Vietnam War
By Thulung at 8 January, 2009, 5:44 am
Vietnam War, also known as Second Indochina War or Vietnam conflict is a war and hostilities that occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1959 to 1975. The war that was fought between the communist North Vietnam and National Liberation Front (NLF) supported by its communist allies and South Vietnam supported by United States and Southeast Asia Treaty organisation (SEATO) countries, including Australia and New Zealand.
From the year 1946 until 1954 the Vietnamese had struggled for their independence from France during the First Indochina War. Following the defeat of the French Army in May 1954 in the First Indochina War, Vietnam was temporarily divided into North and South Vietnam, at the 17th Parallel and under the terms of Geneva Convention, civilians were to be given to move freely between the two provisional states. North Vietnam came under the control of the communists who had opposed France and whose aim was to unify Vietnam under the communist rule. The south was controlled by the Vietnamese who worked together with French.
From the late 1950s, a civil war developed in South Vietnam between the communist supported National Liberation Front (NLF) with its military arm the Viet Cong (VC) and the US backed Government of Ngo Dinh Diem. The war intensified in 1963, following the assassination of Diem and his replacement by a series of unstable ‘revolving door’ governments.
In the year 1965 the United States sent in troops to prevent the South Vietnamese Government from collapsing. Other nations like Australia, New Zealand were also involved in Vietnam War. At the end, however, the US including its allies failed to achieve this goal and in 1975 Vietnam was reunified under the Communist control. About 3 to 4 million in totals of Vietnamese from both sides were killed and about 2 million of Lao and Cambodians who got sucked into the conflict were also killed. Besides, thousands of US and other allied soldiers were killed during the Vietnam War.
Vietnam War is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted war in the history of wars.
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