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Vietnam War Research Paper

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The Vietnam War was a bloody dispute that lasted 20 years, from 1955 to 1975. After winning its own independence from France in 1954, the country itself split into two parts, North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, a communist leader who lead his country into its revolution against the French. The North had a communist style government styled off of the successful Communist revolution in Russia. The South on the other hand, was backed up by the United States and had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem was a very repressive leader though, and soon enough a guerilla force made up of communists now called the ‘Viet Cong’ started to attack and kill Southern Vietnamese government officials. The Viet Cong …show more content…

North Vietnam seemed to be winning the war, and the Soviet Union and China started to supply and backup the communist north. Then on August 2, 1964, North Vietnamese torpedo boats targeted and attacked a U.S destroyer named the USS Maddox. President Johnson asked congress to pass an authorization for him to do whatever was needed to protect the U.S or it’s Asian allies in the threat of another attack. Johnson did this to allow the United States to send troops into Vietnam without congress officially declaring war. This was a very unpopular war, and by the end of the war the casualties were heavy on both sides. The U.S lost over 58,000 troops, and the winner of such war is one debated even to this day. Many say that since the U.S lost so many troops and failed to stop the spread of communism, we lost. Others debate that because a peace treaty was signed between the U.S and Vietnam, the United States was …show more content…

If the U.S hadn’t participated in the war, then more anti-communist people of South Vietnam would have been killed.
North Vietnam broke the Geneva Agreement by not allowing its citizens to leave under the new rule and start a new life in the south. The U.S then came in to enforce this Geneva rule since it had been broken
The U.S wanted to stop the spread of communism to neighboring

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