Adam Mueller

Vietnam

Causes

The conflict in Vietnam started out with communism, After world war two, Communism began to spread in a manner that reflected in how dominoes fell. So if one nation converted to communism the neighboring countries had a high chance to convert or to be taken over by neighboring Communist countries. The United states of america finally decided to enter the war to help out the French when a couple of Vietnamese ships fired torpedoes at the USS Maddox who then returned fire at the other ships, The torpedoes ended up missing and there is a lot of controversy on weather or not they were actually fired.

The photo above was photographed by a guy named Eddie Adams. This photo displays a viet cong suspect about to be shot by a south Vietnamese Police chief. This photo got allot of controversy about how it was too brutal.

U.S involvement

The united state's involvement in the Vietnam war is when Kennedy first sent instructional troops over to south Vietnam to help train the soldiers in case of an attack from the north Vietnamese. But when the incident with the Gulf of Tonkin and the firing upon US ships made the United States enter the war on the side of the south to prevent the domino affect. Mainly the United states got involved in Vietnam because of their policing habits which allowed them to enter a country to help out in a crisis with no intention of capturing or gaining territory. 

The photo above is the gulf of tonkin which is where the USS Maddox who then returned fire at the other ships, The torpedoes ended up missing and there is a lot of controversy on weather or not they were actually fired.

Setting
Vietnam is a very narrow country in West Asia, It was split into north and south Vietnam, the differ because of their types and believes. The north is communist and wants to convert the south just like the problem with Korea. Vietnam is a very hot and wet country which is full of trees and bushes and stuff. A lot of soldiers got sick from heat stroke and diseases. Equipment wise A lot of the same things used in World war two was used because no new technology was out yet. The only real new thing was the use of helicopters which were used to transport troops across the country.

The Photo above shows a group of U.S soldiers about to board a UH-1 Iroquois which was one of the main transport helicopters used in the war. The Vietnam war was the first war in history that used Helicopters.

Home-front.

The United states of America hated the idea of going to war in Vietnam mainly because people thought it was none of our business and we should not be over there. A lot of American males who got selected in the draft ended up not showing up in the military simply because they did not want to die for a cause they did not believe in. There were A lot of protests and riots trying to stop the war. Also the men who did go over and who did come back got mocked and bullied because most everyone hated them.

The photo above pictures one of thousands of protests people tried to use to stop the Vietnam war. These people who were protesting the Vietnam war are usually refereed to as "Hippies".

End

John F. Kennedy Declared the war over in Vietnam officially over in April 30, 1975, Supposedly he was working on a plan to officially settle the problem over there but was assassinated a month later. So the next president in line had to pick up where he left off. The aftermath of the war was roughly 430,000 south Vietnamese civilians killed, 50,000 65,000 north Vietnamese killed, and roughly 53,000 United states personnel were killed. 

The photo above shows some of the new firepower that was brought to the war. Napalm is a highly flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, consisting of gasoline thickened with special soaps. This was dropped in canisters over forests and just lights everything a blaze with fire.

This photo was not of the war but of the result of the war. This is the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC. It lists all of the US men who died during the war and is visited by thousands daily.

This photo is showing a squad of infantry men tasked to explore an underground tunnel system left behind by the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong liked to use tunnels and stuff to hide really well from the enemy troops.

This photo Displays a thing called punji traps, They are basically holes in the ground with bamboo spikes at the bottom usually covered in toxic material. They are covered up with a thin layer of twigs to camouflage the hole from unsuspecting enemy troops.

This graph shows the amount of casualties each nation that participated in the Vietnam war sustained. A majority of the deaths were innocent civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Quotes.

The Vietnam war was the first war to ever be televised "Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam."(McLuhan). since it was televised everyone back in the US got to see what war was really like and protested the war. The protests had a big a part in ending the war.

The french were one of the first people to help fight the North. "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, but even at those odds, you will lose and I will win."(Ho Chi Minh). The north Vietnamese was the largest power in the Vietnam war.

The domino affect was a theory saying that if one nation fell to communism then the neighboring nations would fall too. "You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly." (Eisenhower). This quote is talking about the domino affect which actually demonstrated to be true once the war was over.

Not everyone knows what Vietnam was actually about and made it their mission to try and end it. "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is miss-remembered now.".(Nixon) The Vietnam war will always be the most hated war because of how it was presented to the public and the people who were there need to learn what it was really about.

Vietnam was the first war america has lost. "I'm not going to be the first American president to lose a war."(Nixon). He tried to make a point that he will not be the only president to loose a war even though he was only president for the last part of it.