Topic+A-29+Summarize+the+causes+and+events+of+the+Vietnam+War+and+to+describe+its+aftermath

__The Vietnam War __

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= **﻿__Aftermath of the War__** = After World War II, Korea remained a divided country. Separated by a demilitarized zone, political differences and disagreements kept the two rival countries apart.

North Korea
In North Korea, communist dictator Kim Il Sung established collective farms, developed heavy industry, and strengthened the military. The government encouraged nationalism. An example of this was the Korean People’s Army, which was the focus of North Korea’s national pride. Women were given equal rights under Sung’s reign. After Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994, his son, Kim Jong Il took power. Under his rule, North Korea developed nuclear weapons, but had serious economic problems. North Korean government used all means necessary to conceal their problems from neighboring countries. For example, on their borders with South Korea, they built buildings that were extravagant on the outside but vacant on the inside. Since the end of World War I, the Soviet forces occupied North Korea, encouraging communism.

South Korea
South Korea was a country quite opposite in political beliefs from North Korea. In 1987, they adopted the democratic constitution and established free election. Communists were arrested. Syngman Rhee was voted ruler from 1948 to 1960. Under his rule, education was improved and urbanization was accelerated. In fact, the urban population in South Korea increased from 11.6% in 1940 to 24.4% in 1955 and 28.3% in 1960. The well-educated and urbanized population became increasingly articulate and more independent in their political judgments. There were many economic changes as well. Reconstruction projects created jobs in the cities and the government controlled the prices of farm products. This made it unprofitable to own small farm plots. Because of help from the United States and several other countries and new policies, South Korea prospered economically. In the 1960s, the government developed the industry and expanded foreign trade. South Korea had one of the highest growth rates in the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

=__﻿The Road to War__=

Who was Ho Chi Minh?
Ho Chi Minh was a young Vietnamese nationalist. He was born in the village of Kimlien, Annam in 1890. France had claimed Vietnam as a colony in 1859 and had been imperializing it since. In his attempt as an adult to fight the French, he turned to communists. Ho Chi Minh traveled to the U.S.S.R. in 1923 to study Marxism and revolutionary techniques. In the 1930s, his Indochinese communist party began to lead revolts and strikes against the French. In response to the revolts, the French arrested protestors. Ho Chi Minh was also sentenced to death. He fled from Vietnam and later returned in 1941. When he had returned, Japan had taken over. At this time, Minh had created a nationalistic group called the Vietminh, who worked towards Vietnam's independence. Finally, in August of 1945, the Vietminh defeated Japan after atomic bombs had been dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This did not win Vietnam independence because France still held them under its control.



=﻿__The Fighting Begins__=

The French are defeated
Nationalists and communists from Vietnam join together to fight the French for their independence. The Vietminh had many supporters throughout the countryside of Vietnam, but the major cities were still controlled by France. Hit and run tactics were used against the French by the Vietminh to trap them in the cities. Back in France, the people began to grow tired of losing lives and money over their colony. Finally, in 1954, France suffered a major military defeat in Dien Bien Phu. This led to their surrender to Ho Chi Minh.

What is the Domino theory?
The Domino theory is the idea that if one country goes under communist control, the neighboring countries will follow in its footsteps. The United States feared that if Vietnam became a communist nation, the surrounding countries would too. The Southeast Asian nations were like a row of dominoes. If one fell to communism, the neighboring nations would fall with it.



=__﻿Vietnam- A Divided Country__=

Demilitarized Zone
In 1954, the Geneva Accords, a peace conference to end the first Indochina war, created a five-mile wide buffer zone that separated North and South Vietnam. This was known as the 17th parallel and was going to be removed after future elections in Vietnam. However, the election never took place and the 17th parallel became a demilitarized zone (DMZ). By 1956, the DMZ was known as the northern border of South Vietnam. North Vietnam thought of the DMZ as a temporary hindrance rather than a border. During the Vietnam War, the DMZ became one of the most heavily bombed areas.

Who was Ngo Dinh Diem?
Ngo Dinh Diem was born on January 3rd, 1901 in Quang Binh providence in North Vietnam. He became the minister of the interior in 1933 but resigned because the French would not grant Vietnam a greater degree of autonomous home rule, or more freedom. He became an outspoken critic of French colonial system and communism. In 1945 Ho Chi Minh captured him to get him to join their ranks. He refused and fled to the United States in 1950. There he met J.F. Kennedy in Massachusetts. In 1954 the Vietnam emperor Bao Dai made Ngo Dinh Diem the prime minister of South Vietnam. Diem pushed aside the emperor at the 1955 elections by cheating. He then rejected the reunification elections that were agreed upon at the Geneva Accords. He ruthlessly and violently neutralized powerful religious sects and put family members in high government positions. In 1960, the people of South Vietnam attempted to rebel but Diem imprisoned hundreds of political enemies and increased repression. Later that year, Buddhists protestors were attacked and hundreds were killed. The Buddhists were supposedly aiding North Vietnam, but the people could not take more of Diem's rule. Diem supporters were now alienated, even in the United States. On November 1st, 1963, Diem was overthrown and executed with his brother in Cho Lon, South Vietnam.

