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The Vietnam War: Difference between revisions
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'''Part I: Decolonisation'''
Vietnam was part of French Indochina from the 1880s onwards, with Siam being preserved as a neutral buffer state between them and the British Raj, which was being extended into modern-day Burma. When [[World War Two|France surrendered to Nazi Germany]] Indochina was occupied by the Japanese military as a base from which to [[Second Sino-Japanese War|strike at Southern China]]. The USA used the occupation of Indochina as a pretext for embargoing Japan in the hope that this would bring Japan to the negotiating table... anyhow, the amazingly successful Japanese offensive into South-East Asia which followed - launched to seize strategic resources that the embargo had denied them - was a catalyst for nationalism in the region and worldwide, since it conclusively proved that a) the European Colonial Powers could be defeated in decisive battles by non-Europeans, and b) non-European powers could be bastards too, if not even bigger ones. When the Japanese realised that they were losing the war, they went about fostering nationalism and training militia and guerilla forces in earnest - partly as a final 'screw you' to the Allies, but also because they genuinely believed in pan-Asian anti-European solidarity on some level.
This all came to a head when the French puppet regime - which had nominally continued to run Indochina up 'til that point - were ousted on March 11, 1945. The Việt Minh, a party of Vietnamese Nationalists with Socialist leanings -modelled off and led by people associated with the early Guomindang of China - had successfully played the French and Japanese off against each other before seizing the day and taking them [[Omnicidal Neutral|both]] out. The day the War formally ended - September 2 1945 - they declared the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, an independent and sovereign nation with its capital at Hanoi.
Of course, the French were not to be so quickly denied. Anglo-Sino-Indian forces had just months before broken the three-year deadlock in Burma, and were at that time marching into (formerly Japanese-Allied) Siam. When the Japanese surrendered the Anglo-Indian army pressed on into Indochina and aided French forces in restoring French control by the end of the month. France recognised the prevailing mood could not be denied entirely and created a French-associated government in Saigon - the 'State of Vietnam' - to rival the Việt Minh and their contemporaries. The State of Vietnam was led by former emperor Bảo Đại, who had abdicated his throne August 25, 1945.
For a while, an uneasy peace punctuated by low level fighting endured while talks were conducted between the two sides to try and resolve the issue peacefully, before the Viet Minh seized the initiative and launched another surprise offensive. The French fought back, hard, and the story of the First Indochina War (December 19, 1946 - August 1, 1954) was one of ever-escalating and intensifying conflict. When the Chinese Communists won their Civil War against the Guomindang on the Chinese mainland, they too committed forces (off the books) to supplement the USSR's (covert) aid to the Việt Minh. The Việt Minh were not the only ones stirring up trouble, either; several large left-wing nationalist (Pathet Lao, Khmer Issarak, United Issarak Front) groups entered the fight alongside the Việt Minh, alongside many smaller groups. Initially the French States of Indochina held their own, but increasingly they had to be propped up by direct intervention from France's government and military.
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'''Part IV: Endgame'''
Despite winning every major battle, the American-led Western [[A Lliesnever]] seemed to make much progress in the war. As the war dragged on and graphic new reports appeared on TV, the war grew increasingly unpopular among Americans at home, giving rise to Nixon's ordering of massive bombing campaigns to force the North to the peace table.
In the end, there was a tentative deal reached with the North for American forces to withdraw as the South Vietnamese government would bolster its' forces. This backfired, as when the North invaded, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam crumbled without support in the face of an onslaught by the North's Vietnam People's Army.
The war ended April 30, 1975 with the PVA rolling into Saigon, forming the new South Vietnamese government, which unified with North Vietnam the following year. It should be noted, however, that [[Your Mileage May Vary|some sources state]] that America had effectively won the war by that point, as the bombing raids issued by Nixon had actually sealed the coffin on North Vietnam, and the only reason why the South Vietnamese lost and was overwhelmed is because certain members of Congress deliberately held back relief aid efforts to the South Vietnamese.
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National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam insurgents (known as Vietcong -- a derogatory term meaning "Vietnamese Communist", VC, Victor Charlie, or just Charlie) and NVA soldiers don't feature very much, except as sources of weapons fire, evil torturers, punji trap layers or occasionally corpses. But of course, all of these are reversed in ''their'' war movies... [[Written by the Winners|when produced in Vietnam itself, given rather iron-fisted censorship that would not cop well to voicing the complaints the South and other non-Communist Vietnamese had.]]
Expect much use of napalm, because it smells like the victory the Americans allegedly never got. It's worth noting, however, the North Vietnamese forces never won a major battle themselves -- in the Tet Offensive, a military campaign by the Viet Cong, the VC actually took so many losses they played no further major part in the war. Their secret is in part that no matter what the Americans threw at them, the North Vietnamese took the blows willingly as part of the price to pay for the cause and ''[[Determinator|just kept coming]]''; they wanted to win more than the Americans wanted them to lose. This is the only way insurgencies are ever resolved.
This is also the first American war (the French first used them to great effect in Algeria) to feature helicopters as a weapon and primary transport; in [[Korean War|Korea]] they were very small, and limited to recon and light medical evacuation. The UH-1 Huey, with both side doors open, flying low over the canopy of a jungle with a grizzled soldier manning the door gun is one of the war's most enduring images.
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* In ''[[The Guardians]]'', Jake Hawkins fought in the war and died there, though he was murdered by a nosferatu enjoying the chaos of war.
* The [[John Le Carre]] novel "[[The Quest for Karla|The Honourable Schoolboy]]" is set in the closing weeks of the war.
* "Devil's Guard," by George Robert Elford, is about a former Waffen SS (he fought guerrillas) and his old Nazi buddies fighting in the French Foreign Legion.
* ''[[The Things They Carried]]''. It's a memoir of the narrator's time in [[The Vietnam War]], and discusses the realities and sentiments of his platoon.
* Ellen Emerson White's ''The Road Home'', while officially classified as a young adult novel, is a darkly compelling fictitious account of a young woman who decides the serve in Vietnam as an Army nurse - and the physical and mental aftermath of coming to terms with her year there.
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== Theater ==
* [[The Musical]] ''[[Miss Saigon]]'', which is ''Madam Butterfly'' {{smallcaps|[[Recycled in Space|IN VIETNAM!]]}}
* The musical ''[[Hair (theatre)]]'', which is more about [[The Sixties]] but does include the shadow of Vietnam.
* ''[[A Piece of My Heart]]'', a play about the experiences of women serving (or otherwise involved in) the Vietnam War.
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