The Vietnam war - Research Paper Example

Communist rebels from the north started invading the south. These rebels were trained and armed by the northern Vietnamese government, and they came to be known as the Vietcong. It is the attack on South Vietnam that drew America to Vietnam. The American government through it’s president had promised to support all the nations that faced threats from communism. It is the sole purpose of this paper to identify the superpowers that got assisted by the Vietnam War and how the Vietnam War influenced Cold War.

In the period of the Cold War, the American government fought communism in multiple places worldwide. At that time, Southern Vietnam was an area under great threat by the communist Vietcong. The American’s believed that by allowing Communists to take over the Southern part of Vietnam, other countries within that region would follow suite and become communist countries (Domino Theory) (Salem State University, 2009). Faced with this threat, President Kennedy, J.F sent military advisers to assist the army of South Vietnam.

It is Kennedy’s successor who started sending military ground troops to Vietnam. But as it later unfolded, the unrest and continued activism against the Vietnam War by the American Citizens saw the government withdraw American troops from Vietnam in the year 1973. Consequently, the Russians won the battle and acquired control of the South. Vietnam was later unified and become a single communist nation. The Vietnam War had an influence over the Cold War. The cold war started in the year 1962 and ended in the late 1970’s.

Earlier, in the year 1949, the US had defined all the governments that were communists as being “the enemy.” After the defeat of the French in 1954, the US replaced them in Vietnam. The war became a struggle between the US, against a nation-state that was emerging (Suffolk State University, 2011). It is the Cold War that saw the US commit itself to assisting all the countries that were under threat of communism. The Vietnam War was basically a war in which a weaker south Vietnam fought against the north Vietnam.

The north Vietnamese were being assisted by China and Russia. The American’s saw this war (Vietnam War) as being a war between communists and Nationalists. The north Vietnamese were communists and the south nationalists. Therefore, the involvement of the U.S in Vietnam War was a direct outcome of the Cold War. At the end of World War Two, the Korean Peninsula was divided between the US forces that were in the south and the Soviet forces that were in the north. Each of these super powers had the intention of unifying Korea under their auspices.

The Chinese joined in the war and the war between China and the United States lasted for three years. This war resulted in the growing and intensification of tensions in the Cold War. This growing tension in the Cold War forced the U.S to change its policy towards Vietnam. Russia was keen on facilitating the spread of communism in Asia. Together with China, Russia supplied arms to northern Vietnam. The arms were delivered to a group of rebels who later attacked South Vietnam. The United States moved in to support the South fight against the communist north.

This scenario overtly shows that the Vietnam War was a war of superpowers. The super powers were fighting a cold war that was due to their different ideologies. Each of the super powers had the intention of introducing her ideologies to other countries. For example, Vietnam was divided into two and each super power