Ali Guzman
Diana Santos
Genan Hamideh
Noe Galan
Sam Xiang
Vicky Kwong
Ms. Sutton
Period 1, Contemporary Themes
26, February, 2015
The Outcome Of the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War began on November 1, 1955 and ended on April 30, 1979. This war was the most devastating war in American history. Though it isn’t really talked about in history class like World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War was not only long but it was also expensive. It was one of the wars that the United States withdrew. This war pinned the South against the Communist regime of North Vietnam. According to the website, “History of the Vietnam War”, this war was highly unpopular in its home country that resulted in the death of : 2 million Vietnamese, 3 million wounded, 100 to 1,000 of children were orphaned, and 12 million refugees. 500,000 tried to leave but only 10-15% of them lived, but faced many hardships. Of those people who survived, about 1,218,000 were resettled in more than 16 countries. 57,685 Americans and Vietnamese killed, 153,303 wounded, 587 were prisoner of war but were later released, and 2,500 were either missing or not accounted for (History of the Vietnam War blogspot.com)”. This war both ruined North and South Vietnam. No good came out of this. But, one thing we learned is that no war is without consequences. There will always be the harsher reality of the outcome of war.
The Vietnamese War was a struggle between the nationalist forces attempting to unify and bring the country of Vietnam under a Communist government. In order to prevent the spread of Communism in Vietnam, the United States along with its allies the South Vietnamese joined in on the fight. It was a war that many had view that the U.S had no chance of winning, thus losing the support for the war. As a result, it was now known as “what not to do in all the future U.S. foreign conflicts’’ (About Education.com). The Vietnam War was the longest war in American history and the most unpopular one to date (20th century). Many wondered if the American participating in the Vietnam War was a sin, for a noble cause, or an idealistic one (To protect the south from a Totalitarian government). In the year 1956, South Vietnam, with its American allies backing them up, had refused to hold an unification election. So by 1958, a Communist-led guerrillas, also known as the Viet Cong (the military branch of the National Liberation Front), had started the battle with the South Vietnamese government. According to this website, to support the South’s government from the North the United States sent in about 2,000 of their military advisors-- that eventually grew to 16,300 in the year 1963. In the same year, 1963, the military condition of the South Vietnamese deteriorated, and it had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Viet Cong as a result. The Vietnam War had escalated when the U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered an air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground force (536,000) in 1968 (Digital History.com). The war could not have escalated if the United States hadn’t intervene with military forces in foreign affairs. The Tet offensive by the North Vietnamese had turned many Americans against the war. The Tet offensive (1968) was a military tactics used in the Vietnam War, early in the year. The tactics involved having the North Vietnamese troops and the Viet Cong forces attacking both towns and cities in South Vietnam, breaking the ceasefire that had been called for due to the Vietnamese holiday of Tet ( Lunar New Year). The attack by the Communist targeted around 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam with such size and ferocity that it caught both the United States and South Vietnam offguard. The Communist hoped for an uprising from the populace into supporting their actions, but both the U.S. and South Vietnam fought back, and met with heavy resistance from the populace instead (About Education.com).
The Vietnam War continued as the next president, Richard Nixon, had advocated Vietnamization, withdrawing its American troops and giving the South greater responsibility for fighting the war. Nixon attempted to slow down the flow of the North Vietnamese soldiers and their supply into the South by sending their troops (Americans) to destroy the Communist supply bases located in Cambodia. This move, as a result, violated the Cambodian Neutrality Act and caused anti-war protests. So, for future reference the United States shouldn’t interfere in foreign war unless, it is necessary. We can make the war even worse due to the fact we were placed in the middle of the situation; the United States should be neutral in foreign wars to avoid an escalation.
Works Cited
“History of the Vietnam War blogspot.” Awesome Inc., Awesome Inc., 2010. Web. 26
February 2015, “What was the Vietnam War.” About Education.
About Education, 2015. Web. 26 February 2015, “Overview of the Vietnam War” Digital History.
Digital History, 2014. Web. 26 February 2015, Tet offensive.’’ About Education.
About Education, 2015. Web. 2 March 2015.