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but yeah okay let me talk about the Vietnam war AHEM. I can now see why the war was so controversial in terms of if it was just because it was supposed to be about saving the people of South Vietnam and giving them a stable living but America and its government got so ate u p in things like natioinalism! nO COMMIES!!!1!1 that they were really just forwwarding their agenda and they lost the point, which was just being a pal and helping out South Vietnam. Trying to withdraw was also difficult because Nixon waas like "Please??? We'll do anything reasonable okay" but Hanoi said "nuh UH Mr. President!! We do WHAT WE WANT and ONLY what we want!!1!11" eventually America just had to give up on the whole war effort thing and just let Sout Vietnam fend for itself a.k.a. collapse. VIDEO PENDING

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Another song about a returned soldier

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Cold Chisel - Khe Sanh [Official Lyric Video]

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Australian song about war veteran who struggled with trauma after the war

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President Nixon's public address on the Vietnam War

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President Nixon's public address on the Vietnam War

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in which he explains what started the war, lists issues in America and Vietnam during the war, and discusses how America can obtain peace. Nixon decides against immediate withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, but he tried to negotiate with Vietnam on his terms but they rejected it immediately. He concludes that the major obstacle in ending the war is North Vietnam and their refusal to compromise.

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from the Vietnam War-era slogan "Make Love Not War." Found on Obeygiant.com

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A personal favorite show of mine, the pilot episode involves a character being killed at war.

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The Wonder Years - "Brian Cooper Was Killed"

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Of all the music from The Wonder Years -- Snuffy's original compositions and the classic hits -- this has always been one of my favorites. This is perfection. Good job, Mr. Walden!

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Forrest was in the Army during the Vietnam War, and Jenny participated in anti-war protests.

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satirical song about the Vietnam war. A soldier's song for humor, NOT an anti-war agenda.

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Country Joe and the Fish - I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag (vinyl rip) {EP version}

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Detroit Free Press: Floating Cafe Bombed, Killing 31

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Detroit Free Press: Floating Cafe Bombed, Killing 31

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Written 26June, 1965. More details here

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she articulates the moment the picture was taken and some additional details are revealed about her life.

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Sixties Survivors - Jan Rose Kasmir, Protestor with a Flower

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But Kasmir is a discouraged that America seems to be complacent in the face of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It's something that's plagued me horribly - the impotence that we all feel towards war and America's ability to wage war and the common citizen's ability to stop it.

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"A peace sign printed on the American Flag is raised during an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. Due, in part, to the strong anti-war sentiments, Nixon announced the end of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in January 1973" (History.com).

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"A peace sign printed on the American Flag is raised during an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. Due, in part, to the strong anti-war sentiments, Nixon announced the end of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia in January 1973" (History.com).

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part of gallery found on History.com

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News article: Letter from Eisenhower to Churchill, 1954

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News article: Letter from Eisenhower to Churchill, 1954

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regarding concerns about French efforts in Vietnam and Communist expansionism, part of the buildup to the war

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Vietnam post-war recovery after 30 years

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Vietnam post-war recovery after 30 years

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It has been 30 years since the end of the Vietnam War, and the country once known for strife and crushing poverty has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Foreign investors flooded into Vietnam in the early 1990's, betting that the communist nation's "doi moi" economic reforms could make it the next Asian tiger economy. But by the late 1990's, the investors were pulling out almost as fast as they had come in. Doi moi, which means "renewal", was seen as too slow moving, and investors turned their attention to neighboring China.

Yet, in the past five years, Vietnam's cautious policy on reforms has quietly yielded results. Annual GDP growth has averaged nearly 7 percent a year. Poverty, which once plagued two-thirds of the population, has been cut in half. Average income for Vietnamese has doubled in the last 10 years.

Klaus Rohland, country representative for the World Bank, says those numbers are impressive by any standard.

