Existing comment:
The United States and Vietnam have a complicated history.
The conflict known as the "Vietnam War" in the United States -- and the "American War" in Vietnam -- was long in the making. Global and domestic conditions in the years leading up to the war made for a shifting relationship, as forces in each country pursued their own political and ideological goals.
The region that is today Vietnam became a French colony in the late nineteenth century. During the Second World War, Japanese forces also occupied Vietnam. Communist leader Hồ Chí Minh and his nationalist Việt Minh fighters resisted all foreign authority, and the U.S. government supported them in their struggle against the Japanese. When Japan surrendered in 1945, Hồ Chí Minh declared Vietnam an independent state. After that, the United States, hoping to contain the spread of communism, backed France's attempt to reestablish colonial rule. After an eight-year conflict, Hồ Chí Minh's forces defeated France in 1954. At peace talks in Geneva, the major world powers decided to temporarily divide the country instead of upholding independence. Two nations eventually emerged: the noncommunist Republic of Vietnam in the south, supported by the United States, and the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, allied with the Soviet Union and China.
Political tensions escalated and war broke out between the North and South. Without making an official declaration of war, the United States provided steadily increasing aid to South Vietnam. The commitment of U.S. ground troopsin 1965 finally brought America's long involvement in Vietnam into the open. |