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Vietnam:

More than 58000 Americans died in the Vietnam War and over 300000 were wounded.
The roots of the Vietnam War started in 1946 with the beginning of the First Indochina War.
The Vietnamese wanted independence and the French wanted to control Vietnam, so the Vietnamese and the French fought each other in Vietnam.

In 1954 the Vietnamese defeated the French and both countries signed the Geneva Peace Accords, which established a temporary division in Vietnam at the 17th parallel.
This division of the country eventually led to the Vietnam War.
The United States didn’t want to see Vietnam turn into a communist state, so the US supported the creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, which provided defense for the South Vietnam.

In 1956 an ardent anti-communist, Ngo Dihn Diem, won the presidential election in South Vietnam, but communist opposition in the south caused him numerous problems.
In 1959 the National Liberation Front was founded and they decided to implement greater violence to try to oust Diem.
In 1961 President J.F.K. sent a group to South Vietnam to determine what actions the US needed to take to assist them. When the group returned, they proffered recommendations in what became known as the “December 1961 White Paper”.
This “White Paper” indicated a need for more soldiers in Vietnam, among other things, but Kennedy’s advisors wanted a complete pullout from the country.

Kennedy decided to increase the military advisors, but he didn’t engage in a massive military build-up.
But in 1963 Diem’s government quickly began to unravel because Buddhist monks began protesting in the streets and one monk died by self-immolation, which caused international outrage and Diem was soon overthrown and killed.

In 1964 North Vietnam attacked an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin and afterwards the congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which granted the president war powers.
With this Resolution and the incident in the Gulf, America started a military build-up in Vietnam War.
In 1965 the Operation Rolling Thunder quickly escalated the conflict.
North Vietnam realized that they only had a chance by dragging the war out as long as possible, which could cause America to eventually pullout.

In the meantime anti-war protests started in the US and the citizens were very critical of President Johnson’s handling of the war and Johnson decided not to run for re-election.

Richard Nixon became the next president and his strategies were more aggressive and included air war. He slowly brought the troops home and continued the air war. In 1972 America and Vietnam were near a conclusion, but with the heavy bombing of the largest cities of Vietnam, the Christmas bombings, the peace agreements ended.
In 1973 the Paris Peace Accords were signed and this led to a complete withdrawal of US troops. With this withdrawal the North Vietnam had no problems to overtake South Vietnam and this was the true end of the Vietnam War.


//hab das heute mal zusammen geschrieben, aber viel zu kürzen gabs nicht.

ich habs auch "zamgefasst" *angeb* xD

The roots of the Vietnam War started in 1946 with the beginning of the first Indochina war. Vietnam was under French control at that time and wanted independence -> Vietnamese><French
1954: The Vietnamese defeated the French and both countries signed the Geneva Peace Accords, which established a division in Vietnam, which led to the Vietnam War. Vietnam should reunite in 1956, but the U.S.A. did not want to see Vietnam turn into a communist state, so the U.S. supported the creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, which provided defense for South Vietnam (which wanted a non- communist state)
1956 Ngo Dihn Diem, who is an anti communist, won the presidential election in South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam), but (communist) opposition caused him many problems, because they sought his ouster. So they implemented greater violence, which led to the formation of the National Liberation Front, a group of communists and non-communists who opposed Diem.
1961 Kennedy sent a group to South Vietnam to determine what actions the U.S. needed to take to assist them. When they returned, they proffered recommendations, which are known now as the “December 1961 White Paper”. This Paper indicated need for more military presence, for example, but many of Kennedy’s advisors wanted a complete pullout from the country.
What Kennedy did was finding a compromise. So he increased the number of military advisors, but did not engage in a massive military build-up.

1964 Dien was overthrown and killed because his brother had accused Buddhist monks of harboring communists so that he could raid Buddhist pagodas. The monks began protesting in the streets and one monk died by self- immolation.
The same year North Vietnam attacked an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which granted the president war powers.
The conflict escalated in 1965, when North Vietnam was bombed by the U.S., which is known as Operation Rolling Thunder.

North Vietnam realized that it could not win this war, so they tried to drag the war out as long as possible and cause the U.S. to eventually pullout. It worked very well, so that the Johnson Administration had an additional problem to deal with in 1968: massive anti-war protests in the U.S.
So Vietnam decided to launch a major offensive, the Tet Offensive, which did not go as planned so that they suffered massive casualties.
The next President in the U.S. was Nixon, who increased the air war over North Vietnam, extended war into Laos and Cambodia, and slowly brought the troops home.
Finally peace agreement talks took place in 1972 and were nearing a conclusion, but in December of the same year Nixon called for heavy bombing of the largest cities of North Vietnam, which were harshly criticized by the international community and Nixon felt compelled to end the war.
With the U.S. troops gone it was only a matter of time until North Vietnam overtook South Vietnam, which occurred in 1975.