How bad was Vietnam before the war compared to Saddam's dictatorship?

Question

I still don't understand what the Communist government was actually doing to oppress. America's involvement seemed to overshadow it.

Answer 1

You don't seem to have the correct picture, or view of hat Vietnam was about. It was a near identical scenario as Korea, another peninsula, where the North's communist government, was backed by the Communist Chinese and Russians (where do you think the NVA got all those Russian made SAMS missiles), tried to force the south Vietnamese to become one nation under communist control. the Cold war between the Soviet Union and the US was all about The USSR trying to get third wolrld asian contries to beome communist, and where backed by soviet military supplies, the US goal was to contain the spread of Communism, seen a s a threat to liberty, and the peoples right in any nation to control there goverment and economies. SO once again we got involved, the problem was that congress could not stop micro managing the ground troops, and any action against the enemy had to be approved before hand. the Generals where frustrated by the lack of decisivness and in-fighting of the politicians ,while US troops where dying becuase of a lack of support and political bickering, much like todays senario in Iraq. The Communist knew they could not win the war, so the NOrth Korean President devised the idea of turning the American people against the war, by relasing very biased film footage of the war to our own media, who had a feeding frenzy and painted a war of gloom and doom and no win senarios (sounds familiar?), anyways the American public who had always trusted the media blindly, did not question what they saw in the news (question everything!), and soon protestors and supporters had clashes, the heart of america was torn over the war, and we withdrew from vietnam because of the media spin. All war is bad, but often nessasary, after we left the north vietrnamese took over south vietnam and over the next 3 months over 1,5 million south vietnames where slaughtered, then the US was blamed for leaving, the Us was damned either way, if we stayed, or if we went (sound familiar again). every Vietname vet was basically slapped across the face, ignored by a torn country, and the wounds have still not healed, ANd today in Iraq, there are people bent on having the same resluts, but lamely say they support the troops not the war. which is a lie, the vietname vets where drafted, and had no choice, todays are all volenteer, there are people who do not understand that to support the troops you have to support there actions, which is the war, bad or good (no good war ever) it's a nessasary evil, we learned that from vietname, will we repeat the same misktakes?

Answer 2

"Depending on whos research you read some annalists are of the opinion that had we persisted another 6 months we would have beaten Hanoi and taken all of Vietnam, taking out Communism in Vietnam. Hope this helps!"

Which six months are you talking about? Do you mean immediately after the Tet Offensive in 1969? Or, do you mean by the time the US pulled the remaining ground troops out in 1972-73? It might have been possible in 1969. Might being the operative word. But, by 1972, we were pretty much done.

BTW, Ho Chi Minh asked the US for assistance in the late 1940s. When he was turned down he went where he could get help. It was simply a matter of expediency.

Answer 3

There are a lot of differences. Saddam was a sadistic individual who ruled by torture, murder and espianoge more than anything else. He limited fighting between the ethnic groups in the country while conducting experiments on the Kurds in the north. Look into the war between Iraq and Iran and the mustard gassings of the norther villiages. Its not pretty.
The leader of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem was put in charge by the US. He then proceeded to launch an anti-communism coup that ultimately led to the war. He was a devout Catholic and he attacked other religious groups and he attacked a group that allied themselves with the secret police. It was because of these injustices that North Vietnam decided to step in and reunify the country and give these people their moderate freedom. The US backed the South Vietnamise because we set up the ruler and we feared Communism.
Depending on whos research you read some annalists are of the opinion that had we persisted another 6 months we would have beaten Hanoi and taken all of Vietnam, taking out Communism in Vietnam. Hope this helps!

Answer 4

I was at Woodstock which was at the begining of Vietnam. Country Joe and the Fish did a song called Vietnam. Or many Bob Dlyan or Joan Biez songs. These are mostly protest songs. I will have to check out the book. I hope your project turns out excellent. Good luck

Answer 5

they werent opressed by the communists, they were clonized by the french and were fighting for theri independence from them. Ho Chi Minh went to Wilson in 1919 at versailles and asked for help for getting independance and he turned him down. he later wrote a series of letters to fdr begging for independence from the french. fdr responded by saying after the war, he died and thus truman was left and he gave it back to the french trying to appease the french goverment and people so they would not fall to communism. it cannot be compared to saddam because it was not an indepndent nation. some of u guys seriously just need to open an encylcopedia or history book and read for five minutes instead fo jsut wasting time. you should isntead compare vietnam to america before the revoultion. thsat would ahve been a better quesion

Answer 6

Vietnam was in combat from the end of WWII. France tried to regain their imperial control over Vietnam must to the dismay of both the USA and Ho ChiMein. In fact the USA sided with Ho but let France have its way.

What you call the Vietnam war was just another case of the United States trying to bail out France from its colonial/imperialistic nature.

Answer 7

Vietnam was very much a religious war. Catholics had been persecuted and President Kennedy and other Christians wanted to save millions of Viets that had become Catholics ujnder French rule.

Saddam's rule oppressed dissenting religions also.

"Diem’s support was concentrated mainly in the cities. Although he had been a nationalist opposed to French rule, he welcomed into his government those Vietnamese who had collaborated with the French, and many of these became ARVN officers. Catholics were a minority throughout Vietnam, amounting to no more than 10 percent of the population, but they predominated in government positions because Diem himself was Catholic. Between 1954 and 1955, operatives paid by the CIA spread rumors in northern Vietnam that Communists were going to launch a persecution of Catholics, which caused nearly 1 million Catholics to flee to the south. Their resettlement uprooted Buddhists who already deeply resented Diem’s rule because of his severe discrimination against them".

Communism became an important issue, but like most wars religion was at the cause.

Answer 8

Deaths in Vietnam=56,000 Americans.

Answer 9

the war was also called "stupid and not worth time" what the american people don't understand is that communism oppresses because you can't own and businesses or actually own anything at all. All jobs pay the same and the capitalists or south vietnam will be punished for war crimes

Answer 10

Wow, what a bunch of BS answers here! Thanks Ray for at least getting PART of them fixed!

I would suggest instead of asking us this question, you do some research on both issues yourself and form an opinion. Start here for a good site on Vietnam.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/