VIETNAM VIETNAM WARWAR

1955-1975

Vietnam War

(1955-75), a protracted and unsuccessful effort by South Vietnam and the United States to prevent the communists of North Vietnam from uniting South Vietnam with North Vietnam under their leadership.

The Geneva Accords stipulated that free elections be held throughout Vietnam in 1956 under the supervision of an International Control Committee with the aim of reunifying North and South Vietnam under a single popularly elected government.

VIETNAM‘S ELECTION

North Vietnam expected to win this election thanks to the broad political organization that it had built up in both parts of Vietnam. But Diem, who had solidified his control over South Vietnam, refused in 1956 to hold the scheduled elections. The United States supported his position. In response, the North Vietnamese decided to unify South with North Vietnam through military force rather than by political means.

Escalation of the War

U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, fearing the spread of communism in Asia, persuaded Eisenhower to provide economic and military assistance to the Diem regime, which became increasingly unpopular with the people of South Vietnam.

Guerrilla warfare spread as Vietcong soldiers who were trained and armed in the North returned to their homes in the South. After 1965 U.S. involvement in the war escalated rapidly in response both to the growing strength of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army.

The effects of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. More than 47,000 Americans were killed in action, nearly 11,000 died of other causes, and more than 303,000 were wounded in the war. Casualty figures for the Vietnamese are far less certain. Estimates of the casualties range from 185,000 to 225,000 killed and 500,000 to 570,000 wounded. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong suffered about 900,000 troops killed and an unknown, but huge, number of wounded. In addition, more than 1,000,000 North and South Vietnamese civilians were killed during the war. By the war's end much of the population of South Vietnam had become refugees seeking an escape from the fighting.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR Agriculture,

business, and industry had been disrupted. In the United States, Johnson's economic program for a "Great Society" had been largely halted by the economic and military demands of an unpopular war.

The cost of the war has been estimated to have totaled about $200 billion. With the communist victory in South Vietnam and communist takeovers in neighboring Cambodia and Laos, the new Vietnam emerged as an important Southeast Asian power.

• BETTER LATE THAN NEVERThey went across the oceanTo fight in that Asian war -On behalf of freedom, justiceFor peoples of that foreign shore.More than fifty-eight thousand menFaced wars' reality -Bravely sacrificed their livesSo that others might be free.Most of them were very young -And now, it seems such a waste -That war accomplished nothingAnd has left a bitter taste.Those who did survive came home To a country which turned away -We didn't know how to greet them -We didn't know what to say.They came home to a nationThat said it didn't care -Said it didn't want to know about What went on over there.The tide is finally turning -Don't you think it's about timeWe gave some praise to all of thoseWho laid their life on the line?