"Vietnam is a major success story. As of 1992 until now, they have grown on average, by more than 6 percent," he said. "Last year they grew by like 7.5, 7.8 percent. And that is way above average growth. And it's probably, with the exception of China, the best performing economy in the world.

For all its success, Vietnam remains a poor country. Average income may have doubled, but it is still only about $600 a year - far behind wealthier neighbors like Thailand and Malaysia. Still, the mood is optimistic.

In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the sound of construction has become almost constant. Property prices have jumped by more than half in the past three years, as just about everyone seems to be renovating houses and building new office buildings. Real estate experts say office space in Ho Chi Minh City now costs the same as in suburban Tokyo or Paris.

Much of Vietnam's newfound prosperity comes from commodities exports like oil and agricultural products. The International Monetary Fund says Vietnam is the world's largest pepper exporter, and the second-largest exporter of rice, coffee and cocoa. Tourist arrivals reached three million visitors last year. That is only about a quarter of the tourists that Thailand welcomes, but is still up 50 percent from just three years previously. Nguyen Thanh Huong runs a souvenir shop in Hanoi's busy Hang Gai Street.

"Around late winter and early spring, there are many tourists Vietnam. Business is very good and I have a lot of customers," he said.

Economists say Vietnam still has a long way to go before its economy can match its more developed neighbors. Its expected entry into the World Trade Organization later this year could help. But first the government must further reform its banking and investment sectors - which now lend most of their funds to money-losing state-owned companies instead of private entrepreneurs.

Still, even foreign investors are beginning to regain confidence in Vietnam. This year's foreign direct investment is up by 30 percent. As the Communist Party touts its 30-year-old victory in the Vietnam War this week, Vietnam's economy gives the country something else to celebrate.

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голос америки

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Vietnam Enjoying Economic Recovery 30 Years After War

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It has been 30 years since the end of the Vietnam War, and the country once known for strife and crushing poverty has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Foreign investors flooded into Vietnam in the early 1990's, betting that the communist nation's "doi moi" economic reforms could make it the next Asian tiger economy.

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source

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"At Kent State University in Ohio the National Guard confronts protestors, after an ROTC building was set on fire. The National Guard opened fire on the students killing four and wounding eight" (History.com).

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"At Kent State University in Ohio the National Guard confronts protestors, after an ROTC building was set on fire. The National Guard opened fire on the students killing four and wounding eight" (History.com).

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Part of gallery found on History.com

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"In Washington D.C., veterans protest the fighting in Indochina by discarding their medals and uniforms over the fence at the U.S. Capitol" (History.com).

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"In Washington D.C., veterans protest the fighting in Indochina by discarding their medals and uniforms over the fence at the U.S. Capitol" (History.com).

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Part of gallery found on History.com. Peace sign on his back anti-war sentiment

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"On November 15, 1969, more than 500,000 protestors flooded into Washington, D.C., for the Moratorium March—one of the largest anit-war demonstrations in U.S. history" (History.com).

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"On November 15, 1969, more than 500,000 protestors flooded into Washington, D.C., for the Moratorium March—one of the largest anit-war demonstrations in U.S. history" (History.com).

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Part of gallery found on History.com

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Demonstration from female students at U.C. Berkeley.

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Demonstration from female students at U.C. Berkeley.

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Part of gallery found on History.com

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Courtesy of Raphael Nguyen

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Daily life in VIETNAM | In the lotus fields

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Hoi Anm surroundings, Center of Vietnam - 2008

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Source: Vietnam Tours Blog.

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Photo by user Ictan on TREKEARTH.

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National Geographic.  Photo by  Sarawut Intarob

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"This article originally appeared in the May 12, 1975, edition of U.S. News & World Report" (US News Staff).

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"This article originally appeared in the May 12, 1975, edition of U.S. News & World Report" (US News Staff).

