The Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Vietnam War - Essay Example The Vietnam War was the long-drawn-out clash between pro-self-government forces endeavoring to amalgamate the nation of Vietnam under a communist administration and the United States, with the assistance of the Southern Vietnamese, struggling to thwart the blowout of communism. Involved in a conflict that many regarded as having no way for victory, U.S. leaders suffered the loss of the American community's cooperation for the war. From the time when the war ended, the Vietnam War has turned out to be a point of reference for what one should not do in all forthcoming U.S. external battles. The Vietnam War was an era during the Cold War period of great military divergence that happened in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and lasted from 1955 to the plummet of Saigon in 1975. This war came after the First Indochina War. It was a fight between North Vietnam, reinforced by its communist allies, and the administration of South Vietnam, where the United States and other anti-communist nations reinforced it. Like many wars fought during this time, the reason for it was mainly the division of a desire for communism, and the desire for democracy. It was known to be a war much â€Å"tougher than-and different from-World War II and Korea.† The foremost military establishments tangled in the conflict were the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, also known as ARVN and the U.S. military on one side, and the Vietnam People's Army or VPA also known as the North Vietnamese Army or NVA), and the Viet Cong, or National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), a communist paramilitary group in South Vietnam, on the other side. There had been a lot of hostility in Vietnam for a long period of time before the Vietnam War started. The Vietnamese people had undergone suffering from the French colonial ruling for almost sixty long years when eventually, Japan conquered parts of Vietnam in 1940. It was a year later when Vietnam had two external supremacies dominating them, that communist Vietnamese avant-garde leader Ho Chi Minh came to Vietnam in return after expending roughly three decades travelling the world. Once Ho Chi Minh was now back in Vietnam, he started centers of operations in a cave in the northern part of Vietnam and founded the Viet Minh, whose purpose was to divest Vietnam from the Japanese and French inhabitants. Having increased support for their goal in Northern Vietnam, the Viet Minh proclaimed the formation of a self-governing Vietnam with a new administration named the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the September of 1945. However, the French colonists were not disposed to hand over the ir colony so effortlessly and fought back. For many years, Ho Chi Minh had endeavored to ingratiate the United States to back him up as opposed to the French, such as supplying the United States with military intellect concerning the Japanese throughout World War II. Notwithstanding this assistance, the United States was completely devoted to their Cold War external policy of suppression, which meant averting the increasing spread of Communism. Ho Chi Minh, aware of this, did not want to draw the United States into the conflict. The Americans, though, could not allow their client state to fall and the road to war began. (Wiest 16) The â€Å"domino theory† of the United States, which specified that if one nation in