The Vietnam War

Running Head: THE VIETNAM WAR

The Vietnam War

Huy Xuan Nguyen

Delaware Technical & Community College

March 7th, 2011

Abstract

The Vietnam War started in 1954 and ended in 1975. The US lost to the North Vietnam's government on this war. The Vietnam War was caused by many factors, but there were three major ones that really triggered it. One major factor is due to the split of the country Vietnam and having opposite ideologies on the two parts. Another factor is because of the impacts of the Cold War on the countries. Finally, it was the idea that communism was a threat to civilization that made the US go to a war against Vietnam. The Vietnam War ended on April 30th, 1975. It left behind many terrible effects. The economies of both countries were in a very bad stage due to enormous amount aids and funding of the war. It also has taken millions of lives on both sides of the battle. Those who survived the war still struggle with the effects the war left. The Vietnam War was a failed decision and a great failure of the US.

The Vietnam War

Vietnam is a small country in the Southeast Asia. It has a population of 80,000,000 people. The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese. The capital city is Hanoi. Although the country has many strong points, it also has a bloody history that includes wars. One of the greatest wars that the country has been through is the Vietnam War-the War against the US. The war started in 1954 and ended in 1975. The Vietnam War was a great failure to the US on both warfare and domestic issues.

The history dates back to the 1940s when Vietnam was fighting for its freedom from the colonial French. The policies of the French to not give in triggered the anger in Vietnamese. In the beginning of the twentieth century many have joined numbers of movements to gain back freedom. Later Vietnamese from all over the country would gather under the leader of Ho Chi Minh, (Neu, 2005, p.2). The man who led the revolutionary army of Vietnam to fight for freedom was Ho Chi Minh. He had so much influence to the country and to the world. As Charles E. Neu said of Ho around the time he was a leader "Ho became one of the great revolutionary leaders of the twentieth century", (Neu, 2005, p.3). He was the man behind all the actions. In 1941, the Viet Minh or the Independent of Vietnam were formed under the lead of Ho Chi Minh, (Neu, 2005, p.3). Through many battles and hundreds of thousands of lives has been taken, Vietnam finally emancipated from France. On May 7, 1954 the end of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the French had abided an astounding military and psychological lost, (Neu, 2005, p.21). It would just a beginning of a new war coming, The Vietnam War- against the US.

The Vietnam War was caused by many factors that contributed to the warfare in Vietnam during the year of 1959 to 1975. A major factor that caused the Vietnam War is the split of North and South Vietnam. From April to July 21, 1954 under the pressure of Chinese and the Soviet leaders, the Viet Minh gave up their way and agreed on a military agreement to divide Vietnam in two. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam is in the north and the States of Vietnam is in the south, (Neu, 2005, p.25). It was a situation that one country with two different parts having opposite ideologies. The States of Vietnam had the ideologies of liberty, supported by the US government. On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had the ideologies of communism, due to the influences of China and the Soviet Union. In January 1950, the existence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was recognized by China and Soviet Union and provide Ho Chi Minh all the aids to win the battles with French, (Neu, 2005, p.9). A war exploded to win and prove the ideologies of one another is understandable.

In addition, the Cold War impact on Vietnam was quite great as it was a factor that caused the Vietnam War. The Cold War formed the ways the Vietnam War was battled and momentously influenced the consequences, (Herring, 2004, para1). Neither the Soviet Union nor the US could risk a war against each other with such powerful military strength on nuclear weapons. However, they had Vietnam as a country that could carry on the fight for them. In Vietnam, the Americans actually fought. However, in the Cold War, the Soviet Union could not. To strengthen communism power, the Soviet Union armed China, who eventually equipped the North Vietnamese to fight the Americans. The support and help from both countries was so great that it showed their intension to win battles over the US because of the US forces. It was estimated at over 2 billion dollars, (Herring, 2004, para 12).

The fact that communism was a threat to civilization was also a factor that caused the Vietnam War. In a free world, people and groups are free to demonstrate democracy. However, that is not happening in the communist world, (Cabell, 1959, para 19). In his speech which deals with the threat of communism on the US, General C. P. Cabell stated "The