The Vietnam War
The Vietnam war started in 1955. Vietnam was the longest war in American history. Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6 billion in financial support from the United States. Over 2 million Vietnamese and over 185,000 American’s died in this war. Even today, many Americans still ask whether the American effort in Vietnam was the right thing to do. Vietnam wanted independence from France after world war two. Ho Chi Minh was the leader in North Vietnam. The United States did not like Ho chi Minh because he was a communist. The United States of America wanted to have access the certain materials in Vietnam, so they supported the leader of the south of Vietnam. The leader of the south of Vietnam was Ngo Dinh Diem. Ngo Dinh Diem was a very brutal dictator. The United States of America was not aware of Ngo Dinh Diem's actions at first. When Ngo Dinh Diem's actions were made public the U.S. had no choice but to step in and try to stop him. President Johnson Campaigned against sending more troops into the Vietnam war. President Johnson believed in the domino theory. The Republicans wanted to pursue the war in Vietnam at the time. The war went on for so long that an anti-war movement was formed. The anti-war movement was made up of Americans who opposed the US supporting a dictatorship in the name of anti-communism. A lot of college students were involved in these protests. People who did support the war thought that communism had to be stopped no matter the cost to people's lives. The next President Richard Nixon advocated for Vietnam and withdrew American troops from Vietnam. From 1968 to 1973, efforts were made to end the war. In January 1973, an agreement was reached and United States prisoners of war were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam. Vietnam was whole again.
