United States in Vietnam War

United States involvement in Vietnam War

Americans protesting to bring troops back home. 

The Vietnam War was another conflict between the communists and the anti- communists, both trying to spread their beliefs over the whole country. The communists were North Vietnam and its southern allies known as the Viet Cong and anti- communists were South Vietnam with their ally, the United States. The war began in 1954, after the rise of Ho Chi Minh and his communist party, Viet Minh, in North Vietnam and was another face-off between the United States and the Soviet Union after the Cold War and the Korean War. There were about 3 million deaths in the Vietnam War including 58,000 American soldiers. When the United States was totally involved in the war, about 500,000 American soldiers were fighting in the war. This all began during WWII, when Japan had invaded Vietnam, but had to leave in 1945 when Ho Chi Minh was inspired by China's and Soviet Union's communism and took control of Vietnam. The United States entered war in 1955, after the defeat of the French by Viet Minh forces in 1954. United States sent military support to South Vietnam which helped them fight against Viet Minh forces. In 1961, additional help was sent to South Vietnam to help fight the Viet Cong threat. In 1963, when United States was asked to further increase US military and economic support, they did likewise, but the DRV torpedo boats attacked two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Soon after, President Johnson asked for bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress then passed Gulf of Tonkin resolution which gave Johnson war making powers and the US planes started bombing regularly which was named "Operation Rolling Thunder". By June 1965, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam on the orders of President Johnson. 100,000 more troops were sent by the United States at the end of 1965 and 100,000 in 1966. In addition to the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand also committed troops to fight in South Vietnam. The aim of United States was to kill as many troops as they can rather than securing territory. The number of deaths kept increasing, but the communists still refused to stop fighting. When the United States thought they the war was being won by them, it was actually the opposite and American troops were so stressed about this war that they began using drugs and attacking officers. Seeing the troops suffer, the Americans on the home front turned against the war as well. In 1968, the Tet Offensive was launched by North Vietnam, bombing hundreds of cities in South Vietnam. After a long period of fighting, the two sides reached a peace agreement and ended the Vietnam War with about 2 million Vietnamese dead and 3 million wounded. Americans were not happy with so many conflicts that their troops had to face and also with $120 billion that the United States' government had invested in the war. In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in Washington, D.C. On it were inscribed the names of 57,939 American armed forces killed or missing during the war; later additions brought that total to 58,200.