What Started The Vietnam War? The Vietnam War was started because 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.The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. U.S. military advisers, present in small …show more content…
To fight off both Japanese occupiers and the French colonial administration, political leader Ho Chi Minh communism formed the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam.Following its 1945 defeat in World War ii, Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam, leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai in control. Seeing an opportunity to seize control, Ho’s Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, taking over the northern city of Hanoi and declaring a Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho as president.
Seeking to regain control of the region, France backed Emperor Bao and set up the state of Vietnam in July 1949, with the city of Saigon as its capital. Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. But while Ho and his supporters wanted a nation modeled after other communist countries, Bao and many others wanted a Vietnam with close economic and cultural ties to the West. The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and ’50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France. The French Indochina War broke out in 1946 and went on for eight years, with France’s war effort largely funded and supplied by the United States. Finally, with their shattering defeat by the Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954, the French came to the end of their rule in Indochina.
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destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam.By the time U.S. planes began regular bombings of North Vietnam in February 1965, some critics had begun to question the government’s assertion that it was fighting a democratic war to liberate the South Vietnamese people from Communist aggression.The anti-war movement began mostly on college campuses, as members of the leftist organization Students for a Democratic Society began organizing “teach-ins” to express their opposition to the way in which it was being conducted. Though the vast majority of the American population still supported the administration policy in Vietnam, a small but outspoken liberal minority was making its voice heard by the end of 1965. This minority included many students as well as prominent artists and intellectuals and members of the hippie movement, a growing number of young people who rejected authority and embraced the drug
The Vietnam War was a conflict between the Vietnamese government that was under French administration and the pro-communist Vietnamese citizens who were fighting for independence from foreign influence. The United States’ armed forces entered into the conflict in support of the colonial administration in an attempt to stop the spread of Chinese and Soviet influence and communism in the region. The Vietnam War is arguably the longest war, lasting 11 years, from 1964 to 1975, and costing the lives of more than 58,000 Americans and countless numbers of Vietnamese. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War came about when communist North Vietnam sought to unify an anti-communist South Vietnam (Benson, Sonia, et al., 2009). As the war escalated and the
The Vietnam War was a prolonged conflict between North and South Vietnam that started in 1954 and ended many years later in April 1975. This war started not long after the struggle of the First Indochina War, when Vietnam was divided into two; North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Vietnam War started because of the threat of communism spreading. Another term for this was the ‘Domino Theory’. The Domino Theory was the belief that if one country turned to communist influence, other countries would follow its actions, resulting in a domino effect.
The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, was one of the most divisive and controversial conflicts in American history. It was a military conflict between the Communist North Vietnam, and South Vietnam, with the United States and other Western powers supporting the Southern Vietnamese. The war was fought in the context of the Cold War because the United States feared that Communism would spread throughout Southeast Asia if North Vietnam managed to take control of the entire country. The war had such a profound impact on American society, and still remains a subject of intense debate and analysis today. After World War I, Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, expressed many grievances against the French colonialists.
Vietnamization goal was “to gradually transfer responsibility for the fighting to the south vietnamese, betting that - aided by a handful of American advisers on the ground and he might of U.S. airpower - their troops could stand against the veteran battalions of north vietnam” (Fleming 1). We sent in all of our troops to somehow aid that country so that one day they could aid themselves. With no hope left for this war “U.S. President Richard M. Nixon gambled his presidency on a program called ‘vietnamization’” ( Fleming 1).
The Vietnam War was fought between the North and South Vietnamese over Communism. The North pushed for a communist regime while the South favored a more democratic government. During the time of this war, the U.S. was pushing towards containing Communism, and vowed to support any nation resisting communism. Although America’s policy of containment had good intentions, this often led to the support of corrupt leaders and governments. President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam was Catholic and did not lead well.
The Voices Behind The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was previously one of the longest wars in history, causing chaos, terror, and tragedy to everyone. The war officially started in 1955 and ended long after in 1975. The war took place in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos and was fought between the communist forces of North Vietnam and the South Vietnam government. The U.S. gave its support to South Vietnam as it supported the anti-communist side of the war. This war marked a turning in not only American history but the history of the whole world.
The Vietnam War was a war the United States should have never been involved in. The “Domino Theory” was a direct cause of the war. The war resulted in much death; innocent civilians and young Americans were killed. The Vietnam war also resulted in rioting, distrust for the United States government, and the loss of many lives. 58,000 Americans were killed and 300,000 were wounded.
The Vietnam War was one of the most outrageous and long-drawn out wars in history. Throughout the Vietnam War, American involvement was wanted by some and hated by many. America wanted to help the South Vietnamese. United States ' reason for their involvement in Vietnam was to prevent the spread of communism. This was referred to as the domino effect.
The Vietnam conflict began long before the U.S. became directly involved. Indochina, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was under French colonial rule. In 1946 communists in the north started fighting France for control of the
The Vietnam war was preceded by a very turbulent time in our history with problems here in the states such as racism, women’s rights, and a president being shot. But in Vietnam they were going through a civil war, which they had done before, but not to this extent, this time they got the U.S.S.R. involved. It was communist Russia and North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The U.S. started to get
The war escalated and North Vietnam increased its support to the Vietcong. By the end of 1968 the number of American troops was
The cause of the Vietnam War began with a colonial war between Vietnam and the French. The Vietnamese were trying to free themselves from a French colony. The Vietnamese leader was Ho Chi Minh, a Communist, so he received support from USSR and Red China. The French left Vietnam, so there was a peace conference in Geneva attended by France, Vietnam, the USSR, and the U.S.
According to History.com, the beginnings of the Vietnam War began during World War II. During the world war the Japanese had invaded Vietnam, and to resist this action the French Colonial Administration, led by Ho Chi Minh, formed the league for the independence of Vietnam. After the allies defeat in 1945, Japan retreated and gave up its control in Vietnam. Ho saw this as an opportunity and seized control of Hanoi and then declared a democratic republic of Vietnam, naming himself president.
According to The Vietnam War: an intimate history, it states: “Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem, the two best-known Vietnamese leaders of the Vietnam War era, have long been viewed as polar opposites” (Ward and Burns 44). Ho was a representation of communism while Ngo is anticommunist. Ho ruled the North while Ngo ruled the South. The Vietnamese communist is called “Viet Nam Cong
The Viet Cong were the communist regime in North Vietnam that were supported by China and the Soviet Union. The South Vietnam regime were a noncommunist regime that were primarily allied by the United States. These Vietnamese communists were a military branch of the National Liberation Front. Before the Vietnam War Vietnam was struggling to get independence from Chinese and French. The country then was under the control of the Chinese and French.