The Vietnam War

 The Vietnam War (or second Indochina war) was, like many other wars, a war for independence. Like our own civil war here in America, this war involved fighting between people of the same nationality and a division between north and south. Between 1946 and 1954, the Vietnam had been ruled by the French as a colonial state. The French was forced to leave the country after being defeated at Dien Bien Phu. This defeat was followed by a peace conference in 1954 in Geneva in which Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam gained their independence. Part of the stipulations of the meeting at Geneva, was that Vietnam was to hold national elections in 1956 to bring unity to the country. However, after the conference, no election was held and North Vietnam or the DRV (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) came under rule of a communist dictator Ho Chi Minh.

The south or the GVN (Government of the Republic of Vietnam), under the power of a anti-communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem sought aid from the Americans. Although many were against communism, Diem’s cries for help and accusations of North Vietnamese aggression, led to much controversy. Finally, the communist north overthrew the government of the south and used revolutionary force to do so. The NLF (National Liberation Front) was then born. This organization of citizens opposed to Ngo Dinh Diem was said to consist of both anti-communists and communists. However, the Americans saw this organization as a puppet government for the north Hanoi and denounced the organization stating any of the anit-communist elements were mere Communist dupes.

The Americans then played an important role in protecting the south from communist rule but with limited aid. What happened next was total chaos. First, Diem’s brother Ngo Dinh Nhu had raided Buddhist settlements in South Vietnam making the claim that they were harboring Communists. After this raid, the Buddhists fought back by making demonstrations in the city of Saigon by igniting themselves on fire for their cause. These demonstrations were all over the news and led Diem’s own generals to seek overthrowing Diem. In 1963, with the approval of the United States, Diem and his brother were captured and later executed. Three weeks later, President Kennedy was assassinated in the streets of Dallas, Texas during a rally.

American involvement in protecting South Vietnam from communism rose substantially in the 1960’s to where we joined an all out war against the North Vietnam guerrilla fighters or “Viet Cong”. After Kennedy’s assassination, President Lyndon Johnson took office with a large problem on his hands. In 1963, Johnson gave an order to increase the number of soldiers in Vietnam because of the Kennedy and Diem assassinations. Then, in 1964, members of the US government claimed that Vietnamese boats attacked a US ship that was patrolling the waters of the Tonkin Gulf. Later reports claimed that, two days after this attack, more boats torpedoed a US Navy vessel in the same area. It was later discovered that the second attack never happened. Almost a year after this said event, North Vietnamese soldiers attacked two US army installations in the south. Although the former incident was said to be false, this provocation and the attack on the installations in the south caused President Johnson to approach congress for permission to declare war on North Vietnam.

 The battle raged on for several years claiming the lives of many soldiers on our side and the other. Our entry into this war was very controversial and viewed as pointless to many. To this point, the saddest part is that we did not win the war. Our time there was not effective and we did not install a new government or enable to south to reclaim their independence from communism. Eventually, communism won and in 1976, Vietnam officially became a communist state called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.