The Vietnam War was a complex conflict that involved the French, Vietnamese, and Americans, with the Viet Minh and Viet Cong using guerilla warfare tactics to gain independence from foreign control. Despite America's efforts to stop the spread of communism, they eventually realized that the war was pointless, resulting in the fall of South Vietnam and a severe impact on civilians throughout the country. The war demonstrated strong guerilla warfare tactics, along with western warfare strategies.
Vietnam Controlled
Vietnam was long controlled by the French, ever since September 1 1858, and would eventually leave June 9 1885. The French had gained control of Vietnam making it feel like “home” and modeling major cities in France like Paris. The
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They were professionals in guerilla warfare, and the organization was founded by Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh launched a guerilla warfare attack against the French that was named the First Indochina War. Ultimately, the Viet Minh, under the leadership of General Vo Nguyen Giap, decisively defeated the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. After gaining independence from the French, Ho Chi Minh would become corrupt, and turn Vietnam communist. From this, south vietnam arose, deciding that they needed to become democratic again. America wanted to stay completely neutral during this conflict, and did not want to turn against Ho Chi Minh, the man that they helped years …show more content…
China would provide the uniform, and the Soviet Union was a big provider in weapons for North Vietnam. China and the Soviet Union thought that it could be beneficial if they could spread communism throughout Europe and hopefully the world. Chinese aid to north Vietnam was an estimated amount of 20 billion dollars from 1950-1970. The Soviet Union delivered food, gasoline, transportation equipment, steel, iron, other metals, arms, and ammunition. With this, it gave the North Vietnamese a fighting chance, and would eventually lead them to win the
Him and millions of people marched into the capital city of Hanoi, he issued the Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence. “From the American Declaration of Independence he borrow the famous statements, All men are created equal and they endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”(Zinn 469) Ho Chi Minh and his people were fighting for their freedom against French like the our founding fathers they fought against the British in 1776 for their freedom. The reason Vietnamese wanted to end the French occupation was because they imposed inhuman laws on the vietnamese. For instance, “the French government built more prisons than schools, they have slain their patriots, they have robbed their natural resources, they have enforced unnecessary taxes, people are living in a state of poverty, and two million Vietnamese people suffered from malnutrition and they were starved to death.”(Zinn
(Review of Literature 3)Since the USSR contrived ‘Comintern’ and Ho Chi Minh was a former member, it was therefore an obligation for the USSR to intervene to some extent in the Vietnam War to support the North Vietnamese. (Source F)Thus another reason for which the USSR intervened in the Vietnam War was to honour an earlier partnership it had with the Vietnamese ruler, Ho Chi Minh, which was a different reason as to why America intervened. (Review of Literature
He also stated that Indochina needed to be completely independent and that they needed to establish a worker-peasant and soldier government. He expressed that they needed to confiscate banks and other enterprises belonging to the imperialists and the capitalist classes and distribute them to Indochina’s poor peasants, and to implement an eight-hour working day. He also said that the taxation on the Vietnamese was too harsh, and to abolish the French’s public loans and poll taxes, because these unjust tariffs were too expensive for the lower class to handle. He wanted to carry out universal education for all Vietnamese citizens, and most of all, he wanted
Vietnamization was the only plan and hope for this war, thankfully some of the plan
On April 30, 1975, South Vietnam collapsed. The war affected the soldiers mentally in a tremendously way. The Vietnam War affected the men mentally and physically in a tremendously way. They witnessed many deaths and many are traumatized from them. Soldiers had to try to maintain their sanity when the returned home.
The Vietnam Was devastating time for not just America, but worldwide. This War lead to 1 million, four hundred and fifty thousand casualties from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This devastating number only increased when you also take into account the other side, the Americans, with more than 50,000 casualties. One may argue that a major reason the Vietnam War occurred was due to the disagreement between the Soviet Reds and the Great Uncle Sam after World War 2. The Reds wanted to spread communism, this left Americans not too pleased because they were capitalist all the way.
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.
But in the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese did not wear uniforms; they often hid amongst villages with uninvolved citizens, sometimes they would attach bombs to children and send them to groups of American troops; at night, during guard duty, North Vietnamese guerillas would sneak up on a US soldier and slit his throat and then the next one to take that position would find the other dead. Because conditions like these, the American soldiers deployed in Vietnam had to
November 1, 1955 marked the beginning of the conflict in Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a fight against the Domino Theory, or the idea of the spreading of communism. Northern Vietnam was a communist territory, and the United States government feared that Southern Vietnam would soon become a communist state as well. In order to prevent this from happening, the US government drafted many young Americans to fight against Northern Vietnam. At first, many Americans supported the country’s involvement, though as time went on, many people became weary of the country’s involvement in the battle.
The Vietnam War started when French invaded Vietnamese territory and took it as their colony in 1887. Later in 1954, Vietnam was officially split into North(communist) and South(capitalist) Vietnam. The Viet Minh was the communist group who wanted to declare independence from France. The U.S did not want communism to be spread and that was the reason why they joined the war and supported the South. For the United States, a communist Vietnam meant the spread of the Soviet Union influence abroad the Asia’s territory (domino theory).
Ultimately, the Vietnamese did not want to change their way of government in any way, which started the Vietnam war. Walter Cronkite, a T.V. star in the twentieth century, stated in his broadcast “We are Mined in Stalemate” the Vietnamese are just loyal people protecting their freedoms, the U.S. are losing men and money for no reason, and the war is nowhere near an end. In the end of the war, Cronkite was right about what would occur in the Vietnam War and his broadcast summed up the whole war. The experience in this war became worse by time for the United States. It all began with the Tet offensive, a surprise attack on the United States on the Vietnamese new year.
This essay will investigate to what extent did the Strategies and Tactics used by the United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Soviet Union influence the outcome of the Vietnam war? The Vietnam War was one of the most significant war in American History. It was a war that will not be forgotten in a long time due to its surprising outcome and length of the war. One of the key roles in the war that had affected the outcome of the war were the tactics and strategies that were used by different countries. To investigate this question you will need to know about the strategies and tactics that were used by different countries.