History Assignment American involvement in Vietnam

By Ebin RobinsonIX – IGCSE

LCI

THE VIETNAM WAR

The Vietnam War was a long-lasting conflict in Southeast Asia. It started after World War

II and ended in 1975

Before World War II the French controlled most of Indochina, today’s Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam

China became a Communist country in 1949A nationalist leader, Ho Chi

Minh, declared Vietnam an independent country. Soon afterwards a war between Ho Chi Minh’s followers and the French began.

Where is Vietnam??

The results of the war…

French were forced out of the country and Vietnam was divided

 The Communists controlled the northern part and those who supported the French had South Vietnam.  The government in the south was weak and more people turned against it. 

The North vietnam was called the vietcog

The American Influence

During the Cold War America fought Communism in many places around the world. US presidents promised to help countries that were threatened by Communism. They thought that if they let Communists take over the southern part of Vietnam other countries in the region would become Communist too. This was called the “Domino Theory ”.

President John F. Kennedy saw this danger and started sending military advisersto help the South Vietnamese army. After an American warship was attacked off the coast of North Vietnam Kennedy’s successor , Lyndon Johnson started sending ground troops to southeast Asia.

American soldiers in Vietnam In the following years more American soldiers were sent to fight the

Vietcong and the North Vietnamese army. By 1968, the US had half a million troops in the country. 

The United States bombed highways, bridges, railroads and cities in North Vietnam, also the Ho Chi Minh trail , a route that led from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia to the south. Vietcong guerrillas received supplies and weapons from the north along this route.

The Americans thought that they would win the war quickly because they had modern weapons . They relied on their firepower and bombs to stop Communist aggression. On the other side the North Vietnamese and Vietcong led a completely different war. They could move faster than the Americans and used guerrilla tactics , attacking American troops by surprise.

This was new to American soldiers because they never knew where the enemy really was. The Vietcong also knew the jungle better and got used to moving around in such a difficult terrain .

America protests against the warAt first Americans at home thought it was a good

idea to stop Communism. They supported American involvement . As time went on and more and more American soldiers got killed in Vietnam Americans changed their attitudes about the war. People saw the brutal war on television.   Anti-war protests spread throughout the country. Americans believed Vietnam was a place they did not belong in.

American withdrawal

Towards the end of the 1960s the Vietcong and North Vietnam started attackingthe south on a larger scale . Under pressure from the public at home the American government changed its policy . President Lyndon Johnson startedwithdrawing troops and peace talks began in Paris. When Richard Nixon became president American bombing of Vietnamese hiding places in neighbouring Laos and Cambodia become even more intense . On the other side he continued bringing more and more troops back home. By this time, Americans at home mostly opposed the war .

End of the Vietnam war

In 1973 North Vietnam, South Vietnam, the United States and the Vietcong signed a peace agreement . However it was not kept. The North Vietnamese army and the Vietcong pushed further to the south. They met little resistance because South Vietnam’s army was tooweak and couldn't fight alone. Thousands of civilians fled from the oncoming enemies. In 1975 Communist troops entered Saigon and the South Vietnamese surrendered .The war was officially over in 1976. North and South Vietnam were reunited under a Communist government . Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

The End