The Vietnam War

Before looking through the history of the Second Indo China War, we need to go through some points of the pre-history of the war and get the general idea about this particular event. Furthermore we’ll look through some of the most important conflicts, relationships between countries and various perspectives of this certain incident. The Vietnam War was not a fight between just the two governments in the same country. It was more like a worldwide war, where two most strong nations who became bitter enemies, U.S and the Soviet Union, indirectly fought for their ambitions by using other countries. The mistrust in each other reached its peak at the time of World War II, allowing the Cold War to last for 46years. The U.S.S.R (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) believed that the U.S is the biggest threat to them due to the development of atomic weapons and attempt of subjugation in the Eastern Europe, while U.S feared the U.S.S.R because of the expansion of communism. They both knew that if they end up in a situation face to face, that would trigger numerous unprecedented atrocities all around the world. It was obvious that Vietnam was just one of the victims used like an action figure to fulfill their aims.

Before the World War II, France was subjugating Vietnam, treating and torturing the innocent people with the most brutal methods. In 1940, Japan got power over Indo-China and France was forced out. Yet, the conquest of Vietnam by Japanese people did not go for a long time. In 1945, after the atomic bomb attack in Hiroshima, Japan retreated from Indo-China, and the World War II was finally over. After the big war, France wanted to regain power over Vietnam and their ambitions, which were to colonize Vietnam, gave rise to the First Indo-China War (1946~1954). This was the point when U.S involvement in Indo-China started.

The government in the north side of the country was known as “Democratic Republic of Vietnam” which was led by Ho Chi Minh, while in the south it was called “Republic of Vietnam” led by Ngo Dinh Diem who was placed into office by the U.S government. Both sides received support from the great powers; North Vietnam had support from the Soviet Union and the South Vietnam got help from the U.S. At the Geneva Conference, the agreement stated that an election of reunification to choose the leader of the whole country would be held in 2 years time, but this was never implemented. The main role for the cancellation was the South Vietnam government who knew that they wouldn’t be able to get elected since they were less popular than Ho Chi Minh and his government. Moreover the South, in other words the U.S, was afraid with the fact that if Ho Chi Minh becomes the leader, this would cause the whole country to fall into communism.

The war continued between the forces of the Vietminh (with National Liberation Front) and the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam), with the support from two powerful nations. The U.S claimed that they had every right to be involved, and had definite belief in the “Domino Theory”. The last thing they wanted was increase of communism and they thought that if Vietnam turns into a communist country, that would cause the “Iron Curtain” to fall across the rest of the South East Asian countries. This also meant putting their security interest at risk and losing enormous amount of wealth with the raw materials produced in Vietnam.

The U.S first started with the advisory role, as President Diem asked U.S for help. They sent advisers to train the army and police just like their military. After few years, John F Kennedy took office and claimed to continue President Eisenhower’s policies. They sent more advisers and military support, officially to train the ARVN, but their real purpose was to get more involved in