Vietnam War

At the end of World War II, political and military tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union increased sustainably. The U.S. perceived communism, the political system in the Soviet Union and China, as a significant threat to its national security and power. Fearing communism would spread over to Vietnam and potentially South East Asia, called the “Domino Theory”, the U.S. opposed the independence movement there.

U.S. first involvement in Vietnam began when they financially supported France in the first Indochina War from 1946 under President Eisenhower. The French defeat in Dien Bien Phu led to a peace conference in Geneva in July, 1954 which resulted in splitting the former French colony Indochina into 3 separate countries, viz. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The last was also temporarily divided into the Communist North Vietnam and the anti-Communist South Vietnam until a nationwide election would be held to unify the country. However, in 1956, South Vietnam backed by the American refused to hold the election. To support the South’s government, 2,000 military advisors were sent to Vietnam under President Kennedy – which rocketed to 16,300 in 1963. By 1960, the National Liberation Front also known as Viet Cong had begun to crush the South Vietnamese government.

In 1964, after an alleged attack on two U.S. Navy vessels, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress authorizing President Johnson to use military forces in Southeast Asia. The first U.S. combat troops were sent to Vietnam a year after that. In 1968, a surprising and massive attack known as the “Tet Offensive”  threatened U.S. position in both South Vietnam and its own country, and therefore was widely considered as a turning point of the Vietnam War.

Napalm attack in Vietnam

In 1969, President Nixon proposed the so-called “Vietnamization” which gave South Vietnamese forces greater responsibility in fighting the war while still receiving American aid as well as air and naval support if required. However, the 1972 Easter Offensive put a big question mark on the policy’s effectiveness, suggesting that the South Vietnamese forces could not wage a full-scale war against the North Communists without considerable support from the U.S.

In 1970, the war escalated into Vietnam’s neighbours as Nixon attempted to destroy Viet Cong’s supply bases to the South in Laos and Cambodia. That, however, provoked anti-war protests in the U.S.  and all around the world, which had been started since the Tet Offensive and My Lai massacre in 1968.

In January 1973, the Paris Peace Accord was signed establishing a ceasefire and allowing prisoners of war exchange following U.S. force withdrawal from Vietnam. The accord officially ended the U.S. and its allies’ direct involvement in Vietnam despite its continued support for South Vietnam until the end of the war. Eventually, the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War and Vietnam was reunified as a communist country.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Personal opinion:

We ourself cannot imagine the cruelty and misery that happened during the Vietnam War. Also, we are convinced that it is one of the most difficult things to think about causes of war, wars itself, all the casualties and leaders’ hatred and trying to understand it. Trying to understand the reasons is impossible, at least it is for us. Furthermore, there is always this “What would have happened, if….?”-question. Nobody is able to answer this because nobody can change the past.

The only thing WE can do is to prevent further wars like this. This is a great ethical subject about which one could write more than one book with controversial questions and thoughts in it. Do you agree with our opinion? What do you think, feel when it comes to wars – not only the Vietnam war but wars in general?

You are welcome to leave a comment. 

Bibliography:

http://www.bo-ra.ch/vietnamkrieg/index.php?id=5,0,0,1,0,0

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraid=18

http://www.historynet.com/vietnam-war