Vietnam War
From ArticleWorld
The Vietnam was a conflict in which political ideals and cultures clashed in the small South-East Asian country of Vietnam. The conflict was escalating for years before the official starting point in 1957. The country was divided into two provinces the communist dominated North and the democratic South. In 1954 France attempted to recolonize the area known as Indochina, but was defeated by the Viet Minh as a result France agreed to the partitioning of the country.
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Background
The division of lands in what was to become known as the First Indochina War, accelerated changes in political anxiety and inner turmoil. The Second Indochina War, which would later become the Vietnam war, began largely as a civil war, but the involvement of a communist North made the conflict a global issue. Vietnam may have only been a small country, but the political implications made it a small-scale battleground of the more widespread underground Cold War conflict, between the Communist Soviets and the democratic West, most notably the United States. The communist controlled North Vietnam was seen as a political threat and if it was allowed to take over, by way of conflict or an alliance with the South the wider implications were huge. It was this fear of a spread of communist ideals that fuelled America’s involvement with their Allies in Saigon.
Cold War Divide
The War became a bloody conflict with huge casualties on both sides. The Northern armies (The Viet Cong) led by Ho Chi Minh were a communist regime, which had sympathies and alliances with Russia and China. U.S President Kennedy and Russian Premier Nikita Krushchev locked horns in Vienna, Austria with little success. Kennedy became increasingly convinced that the Russians were dedicated to conflict and not diplomatic discussion. Vietnam became a political staging ground in which backing down would be unthinkable.
Protests
With ever increasing fatalities and fewer political explanations, the United States government came under increasing pressure from their own people to pull out of the conflict. The war became the subject for public unrest and protest, particularly from the student population and many artistic outlets like musicians and filmmakers. Civil disturbances and peace demonstrations became commonplace, the 1969 Woodstock festival became a symbolic gesture of harmony and unity amongst disaffected youths. It became a staging post for peaceful demonstrations against the war raging thousands of miles away.
The End
The United States involvement Vietnam War ended officially on January 27th 1973 after 15 years of conflict and months of peace negotiations in Paris, an agreement was found. The war would go on for a further two years with battles raging between North and South Vietnamese forces. The war would claim between 4 and 8 million lives, with more than 58,000 belonging to the US. Although the United States had one the vast majority of major conflicts that they had fought in, the heavy losses and ignominious departure had left many to suggest that the Vietnam War was the United States’ first military defeat.