United States Involvement In The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a conflict between Northern Vietnam, who held communists beliefs, and Southern Vietnam who opposed communism. In an attempt to combat communism globally, the United States of America formed an alliance with Southern Vietnam. The war initiated when, "the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6 billion in financial support from the United States. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by a peace conference in Geneva."(1) This anti-colonial warfare resulted in other countries gaining independence, including Laos and Cambodia. Then several years later, Southern Vietnam refused to embrace the unification with the North to be a communist country. As a result, Communists led their
If the numbers of the south were too big, then they would split into smaller units for surprise attacks. The Vietcong fought a guerrilla war, ambushing many of the US patrols, setting traps, and planting bombs against the absent minded of the south Vietnamese. This was one of the long-term factors that contributed to how the communists were able to fight back. Since the U.S troops tried so hard to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Vietnamese. “This policy was created by President J.F Kennedy who believed that if the Vietnamese were shown the advantages of American way of life.” This idea fell short when the Americans decided to bomb the entire village that has been suspected to help the Viet Cong, and because of that, many villages in the south were destroyed along with the allies of the United States. This led to a distrust in the south, along with the NLF soldiers mingling with some peasants and wearing the same clothes as the allies of the United States. This made the Americans confused and unable to identify which side these people are on, allowing the NLF to set many traps and kill numerous American soldiers. During these times, the NLF followed the Chinese Guerrilla warfare, which eventually helped the North create many safe camps without too many casualties along the way. Another reason to why the North Vietnamese was able to push out the Americans because their hearts and minds were in the war, and they were willing to die for their country. General Vo Nguyen Giap of the North Vietnamese said that he would fight “ten years, twenty-five years, fifty years until victory was achieved” (2). The North Vietnamese basically made the United States lose its patience and quit from fighting