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the Vietnam War began in good faith by
good people with good intentions but
some two decades later it was all over
for the Vietnamese it was not a war
about communism it was a war for
independence a war for Vietnam but a
combination of American overconfidence
Cold War tensions and imperialist
tendencies the Americans had previously
fought so hard against made the war in
Vietnam one of America's darkest pages
in its short but dense history by the
end of the war more than 58,000
Americans would die as too would 250,000
South Vietnamese soldiers over a million
North Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong
guerrillas would also perish as well as
over two million civilians from both the
north and the south and thousands more
from Laos and Cambodia
the French conquest of Indochina again
in 1858 they boasted about bringing
their civilization to Vietnam beginning
the construction of roads and bridges
but the Vietnamese did not take well to
their French colonizers just as they
hadn't to earlier invasions by the
Chinese the French were the enemy and
the Vietnamese people struggle for
independence in 1919 at the end of the
Great War
American President Woodrow Wilson went
to Paris to help rebuild a new world and
advocated for the independence of
colonized nations upon his stay in
France a man appeared with a petition
for the president signed by himself and
other Vietnamese nationalists asking
that Vietnam to become an independent
state the president secretary promised
to show it to Wilson but there is no
evidence he ever did throughout his
career this man would go by some 70
names but eventually settle for the most
enlightened one Ho Chi Minh after taking
part in a demonstration against a puppet
Emperor Ho Chi Minh was marked for
arrest and fled Vietnam in 1911
remaining in exile for 30 years when he
discovered the anti-colonial writings of
Lenin he became a communist his fuel was
for an independent Vietnam by 1940 the
Second World War had come Germany had
conquered most of Western Europe
including France and the Japanese began
to occupy Vietnam to help fight the
Japanese invaders Ho Chi Minh returned
to Vietnam and founded a revolutionary
movement which he named the Vietnam
independence League the Viet Minh this
new fighting force grew quickly and
relied on guerrilla warfare tactics
hit-and-run strategies that would later
be used some three decades later when
the Americans arrived in the spring of
1945 three years after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor the United States
government were looking for ways to
undermine Japanese forces in Vietnam
when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh
for OSS the precursors for the CIA
supplied her and his guerrilla fighters
with weapons and were impressed with how
quickly they learned to handle them who
began to call his followers the Viet
American army and praised the United
States as a champion of democracy when
two atomic bombs were dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Japanese surrender seemed imminent Ho
Chi Minh called upon all the people of
Vietnam to rise up and take control of
their country before the French could
re-establish their role on the 2nd of
September 1945 the same day as the
Japanese surrendered ending world war ii
hundreds of thousands of people went to
Badin Square in Hanoi to see Ho Chi Minh
proclaim Vietnam independent the future
looked promising but President Franklin
Roosevelt who had campaigned for a world
of independent self-governing States was
now dead and his successor Harry Truman
was facing an entirely different world
the Soviet Union had occupied Eastern
Europe and looked to spread further into
Turkey Greece and Iran a cold war had
begun the French warned if their
colonies were to become independent
under American assistance France would
have no choice but to fall under Soviet
influence the French poured thousands of
men back into Vietnam with the help of
American aid in 1950 communist North
Korea invaded South Korea domino theory
was at the height of political thought
the idea that if one nation fell to
communism others would as well the
United States and tens of thousands of
troops to push the invaders back north
they did so successfully and it showed
Western powers that communism in Asia
could be contained
by 1953 with the help of American aid
the French had been fighting for seven
years in Vietnam and had suffered more
than a hundred thousand casualties
French platoons would be ambushed trains
blown up roads blocked all for them to
be ambushed again the Viet Minh supplied
by the Soviets and Chinese were forced
to be reckoned with the French were
demoralized and so proposed to begin
talks to end the fighting before the
talks began however both sides tried to
enforce their military position in the
French set up a fortified base in dn
bien phu believe in any altercation
would result in a french victory so
confident in fact they saw no need to
worry about the jungle covered hills
that overlooked their 11,000 men 50,000
vietnamese soldiers then surrounded the
valley and their heavy artillery began
to fire the French were trapped after 55
days of brutal attack the French
surrendered had been lost
8,000 troops after a hundred years of
colonial rule the French were leaving
this decisive victory for the Viet Minh
installed a belief that they could fight
a Great Western power and win an
armistice was then signed splitting
Vietnam into two parts along the 17th
parallel separated by a demilitarized
zone civilians had 300 days to relocate
to their preferred destination and so
900,000 refugees fled to the south
seeking a life free from communism the
south would become known as the republic
of vietnam with ZM as its president in
the capital of Saigon and protected by