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A New York Times opinion article by Karl Marlantes

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A New York Times opinion article by Karl Marlantes

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on racial integration of troops and the tension therein

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And yet even as Vietnam continues to shape our country, its place in our national consciousness is slipping. Some 65 percent of Americans are under 45 and so unable to even remember the war. Meanwhile, our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our involvement in Syria, our struggle with terrorism - these conflicts are pushing Vietnam further into the background.

All the more reason, then, for us to revisit the war and its consequences for today. This essay inaugurates a new series by The Times, Vietnam '67, that will examine how the events of 1967 and early 1968 shaped Vietnam, America and the world. Hopefully, it will generate renewed conversation around that history, now half a century past.

What readers take away from that conversation is another matter. If all we do is debate why we lost, or why we were there at all, we will miss the truly important question: What did the war do to us as Americans?

CYNICISM

Vietnam changed the way we looked at politics. We became inured to our leaders lying in the war: the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident, the number of "pacified provinces" (and what did "pacified" mean, anyway?), the inflated body counts.

People talked about Johnson's "credibility gap." This was a genteel way of saying that the president was lying. Then, however, a credibility gap was considered unusual and bad. By the end of the war, it was still considered bad, but it was no longer unusual. When politicians lie today, fact checkers might point out what is true, but then everyone moves on.

We have switched from naïveté to cynicism. One could argue that they are opposites, but I think not. With naïveté you risk disillusionment, which is what happened to me and many of my generation. Cynicism, however, stops you before you start. It alienates us from "the government," a phrase that today connotes bureaucratic quagmire. It threatens democracy, because it destroys the power of the people to even want to make change.

You don't finish the world's largest highway system, build huge numbers of public schools and universities, institute the Great Society, fight a major war, and go to the moon, which we did in the 1960s - simultaneously - if you're cynical about government and politicians.

I live near Seattle, hardly Donald J. Trump territory. Most of my friends cynically deride Mr. Trump's slogan, Make America Great Again, citing all that was wrong in the olden days. Indeed, it wasn't paradise, particularly for minorities. But there's some truth to it. We were greater then. It was the war - not liberalism, not immigration, not globalization - that changed us.

RACE

In December 1968, I was on a blasted and remote jungle hilltop about a kilometer from the demilitarized zone. A chopper dropped off about three weeks of sodden mail and crumpled care packages. In that pile was a package for Ray Delgado, an 18-year-old Hispanic kid from Texas. I watched Ray tear into the aluminum foil wrapping and, smiling broadly, hold something up for me to see.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's tamales. From my mother."

"What are tamales?"

"You want to try one?" he asked.

"Sure." I looked at it, turned it over, then stuck it in my mouth and started chewing. Ray and his other Hispanic friends were barely containing themselves as I was gamely chewing away and thinking, "No wonder these Mexicans have such great teeth."

"Lieutenant," Ray finally said. "You take the corn husk off."

I was from a logging town on the Oregon coast. I'd heard of tamales, but I'd never seen one. Until I joined my company of Marines in Vietnam, I'd never even talked to a Mexican. Yes, people like me called people like Ray "Mexicans," even though they were as American as apple pie - and tamales. Racial tension where I grew up was the Swedes and Norwegians squaring off against the Finns every Saturday night in the parking lot outside the dance at the Labor Temple.

President Harry Truman ordered the integration of the military in 1948. By the time of the Vietnam War, the races were serving together. But putting everyone in the same units is very different than having them work together as a unit.

Our national memory of integration is mostly about the brave people of the civil rights movement. Imagine arming all those high school students from Birmingham, Ala. - white and black - with automatic weapons in an environment where using these weapons was as common as having lunch and they are all jacked up on testosterone. That's racial tension.

During the war there were over 200 fraggings in the American military - murders carried out by fragmentation grenades, which made it impossible to identify the killer. Almost all fraggings, at least when the perpetrator was caught, were found to be racially motivated.

And yet the more common experience in combat was cooperation and respect. If I was pinned down by enemy fire and I needed an M-79 man, I'd scream for Thompson, because he was the best. I didn't even think about what color Thompson was.

