“The soldier above all others prays for peace, for the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars because of war”-Douglas MacAurthor. The Vietnam war was a war that would not be forgotten for a long time. Is there anything that can be learned from the experiences of the Vietnam War? What can be learned is that many different people that fought in the war were fighting for something that they wanted to fight for. Although the Vietnam War,caused by the U.S. desire to stop the spread of communism, had negative effects on Americans, including social, economic and political consequences, this event helped shape modern history.
The French colonialism was in Vietnam for more than 6 decades. To minimize the resistance, the French decided on the ‘the divide and rule’ strategy undermining the vietnam unity (French colonialism 2019). Many of the Vitenamese people no longer worked to provide for themselves; they now worked for the french colonies. The french also burdened the vietnamese with an extensive taxation system. French colonies did provide some benefits for the Vietnam society, many of which were improvements in education. French officials and their families opened primary school and provided for both the french and the vietnamese people.
In 111 BC, the northern part of Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese Empire. This long period of denomination led to the Chinese belief system becoming established in medieval Vietnam (Vietnam under Chinese rule). During the era of Chinese denomination Vietnam’s feudal social structure took its shape. Vietnamese independence was not secured until the late 10th century. For more than the next 9 centuries, the northern half of Vietnam was called Dai Vietnam and was ruled by a series of the local dynasties.
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Contact between the Vietnamese people and the Europeans dates back to the ancient times. The first contact the Viet people and the Europeans had was as early as the 1st century BC (Europeans in Vietnam). The first European interest in Vietnam was shown by Catholic missionaries who came in search of converts and followers instead of anything else. Until the mid-1600s, almost all of the European missionaries in Vietnam were Portuguese. The French began to arrive in numbers in the late 1600s, following their formation of the French Society.
The Japanese military entered in September 1940 and remained there until the end of WWII. The Japanese occupation of Vietnam helped strengthen the Viet Minh and contributed to the outbreak of the First Indochina War (Japanese occupation of Vietnam). The occupation of Vietnam also fit into Japan’s long-term plans. From the early 1940s, Tokyo began pressuring the French colonial administrators in Vietnam, demanding that Japanese soldiers to be allowed into the country to secure the Chinese border. While some of the Vietnamese drew closer to the Japanese, most of them believed Japanese imperialism would be the same, or even worse, then the French.
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorized President Lyndon Johnson to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attacks against the forces of the US and to prevent further aggression”. The Gulf of Tonkin effectively launched America’s full-scale involvement into the Vietnam War (History.com). By 1964, Vietnam was involved in a decades-long civil war, and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was the beginning of the United States’ formal involvement in the Vietnam War. The actions on the shores of the Gulf of Tonkin were conducted with the U.S. naval destroyers. On August 7th, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which the president signed into law three days later and planned to increase the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.
As time passed , more people grew tired of the casualties and increasing costs. The movement grew at a great force (ushistory.com). The demonstrations were little from the start, with an active participants numberings. Even without the anti-war movement, many Americans still accepted the Vietnam effort. So when Nixon was introduced in January 1969, the nations were divided over what courses of action to follow.
More than over 180,000 NVA troops invaded South Vietnam. The North Vietnam’s invasion of the South was a disaster, however; it was not planned right. It revealed the North’s inexperience in warfare (alphahistory.com). Through 1974, the North prepared itself for their final invasion. The fall of South Vietnam came almost 3 years after the U.S. withdrew most of its troops. By evening, NVA and Vietnam controlled Saigon. After all of this happened the collapse of South Vietnam was finished.
The Vietnam War cost about $168 billion dollars. $111 billion of it was for the military operations and $28.5 billion in order to help out South Vietnam. The benefits for the Vietnam veterans and their families still cost about $22 billion a year (Amadeo 2019). If any veteran dies from a wound then the surviving spouse qualifies for the benefits. Also any of the veteran kids receive benefits until they reach the age of 18, and if their kids are disabled, then they receive benefits also. Since 1970, the post-war benefits for veterans and their families have cost the total amount of about $270 billion in all.
When the Americans left the war, North Vietnam faced dozens of challenges. 2 years after the withdrawal of the U.S. troops, the NVA tanks and soldiers entered Saigon (The History Place). After a century of domination, Vietnam was finally a single nation. A new constitution was adopted on July 2nd of 1976, so the North and South was finally reunited. Their new nation was called the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the title still remains today. The Khmer Rouge was a revolutionary group that took control of Cambodia in 1975. The rise of the Khmer Rouge was caused by the war in Vietnam. The KPRP is a party, even though it was once controlled by Vietnam(The Khmer Rouge 2019). The Khmer Rouge, would not be able to stop the beginning of the new government.
The Vietnam War was a rough time for everybody. From the Americans withdrawing from the war to the fall of South Vietnam. The variation in responses from people make it difficult to understand the overall popular opinion on whether our involvement had a positive, negative or a neutral outcome. In my opinion no one wanted to fight because they had to. They fought because they wanted to fight for something they loved. With everything that happened back then, everyone still has a holiday to celebrate the Vietnam veterans.
