What started the Vietnam war, and how does it compare to the war in Iraq?

Question

People often talk about Iraq having similarities to Vietnam. Why did the Vietnam war happen?

Answer 1

Some of the other answers have good points, but .... What actually started the Vietnam War will always be debateable.

I've studied Vietnam and the Vietnam war for many years, and I continue to find more questions than answers about the war. One thing I can tell you for sure is the war was inevitable, however U.S. involvement was not.

You can trace reasons why the war started back into the mid-1800's when the French colonized Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in creating what was then Indochina. Vietnam has a very long history (literally 1,000's of years) fighting against those who had tried to occupy or control their country. Sooner or later, the Vietnamese people would rise up to kick the French out of their country as they have with the Chinese, Japanese and Mongols in the past.

When the French failed to keep their promise of independence to Vietnam after WWII, all hell broke loose to say the least. For lack of better words, the U.S. and it's coalition (yes, there were other countries that fought with the U.S. in Vietnam) became involved to clean up France's mess. This snowballed into a much bigger conflict than the one that France was involved in.

It could be seen that the Iraq and Vietnam Wars are similar on the surface, but they're actually worlds apart in just about every aspect. To consider these war similar in any way other than coincidential would be due to ignorance and lack of knowledge of either conflict and the countries involved.

Answer 2

The Cold War was at its height, with the Soviet Union and Communist China standing off against the Western Allies, led by the US. After WW2 Vietnam was divided in 2 with a commie government up north and a supposedly democratic on in the South. However, the southern government was unstable and corrupt. It had been agreed that the whole country would have an election, but the US was afraid the Commies would win, so wouldn't allow the elections to take place.

The Commies got annoyed about this and started to stir up trouble, blowing things up and ssasination people, and they also gave support to the Viet Cong a geurilla group (or terrorists, take your pick). The US sent troops to support the Southern Government, and it all soon got out of hand. The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident (where North Vietnam gunboats apparently fired on US warships), have LBJ the excuse he needed and soon nearly half a million US troops were in Nam. The North sents its army and it soon became a big old shooting match.

Iraq started cos Bush had a score to settle with Saddam, and wanted a major US troop presence their to protect oil interests. Saudi wouldn't have the troops so it had to be Iraq. Bush got his excuse from the WMD issue and in we went. Now, the insurgents (equivilent to the VC) are being funded and supported by Syria, and Iran. The Syrians support the Shi'ites and the Iranians support the Sunnis (or is it the other away around?) and we are in the middle. The difference is that it won't come to a proper shooting war like Nam as long as the Coalition are there, cos no one can match US technological superiority. Nice work George!

Answer 3

There are no similarities at all except that the anti war brigade use the same slogans.

Vietnam was all about a country which was divided into two after the French pulled out following their defeat at Dien Bien Phu, with one half (the North) being communist and the other capitalist.

The communists supported by China and Russia invaded the capitalist south which had a treaty with the U.S.

A poular theory at the time was the domino theory which was that communism would spread through south east asia by one country falling after another, and in those days many people were afraid of communism.

Therefore the U.S and Australia gave aid to South Vietnam, whilst the British fought the communists in Malaya (and won).

Iraq is totally different. Iraq was invented as a country in the 1930's out of a number of tribal areas governed by the British, including Kurds, Marsh Arabs, Bedouin, and Mespotanians so historically it is a made up country anyway.

The invasion of Iraq was for a number of reasons but in effect to depose the secular Baathist regime there and establish a new government. The military forces were defeated in conventional battle and now there is a security vacuum which is drawing in terrorists and insurgents from across the Arab world.

These insurgents are killing civilians, Shi'ite Muslims, Kurds and occasionally coalition soldiers.

The war in Iraq lasted three weeks and since then it has been about supressing insurgency whilst the new Iraqi government, Army, and police force can take over.

No similarities at all.

Answer 4

The Vietnam war started in 1946 when the vietnamese asked for independance; they wanted to stop being a French colony and sought self determination

Unfortunately, the country was handed back to French control and a war of independance against the French began. The US picked up the role when the French were defeated in the North of the country

The comparison with Iraq is in terms of the difficulty of stabilising the security and in exiting the involvement; the US eventually accepted that exit from Vietnam would result in collapse of the government in the South. US forces attempted to stabilise the internal security in the south of Vietnam but eventually gave up when they realised it was impossible.

Commentators have said that exit from Iraq would lead to the overthrow of the current (US installed) government and civil war, hence the desire for forces to remain in country until the security situation is stable within Iraq. There is a view that security within Iraq will never be stable whilst the US are there as occupying forces, and this is the comparison with Vietnam.

Answer 5

Vietnam was an effort to keep communism from spreading. Communism was first given rise in the Soviet Union after the overthrow of the Czars. It spread to neighboring countries, or rather was imposed upon them in many nations. Some nations adopted communism without being forced to do so by the USSR, such as China. With Sino Soviet relations improved and having a joint agenda, communism was being spread throughout Asia. The first time we offered resistance was in Korea. To this day there remains a communist North Korea and a Democratic South Korea and we still have troops there.

Vietnam was the next attempt at resistance, but this time, news coverage of the war came home to televisions across the US. Scenes of horror and questions of why the US is defening South Korea instead of South Koreans doing it. Public dissaproval of thousands of dead soldiers ended in our pulling out of South Vietnam and allowing North Vietnam to win. The loss was not on the part of our military, but because politicians were making the decisions on what to hit and how to do it.

Any similarities between Iraq and Vietnam are tenuous at best. Far fewer soldiers are being killed in Iraq. Indeed, there are probably more Americans dying violent deaths each day in California than in Iraq. It is likely we will be in Iraq for the long term, the people there need to learn to set aside their fear. Heck, we still have soldiers in Germany and that war has been over for 50 years.

Answer 6

You have to go back to the 50's and the Viet Cong, communist South Vietnamese trying to take down the Republic of Vietnam. The US sent advisers and aid to support our ally. They were later joined by NORTH Vietnamese troops, and the US got into it heavily in the early 60's. This was ultimately a war of aggression by the communist North, and ended when the US picked up its marbles and left. There are similarities, but the campaign (not "war," the "war" is against Islamofascism) in Iraq is a step toward changing the whole perspective of the Middle East.

Answer 7

The similarity is that on one side there is US army and on the other guerilla. By military doctrine war against guerilla cannot be won. It was proven so many times in history. US army was defeted in Viet-nam and most probably will be in Iraq. Going into war needs much wiser thinking and planning than this administration did for Iraq. GIVE DIPLOMACY A CHANCE.

Answer 8

In Vietnam people from the south was angry by the north by having topay high tax.but the really thing is that in vietnam people hate there goverment like in Iraq people hate goverment

Answer 9

ignorance abounds here. following the division of Vietnam into 2 parts following the defeat of the french forces the north [commie] decided to annex the south[not commie] by force of arms. at first they just supported local fighters but soon were sending northern troops to fight in the south. in the later 50s the USA started sending aid and advisers at the request of the government of southVM and things escalated from there. basic fact the Vietnam war was started because of the commies wish to rule the world as ordained by the writings of marx and lenin [may they burn in hell]

Answer 10

Probally a Dink P1ssing on the precious Stars and Stripes.