the army of the Republic of Vietnam the
arvin in the north the capital would
become Hanoi where Ho Chi Minh and the
Communists implemented land reforms
similar to those under Mao leaving
thousands dead and imprisoned the
Vietcong and their leaders were willing
to break the peace to head south along
what would soon be called the Ho Chi
Minh Trail and fight for United Vietnam
these men belonged to an organization
called the National Liberation Front the
NLF the armed wing of the organization
was
all the People's Liberation Army forces
but the US and its allies gave them a
more disparaging name communist traitors
to the nation the Viet Cong John F
Kennedy had been elected and Cold War
tensions were at new heights the lessons
from the Second World War on every
policymakers mind aggressive
dictatorships needed to be stopped
before they constituted a serious danger
to the Peace of the world a growing
number of critics complained at
Kennedy's leniency he had failed to stop
the construction of the Berlin Wall and
communism was spreading in Laos and
Cambodia
so when time came for Vietnam he
couldn't be seen to do nothing Kennedy's
advisors insisted he should send ground
troops into Vietnam to help the South
push back the Vietcong Vietnam can't
fall to communism he was told but he
refused to send in troops instead he
sent an elite group of soldiers the
Green Berets and military advisers to
train and organize South Vietnam's
military Kennedy also took other steps
doubling their military funding sending
helicopters and armored personnel
carriers but he also authorized the use
of napalm to Foley ins and Agent Orange
to deny cover to the Vietcong and to
destroy the crops that fed them but the
American buildup of personnel in South
Vietnam War II do Chi Minh who saw an
invasion of the north is inevitable
the Chinese then promised to arm his
troops and conscription was introduced
requiring every able-bodied man to serve
corruption and the suppression of
Buddhists by Catholic officials in South
Vietnam's government had become so bad
that to protest president ZM and his
regimes oppression a 73 year old monk
set himself on fire as a silent crowd
watched him burn to death another monk
repeated again and again a Buddhist monk
becomes a martyr a Buddhist monk becomes
a martyr soon other monks would become
martyrs
but instead of allowing greater freedoms
for his people President diem imposed
martial law and arrested anyone that Pro
tested the south a place promised to
become a democracy had become a
dictatorship Siam's rain could not
continue Viet Nam's military generals
who had been told a coup would not be
stopped by the United States
assassinated ZM and his brother people
took to the streets in celebration but a
new threat had arrived and one Kennedy
had dreaded who was to replace him
Kennedy would not live to see the
question he had pondered he was
assassinated on the 22nd of November
1963 and his vice president lyndon b
johnson was now in charge
fearing it would make a bad situation
worse Johnson had opposed the coup that
overthrew ZM and had with ZM GaN
the Vietcong saw an opportunity and
began to carry out attacks throughout
the countryside a new power struggle
began in the south between January 1964
and June 1965 there would be eight
different governments who after cooled
after government in ruins as the USS
Maddox slowly moved through the Gulf
after issuing warning shots and came
under fire from a North Vietnamese
torpedo squadron Ho Chi Minh was shocked
to hear of his Navy's attack and the
officer on duty was removed for
impulsiveness Ho Chi Minh demanded to
know who gave the order to attack but
there are still disagreements to this
day on who did back in Washington the
Joint Chiefs of Staff urged retaliation
against Vietnam but Johnson again
refused a second attack would have to
happen to justify retaliation Johnson
argued but no second attack ever did
instead sonar operators convinced
themselves an attack from the North
Vietnamese had probably occurred the
attack was probable but not certain
Johnson was told and since it had
probably happened it shouldn't be left
unanswered American pilots were sent to
attack North Vietnamese torpedo boat
installations and oil facilities for the
first time American pilots dropped bombs
on Vietnam the non-existent second
attack allowed Congress to pass the Gulf
of Tonkin Resolution granting the
president authority to assist any
Southeast Asian country threatened by
communist aggression and gave Johnson
the legal justification to deploy US
forces in Vietnam in retaliation nor
Fiat Cong guerrillas shelled the
American airbase near Saigon killing
five Americans and destroying five b-57
bombers advisors again suggested to
Johnson he should place troops on the
ground and carry out an air attack on
targets in the north but he refused to
send ground troops
the Vietcong then struck an American
helicopter base at pleiku killing eight
advisors and
hundreds more and native blowing up a
hotel killing 23 Americans hoping to
bomb them into surrender Johnson
responded on March 2nd 1965
systematically bombarding targets
codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder the
president had changed his policy from
retaliatory bombing to an all-out attack
something that was kept from the public
the American people couldn't know he had
widened the war Vietcong attacks
continued but America couldn't leave
they were too heavily invested and a
withdrawal rule would make them look
weak
so in March 1965 Johnson took the action
he avoided for so long he was putting
ground troops in Vietnam it was no
longer a fight against communism as
Pentagon Papers later revealed it was to
avoid humiliation as 1966 began 2344
Americans had died in Vietnam 200,000
men were stationed there with more on
the way the Vietcong now controlled
