The Vietnam War: A War Without Rules

The Vietnam War:   A War Without Rules
2009
Brian Phan
12/11/2009

Ever since America’s Civil War (1861-1865), no war had divided its countries citizens as much as that, until they got involved into the Vietnam War. American involvement in Vietnam resulted in deep divisions in U.S. society and remains a bad area in history and consciousness for many Americans. The Vietnam War was the legacy of France's failure to suppress nationalist forces in Indochina as it struggled to restore its colonial dominion after World War II. Led by Ho Chi Minh, a Communist dominated revolutionary movement was about to take place, the Viet Minh part of this communist group waged a political and military struggle for Vietnamese independence that frustrated the efforts of the French and resulted ultimately in them leaving the region. Vietnam had gained its independence from France in 1954. The country was divided into North and South. The North had a communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. The South had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. It was from these two countries and the involvement of the United States, that the war without rules took place.
The United States entered the war to stop the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. American leaders feared that Communist forces would gain control of Vietnam. After that, nation after nation might fall to Communism. Communism is a political and economic system that the United States strongly opposed. The Vietnam War was hugely unpopular claiming almost 60 000 U.S lives who were fighting along the side of South Vietnam, while 1.2 million North Vietnamese troops’ lives were lost. The Vietnam War was the longest of America's wars, there is no official start date but many people believe that it lasted at least eight years from the Tonkin Gulf incident of 1965 to the end of direct US participation in combat in 1973. Historically it is written that it started in 1959 and that it ended in 1975 when North Vietnam won. Vietnam...