The Vietnam War

               The Vietnam War started on November 1, 1955 and ended on April 30, 1975. The war was a communist against anti-communist war.  Communist allies like the Cuba, China, supported Northern Vietnam (Viet Kong). Southern Vietnam was supported by the United States of America, Korea, and the Kingdom of Laos. The North Vietnam army had a great advantage over the US army because of their home turf. They new their lands well and used a guerrilla warfare technique against the US army. The guerrilla warfare tactic required much celerity from soldiers to ambush and raid the U.S army. However, the South Vietnamese greatly relied on air forces. Along with the air forces that dropped airstrikes and artillery, ground forces had "search and destroy" missions. 

               U.S president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the government saw the intervention in the war an easy way to stop the communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of their plan of a wider strategy of containment. The war in Vietnam was originally fought by the French and by the beginning of the 1950s, U.S backed France. In 1968, American involvement peaked, partially because of the new "Tet Offensive". This type of warfare was a surprise air attack on a city at a time where it was least likely to happen. Both North and South Vietnam had covert operations but the American army tended to be more overt than the North because of the guerrilla warfare the Viet Kong used.

              Although the American army killed more people, they lost the war. Their purpose for the involvement was to stop the communist expansion and the objective was not reached. About 266,000 ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) soldiers were killed while 1,100,000 North Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. Was it worth it?


Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
http://history1900s.about.com/od/vietnamwar/a/vietnamwar.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/vietnam/index.cfm