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Vietnam is a [[Communist]] nation in Southeast Asia bordering [[China]], [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], and the [[Pacific Ocean]].  Much of Vietnam is mountaineous or covered in jungle.  In the 20th century Vietnam was the site of guerilla fighting during World War Two in the 1940s, a war against the French for independance in the 1950s, and a civil war between the US backed South Vietnam and the Red China/USSR backed North Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.  After American forces withdrew in 1975 the entire country fell to communism and the butcherous [[Khmer Rouge]] in nearby Cambodia was emboldened.

Vietnam is a [[Communist]] nation in Southeast Asia bordering [[China]], [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], and the [[Pacific Ocean]].  Much of Vietnam is mountaineous or covered in jungle.  In the 20th century Vietnam was the site of guerilla fighting during World War Two in the 1940s, a war against the French for independance in the 1950s, and a civil war between the US backed South Vietnam and the China/USSR backed North Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.  After American forces were defeated in 1975 the entire country fell to communism and the butcherous [[Khmer Rouge]] in nearby Cambodia was emboldened.

 

The US military action in Vietnam - which was condemned for using chemical weapons such as Agent Orange and napalm - killed about 3 million Vietnamese and 50,000 US Soldiers. America's defeat had a profound effect on US foreign policy in subsequent years, in that the Americans made sure that in future they would only pick on countries they could be sure of defeating.  Vietnam's name is often invoked when describing other American foreign policy bodge-ups, e.g. "[[Iraq]] is the new Vietnam".