Controversy: The Vietnam War

War is always a controversial topic whenever it is discussed in a political setting, or even a private conversation between friends. No War has ever been a more controversial than the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was the longest War the nation has ever engaged in. The United States entered the war in 1961 and pulled out in 1975. Although the death toll did not reach as high as the civil war, or either World War One, or World War two. The Nation still lost over fifty thousand soldiers in the deadly conflict.
After World War two the French returned to controlling Indochina, but democracy in all areas of Indochina were not welcomed. Ho Chi Minh tried to downplay the tension to Washington, and show his respect for democracy, but a resistance
(Henretta, 830) The North Vietnamese had formed a revolutionary movement called the “National Liberation Front”. (Henretta, 830) The National Liberation Front (NLF) had their own specialized guerilla warfare soldiers known as the Vietcong, and they were fighting in their backyard. Once again, the Americans had not fully realized what they were up against. We had not learned the lesson from the French, and even with more troops on the ground and Special Forces Green Berets in the fight, the North Vietnamese were collecting one small victory after another. This was an unconventional type of warfare that America was not prepared for in more ways than
forces in Vietnam, was a fear that President Kennedy had right before he had died. His comparison of requesting more troops was compared to having another drink of alcohol. “The effect wears off then you have to take another.”(Henretta, 837) Other than mass amounts of troops being deployed in Vietnam, another type of escalation was in full swing. Operation rolling thunder was a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The Hoi Chi Minth trail was an elaborate series of trails, bridges and shelters that stretched from North Vietnam, to Cambodia, all the way over to Laos in South Vietnam. This trail was a specific bombing target in operation rolling thunder. “800 tons a day for three and a half years.” (Henretta, 837) By 1968, a million tons had fallen on the North Vietnamese! Around twice that was dropped in the south trying to drive out the Vietcong