VIETNAM WAR

Vietnam war also known as American war is basically a civil war which is fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. It lasts almost for 2 decades from 1955 to 1975. The war is considered as a part of cold war Era proxy war as North Vietnam was supported by Communist Countries like Russia and China while the South Vietnam was supported by United States of America and other Anti Communist Countries.

On 23 July 1954 by the Geneva Peace agreement Vietnam got independence from France but was divided into two parts the North was came under the control of Viet minh front a military coalition and U.S. assumed financial and military support for the South Vietnamese state.

At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime.

The Viet Cong is a military organization in South Vietnam which started to fight guerilla war against United States and South Vietnam. It was given directions by North Vietnam. With training and equipment from American military and the CIA, South Vietnam cracked down on Viet Cong, arresting some 100,000 people, many of whom were brutally tortured and executed.

By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents began fighting back with attacks on government officials and other targets, and by 1959 they had begun engaging the South Vietnamese army in firefights.

In December 1960, South Vietnam's many opponents within South Vietnam—both communist and non-communist—formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime.

A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to report on conditions in South Vietnam advised a build-up of American military camps, in order to help South Vietnam against the Viet Cong threat. By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops.

In August 1964, DRV torpedo boats attacked two U.S. destroyer ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. After that the then President of United States Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the bombing on military stations of North Vietnam.

In 1965 United States started Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam with this mission many North Vietnamese military stations were destroyed but the bombing was not limited to Vietnam; from the United States covertly dropped two million tons of bombs on neighboring, neutral Laos to disrupt the flow of supplies into Vietnam. The U.S. bombings made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world.

By June, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam, to support the struggling South Vietnamese army. With United States Countries like Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, South Korea also sent their troops to help South Vietnam.

By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated as “free-fire zones,” from which all innocent civilians were supposed to have evacuated and only enemy remained.

North Vietnam lost most of the Captured area in South Vietnam but still DRV and Viet Cong troops keep on fighting as they believe that they can take back the lost area easily as they get military support from China and Russia.

By November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded.

Horrified by horrendous pictures of the conflict on their TVs, Americans on the home front turned against the conflict. In October 1967, exactly 35,000 demonstrators organized a monstrous Vietnam War protest outside the Pentagon. Protestors argued that Civilians were the primary victims, and also United States supported the corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.

On January 31, 1968, nearly 70,000 DRV troops launched the Tet offensive, a planned series of furious assaults on in excess of 100 urban communities and towns in South Vietnam.

Overwhelmed, U.S. furthermore, South Vietnamese powers regardless figured out how to strike back rapidly, and the socialists couldn't hold any of the objectives for over a little while. Reports of the Tet offensive stunned the U.S. public.

In 1968 Richard Nixon became the President of United States of America. To Control the casualties in Vietnam war he announced a program called Vietnamaization which includes withdrawal of U.S. troops and giving weapons and training to South Vietnamese troops. But the North Vietnam continued to insist on complete and unconditional U.S. withdrawal.

In March 1968, U.S. soldiers had mercilessly slaughtered more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai, the event is known as My Lai Massacre. After the My Lai Massacre, anti war fights kept on working. In 1968 and 1969, there were many protest walks and social occasions all through the country.

On November 15, 1969, the biggest anti war show in American history occurred in Washington, D.C., as Over 250,000 Americans accumulated calmly, calling for withdrawal of American soldiers from Vietnam.

In 1973 United States and North Vietnam Concluded a peace Agreement but war between North and South Vietnam remained continue till the fall of Saigon in 1975.

After years of warfare, an estimated 2 million Vietnamese were killed, while 3 million were wounded and another 12 million became refugees.

In 1976, Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.