What is the cause of the US war in Vietnam, the results and consequences

The Vietnam War cannot be covered in one article. Therefore, a number of articles will be written about this period in. This material will consider the background of the conflict, the causes of the Vietnam War and its results. The US Vietnam War was the Second Indochina War. The first Indochina war was a liberation war for Vietnam and was fought against France. It ran from 1946 to 1954. By the way, the United States also took part in that war, which is remembered much less often. In the United States, the Vietnam War is regarded as a "dark spot" in its history, while for the Vietnamese it has become a tragic and heroic stage on the way to their sovereignty. For Vietnam, this war was both a struggle against an external occupation and a civil confrontation between various political forces.

Vietnam in the second half of the 19th was colonized by France. A few decades later, the national identity of the Vietnamese led to the creation of the Independence League in 1941. The organization was named Viet Minh and united under its wing everyone who was dissatisfied with the French rule in Vietnam.

The Viet Minh organization was founded in China and its main leaders were of communist views. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. During World War II, Ho Chi Minh collaborated with the Americans in the fight against Japan. When Japan surrendered, Ho Chi Minh's supporters took control of northern Vietnam with the capital Hanoi. They proclaimed the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

France brought an expeditionary force into the country in December 1946. This is how the First Indochina War began. But the French could not cope with the partisans and, starting in 1950, the United States began to help them. The main reason for their participation in this war, the reason for their intervention in this war, was the strategic importance of Vietnam. It was the region that covered the Philippines and Japan from the southwest. And since the French had become allies of the United States by that time, they decided that it was better for them to control the territory of Vietnam.

Gradually, by 1954, the United States already bore almost all the costs of this war. Soon the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and the United States, along with its allies, were on the verge of defeat. Richard Nixon, the US vice president at the time, even spoke out in favor of nuclear bombing. But this was avoided and in July 1954 an agreement was concluded in Geneva on the temporary division of the territory of Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The demilitarized zone passed through it. This is how Severny and appeared on the map. The North controlled the Viet Minh, and the South was granted independence by the French.

Thus ended the First Indochina War, but it was only a prelude to even greater massacre. After the establishment of communist rule in China, the US leadership decided to completely replace the French presence with its own. To do this, they put their puppet Ngo Dinh Diem in the southern part. With US support, he proclaimed himself President of the Republic of Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem turned out to be one of the worst rulers in Vietnam's history. He appointed relatives to leading positions in the country. Corruption and tyranny reigned in South Vietnam. The people hated this power, but all opponents of the regime were killed and rotted in prisons. In the USA it was not pleasant, but Ngo Dinh Diem ─ it was "their villain." As a result of this rule, the influence of North Vietnam and the ideas of communism grew. The number of partisans also increased. However, the US leadership saw the reason not in this, but in the intrigues of the USSR and communist China. The measures to tighten the government did not give the desired result.

By 1960, all partisans and underground organizations in the southern part of the country had organized the National Liberation Front. In Western countries, he was dubbed the Viet Cong. In 1961, the first regular units of the US Army arrived in Vietnam. These were helicopter companies. The reason for this was the complete incapacity of the leadership of South Vietnam in the fight against the partisans. In addition, the response to North Vietnamese aid to the guerrillas was also cited as the reason for these actions. Meanwhile, the authorities of North Vietnam gradually began to lay the so-called - supply route for partisans in South Vietnam. Despite the significantly worse equipment than that of the US soldiers, the guerrillas successfully used various and carried out sabotage activities.

Another reason was that the US leadership by sending troops demonstrated their determination to the Soviet Union in the destruction of communism in Indochina. The American authorities could not lose South Vietnam, as this led to the loss of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. And this put Australia in jeopardy. In November 1963, the secret services staged a coup in which Diem and his brother (chief of the secret police) were killed. The reason is clear - they have completely discredited themselves in the fight against the underground.

This was followed by a series of coups, during which the partisans managed to further expand the territory under their control. US President Lyndon Johnson, who came to power after Kennedy's assassination, continued to send troops to Vietnam. By 1964, their number there was increased to 23 thousand.

In early August 1964, as a result of the provocative actions of the destroyers Turner Joy and Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, they were fired upon by the North Vietnamese military. A few days later, a message was received about the repeated shelling of Maddox, which was later denied by the ship's crew. But intelligence reported the interception of the message, where the Vietnamese allegedly admitted to an attack on the ship.

The secrets of the Vietnam War were hidden for a long time by the American leadership. As it turned out already today, the NSA officers made a mistake in decrypting the message. But the NSA management, knowing about the mistake, presented the data in a favorable light. And this became the cause of the war.

As a result, the US Congress approved the military invasion. They adopted the Tonkin Resolution and started with the United States or the Second Indo-China.

Causes of the Vietnam War

It can be said unequivocally that the war was unleashed by American politicians. At one time, the inhabitants of the USSR were called the imperialist manners of the United States and the desire to subjugate the planet as the reason for the war. In general, given the worldview of the Anglo-Saxon elite of this country, this version is not far from the truth. But there were also more prosaic reasons.

The United States was very much afraid of the spread of the communist threat and the complete loss of Vietnam. American strategists wanted to completely surround the communist bloc of countries with a ring of their allies. Such actions were taken in Western Europe, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and several other countries. Nothing worked with Vietnam and this became the reason for a military solution to the problem.

The second significant reason was the desire to enrich corporations that sell weapons and ammunition. As you know, in the United States, the economic and political elites are very interconnected. And the corporate lobby has a very strong influence on political decisions.

How did you describe the cause of the war to ordinary Americans? The need to support democracy, of course. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In fact, for the US politicians, communist Vietnam was like a "thorn in one place." And the owners of military enterprises wanted to increase their fortunes on deaths. The latter, by the way, did not need a victory. They needed a carnage that would last as long as possible.