THE Vietnam War it was a conflict that stretched from 1959 to 1975, being fought by North Vietnam and South Vietnam for the control and unification of the country. This conflict is inserted in the context of the independence of Vietnam, which started after the Second World War, and was strongly influenced by the ideological polarization caused by the Cold War.
The Vietnam War was marked in the West for being a conflict that had the involvement of US troops, sent to fight on the South Vietnamese side. American involvement took place from 1965 to 1973 and was extremely unpopular with the population. After the withdrawal of US troops, North Vietnamese forces managed to reunify the country.
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Background to the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War is directly related to the fight for independence against French settlers after World War II. Vietnam was part of the IndochinaFrench, a territory that encompassed Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. During World War II, the territory was
Japanese occupied, but was later recovered by the Allies with the defeat of Japan.In July 1945, it was stipulated in the Potsdam Conference that Vietnam would be divided into two zones of influence, as the French were not strong enough to occupy the territory. Thus was established the Parallel 17, which determined that the north of the country would be occupied by the Chinese, and the south, by the British.
In this context, an independence movement had arisen in Vietnam, the Vietnam. This guidance group communist formed an autonomous government in the country. However, when French troops began to be landed in the territory, so that French control could be re-established, a conflict broke out. This was the Indochina War, a conflict that lasted from 1946 to 1954 and ended with the French defeat.
country division
With the French defeat, the independence of the countries of French Indochina was determined through the Geneva Conference, in 1954. Vietnam guaranteed its independence, but the division established in World War II was maintained. Thus, the North Vietnam, with capital in Hanoi, ruled by Ho Chi Minh (the founder of Vietminh); it's the South Vietnam, with capital in Saigon, ruled by nomoneyDiem.
Thus were established, in Vietnam, two governments guided by different ideologies, the north, communist, and the south, capitalist. THE relationship between the two governments from the beginning was hostile, and both failed to fulfill a stipulated agreement to hold free elections so that the country could be unified in 1956. Then they graduated authoritarian governments in the two nations that violently repressed their opponents.
From 1954 to 1959, there was a great escalation in the tension between the two countries, and, gradually, the North Vietnam took action for the invasion of South Vietnam. The idea was to unify the country under the communist regime. Communist guerrillas (called the Vietcong), secretly installed in South Vietnam, began, starting in 1957, to carry out a series of actions to destabilize the southern government.
Beginning of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War began to brew when the President of North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, called for a "people's war" against South Vietnam. Thus were established routes to the south, so that the North Vietnamese guerrillas could establish themselves in enemy territory. In addition, Ngo Dinh Diem's authoritarianism also drew the population's dissatisfaction against him and contributed to the weakening of his country.
In 1960, a military coup against Diem was carried out, but it failed. Soon after, thousands of people were imprisoned and thousands more fled to North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese president formed the National Liberation Front, and from 1961, officially, Communist troops invaded South Vietnam.
It is important to pay attention to the dates of the Vietnam War because, as mentioned, it spanned from 1959 to 1975. It is important to point out that this war start date takes into account the first fights fought between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese army in 1959. There are historians who indicate different dates for the beginning of the conflict.
Vietnam War Participants
![The US involvement in the Vietnam War took place during the Lyndon Johnson administration.[1]](/f/9305c610666156a5a398096c9fd9383c.jpg)
As for the participants in the Vietnam War, they were:
North Vietnam
South Vietnam
StatesUnited
Other nations, such as Australia and South Korea, sent troops into this war. The United States even requested that Brazil send its troops in cooperation in the fight against the communists, but the military president Humberto Castello Branco did not accept the US request.
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US involvement in the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was marked in history by the involvement of the United States. The US government sent troops to Vietnam between 1965 and 1973, and the country's participation in the war was considered a complete disaster from the military point of view, the country's reputation and public opinion. US involvement in the war was an effect of the polarization of the Cold War.
In the Asian context, the US government has applied an idea known as domino theory, in which it was believed that if one nation became a communist, other neighboring nations would also. So after the chinese revolution, in 1949, the United States intervened in other Asian nations to prevent communism from taking root in them.
Vietnam was one of those nations, and US involvement with the country dates back to the Indochina War, fought against the French settlers. The Americans covered ¾ of the French's war spending and considered intervening to defeat the Vietminh troops, but they ended up not doing so.
With the division of the country, the United States provided broad political support for South Vietnam.. With relations between the two Vietnams deteriorating, the US government sent military advisers to support the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Despite this, the US president John F. Kennedy decided not to get directly involved in the conflict.
It was after the Kennedy assassination that the US stance on Vietnam became more assertive. The new president of the United States, LyndonJohnson, authorized secret attacks on the trail used by the communists that linked north and south Vietnam and authorized a secret CIA action in North Vietnam.
The trigger for the North American entry into the conflict was the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which took place in 1964. In that gulf, US vessels had supported previous actions, such as the aforementioned secret CIA action. These vessels were spying on the North Vietnamese forces.
On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USSMaddox was attacked by North Vietnamese vessels in retaliation for US action in the Gulf. On Aug. 4, the US government claimed a new attack against US vessels, but it was never proven. Many historians work with the idea that this second attack was a manipulation by the Lyndon Johnson government to justify US intervention in the war.
On Aug. 5, the president sought congressional approval to send troops to Vietnam. THE Congressional approval was issued two days later, officially starting the country's involvement in the war. The American intervention was extremely unpopular at home, but also internationally.
No major European nation wanted to get involved in the conflict, and even the Soviet Union, in 1961, had warned members of the US government not to get involved in Vietnam, as it would be exhausting.
The American involvement was, to say the least, controversial. Images of US troops committing brutal violence against Vietnamese civilians ran the world. Also, the use of weapons like the napalm (incendiary bombs) had negative repercussions due to the number of civilians affected by them.
The US still made use of weaponschemical (agent orange) to knock down the leaves of the trees where the communist guerrillas were hiding in the jungle. There are places that, to this day, are contaminated, and thousands of US soldiers and Vietnamese citizens have suffered from the consequences of using this agent.
After years of involvement, the war has become very unpopular in the country, and thousands of protests took place against the troops installed in the Asian country. After years of conflict, thousands of soldiers sent to Vietnam and gigantic military actions, the United States has grown weary.
The military attrition caused by Vietnamese troops — who used the forest and guerrilla tactics to attack US troops — and the the impossibility of defeating them, especially in the short term, combined with political weariness, made the country, during the government of Richard Nixon, announce your leaving the war in 1973.
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Aftermath of the Vietnam War
After US troops left Vietnam, the situation of the South Vietnamese got desperate, and they went quickly defeated. In 1975, Saigon, capital of South Vietnam, was conquered, and the war ended with the unification of vietnam under the command of the communist government.
Altogether, it is said that this war caused the death of about four million people, with half of these deaths being civilians. Among US troops, the death toll was approximately 58,000 people.
Image credits
[1] Lefteris Papaulakis and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