three-quarters of South Vietnam's
countryside moving their supplies and
weapons through Laos and Cambodia 12,000
miles of twisted jungle roadways known
as the Ho Chi Minh Trail they're
Americans reasoned if the trail could be
sufficiently damaged the enemy wouldn't
be able to sustain itself 3 million tons
of explosives would fall in the Laos
portion of the trail alone a million
more tons than that dropped on Germany
and Japan during World War two as the
months and years went on and the death
tolls of American troops were climbing
the American people were told not to
worry they were killing the enemy at a
ratio of 10 to 1 but American mothers
fathers sisters and brothers didn't care
about the 10 they cared about the 1
general Westmoreland who claimed he
could win the war in three years sent an
urgent cable to Washington asking for
$200,000 but McNamara the Secretary of
Defense told Johnson he had two options
negotiate a compromise with Hanoi or
give general westmoreland his men but
the chances of victory he said and no
better than one in three lyndon b
johnson chose option two to send more
men he had been told the war was
unwinnable but hundreds of thousands of
American troops were being prepared to
be deployed to a war those in Washington
knew was a lost cause
it wasn't just the Vietnamese the
Americans were fighting it was also the
terrain soldiers would have to make
their way through elephant grass thorn
bushes bamboos 20 meters tall and
jungles so thick it would take an hour
just to move a hundred feet finger long
black leeches caused wounds that quickly
became infected and sunlight rarely hit
the jungle floor booby traps landmines
and grenades laced the terrain often
causing the loss of limbs or death u.s.
soldiers also had to deal with m16
rifles that jammed in gunfights often
cost in their lives
although the enemy rarely won a battle
American victory rarely seemed to matter
enemy soldiers were quickly replaced and
US soldiers were spread so thin it meant
any land they captured and then left was
quickly taken back by the enemy by the
end of 1967 20,000 Americans would be
dead but those back home were told
victory was in sight there was light at
the end of the tunnel the protests
intensified at the beginning of 1968
half a million US troops were in Vietnam
and American leaders promised victory
was in sight but the North Vietnamese
Army and Vietcong were planning the
general offensive scores of coordinated
attacks of South Vietnamese towns and
cities and with Saigon defeated it would
leave the Americans with no choice but
to withdraw the date chosen for the
attack was January 31st the first day of
the Vietnamese Lunar New Year
celebration known as Tet advance and we
will achieve total victory ho chi minh
told his soldiers by January 30th a
36-hour troops for Tet was in effect
and thousands of Arvin troops had gone
home for the holiday the next day 84,000
Vietcong guerillas and North Vietnamese
soldiers attacked 36 of South Vietnam's
44 provincial capitals dozens of
American and Arvin military bases and
the six largest cities in the country
including Wei Danang and Saigon but as
the fighting raged on the plan the
Vietcong an NVA had put in place was not
going well South Vietnamese soldiers and
US troops were inflicting significant
casualties upon them and this would
continue throughout the battle for the
first time the US soldiers could see
what they were fighting the Vietcong
were in the streets rather than in the
bushes and in the buildings rather than
hidden in the trees the Vietcong were
now play in America's game the game
America was best at after months of
fighting the Vietcong were pushed back
Johnson claimed the Tet Offensive was a
devastating defeat for the Communists of
the 84,000 enemy troops that took part
in the Tet Offensive 58,000 are killed
wounded or captured it was an
overwhelming victory for America and the
arvin the Vietnam War was the first
television war in which on-site coverage
from the frontlines was brought into the
American livingroom the public had been
told up to the Tet Offensive the war was
nearly over the North Vietnamese were so
ground down that victory was in sight so
when the offensive was launched it
contradicted what the American people
had been told and it broke their trust
in the government protesters took to the
streets on March 31st 1968 Johnson spoke
to the nation on television he announced
the u.s. was to stop bombing North
Vietnam in the hopes to get them to the
negotiating table
he also said he would not run for
re-election it stunned the nation he
would begin to focus his efforts on
achieving peace Martin Luther King was
then assassinated and protesters again
took to the streets the nation hadn't
been this divided since the Civil War to
make matters worse as Robert Kennedy run
for
campaigned to bring the war to an end in
June he - just like his brother was
assassinated the nation was torn apart
Richard Nixon was elected president on a
program of ending the war and bringing a
broken nation together 37 thousand US
troops had died when he took office and
the war was on everybody's mind but how
he got there to the highest office in
the land was kept a secret as the next
election came Johnson was making
significant progress and had agreed to
stop all bombing of Vietnam Hanoi for
the first time had agreed to talk to
Saigon and the u.s. had agreed to
include the Vietcong in the peace talks
peace for what seemed like the first
time was in sight but on November 2nd
just three days before the US election
President Chu of South Vietnam
unexpectedly withdrew from the peace
talks a representative of the Nixon
campaign had secretly contacted the
Saigon government urging - to stay away
from the talks promising that once Nixon
was elected president he would drive a
harder bargain with Hanoi than Hubert
