The+Vietnam+War

=__**The Vietnam War**__= The Vietnam War is also called the Second Indochina War. The war in Indochina did not start as a war against communism. Instead, it started as a war of decolonization. It started on November 1st 1955-April 30, 1975. It was fought between North Vietnam which was supported by China and other communist allies and the government of South Vietnam which was supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries.
 * By Monique Dion**



There had been fighting in Vietnam for a while before the Vietnam War had begun. It all started during the Second World War as Ho Chi Minh and his Communists began to fight against the Japanese. Japan had invaded portions of Vietnam in 1940. After the Second World War was over, the French assumed that Indochina would be theirs again. The Vietnamese did not want this. Ho Chi Minh had a goal to rid Vietnam of the French and Japanese occupiers. Ho Chi Minh announced the establishment of an independent Vietnam with a new government called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2, 1945. However, the French fought back.



In 1954, after suffering a defeat at Dien Bien Phu, the French decided to pull out of Vietnam. This was the end of the war between the Vietnamese and the French. The settlement of Indochinese issues was done at Geneva. By the Geneva Agreement of 1954, Vietnam was divided temporarily, at the seventeenth parallel. This split the country into communist North Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam.



After 1954, Ho Chi Minh governed the North. The South was governed by Ngo Dinh Diem, however, his leadership was so horrible that he was killed in 1963 during a coup supported by the United States. The Diem regime was against the National Liberation front and the Viet Cong, in South Vietnam. Both these groups were supported by the North. The Viet Cong would use guerrilla warfare against the South Vietnamese. Guerrilla warfare is when the Viet Cong would attack in ambushes, set up traps, hit and run attacks and more.



So, as the war went on and the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese continued to fight, the US gave military advice to the South Vietnamese government. The North Vietnamese torpedoed an American destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin in August, 1964. This made President Johnson angry and gave him authority to escalate involvement in Vietnam, also known as the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. American advisers were growing in Vietnam and it led to regular ground forces and air support.



Johnson did not intend for the US to win the war, but just to help South Vietnam’s defenses until South Vietnam could take over. He did bomb the North, but he wanted the fighting to be limited. The North however received aid from the Ho Chi Minh Trail which was the Viet Cong’s supply path that ran through Laos and Cambodia.



On January 30, 1968, the North attacked the South. This was called the Tet offensive and this attack showed that the North had a bigger and stronger army than the US and the South. This was a turning point because President Johnson had to face an unhappy country and he decided no longer to escalate the war.



In 1968, Richard Nixon, an anti-Communist of the 1950’s easily won the election for the republicans. His plan was to end the USA involvement in Vietnam. He outlined his plan of Vietnamization which would remove US troops from Vietnam while returning the fighting to the South Vietnamese. Kissinger’s Two Track Formula was to be the basis of Nixon’s plan for the next four years. It consisted of strengthening the South Vietnam military, and strengthening the South Vietnam government so it could attract a broader base of support in South Vietnam.



Just when the USA had taken out most of its troops in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese attacked again, which is known as the Spring Offensive, and this happened on March 30, 1972. North Vietnamese troops crossed over the demilitarized zone at the 17th parallel and invaded the South. The US and the South of course fought back.



On January 27, 1973, the peace talks in Paris came to the conclusion that the fighting shall stop. The very last of the US troops left Vietnam knowing that the South would not be able to defend themselves or even have a shot at winning against the North should they attack again. The fighting did however, continue once USA had left. In 1975, the North invaded the South again and finally the South surrendered and became communist.




 * LeMay, General Curtis E. and Kantor, MacKinlay. //Mission with LeMay// (1965) autobiography of controversial former Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
 * Kissinger, United States Secretary of State Henry A. [|"Lessons on Vietnam", (1975) secret memoranda to U.S. President Ford]
 * Kim A. O'Connell, ed. //Primary Source Accounts of the Vietnam War// (2006)