Vietnam War by Sam Tekie

Containment Policy

cooldude7911 — 2015-02-25 20:50:10 UTC

The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States (with the aid of the South Vietnamese) attempting to prevent the spread of communism.

History before the War

cooldude7911 — 2015-02-25 20:51:19 UTC

There had been fighting in Vietnam for decades before the Vietnam War began. The Vietnamese had suffered under French colonial rule for nearly six decades when Japan invaded portions of Vietnam in 1940. It was in 1941, when Vietnam had two foreign powers occupying them, that communist Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh arrived back in Vietnam after spending thirty years traveling the world.

Peace after war

cooldude7911 — 2015-02-25 20:57:33 UTC

On January 27, 1973, the peace talks in Paris finally succeeded in producing a cease-fire agreement. The last U.S. troops left Vietnam on March 29, 1973, knowing they were leaving a weak South Vietnam who would not be able to withstand another major communist North Vietnam attack.

Reunification of Vietnam

cooldude7911 — 2015-02-25 21:03:49 UTC

After the U.S. had withdrawn all its troops, the fighting continued in Vietnam. In early 1975, North Vietnam made another big push south which toppled the South Vietnamese government. South Vietnam officially surrendered to communist North Vietnam on April 30, 1975. On July 2, 1976, Vietnam was reunited as a communist country , the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

VIETNAM WAR FACTS

ateddy66 — 2015-02-25 21:06:31 UTC

58,148 Americans were killed and 304,000 wounded out of 2.59 million who served.
The average age of those killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years.
50,274 were enlisted, average age 22.37.
The average infantryman in the South Pacific during World War II saw about 40 days of combat in four years. The average infantryman in Vietnam saw about 240 days of combat in one year, thanks to the mobility of the helicopter.
After Vietnam the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand managed to stay free of communism. The Indonesians expelled the Soviets in 1966.
During the Vietnam War the national debt increased by $146 billion (1967-1973). Adjusted for inflation, the debt in 1992 dollars was $500 billion.
6,598 were officers, average age 28.43.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

kian_ahmadi23 — 2015-02-25 21:07:07 UTC

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a series of trails. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the North Vietnamese as a route for its troops to get into the South. They also used the trail as a supply route – for weapons, food and equipment. The Ho Chin Minh Trail ran along the Laos/Cambodia and Vietnam borders and was dominated by jungles. In total the ‘trail’ was about 1,000 kilometres in length and consisted of many parts.

The ‘trail’ consisted of dummy routes that served the only purpose of confusing the Americans but was, in places, 80 kilometres (50 miles) wide. It is thought that up to 40,000 people were used to keep the route open. The natural environment gave the trail excellent cover as the jungle could provide as much as three canopies of tree cover, which disguised what was going on at ground level. The American response to this was to use defoliants ,the most famous being Agent Orange to kill off the greenery that gave cover to those using the trail. However, while large areas of jungle were effectively killed off, the task was too great and the Ho Chi Minh Trail was used for the duration of the war against the Americans in South Vietnam.

Vietnam Fast Facts

alexanderford42 — 2015-02-25 21:12:55 UTC

(1)91 percent of Vietnam veterans say they are glad they served.

(2)74 percent said they would serve again even knowing the outcome.

(3)1,276 were warrant officers (NCOs), average age 24.73 years.

(4)11,465 were less than 20 years old.

(5)From 1957 to 1973 the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 South Vietnamese and abducted 58,499. Death squads focused on leaders that included schoolteachers and minor officials. (6) The number of North Vietnamese killed was approximately 500,000 to 600,000. Casualties: 15 million.

(7)One out of every 10 Americans who served in Vietnam was a casualty. Although the percentage who died is similar to other wars, amputations or crippling wounds were 300 percent higher than in World War II. 75,000 Vietnam veterans are severely disabled.

Defoliants

kian_ahmadi23 — 2015-02-25 21:14:43 UTC

Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. program of defoliation, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to 1972. Agent Orange, which contained the chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used of the herbicide mixtures, and the most effective. It was later revealed to cause serious health issues including: tumors, birth defects, rashes, psychological symptoms and cancer, among returning U.S. servicemen and their families as well as among the Vietnamese population.

Biblography

cooldude7911 — 2015-02-25 21:36:36 UTC

Works Cited

PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

"Vietnam War Facts, Stats and Myths." US Wings. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

"Vietnam War." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

"Vietnam War Timeline." Vietnam War Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

The Fall of Saigon

kian_ahmadi23 — 2015-02-27 20:43:59 UTC

Saigon, capital city of South Vietnam, fell to North Vietnamese forces on April 30^th1975. The fall of Saigon (now Ho Chin Minh City) effectively marked the end of the Vietnam War