The Vietnam War causes started at the end of World War II. Vietnam is a strip of land on the eastern part of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia. Before the war Bao Dai was the emperor of Vietnam from 1926 to 1945. A French colony called Indochina which includes Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia had been controlled by the Japanese during World War II because in 1940 the French surrendered their control to Japan. Ho Chi Minh then created the League for the Independence of Vietnam, also called Viet Minh. The Viet Minh which is a Vietnamese nationalist movement that started in 1941. It was formed by Ho Chi Minh to resist the Japanese. Ho Chi Minh was a communist .The French want back their control over Vietnam. In 1947 the Viet Minh began to fight against French forces for their independence. The United Stated aid the French with Financial and Military support. He then waged a guerilla war against the Japanese with the support of the United States. Viet Minh soldiers used Guerrilla warfare. In May 1954 the French finally withdrew after the Battle of Dien Bein Phu where almost 10,000 French soldiers surrendered after a massive siege. Vietnam had gained its independence from France in 1954. Near the end of the war, the Japanese began to promote Vietnamese nationalism and ultimately granted the country nominal independence.
After the French withdrew the United States and Soviet Union held the Geneva Conference. The outcome of this conference was it split Vietnam to North and South Vietnam. The North had a communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. The North was also called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The South had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Te South was also called the Republic of Vietnam. With the support of the United States government, Diem led South Vietnam from 1954 to 1963, when he was assassinated alongside his brother. The United States supported the south and the Soviet Union supported the north.
The Vietnam War started in1957 when North Korea started to attack government in South Korea. The United States was asked to help and under the Truman Doctrine. In the Truman Doctrine the U.S. said they would defend any nation that felt threatened from communism. Two other reasons were to contain communism and also to resist communism. The last reason was the Domino Theory which is a theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control. The General that led the war was General Westmoreland. He led the military from 1964 to1968 in the Vietnam War. In public statement he believed that the war was going very successfully but he private he thought the war was never going to end. The United State joined the side of South Vietnam and they were fighting North Vietnam and Vietcong. Vietcong was a communist led army of South Vietnamese formed to fight South Vietnamese government.
Many Important Battles happened during and before the war. One is the Gulf of Tonkin Incident The Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 was when a couple of North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the U.S. destroyer Maddox When the ships attacked the ship was gathering information in the Gulf of Tonkin. Then the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was crated which gave Johnson the freedom to take action in Vietnam. The event that led President Lyndon B. Johnson to order air attacks on North Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson was the Vice President for John F. Kennedy but Kennedy did not want to go into the war but Johnson. After Kennedy was assassinated and Johnson was sworn it the war was escalating. March of 1965 Operation Rolling of Thunder started which is when U.S. began to bomb North Vietnam using bombs such as napalm. Napalm is a sticky chemical substance that caused things to burn. Another important Battle included the Tet Offensive. Tet is the Vietnamese New Year so they wanted a holiday truce. On that day North Vietnamese and Vietcong soldiers led a surprise