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The Vietnam War was a warlike conflict between South Vietnam , a pro-western trend , and North Vietnam , which was communist, between 1955 and 1975 .

This war was characterized by the direct participation of the United States , which assisted South Vietnam with money, troops, and armaments. North Vietnam, for its part, was supported by China , Cuba and the Soviet Union , which sent arms and military advisers.

In the context of the Cold War , the direct participation of the United States was justified in the Truman Doctrine , which established as a priority of American foreign policy the containment of the worldwide spread of communism .

The war also spread to the neighboring states of Laos and Cambodia, in whose jungles the guerrillas who were part of the rebel forces attacking the South Vietnamese government took refuge.

Following the withdrawal of US troops, North Vietnam’s victory in 1975 led to the reunification of the country in 1976.

Vietnam War Background

Until the start of World War II , in 1939, the Indochina region of Southeast Asia was a colony of the French Third Republic.

In 1940, Japanese troops invaded the colony and occupied part of the region, while the rest of the territory came under the administration of Vichy France, which was a puppet government that collaborated with the Germans.

In 1941, the Viet Minh, a guerrilla force made up of communists and nationalists and led by Ho Chi Minh, began a revolt to end both French colonial rule and Japanese occupation.

After the end of the war, France refused to accept the insurgents’ demands for independence. This started the Indochina War (1946-1954), during which Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam proclaimed their independence.

After the defeat of the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu , in 1954, the Geneva Conference was held, which established:

• The French withdrawal and the end of its colonial rule in Indochina.
• The independence of Laos and Cambodia.
• The division of Vietnam into two states separated by the 17th parallel: South Vietnam, with its capital in Saigon and presided over by Emperor Bao Dai; and North Vietnam, with capital in Hanoi and led by Ho Chi Minh.
• The holding in 1958 of a referendum in the two Vietnams to decide by popular vote the reunification of the country or the definitive separation of the two States.

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Causes and consequences

Causes

Among the main causes of the Vietnam War are the following:

• The ideological differences between the two antagonistic states into which the country had been divided in 1954: North Vietnam, with a communist regime and planned economy ; and South Vietnam, which defended liberal democracy, capitalism and the market economy .
• The intention of the North Vietnamese leaders to reunify the country , an objective that both China and the Soviet Union supported and that the United States rejected outright for fear that the entire region would fall into the hands of communism.
• The refusal of the South Vietnamese government to hold the referendum established in 1954 by the Geneva Conference .
• The actions of the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, also known as the Vietcong. This guerrilla force, supported by the North Vietnamese regime, set out to remove the South Vietnamese government after its refusal to hold the referendum.
• The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident when North Vietnamese patrol boats engaged an American destroyer that had entered waters that the Communists claimed as their own. Due to this incident, the United States government decided to intervene en masse in the war. This participation peaked in 1968, when some 500,000 Americans were sent to Vietnam.

Consequences

Among the main consequences of the Vietnam War, the following stand out:

• The deaths of more than 4 million Vietnamese military and civilians, and some 60,000 American soldiers.
• The disappearance of the government of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country under the leadership of the communist leaders of North Vietnam.
• The first military defeat of the United States in all its history and the loss of influence in the Indochina region.
• The deforestation and pollution farm in Vietnam , as a result of the massive use of chemical weapons by the United States Air Force.
• The destabilization of the US government of Republican President Richard Nixon who, in August 1974, resigned after the scandal unleashed by the Watergate affair.

How did the Vietnam war end for USA?

In the late 1960s, a strong movement developed against the continued involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. This was due both to the actions of the horse racing and the pacifist movement , which demanded the end of the conflict, and to the impact caused on American public opinion by the increasing number of its own soldiers killed in combat.

Due to these pressures, on January 27, 1973, the United States government signed the Paris Peace Accords , which established the end of hostilities, the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Indochina, and the progressive reunification of the country without intervention. external.

The war between the two Vietnamese sides continued in 1974 and ended in 1975, with the capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese forces. On July 2, 1976, the country was reunited under the name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam .