Vietnam War A Cold War Era Conflict - 2301 Words

Vietnam Conflict The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era conflict that started in 1946 and ended in 1974, taking nearly 30 years to resolve. The war was fundamentally a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, where the North was communist and South was not. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other non-communist allies supported the non-communist South Vietnam. China, Russia (USSR), Cuba, Cambodia and other Communist allies supported the regime in the north. North Vietnam saw the United States involvement in the North as foreign aggression, so they fought guerilla wars against the anti-communist forces in the region. Guerilla forces (the Viet Cong) and the regular North Vietnamese Army were responsible for fighting the anticommunist forces. The conflict mainly consisted of small battles until the onset of air attacks -- part of an overall strategy of massive bombing and search-and-destroy operations, which South Vietnam and the Americans hoped would win the war. During the 1950s, US advisors were sent to French Indochina or what is South Vietnam (Eckhardt, 1991:6). Because of many internal conflicts with the North trying to take over the South, U.S. increased their involvement in Vietnam in the 1960s, nearly quadrupling the number of American troops in South Vietnam during 1961 and in 1962 (Hayes, 2014). The US continued to deepen its involvement, so that by the end of 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin resolution gave the President the authority to assign massiveShow MoreRelatedThe Cause For The Vietnam War1442 Words   |  6 PagesAmong the causes for the Vietnam War are the Western fear of communism, the remnants of nineteenth-century colonialism, and tensions caused by World War Two and the Cold War, but these causes could easily have been circumvented and the Vietnam War prevented. As is often the case with wars, one of the most influential factors in the causation of the Vietnam War was fear, especially fear of communism and social upheaval. 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