Vietnam War
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a war from 1959 to 1975 in Vietnam. It was fought between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), which was very much supported by the United States. The war was part of the Cold War. South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines cooperated with South Vietnam and the United States. The USSR and China supported the communists in North Vietnam.
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[edit] Background and causes
Before and after World War II, France had controlled the Vietnam region. The Vietnam War was a product of the conflict between France and the Vietnamenese and their leader Ho Chi Minh. The first part of the Vietnam War (the First Indochina War) started in 1946 when the French tried to re-take control of the small country. Followers of Ho Chi Minh fought against the French. In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, a defeated France was forced to leave Vietnam. In the summer of 1954, the French and the Vietnamese signed the Geneva Peace Accord. After the peace treaty was signed, the country was split into two separate countries: North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
The United States backed the anti-communist government in South Vietnam. It began to send military advisors to help train and support the South Vietnam Army. The South was fighting a slowly rising insurgency from the North, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), which would come to be known as the Viet Cong.
North Vietnam wanted to get rid of South Vietnam's government and make the whole country communist.
[edit] Escalation
In 1964, United States naval ships reported being attacked by North Vietnam. Reports later suggested that the attack did not happen. However, the United States passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and began to bomb North Vietnam. In 1965, the first United States combat troops entered Vietnam.
More and more U.S. troops came to Vietnam. In 1968, the Tet Offensive began to change many Americans' opinions of the war.
Bombing and offensive operations continued off and on as peace negotiations began in 1971-1972.
[edit] End of U.S involvement and end of the war
In 1973, the United States started to send its soldiers home and combat operations stopped. South Vietnam continued to fight the NLF and North Vietnam by itself. The war ended with the Fall of Saigon on May 1, 1975. North and South Vietnam became a single country again on July 2, 1976, and is now called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
[edit] Aftermath
The Vietnam War caused a lot of controversy in the United States. A large scale peace movement demonstrated against the war and conscription. Some student protestors were even killed for protesting.
Many people felt like they were lied to by the United States government about Vietnam due to cover ups about bombings in Cambodia and the killing of Vietnamese civilians like that of the My Lai Massacre.
The United States used chemical agents such as Agent Orange to destroy crops and jungle areas. The effects of these chemical agents are still felt today in Vietnam.
Somewhere between 2 and 5.7 million people died in the war. Between 365,000 and 587,000 civilians died. Around 58,000 American troops died.
[edit] Citations and Sources
