Just as regional concerns about communism influenced support for South Vietnam, the Vietnam conflict also played into Cold War superpower rivalries, which, in turn, shaped superpower decision making.
As the U. The U. Hanoi leaders understood that they walked a tightrope between their two contentious benefactors, as North Vietnam received significant support from both countries. North Vietnam also benefitted from trade with Eastern Europe through its inclusion in the Soviet sphere.
Although authorities in both Vietnams tried to assert themselves and resist superpower control, the Cold War power struggle between the U. In the context of the Cold War power struggle, and in the context of U. Presidents from Truman through Johnson worried about American credibility. President Eisenhower had considered authorizing a U. Eisenhower considered the partition of Vietnam a victory for the U. Like Korea, Vietnam was now only half communist, and the division of the country maintained the balance of power between the two spheres.
Kennedy argued that if the U. That type of approach would just play into the hands of the communists, and in any case, Kennedy believed that the U. Kennedy employed the rhetoric of idealism to try to convince the American public that the U. Historians still debate what Kennedy would have done regarding Vietnam had he lived beyond November Some close to Kennedy and members of his administration believe he would have escalated as Johnson did.
Others have maintained that he would not have escalated. President Lyndon B. In this region and elsewhere many peoples share our sense of the value of such freedom and independence.
They have taken the risks and made the sacrifices linked to the commitment to membership in the family of the free world. They have done this in the belief that we would back up our pledges to help defend them. It is not right or even expedient--nor is it in our nature--to abandon them when the going is difficult. Its location across east-west air and sea lanes flanks the Indian subcontinent on one side and Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines on the other and dominates the gateway between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
In communist hands this area would pose a most serious threat to the security of the United States and to the family of free-world nations to which we belong. To defend Southeast Asia, we must meet the challenge in South Vietnam. Let me examine for a moment the nature of this strategy. In his report on a party conference entitled 'For New Victories of the World Communist Movement,' Khrushchev stated: 'In modern conditions, the following categories of wars should be distinguished: world wars, local wars, liberation wars and popular uprising.
But with regard to what he called 'liberation wars,' he referred specifically to Vietnam. In , a joint U. The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America.
At another protest 10 days later, two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed by police. By the end of June , however, after a failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise.
Kissinger and North Vietnamese representatives drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing raids against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong. Known as the Christmas Bombings, the raids drew international condemnation. Some of the papers from the archive of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in A top-secret Department of Defense study of U.
The report, leaked to the Times by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, further eroded support for keeping U. In January , the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations. In , Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under a broad free market policy put in place in , the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital.
Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U. In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. The war had pierced the myth of American invincibility and had bitterly divided the nation. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians and its supporters who saw them as having lost the war , along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange , millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.
On it were inscribed the names of 57, American men and women killed or missing in the war; later additions brought that total to 58, But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!
Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Vietnam War started in the s, according to most historians, though the conflict in Southeast Asia had its roots in the French colonial period of the s. Vietnam War protests began small among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses but gained national prominence in , after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest.
Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Of the nearly 1 million Americans who served on active duty in the U. Armed Forces during the Vietnam War era , many were or went on to become famous in diverse fields such as politics, entertainment, sports and journalism. There were a number of long-term and short-term reasons to explain why the USA became involved in Vietnam in the late s.
During World War Two it had been invaded by Japan. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Vietminh, a resistance army which fought for Vietnamese independence. The French tried to take control again, but this was unpopular with the people. They were defeated by the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu in Peace was discussed at Geneva in and the Treaty of Geneva agreed that the French would leave Vietnam and the country would be split along the 17th Parallel until elections could be held.
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