The Vietnam War was a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam that lasted from 1955 to 1975. It began as a war between Vietnam and France, which led to the country being divided along the 17th parallel in 1954. This division created North Vietnam, backed by Communist China and the Soviet Union, and South Vietnam, backed by the United States. Despite peace agreements, fighting continued and grew until the United States directly intervened in 1965. After years of heavy casualties and domestic opposition, the US withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, and North Vietnam captured South Vietnam's capital in 1975, reunifying the country under communist rule.

1. GlennVillanueva * Edmundo Estabillo Jr. * Archel GabrielVillanueva * Khrystal Joyce Perez * Crystal Mara

2.  Nature of theWar
 Background of theWar
 Causes of theWar
 Opposing Armies
 TheVietnamWar
 Military Lessons

3.  The Vietnam War occurred in present-day
Vietnam, Southeast Asia.
 It represented a successful attempt on the
part of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
(North Vietnam, DRV) and the National
Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (Viet
Cong) to unite and impose a communist
system over the entire nation.

4.  Opposing the DRV was the Republic of
Vietnam (South Vietnam, RVN), backed by
the United States.
 The war in Vietnam occurred during the Cold
War and is generally viewed as an indirect
conflict between the United States and Soviet
Union with each nation and its allies
supporting one side.

5.  Before World War II the French controlled most
of Indochina, today’s Laos, Cambodia and
Vietnam.
 After Japan had lost the war left the country in
1945 the French wanted to take control of
Vietnam again.
 When China became a Communist country in
1949, Communist influence in Vietnam became
stronger too.

6.  A nationalist leader, Ho Chi Minh, declared
Vietnam an independent country.
 Soon afterwards a war between Ho Chi
Minh’s followers and the French began.
 It ended after the French had lost an
important battle at Dien Bien Phu.

7.  The French were forced out of the country
andVietnam was divided .
 The Communists controlled the northern part
and those who still supported the French
controlled SouthVietnam.

8.  The government in the south was weak and
more and more people turned against it.
Communist rebels started coming in from the
north.
 They were trained and armed by North
Vietnam and called themselvesVietcong.

9.  Vietnam, a nation in Southeast Asia on the eastern
edge of the Indochinese peninsula, had been under
French colonial rule since the 19th century.
 During World War II, Japanese forces invaded
Vietnam.
 To fight off both Japanese occupiers and the French
colonial administration, political leader Ho Chi Minh—
inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism—formed
the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence
ofVietnam.

10.  Following its 1945 defeat in World War II,
Japan withdrew its forces from Vietnam,
leaving the French-educated Emperor Bao
Dai in control.
 Seeing an opportunity to seize control, Ho’s
Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, taking
over the northern city of Hanoi and declaring
a Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)
with Ho as president.

11.  Seeking to regain control of the region, France
backed Emperor Bao and set up the state of
Vietnam in July 1949, with the city of Saigon as
its capital.
 Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified
Vietnam. But while Ho and his supporters
wanted a nation modeled after other communist
countries, Bao and many others wanted a
Vietnam with close economic and cultural ties to
theWest.

12.  The Vietnam War was a long, costly and
divisive conflict that pitted the communist
government of North Vietnam against South
Vietnam and its principal ally, the United
States.
 The conflict was intensified by the ongoing
Cold War between the United States and the
Soviet Union.

13.  People's Republic of China
In 1950, the People's Republic of China extended
diplomatic recognition to the Viet Minh's Democratic
Republic of Vietnam and sent weapons, as well as
military advisers led by Luo Guibo to assist the Viet
Minh in its war with the French.
China's support for North Vietnam included both
financial aid and the deployment of hundreds of
thousands of military personnel in support roles.

14.  Soviet Union
The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with
medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters,
artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military
equipment.
 North Korea
In early 1967 North Korea sent a fighter squadron to
North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese
921st and 923rd fighter squadrons defending Hanoi.
They stayed through 1968, and 200 pilots were
reported to have served.

15.  Cuba
The contribution to North Vietnam by the
Republic of Cuba, under Fidel Castro have been
recognized several times by representatives of the
Democratic Republic ofVietnam.

16.  South Korea
Approximately 320,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to South
Vietnam, each serving a one-year tour of duty. Maximum troop
levels peaked at 50,000 in 1968, however all were withdrawn by
1973.
 Australia and New Zealand
Close allies of the United States and members of the Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and the ANZUS military co-
operation treaty, sent ground troops to Vietnam. More than
60,000 Australian personnel and approximately 3,500 New
Zealanders were sent to serve SouthVietnam.

17.  Philippines
Some 10,450 Filipino troops were dispatched to South Vietnam.
They were primarily engaged in medical and other civilian
pacification projects. These forces operated under the
designation PHLCAG-V or PhilippineCivicAction Group-Vietnam.
 Thailand
Thai Army formations, including the "Queen's Cobra" battalion,
action in SouthVietnam between 1965 and 1971.