Humphrey his competition would do to a
CIA bargain Chu's office and an FBI
wiretap in the South Vietnamese embassy
in Washington Johnson had found out what
had happened he discovered that Nixon
and his team were committing treason
they were contacting a foreign power in
the middle of a war Nixon had been
willing to delay the bloodshed in order
to get elected Johnson unwilling to
share how he got the information said
nothing
Nixon's secret was safe as the peace
talks reached stalemate and the war
continued American men were sent to
their deaths in pointless battles they
were to fight for land such as hamburger
hill just to lay to give it up for the
enemy body count is all that mattered as
the protests back home continued Nixon
had to change his policy the public had
had enough thousands of men were dying
for nothing
a policy of Vietnamization was to take
place arvin troops would gradually take
on more and more responsibility and
American troops would start coming home
the Americans began training the Arvin
sending more than a million m16 rifles
40,000 grenade launchers and thousands
of vehicles both American and South
Vietnamese officials knew if America
couldn't win with half a million of its
own troops South Vietnam by itself stood
no chance publicly Nixon claimed the
campaign to be a great success on
September 2nd 1969 the 24th anniversary
of Ho Chi Minh's declaration of
Vietnam's independence ho Chi Minh
passed away for America although
military victories increased and
casualty figures fell anti-war sentiment
had still grown when the public found
out in the small village of malai
American soldiers had slaughtered more
than 500 innocent men women and children
protests and anti-war sentiment reached
new heights hundreds of thousands of
people across the country took to the
streets four students were killed at
Ken's date and another two at Jackson
State University with negotiations at
stalemate Nixon began a bombing campaign
around Hanoi remembered as the Christmas
bombing 1,600 civilians were killed on
December 26 Hanoi agreed to return to
negotiations it would take them just six
days to reach a final agreement America
had bombed them into accepting a deal
prisoners of war were to be released and
American troops were to withdraw from
Vietnam
on March 29th 1973 the last American
troops would leave South Vietnam only
200 Marines would remain helping guard
the American Embassy and other buildings
in Saigon along with diplomats and CIA
agents the south and the north would
fight on and the population was once
again caught in a brutal civil war Nixon
had pledged to South Vietnam that if
Saigon were to be in trouble the US Air
Force would provide assistance to push
the Communists back just as they had
done with the Easter offensive but in
August 1974 Nixon had resigned amid the
Watergate scandal and Congress were in
no mood to help
they cut South Vietnam funds and
assistance in half and up to 20,000
arvin troops were leaving the military a
month the Americans had provided guns
but not enough bullets
they're provided planes but no pilots or
training they provided trucks but no
spare parts things in the South were
quickly falling apart the North pushed
on South defeating Arvin forces at every
turn after thirty years of civil war
Saigon was going to fall everything the
Americans had fought and died to prevent
was going to happen soldiers and
civilians began to flee South to evade
the North Vietnamese Army and President
Chu resigned
on April 29th the invasion of Saigon
began it was time to evacuate
helicopters would pick up groups of
people and ferry them to aircraft
carriers and ships then to return to
pick up more when the ships were full
and to prevent more from coming
helicopters were pushed into the ocean
the South surrendered to stop further
bloodshed many were sent to re-education
camps for upwards of 10 years
arvin graveyards were bulldozed or pad
locked and every effort was made to wipe
away the memory of South Vietnam regime
the Vietnamese after 30 years of war 2
million deaths millions of refugees and
villages destroyed were finally united
under one communist nation with Soviet
help Vietnam would be turned into a new
socialist system agriculture was
collectivized capitalism was abolished
industry was nationalized and planners
were appointed to run it all along
strict communist lines the results was
economic catastrophe the standard of
living fell and people starved 1.5
million people would eventually flee
with 400,000 making it to America to
paraphrase John Kerry the Vietnam War
bought everything into question the
rationalization of destroying villages
in order to save them America's morality
in the face of mulai the meaning of
free-fire zones shooting anything that
moved a soldier's place to cheapness on
the lives of civilians the falsification
of body counts to increase kill death
ratio the unimportance of battles as men
charged up hills because their generals
told them to and after losing one
platoon or two platoons they marched a
way to leave the hill for the enemy
pride allowed the most unimportant
battles to be blown into extravaganzas
because America couldn't lose and she
couldn't retreat and because it didn't
matter how many lives were lost to prove
that point but for those who fought and
died on all sides risk their lives for
their country who showed bravery and
crow Feist they shouldn't be forgotten
for it was not a soldiers war but a
political war for which America and
Vietnam will never be the same
build a fence around your land but bind
by the stones
spin you laugh
his work
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above the ground
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take it all in stride
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Mullens drive
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you