The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a long and bitter conflict between the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its main ally, the United States.

It lasted for twenty years from 1 Nov. 1955 to 30 April 1975.

The reason behind it

This war started as North Vietnam wanted to unify the entire country under a single communist regime on the model of the Soviet Union and China.

On the other hand, the South Vietnamese govt., wanted Vietnam to be more closely aligned with the West.

How the U.S got into it?

The U.S entered this conflict as it was against communism.

It started deploying troops in Vietnam in March 1965 to support South Vietnam and by 1969 their number reached more than 500,000.

Change of Public mood

By the late 1960s, American public got fed up of this long and seemingly unending conflict and many of themturned against it.

In the following years, hundreds of anti-war protests and gatherings took place across the U.S.

Bowing to this pressure, the U.S govt. ordered the withdrawal of its forces from Vietnam in 1973.

Who won the war?

The Vietnam war ended In 1975 when the communist forces seized control of South Vietnam and the country was unified.

Massive Casualties

More than 30 lakh lives were lost in the Vietnam War.

Half of these were of Vietnamese civilians.

Significantly, the U.S lost over 58,000 of its troops in this conflict.

It was the longest and most controversial war in the U.S history and ended up in a humiliating defeat for it.