the war, disease killed more men. Camps became breeding grounds for measles, chickenpox, and
As it turned out, 1949 was a bad year for the US in the Cold War; to
During the war, 8 to 10 million soldiers were killed in battle, and 22 million were
America's Involvement in Vietnam From the early 1800’s up until 1931 Vietnam was controlled by France, Frances rule was then ended as they were forced to pull out of Vietnam due to the start of WW2, France left a ‘puppet ruler’ named Emperor Bao Dai. This left Vietnam vulnerable to invasion which was an opportunity Japan could not refuse and took advantage of Vietnam’s situation by invading. This sparked the return of a well known Vietnamese communist, Ho Chi Minh who was an exile during Frances rein, but thanks to WW2 was able to stage his return and help battle the Japanese and regain Vietnam’s freedom. The Marshall Plan was the main way in which the United States for the reconstruction of
The war led both to be obdurate and made de-escalation difficult. The violence generated considerable casualties and huge costs on both sides. An estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people were killed, 1 million were displaced, and a generation of development opportunities was squandered.