Vietnam War?

Question

Silly question, but its my fault for failing all my history classes. But anyway; who started the Vietnam war? I know it was something about the North fighting the South, but yeah, which one was the Americans helping and why? and the last one, which (north or south) was Ho chi minh owning?? thanks!

and also, did the vietnames want to fight the japanese aswell?

Well mr orlando. blame the schools :) and blame history classes.

Answer 1

It all starts with the French. The colonized Vietnam in the 19th century. After World War 2, as part of the wave of decolonization that was going on, the Vietnamese naturally were none too happy to keep the French around. So they revolted and Ho Chih Minh was an early revolutionary leader. After kicking out the French, Vietnam split into north and south, with the north and Ho Chih Minh adopting communism and the south adopting a free market. This led to a perfect situation for the US and the Soviet Union (as well as Maoist China) to play regional power games against each other, with each side supplying money, weapons, and military "advisers" to their respective sides. Finally, open war broke out between north and south Vietnam, dragging the US deeper into the conflict.

Answer 2

The origins of the Vietnam War go well beyond what American's believe it's starting and ending points are. First the Vietnamese Independence movement began just after World War I. A young Ho Chi Minh attended the Treaty of Versailles in an attempt to gain Vietnamese independence. (If you read his declaration of Vietnamese Independence it reads almost exactly like the American version) He failed in his efforts but continued to struggle politically and spent many years traveling Europe and Asia. The Vietminh began a sabotage campaign just before the outbreak of World War II. When Japan invaded in the early 1940s Vietnamese began to resist Japanese occupation, not to restore the colonial rule but to achieve independence. (French rule had been incredibly brutal) After WWII the Vietminh began a concerted military campaign to overthrow French rule. France had neither the military capability nor the heart to subdue the Vietminh. France was rebuilding after WWII and trying to keep closer and more important territories. France suffered a major and embarrassing defeat at Dien Ben Phu when its colonial army, the Foreign Legion, was besieged inside the fort at Dien Ben Phu. After several weeks the French surrendered and this effectively ended French rule. The US denied the ability of the communist northern government to rule the country by propping up an unpopular leader of its own and divided the country. The US and the democratic southern government promised to hold elections in early 1960 but did not. By this time an undeclared war had broken out between North and South. The US sent "military advisors" which then expanded to over half a million troops. The dates widely accepted are that US involvement was from 1965-1972, but there were military advisors in Vietnam as early as 1956-1958. Search Vietnam at Amazon and you will find a lot of great stuff

Answer 3

Congrats to both matthewJcahill and Fillifane for two very concise and correct answers to your questions concerning, what was many times referred to as the Vietnam Conflagration. The only point of interest that I can add to the excellent answers from the two contributors mentioned above is: one other factor was very important in the division of Vietnam into two distinct countries: Religion. The catholic and various protestant sects were forced to settle in the South. Also, most of the Buddhist priests left the North and settled in the South. Even though the North formed a "communist" style government, it allowed the practice of Buddhism. Every leader in the South from its' formation until its' demise was a catholic.

Answer 4

The French started the Vietnam war, after the end of WWII. The Americans supported the French, and when the French gave up as losers in trying to subjugate Vietnam, the Americans decided that they just could not allow the Vietnamese to be free.

Answer 5

The Vietnamese were fighting against French colonial rule. When they finally succeded in getting the French out, the US stepped in. It was the early 1950's, the time of a US war in Korea, the glorification of Taiwan and support of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. A grand plan in geopolitics, justified by the US as containment of communist expansion.

Many people in the US, and a majority throughout the world, didn't see American intervention in Vietnamese affairs as "help", as you say. US policy is Vietnam was bitterly opposed by the world's community, just as the US occupation of Iraq is today.

Answer 6

The story begins with the French colonization of Indochina (modern day Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia.)
which began in the last decades of the 19th century.

From the outset the various peoples of Indochina resisted the occupation of their countries and there was almost continuous rebellion.

During World War II the defeat of France by the Germans in Europe and the establishment of the collaborationist Vichy regime resulted in control of Indochina passing to Germany's Japanese ally.

Since rebellion against the Japanese suited the purposes of the Allies (Great Britain, the United States, etc) the indigenous people were encouraged to battle their Japanese occupiers and promised that, at wars end, they would be given their independence.

Anti-Japanese guerillas lead by Ho Chi Minh were successful in controlling the countryside and the Japanese were confined to a few large cities by the end of the war.

On September 2, 1945, relying on the promises made to them, the people of Viet Nam declared independence and created Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as provisional president.

Betraying the promises made by them during the war, the Europeans Allies swiftly invaded and a mixed force of French, British, and Indian troops plus, ironically, Japanese units, re-installed the brutal French colonial regime.

Vietnamese forces immediately rebelled against this treachery and battled the French and their local collaborationist puppets finally defeating them at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

The French then entered into negotiations with the Indochinese resulting in the Geneva Accords of April 27, 1954.

This peace treaty recognized the independence of a single, sovereign and independent Vietnam. To facilitate the French withdrawal and to avoid further fighting during this withdrawal, the country was split into two zones (NOT two countries) with the French and their collaborators to regroup in the south and the victorious Revolutionaries in the North.

The Accords called for free and fair elections under international supervision to be held in July 1956 that would then consolidate the administrative divisions in the country.

The French by this time were ready to pack up and go home but the United States, now deep in the throes of the McCarthyite anti-communist paranoia, were panic stricken at the thought of free elections as they would clearly result in the victory of Ho Chi Minh who was a communist.(As President Eisenhower openly admitted).

So the CIA was sent in and a new group of puppets installed in the South.

Ngo Diem was found lounging in a cafe in Tokyo and brought back to Saigon to become first "prime minister" and later "president" of a CIA created Republic of South Vietnam.

The internationally supervised elections promised by the Accords were then canceled by the United States. The Vietnamese again had to fight to win what they had already won twice before in battle against the Japanese and then the French.

Eventually the forces of independence prevailed but only after more bombs were dropped on tiny Vietnam than were used in World War II and two million Vietnamese were dead.

NB: Ironically, what the war did was to consolidate the Communist domination of Vietnamese political life. Since the leading freedom fighters were communists and the leading collaborators were ostensibly anti-communist it was possible for the communists to link their ideology with patrotism. "What if" is a dangerous game to play but had the West simply recognized a free Vietnam (and Cambodia and Laos) at the end of World War II one wonders what might have happened.

Answer 7

Hey !!! STOP REMINDING US-VIETNAMESE OF THAT WORLD !!! WE'RE DEVELOPING COUNTRY NOW !!!

Answer 8

please nobody answer this question. let her figure it out for herself.