Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. It has a population of over 80,000,000 people. The official language of Vietnam is Vietnamese. The capital city is Hanoi. The currency that is used is the new dong. This country is rich in resources. Although this country has many strong points, it also has a bloody history, the Vietnam War.

The Vietnamese were controlled by France from 1859 until the defeat of France in World War II. The French had lost their power and Vietnam gained independence. But, the French would not give up without a fight. They still wanted control over Vietnam. The only way they could do this was to fight for the land.

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was fought between France and Vietnam. Dien Bien Phu was the name of the city that the battle was fought in; therefore, you get the name of the battle. The Vietnamese attacked the French with a force of 40,000 men. France was defeated and the Vietnamese finally had their land back. To settle the dispute, the Geneva Peace Accords were signed by France and Vietnam in the summer of 1954.

There were many causes to the war. One cause was the separation of Vietnam. The terms of the Geneva Peace Accords were that Vietnam was to be separated at the 17th parallel, into two states, North and South Vietnam. Each state would have no leader until an election was made in 1956 to reunify the nations. But, with no president, the states fell apart. There was no election in1956. This was one of the causes of the Vietnam War.

Another cause of the Vietnam War was a Civil War between the two states of Northern and Southern Vietnam. North Vietnam was a communist state. But, South Vietnam was not. The two states started to have conflicts with each other. The National Liberation Front, or NLF, initiated communist activities in South Vietnam in 1957. The U.S. could not just stand by and do nothing. They decided they had to take sides to prevent communism.

The U.S., which did not approve with the communist North, took sides with South Vietnam. South Vietnam had their own election in which Ngo Dinh Diem arose as president. So, North Vietnam decided to have an election, where Ho Chi Minh became the leader of the North. At once, the new president of the South claimed that North Vietnam was attacking the South to take it by force.

President John F. Kennedy feared that if he did not take action, there would be another communist country and it would hurt his reputation. So, in 1961, South Vietnam signed a treaty with the U.S. for military and economic help. This led to the American troops arriving in that year. A year later, the U.S. Military Assistance Command was formed.

Then, there started to be some problems. In 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem's military forces grew violent towards the Buddhists in Vietnam. The Buddhists were against government policies, so they protested, which led to government violence. This led to the self-immolation of monks. This means that the monks killed themselves, hoping there would be change. The U.S. decided that Diem's actions were intolerable and Diem was killed on November 1st, 1963 by his own military generals. Four weeks later, John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and Lyndon B. Johnson took his place. At first, the death of their leader, Ngo Dinh Diem, made the South unstable until June 1965 when Nguyen Cao Ky became president. But, even though they now had a leader, Nguyen Cao Ky was politically inexperienced.

The U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War is known as an escalation, which means more and more activity in the war each year over a long period of time. President Lyndon B. Johnson raised the level of U.S. involvement in the war on July 27th, 1964 when he ordered 5,000 military leaders and advisors to go to South Vietnam. This action rose the of U.S. forces in Vietnam to 21,000. On July 31st, 1964, the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox was on international waters in the Gulf on Tonkin. People have suggested that Johnson did this