White guys had to listen to soul music and black guys had to listen to country music. We didn't fear one another. And the experience stuck with us. Hundreds of thousands of young men came home from Vietnam with different ideas about race - some for the worse, but most for the better. Racism wasn't solved in Vietnam, but I believe it was where our country finally learned that it just might be possible for us all to get along.

SERVICE

I was at a reading recently in Fayetteville, N.C., when a young couple appeared at the signing table. He was standing straight and tall in Army fatigues. She was holding a baby in one arm and hauling a toddler with the other. They both looked to be about two years out of high school. The woman started to cry. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "My husband is shipping out again, tomorrow." I turned to him and said, "Wow, your second tour?"

"No, sir," he replied. "My seventh."

My heart sank. Is this a republic?

The Vietnam War ushered in the end of the draft, and the creation of what the Pentagon calls the "all-volunteer military." But I don't. I call it the all-recruited military. Volunteers are people who rush down to the post office to sign up after Pearl Harbor or the World Trade Center gets bombed. Recruits, well, it's more complicated.

When I was growing up, almost every friend's father or uncle had served in World War II. All the women in town knew that a destroyer was smaller than a cruiser and a platoon was smaller than a company, because their husbands had all been on destroyers or in platoons. Back then it was called "the service." Today, we call it "the military."

That shift in language indicates a profound shift in the attitudes of the republic toward its armed forces. The draft was unfair. Only males got drafted. And men who could afford to go to college did not get drafted until late in the war, when the fighting had fallen off.

But getting rid of the draft did not solve unfairness.

America's elites have mostly dropped out of military service. Engraved on the walls of Woolsey Hall at Yale are the names of hundreds of Yalies who died in World Wars I and II. Thirty-five died in Vietnam, and none since.

Instead, the American working class has increasingly borne the burden of death and casualties since World War II. In a study in The University of Memphis Law Review, Douglas Kriner and Francis Shen looked at the income casualty gap, the difference between the median household incomes (in constant 2000 dollars) of communities with the highest casualties (the top 25 percent) and all the other communities. Starting from almost dead-even in World War II, the casualty gap was $5,000 in the Korean War, $8,200 in the Vietnam War, and is now more than $11,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan. Put another way, the lowest three income deciles have suffered 50 percent more casualties than the highest three.

If these inequities continue to grow, resentment will grow with it. With growing resentment, the already wide divide between the military and civilians will also widen. This is how republics fall, with armies and parts of the country more loyal to their commander than their country.

We need to return to the spirit of the military draft, and how people felt about service to their country. The military draft was viewed by most of us the same way we view income tax. I wouldn't pay my taxes if there wasn't the threat of jail. But as a responsible citizen, I also see that paying taxes is necessary to fund the government - my government.

People would still grumble. We grumble about taxes. People would still try to pull strings to get more pleasant assignments. But everyone would serve. They'd work for "the government," and maybe start to see it as "our government." It's a lot harder to be cynical about your country if you devoted two years of your life making it a better place.

Let the armed services be just one of many ways young people can serve their country. With universal service, some boy from Seattle could find himself sharing a tamale with some Hispanic girl from El Paso. Conservatives and liberals would learn to work together for a common cause. We could return to the spirit of people of different races learning to work together in combat during the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War continues to define us, even if we have forgotten how. But it's not too late to remember, and to do something about it.

Correction: January 15, 2017

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united states defense and military forces

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Opinion | Vietnam: The War That Killed Trust

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And yet even as Vietnam continues to shape our country, its place in our national consciousness is slipping. Some 65 percent of Americans are under 45 and so unable to even remember the war. Meanwhile, our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our involvement in Syria, our struggle with terrorism - these conflicts are pushing Vietnam further into the background.

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by Marlette. Source link. This cartoon is a subject of irony, because the man says the title quote to the boy protesting the war, but a newspaper leans on the man's chair, reading, "Napalm Hits Civilians." The people really getting burnt up here are the innocent civilians in Vietnam.

