The+Vietnam+War

__The Vietnam war__ The Vietnam War was a war sparked over this idea of Communist invasion. It was a huge fear the government, much like todays fears they have on terrorism. We were weak after WWII and small Korean War involvement. We were heavily dependent of the French holding their ground in Vietnam. In Vietnam the French were being brutally beaten trying to keep the land they valued, while fighting off harsh attacks from the Northern Vietminh. The Vietminh would kill any light skinned person that resembled a French man or woman; they'd blow up power plants, throw grenades into cafés and execute high ranking French officials. With the U.S fearing the lose of a very valuable nation(South Vietnam). The U.S felt as though they needed to do something about this and so they got involved. In the 1950's the U.S. began sending troops to vietnam. Some 3 million Men and Women were sent to fight for an unclear cause. After World War World II France fought to gain back their territory in vietnam. The french were finally defeated by communist general Vo Nguyen Giap. The French retreated and left the North and South of Vietnam broken between a comunist rule. The North of vietnam, having defeated france, wanted to take the the control of south vietnam with the help of the south vietnamese gurilla. In 1964, North vietnam aquired the help from china and russia and conqured the entire country. The united states strongly disliked communism and with the expansion of soviet rule in korea, cuba and eastern europe, the U.S. felt it had to do something about it.

The term "**Red Scare**" has been retroactively applied to two distinct periods of strong anti-Communism in United States history: first from 1917 to 1920, and second from the late 1940s through the late 1950s. These periods were characterized by heightened suspicion of Communists and other radicals, and the fear of widespread infiltration of Communists in U.S. government. The Red Scare played a big role in the decissions made for the Vietnam War. Since the breakout of the Cold War, the United States have made it their duty for containing the spread of communism.

The Vietnam War is widely known as one of the most vicious and costly wars that the United States has been through. The United States lost about 60,000 troops in it's attempt to preven the spread of communism in Vietnam. The Vietnamese's losses hit well over 1 million, with close to 5,000,000 civilians dead. Eventually, the United States would fail in it's attempt to liberate South Vietnam.

The Vietnamese people where very cunning in the way they fought using underground tunnels to fight and take the american troops by surprise. some times the vietnamese soldiers where refered to as ghosts because one second they would be shooting at you and the next they would have disappeared. the tunnels would consist of elaborate passage ways. in these tunnels there would be medical centers, sleeping courters, schools and basically everything that was needed to live in these tunnels for some time. the american troops where not prepared for combat like this, they sent in what they called "tunnel rats" which where american troops who would go into these tunnels and locate and kill the vietnamese congs.

The Vietnam war lasted from 1959-1975. The Vietnam War was one of the longest and deadliest war in United States History. It resulted in a large amount of deaths for both Vietnam and the United States. 60,000 deaths for the United States and almost 2 million in Vietnam. To Financially support Vietnam, the United States gave Vietnam $2.6 billion to Vietnam. AT first, The United States didnt know what they were facing and the power and strength that Vietnam had neither did they know the consequences behind it.Till this day, people still wonder if going into Vietnam was the smartest thing to do.

The capital of south Vietnam was Saigon. "The fall" of Saigon was basically the final days of the war. The communist North Vietnamese took over of Saigon and thats what lead to the whole Vietnam becoming communist. The American forces left Saigon after years and years of fighting and Saigon fell. Our sailors cam ehome defeated in both physically and emotionally.

Sources: [|http://www.vietnampix.com/intro.htm] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#Effects_on_Vietnam http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/vietnam/index.cfm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Scare