November 1st 1955- April 30th 1975
The Vietnam War is an important conflict that took place in the years from 1955 all the way to 1975. The protagonists of this conflict were the North Vietnamese allied with the Soviet Union and China against the United States and the South Vietnamese. the Vietnam War was mainly fought in North and South Vietnam, but some battles were also fought in Laos and Cambodia.US president Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 launched an entire military campaign in Southeast Asia, after the Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, in 1965 the U.S started to send troops to Vietnam, officially bringing America into a full-scale conflict. Meanwhile Ho Chi Minh was President of the Republic of Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1965. He lead the Communist-ruled Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 defeating the French Union and resulting in the Division of Vietnam, in this way North Vietnam was officially under the control of the Communists. After this event Ngo Dinh Diem became the first President of South Vietnam he stayed in charge from 1955 to 1963, he established the Republic of Vietnam. He was the one who later seeked help from the USA. After the split of Vietnam following the Geneva Agreements in 1954, the North was under Communist control and the South under Democratic government in1959 ,five years later, Ho Chi Minh launched a guerrilla campaign to South Vietnam, with the goal of reuniting the country under communist control.The USA wanting to stop the spread of communism trained the army of the South Vietnamese and provided military advisors to help with the attack of the guerrillas, only entering the war officially in 1965. The United States decided to enter the war to prevent the spread of communism all over the world it supported the South Vietnam President with military guidance and money. The Vietnam War is known to have been the longest war that the United States ever participated in. Between the causes of the Vietnam war we have:
- The downfall of French Indochina and the rise of Ho Chi Mingh when in 1945 Vietnam’s independence was declared
- Battle of Dien Bien Phu: when the French officially lost control over Vietnam 3. The 1954 Geneva Agreements: when Vietnam was spilt up in North and South 4. The Cold War: when China and the Soviet Union officially picked sides and opposed to the USA and the South Vietnamese
5. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: it marked the official entry of the USA in the Vietnam Warp In December 1974 the final campaign of the North Vietnamese led to the surrender of South Vietnamese government, two years later the country was officially reunited under communist role. The American troops withdrew and failed their foreign policy in Vietnam. What put and end to the war was the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, falling under the communist forces in 1975. For the Americans this war resulted in 58.000 Americans losing their lives. Today we have the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C to honor and remember the U.S armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, and lost their lives, for all the families who lost one or more loved ones and still now are suffering for it, for all the soldiers who came back from the war, after having lost friends and family but even more a piece of themselves that they will never have back.
Sofia Calcagni, III C
