Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was the military struggle fought in Vietnam between 1959 to 1975, between the North Vietnamese and the National Liberation Front (NLF) in conflict with the United States and South Vietnamese army. The Vietnam War is one of the most important events in the 1960s because not only did it cause so many lives lost, but also a huge uproar of controversy with anti-war protestors. The Vietnam War was the second phase of fighting in Vietnam. Vietnam had been fighting for its independence from France. The communist saw the Vietnam War as an extension of their struggle with France, as another attempt by a foreign power to rule Vietnam, and as a war of liberation. The Vietnam War can be separated into different periods based upon the United States involvement. In the early years of the war, it was mainly fought between the South Vietnamese army and Communist-trained South Vietnamese rebels known as the Viet Cong. The US provided military advisors, but the first troops were not entered into Vietnam until March of 1965. Until about 1969, the North Vietnam and US did most of the fighting. By 1969 the war had begun to seem almost endless and the United States began to slowly withdraw troops. In January of 1973, a cease of fire was arranged and the last US ground troops were withdrawn two months later. The war finally ended on April 30, 1975 when South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam.