VIETNAM WAR

Positive and Negative consequences of the Vietnam War

Positive and Negative consequences of the Vietnam War

Introduction

Formerly a French colony, Vietnam was occupied by Japan during the Second World War. After the conflict, the victorious Allies decided to split Vietnam, and allowed France to retake control of its former imperial possession. In September 1945 the Vietminh, a communist influenced independence movement led by the charismatic Ho Chi Minh, issued a declaration of independence, modeled on the United States' own Declaration. So began the first Indochina War, a conflict between the Vietminh and the French that would last for eight years. The Vietnamese nationalists successfully drove the French out of North Vietnam in 1954, after their victory at the Dien Bien Phu, but the war had increasingly become an issue of wider international significance. This was largely thanks to the support received by Ho Chi Minh from communist China, and the corresponding involvement of the United States, who by the end of the conflict were contributing over eighty percent of the costs of the French military in Vietnam (Lawrence, 2010).

Discussion

Before World War II, Vietnam was a colony of France. This war was clearly the most successful of the war for the French and Japanese. When Allies expelled, the French returned the same in Vietnam, where an encounter arose from the Vietnamese Communist Party led by Ho Chi Minh, the person to have claimed power at that time. In 1946, the communists began guerrilla activity (so-called "League of the independence of Vietnam," or Viet Minh) against the French colonial troops also called as the Indochina War, the Vietnam War which continued till 1954 (Werner & Huynh, 1993).

During the war, Communist Vietnam's arms aided fraternal regimes of the USSR and China. This was a remarkable contribution to the victory. The French helped the Yankees and military advisers. They supported all the people of Vietnam. In the southern part, there were many supporters of the French administration. This support led to further the civil war. For now, French troops had withdrawn from Vietnam and the country split into two parts on the 17th parallel. The northern part was then referred to as Viet Minh, and the Southern part was named after the French. Tired of this little country, they immediately gave South Vietnam's independence. However, the southern part had pro-French rule of the Emperor Bao Dai. The central Vietnam was established as a demilitarized zone (Tomes, 2000).

By 1962, it became clear that Cubans were in favor of commies, and they wanted to avoid a nuclear contact outside their borders. Like any war with the guerrillas, the Vietnam War was accompanied by a decrease in the number of civilians. Moreover, the simple peasants battered from the commies and democracy. Executions and the burning of the real estate was a common war practice. The most famous example for this was the massacre in the villages of Mai-Lai and Mikhe (community of My Lai.) on March 16, 1968, under the command of William ...