Vietnam - Admission/Application Essay Example

Vietnam War The Second Indo-China War, which is commonly referred to as the Vietnam War, took place between theyears 1954 and 1973. It was the time when the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) members along with the United States attempted to prevent Communism while the national forces of Vietnam tried to unify the country under communistic governance. The United States suffered great losses and it was a yardstick for future foreign conflict and policies. The Vietnam War is known as the American War in Vietnam since the American troops had the biggest military presence and continued war from 1965 to 1968.

The French colony had ruled over Vietnam for over six decades prior to the United States entering this War. The French had claimed Viet Minh or the communist forces and Vietnam as a colony. During this period, which was 1941, Ho Chi Minh the revolutionary communist leader of Vietnam returned after 30 years. His main aim was to eradicate the French and Japanese troops from Vietnam. Although Ho had the support of Northern Vietnam and announced the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which was a new government, established towards an independent Vietnam, the French were not ready to give up yet and continued fighting the communists.

Ho had tried to get the U.S. onto his side by providing the Japanese sensitive militaryName 2 information during World War II, but the United States was dedicated to their non-communistic approach and therefore declined the offer. The U.S. was afraid of the ‘domino theory’, which basically conveyed that if one Southeast Asian country followed the communistic approach, then every neighboring country might succumb to it. Thus the U.S. involved itself in the Vietnam War by giving military aid to the French in 1950 so they could defeat Ho Chi Minh.

The French were defeated at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the Geneva Conference that consisted of many nations, decided that the French should cease-fire and withdraw peacefully. Since the country had been split into the non-communist South and communist North, a reuniting effort via a general democratic election, was supposed to take place. However, the U.S. fearing that the communists might be victorious in their endeavor, decided not to agree to this election. After this, only the South of Vietnam continued elections with the help of the U.S. and elected Ngo Dinh Diem.

He was not a worthy leader and hence the U.S. supported his assassination in 1963. The communist sympathizers of South Vietnam formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) or ‘Viet Cong’ to fight against them by using guerilla warfare. While the fight between the ‘Viet Cong’ and South Vietnamese proceeded, North Vietnam fired two ships of the U.S. that were on international waters. This was called the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, which in return received a resolution, wherein the U.S. President was given full authority to escalate their stand in the war by the Congress.

President Lyndon Johnson used this authority in the March of 1965, where he ordered the first ground troops of the U.S. in Vietnam.Name 3The U.S. did not want to win the war but instead, President Lyndon Johnson wanted to boost his allies in the South of Vietnam so they could win the battle. Unfortunately for the U.S. troops, the battle was a miserable one because they had no idea how to find their enemies since the ‘Viet Cong’ could be hidden and housed by any of the families where even the women and children could help them make booby traps and bombs.

The Viet Cong ambushed the U.S. troops who became so frustrated at their poor condition which urged them to use drugs due to low morale. The final assault to the surprise of both U.S. and South Vietnam was the perfectly organized ‘Viet Cong’ attack. They fought back with what is called the Tet Offensive, but this marked the turning point in the whole War as President Johnson was faced with the angry American mob and negative reviews from his military leaders stationed in Vietnam which initiated him to not escalate the war any further.

President Nixon was made the new President of America and he tried to end the war by a module called ‘Vietnamization’ wherein he would pull out his troops from the South of Vietnam and hand over the baton to them to continue the war. He also tried expanding the war to countries like Cambodia and Laos much to the protests of the American mobs again. The North Vietnamese brought on another massive attack called the Easter/ Spring Offensive on March 30, 1972 wherein they crossed the demilitarized zone and infringed South of Vietnam who fought back along with the remaining U.S. troops.

Finally, ‘The Paris Peace Accords’ was able to bring about a cease-fire from the U.S and on March 29th 1973, the last of the U.S. military troops left Vietnam soil. ReferenceVietnam War – A history of the Vietnam War. Web. Accessed in May 2014http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamwar.htm