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by Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News. Found on  Daryl Cagle's Politicalcartoons.com Store. The cartoon illustrates how war sticks with people. In normal life, this veteran is still wading Vietnam waters in his mind, and the waiting room sign suggests that he's in treatment for a serious problem, likely PTSD.

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A research report from Air University

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by Harvard Sitikoff, history professor at university of New Hampshire

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They were wary of official calls to intervene abroad in the cause of democracy and freedom, and the bipartisan consensus that had supported American foreign policy since the 1940s dissolved. Democrats, in particular, questioned the need to contain communism everywhere around the globe and to play the role of the planet's policeman.

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US News article by Traci Badalucco: PTSD following Vietnam War

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US News article by Traci Badalucco: PTSD following Vietnam War

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THE FLOWER AND THE BAYONET."Jan Rose Kasmir confronts the American National Guard outside the Pentagon during the 1967 anti-Vietnam march in Washington on Oct. 21, 1967" (TIME).

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THE FLOWER AND THE BAYONET."Jan Rose Kasmir confronts the American National Guard outside the Pentagon during the 1967 anti-Vietnam march in Washington on Oct. 21, 1967" (TIME).

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TIME Magazine.  Marc Riboud-- Magnum Photos. This iconic photo became the symbol for the flower power movement.

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TIME Magazine. Larry Burrows--Getty Images.

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"American Marines during Operation Prairie near the DMZ in Vietnam in Oct. 1966" (TIME).

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"American Marines during Operation Prairie near the DMZ in Vietnam in Oct. 1966" (TIME).

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TIME magazine. Courtesy of Larry Burrows--Getty Images.

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"Newly-landed U.S. Marines make their way through the sands of Red Beach at Da Nang, on their way to reinforce the air base..." (TIME)

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"Newly-landed U.S. Marines make their way through the sands of Red Beach at Da Nang, on their way to reinforce the air base..." (TIME)

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TIME Magazine, courtesy of Peter Arnett--AP.

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Advance of helicopters and ground troops during attack of Viet Cong war camp, 1965.

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Advance of helicopters and ground troops during attack of Viet Cong war camp, 1965.

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Found on TIME Magazine. Courtesy of Horst Faas, AP.

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"American jets drop napalm on Viet Cong positions early in the Vietnam conflict in 1963."

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"American jets drop napalm on Viet Cong positions early in the Vietnam conflict in 1963."

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Found in Time Magazine. Courtesy of Larry Burrows of Getty Images

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Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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found on http://www.brooklineconnection.com/history/Gallery/Cannon.html

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posted on a neat blog called Memoirs From Nam, where many veterans come together to reflect on their experiences.

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Michael Lansford's The Demons From War was very well written. There were lots of thoughts and memories evoked and revived in my mind.

When l first got in country, a few days after turning eighteen, l realized that those l'd been thrown in with were ... well, crazy ... sort of immoral, compared to how l'd been raised.

That scared me bad, because l'd come up a little different ... harder, more street wise, and maybe just a little tougher than most.

Then as days turned to weeks, l emulated and copied those around me, trying to learn everything they'd learned.

Soon l also realized that if l wanted to survive, l was going to have to become just like them. That realization scared me even more.

One had to forsake the teaching and values of their youth, become tougher, meaner, and more cunning than those trying to kill you. All for the sake of survival, you quit thinking as you once had.

Many things in your life lost their meaning. You became hard and, in ways, insolent and uncaring. You learned to become as devoid of normal feelings as possible, (or tried to, anyway). You wanted to care, but you couldn't allow yourself that luxury. You learned that man was no more than an intelligent species of animal and, like all animals, willing to do most anything to survive.

As weeks turned to months, those who'd been killed, wounded, or left, were replaced with new guys that were as dumb as you'd once been.