18.  The Vietnam War and active U.S. involvement in
the war began in 1954, though ongoing conflict
in the region had stretched back several
decades.
 After Ho’s communist forces took power in the
north, armed conflict between northern and
southern armies continued until a decisive battle
at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 ended in victory
for northernViet Minh forces.

19.  The French loss at the battle ended almost a
century of French colonial rule in Indochina.
 The subsequent treaty signed in July 1954 at
a Geneva conference split Vietnam along the
latitude known as the 17th Parallel (17
degrees north latitude), with Ho in control in
the North and Bao in the South. The treaty
also called for nationwide elections for
reunification to be held in 1956.

20.  In 1955, however, the strongly anti-
communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem pushed
Emperor Bao aside to become president of
the Government of the Republic of Vietnam
(GVN), often referred to during that era as
SouthVietnam.

21.  With the Cold War intensifying worldwide, the United
States hardened its policies against any allies of the
Soviet Union, and by 1955 President Dwight D.
Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem
and SouthVietnam.
 With training and equipment from American military,
Diem’s security forces cracked down on Viet Minh
sympathizers in the south, whom he derisively called
Viet Cong (or Vietnamese Communist), arresting
some 100,000 people, many of whom were brutally
tortured and executed.

22.  By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diem’s
repressive regime began fighting back with attacks on
government officials and other targets, and by 1959
they had begun engaging the South Vietnamese army
in fire fights.
 In December 1960, Diem’s many opponents within
South Vietnam—both communist and non-
communist—formed the National Liberation Front
(NLF) to organize resistance to the regime. Though
the NLF claimed to be autonomous and that most of
its members were not communists, many in
Washington assumed it was a puppet of Hanoi.

23.  A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in
1961 to report on conditions in South
Vietnam advised a build-up of American
military, economic and technical aid in order
to help Diem confront theViet Cong threat.

24.  Working under the “domino theory,” which
held that if one Southeast Asian country fell to
communism, many other countries would
follow, Kennedy increased U.S. aid, though he
stopped short of committing to a large-scale
military intervention.
 By 1962, the U.S. military presence in South
Vietnam had reached some 9,000 troops,
compared with fewer than 800 during the 1950s.

25.  A coup by some of his own generals succeeded
in toppling and killing Diem and his brother, Ngo
Dinh Nhu, in November 1963, three weeks
before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas,
Texas.
 The ensuing political instability in South Vietnam
persuaded Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B.
Johnson, and Secretary of Defense Robert
McNamara to further increase U.S. military and
economic support.

26.  In August of 1964, after DRV torpedo boats
attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of
Tonkin, Johnson ordered the retaliatory
bombing of military targets in NorthVietnam.
 Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, which gave Johnson broad war-
making powers, and U.S. planes began regular
bombing raids, codenamed Operation Rolling
Thunder, the following year.

27.  In March 1965, Johnson made the decision—
with solid support from the American public—
to send U.S. combat forces into battle in
Vietnam.
 By June, 82,000 combat troops were
stationed in Vietnam, and military leaders
were calling for 175,000 more by the end of
1965 to shore up the struggling South
Vietnamese army.

28.  The Tet Offensive was a coordinated series
of North Vietnamese attacks on more than
100 cities and outposts in SouthVietnam.
 The offensive was an attempt to foment
rebellion among the South Vietnamese
population and encourage the United States
to scale back its involvement in the Vietnam
War.

29.  January 30, 1968, Viet Cong forces attacked
13 cities in central South Vietnam, just as
many families began their observances of the
lunar new year.
 Despite its heavy casualty toll, and its failure
to inspire widespread rebellion among the
South Vietnamese, the Tet Offensive proved
to be a strategic success for the North
Vietnamese.

30.  It was a strategy that aimed to reduce
American involvement in the Vietnam War by
transferring all military responsibilities to
SouthVietnam.
 Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy,
would prepare the South Vietnamese to act in
their own defense against a North
Vietnamese.

31.  January 1973, the United States and North
Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement,
ending open hostilities between the two
nations.
 War between North and South Vietnam
continued, however, until April 30, 1975,
when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming
it Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969).

32.  In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were
inscribed the names of 57,939 American men
and women killed or missing in the war; later
additions brought that total to 58,200.

33.  It would be more profitable to address the
central issues of any particular case that arises
than to debate endlessly whether the situation
could evolve into “anotherVietnam War.”
 A more skeptical attitude is brought to the
analysis of possible missions. According to an
Army Colonel, “Now we want to know exactly
what they want us to do and how they think we
can accomplish it.”

34.  Don’t send military forces off to do anything
unless you know what it is clearly that you
want done.

35. According to a survey by theVeterans
Administration, some 500,000 of the 3 million
troops who served inVietnam suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder, and rates of
divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug
addiction were markedly higher among
veterans.