Changes

The '''Vietnam War''', officially the '''Second Indochina Conflict''', was initiated by the [[United States]], in response to a poll conducted that suggested given the planned democratic election after the reduction of the demilitarized zone upheld until [[1956]] since the war would lead to a certain [[communist]] victory.  

The '''Vietnam War''', officially the '''Second Indochina Conflict''', was initiated by the [[United States]], in response to a poll conducted that suggested given the planned democratic election after the reduction of the demilitarized zone upheld until [[1956]] since the war would lead to a certain [[communist]] victory.  

America, knowing that South Vietnam would democratically become a communist state abstained from signing the Geneva conference of 1954 allowing this election to happen even though these were the grounds they had stated at the end of the [[Second World War]]. A frustrated [[Ho Chi Minh]] eventually decided to move into South Vietnam as the increasingly unpopular US controlled government employed stronger tactics to maintain the South Vietnamese people under Diem. In retaliation the US sent 'advisers' to help Diem keep the situation under control before stepping up to a full scale ground war. The war was the longest in American history, lasting approximately 16 years. It was also the first war fought by America in which the stated military goals of the Americans were not met and it is now widely agreed that it is the first war America actually lost failing to win the hearts and minds of both the Vietnamese and the people back home.

America, knowing that South Vietnam would democratically become a communist state, abstained from signing the Geneva conference of 1954 allowing this election to happen even though these were the grounds they had stated at the end of the [[Second World War]]. Since the end of the Second World War the changing political landscape had brought [[Communism]] as the new enemy of the west and its containment was considered a top priority in the United States. South Vietnam refused to have open elections and the United States supported them claiming that free elections could never be possible in the Communist control north. A frustrated [[Ho Chi Minh]] eventually decided to militarily move into South Vietnam with his [[Viet Minh]] (later [[Viet Cong]]) as the increasingly unpopular US controlled government employed stronger tactics to maintain the South Vietnamese people under Diem. In retaliation the US sent 'advisers' to help Diem keep the situation under control before stepping up to a full scale ground war. The war was the longest in American history, lasting approximately 16 years. It was also the first war fought by America in which the stated military goals of the Americans were not met and it is now widely agreed that it is the first war America actually lost failing to win the hearts and minds of both the Vietnamese and the people back home. America left the war in 1973 under an arrangment that was supposed to keep South Vietnam free from the Communist north, but in 1975 the north invaded and quickly conquered the country.  Today a United Vietnam is Communist.

==Opposition to the Vietnam War==

==Opposition to the Vietnam War==