The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and '50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France.
A major factor that led President Lyndon B. Johnson to intervene into Vietnam militarily was the fear of communism due to Cold War tensions with communist countries such as China and the Soviet Union. South Vietnam was very important to the U.S. in Asia with it being perceived as a western democratic state.
A 1966 poll found that 81% of the British public disapproved of any potential British military intervention in Vietnam. The war was unpopular within the broader Labour Party, evidenced by the fact that its members voted to reject the government's Vietnam policy at the 1966 and 1967 Party conferences.
Following the murder of Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson took the United States step by step, via the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Operation Rolling Thunder, and finally the July 1965 decision to deploy a large number of combat troops in South Vietnam, into a full-scale land war in Southeast Asia.
The Vietnam War (1955-1975) traces its roots to the colonization of Vietnam by France in the late 19th Century. In 1884, all of Vietnam fell under French rule; in 1887, it was fully integrated into French Indochina.
Why Did the Vietnam War Break Out? (4K Vietnam War Documentary)
What was the real cause of the Vietnam War?
At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China.
What we now call Vietnam was once owned and run by France. From the late 1800's to 1954, Vietnam was part of a French colony called French Indochina. When the French first became interested in Indochina French missionaries sought to convert the Vietnamese to Catholicism, the religion of France.
Operation Rolling Thunder commenced on February 13, 1965 and continued through the spring of 1967. Johnson also authorized the first of many deployments of regular ground combat troops to Vietnam to fight the Viet Cong in the countryside.
What did Robert Kennedy do during the Vietnam War?
Senator Robert Kennedy (D-New York) proposes a three-point plan to help end the war. The plan included suspension of the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam and the gradual withdrawal of U.S. and North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam with replacement by an international force.
Technically the UK did send a small number of troops to Vietnam to train the American Forces in jungle warfare. This was because of our extensive experience in WW2 and Malaya. The other side of the coin was that the UK could see that this was an American created war that they couldn't win.
Australian SASR personnel also worked with US Army Special Forces in Vietnam, and provided instructors to the MACV Recondo School, and then to the LRRP Training Wing at the AATTV-operated Van Kiep Training Centre from 1967.
On 29 April 1965 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced in parliament that Australia would send a battalion of combat troops to Vietnam. The decision was motivated by a desire to strengthen strategic relations with the United States and to halt the spread of communism in South-East Asia.
The US army had superior conventional weapons but they were ineffective against a country that was not industrialized and an army which employed guerrilla tactics and used the dense jungle as cover.
Vietnam is a socialist republic with a one-party system led by the Communist Party. The CPV espouses Marxism–Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thought, the ideologies of Ho Chi Minh. The two ideologies serve as guidance for the activities of the party and state.
Despite the stark differences between North and South Vietnamese personalities, there is a sense of unity that transcends geographic boundaries – a common bond forged through centuries of shared history and the struggle for national independence.
Vietnam. Vietnam is a country located in Southeast Asia, bordered by Cambodia, Laos, and China. French is one of the official languages of Vietnam, along with Vietnamese. French is spoken by a small minority of the population, mostly in the capital city of Hanoi.
North and South Vietnam were reunified in 1976. The war exacted an enormous cost: estimates of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 970,000 to 3 million. Some 275,000–310,000 Cambodians, 20,000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 US service members died.
The French lost their Indochinese colonies due to political, military, diplomatic, economic and socio-cultural factors. The fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 signalled a loss of French power. General Vo Nguyen Giap and his Viet Minh had triumphed on the eve of the Geneva Conference.
Failure in Vietnam was rooted in a misunderstanding of the type of conflict and a failure to adapt. US commanders continually attempted to make the war fit their understanding of operations, not a true understanding of the conflict itself.
The operation began primarily as a diplomatic signal to impress Hanoi with America's determination, essentially a warning that the violence would escalate until Ho Chi Minh "blinked," and secondly it was intended to bolster the sagging morale of the South Vietnamese.
America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam. 1973 U.S. Involvement in Vietnam Ends March 29, 1973.
Kennedy's campaign manager, his brother-in-law Stephen Edward Smith, promptly appeared on television and asked for a doctor. After several minutes, medical attendants arrived and lifted Kennedy onto a stretcher, prompting him to whisper, "Don't lift me", which were his last words; he lost consciousness shortly after.
As National Security Advisor, Kissinger sought initially to find a way to end the war on American terms. During his tenure, Kissinger came to differ with Nixon as Kissinger was more in favor of seeking an end to war as expeditiously as possible with minimum damage to American prestige.
The notable phrase "ripple of hope" came shortly thereafter: It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice.