Soon, every firefight, ambush, and operation became blurred in your mind and all of it blended into one nebulous event. Most things became so obscured, to the point that you weren't even sure they'd happened, yet when you looked around for those once there, you knew that it was all too real.

Actually, if you were single, it was a very simple way of life. You carried most everything you owned and lived wherever you were. Your clothes, food, medicine ... everything needed to survive was provided. You had nothing to worry about, except staying alive. If you failed at that, all the other things didn't matter anyway. Then, what you had never allowed yourself to believe in, became real.

In twenty-four hours, or less, you were home, but home wasn't there for you. Home, was as maddening as the war once had been. Everything and everybody had changed so much. In time, you came to realize that everything was the same, but you had changed. You wanted even some small semblance of your old life back, but it always seemed just out of reach.

To worsen matters, you realized that in an insane way, you missed the war that you'd hated so much. At the same time, those around you tried to make you feel guilty for where you'd been and what you'd done, when they didn't even know what you'd done.

In actuality, you did feel guilty, but not for the same reasons. You felt as though you deserted the friends you'd left behind, and felt even worse when you realized that you had liked the adrenaline rush of combat and the camaraderie of war.

Then you go to your next duty station, hoping it will be better. Once again, you were back to weekly hair cuts, shined boots, starched uniforms and war games. It was different, but still not right. It was as if you would never fit in anywhere.

Many of those with you had no idea what you had been through and didn't care. You talk to others just returning and band with them. But they have no answers, because they all felt the same as you.

Finally, in desperation I came to a decision. I just couldn't handle the world around me and I knew what I had to do (at least in my case). After putting in the paperwork, (DD Form 1049), l waited. Weeks later, l was feeling somewhat normal ... back in Nam and starting all over again!

Sorry the above comment turned out to be so long. As is often the case when l write, the thoughts just keep coming ...

United States Army, Retired

1969 to 1972

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Michael Lansford's The Demons From War was very well written. There were lots of thoughts and memories evoked and revived in my mind. When l first got in country, a few days after turning eighteen, l realized that those l'd been thrown in with were ... well, crazy ...

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Interview with Vietnam war veteran Lou Schembri

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Interview with Vietnam war veteran Lou Schembri

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Vietnam Veteran Griff Killgrove Interview

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An interview I conducted with Vietnam Veteran Lou Schembri. I ask him about his service history, mateships formed, living with PTSD and his life after service.

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Vietnam War, 1970: CBS camera rolls as platoon comes under fire

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Includes military terms like Bouncing Betty, SOP,  RTO, a grunt, and Green Berets, as well as phrases derived from the Vietnamese language, like xin loi and  didi mau. Also the many different terms for the enemy, the VC.

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Glossary of Military Terms & Slang from the Vietnam War A-C

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Soviet-manufactured Kalashnikov semi-automatic and fully automatic combat assault rifle, 7.62-mm; the basic weapon of the Communist forces. Known as the Type 56 to the Chinese, it is characterized by an explosive popping sound.

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Courtesy of John H.

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Vietnam War, (1954-75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the "American War" in Vietnam (or, in full, the "War Against the Americans to Save the Nation"), the war was also part of a larger regional conflict ( see Indochina wars) and a manifestation of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.

At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The South Vietnamese government, on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. By 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.

The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.

Vietnam emerged from the war as a potent military power within Southeast Asia, but its agriculture, business, and industry were disrupted, large parts of its countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation and laced with land mines, and its cities and towns were heavily damaged. A mass exodus in 1975 of people loyal to the South Vietnamese cause was followed by another wave in 1978 of " boat people," refugees fleeing the economic restructuring imposed by the communist regime. Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in what had been its longest and most controversial war. The two countries finally resumed formal diplomatic relations in 1995.

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Vietnam War | Facts, Summary, Years, Timeline, Casualties, Combatants, & Facts

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Vietnam War (1954-75), conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. It was part of a larger regional conflict as well as a manifestation of the Cold War.