Who were the Vietcong?
The Vietcong were South Vietnam communists and nationalists who supported Ho Chi Minh. They used guerilla warfare. By 1962, 15,500 Americans were in an undeclared war against the Vietcong. The Vietcong easily infiltrated South Vietnam's villages and caused South Vietnam to be on the defense. The United States took these villagers to the bigger cities. The Vietcong had support from Vo Nguyen Giap, the leader of the North Vietnam army. By using propaganda, Giap forced the U.S. to pull out of the war. This allowed the Vietcong to crush South Vietnam's army in 1975.

=﻿__The United States Gets Involved: U.S. Troops Enter the Fig__ht=

**How did the US get involved?**
In 1964, Congress allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to send troops to Vietnam. President Johnson told Congress that some patrol boats from North Vietnam had attacked a couple of US destroyers in the Gulf on Tonkin. Because of this, President Johnson wanted to retaliate by using the air force for air attacks and was given permission from Congress to send troops to fight against North Vietnam. More than 185,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam by late 1965, and more than 250,000 soldiers were fighting by 1968 (Beck, Black, Krieger, Naylor, Shabaka 546).

** Fighting in a War for an Unpopular Government **
Despite the fact that the US had the best-trained, best-equipped army in the world, they were facing major difficulties in Vietnam. As the ideas of communism slowly spread, the South Vietnam government that they were trying so desperately to defend was losing popularity. While the government was busy losing all its popularity, the American army was busy losing land battles. They were engaged in a difficult guerrilla war with the Northern Vietnamese and the Vietcong. Their enemies, knowing they would lose in a head on battle, used guerrilla techniques, hiding and attacking at unexpected times in order to have a chance at fighting and winning. Frustrated, the US started bombing in order to destroy enemy bases. Furious over the destruction of so much farmland, peasants started to oppose the Southern Vietnamese government more and more (Beck et al. 546) .

Vietcong Gains Support
The Vietcong, groups of communist guerrillas, started to grow in popularity in South Vietnam. The Vietcong gained support from Ho Chi Minh, the leader of Northern Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union. They supported the Vietcong because they were communists. As communist parties, they wanted to help the spread of communism, and therefore wanted to help the Vietcong.

=﻿__The United States Withdraws__=

The War Grows Unpopular in US. What Did Nixon do?
People back at home were not happy with the war. The war was growing unpopular because people were unhappy with all the loss of life. They were also not happy with the expenses of the war. Some people got to see pictures from Vietnam. Seeing these pictures made them want to have their troops back, safe and sound. Due to all the pressure from the public to end the war, President Richard Nixon formed a plan that he called Vietnamization.

What is Vietnamization?
Vietnamization was a process to slowly remove American troops from Vietnam. They wanted to pull out American troops in small increments to allow the South Vietnamese troops to do most of the fighting. As they pulled out, they would drastically increase bombing of North Vietnam to take out as many enemies as they could on their way out (Guilmartin 42).

What Happened to South Vietnam After the US Left?
When the US troops left South Vietnam in 1973, South Vietnam was crushed. Without the help of the American troops, The North Vietnam army and the Vietcong dominated them, and South Vietnam was forced to join North Vietnam as a united communist state.

=__﻿Postwar Southeast: Cambodia in Turmoil__=

What was the Khmer Rouge?
The Khmer Rouge was a group of Communist rebels that set up a communist government in Cambodia in 1975. Pol Pot led this government. Pot claimed it was "Year Zero" for Cambodia and a new age. Peasants who fled to Phnom Penh, the capital, to avoid American bombs during the war were driven back to the countryside by Khmer Rouge soldiers. There they were forced to work in horrible conditions. Many died from disease or starvation, while others were punished or killed for stealing food. Pot also had "unwanted minorities" slaughtered. Educated people, including teachers, businessmen, and intellectuals, were sent to concentration camps where they were tortured and murdered. Overall, about 2 million people in Cambodia were killed.

A Change in Government
In 1978, the Vietnamese invade Cambodia and overthrow the Khmer Rouge. They set up a less repressive government, but the fighting did not stop there. This government was in place for a little over ten years. Then, in 1989, the Vietnamese withdrew. In 1993, a democratic constitution was finally adopted by Cambodia. Free elections were also held under the watch of UN peacekeepers.

=﻿__Vietnam After the War__= The Vietnam War left both North and South Vietnam in ruins. A lot of the land throughout Vietnam had been sprayed with herbicide, leaving soil depleted, forests defoliated, and livestock killed. The end of the war, In 1975, had killed about 3 million soldiers and civilians. North Vietnam, who had been victorious, had very tight control over the South. Thousands were sent to reeducation camps to learn communist thought. Industries became nationalized and the government controlled businesses. The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. About 1.5 million people had fled Vietnam by the end of the war as well. Most of them left on crowded ships. Over 200,000 of them died. The survivors spent months in refugee camps. About 70,000 finally went to the United States or Canada. Vietnam now welcomes foreign investment even though they are still governed by Communists. in 1995, the United States finally normalized relations with Vietnam.



= Overview of the War media type="custom" key="9359644" align="left"=

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