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{{rewrite|Doesn't give the origin of the war, what it was fought about, and what the sides were. See [[Talk:Vietnam War/draft]]}}

{{rewrite|Doesn't give the origin of the war, what it was fought about, and what the sides were. See [[Talk:Vietnam War/draft]]}}

[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]

[[Image:SaigonFall.jpg|thumb|South Vietnamese residents flee [[Saigon]], as North Vietnamese forces enter the city.]]

The '''Vietnam War'''  was an [[undeclared war]] fought principally between [[North Vietnamese]] [[Communist]] troops vs. [[South Vietnamese]] forces supported by American soldiers.  American troops first intervened in 1965, not counting "military advisers."  The war was basically a fight over whether South Vietnam should have a Communist government.

The '''Vietnam War'''  was an [[undeclared war]] fought principally between [[North Vietnamese]] [[Communist]] troops and [[South Vietnamese]] forces supported by American soldiers.  American troops first intervened in 1965, not counting "military advisers."  The war was basically a fight over whether South Vietnam should have a Communist government, part of the ongoing [[Cold War]] between the US and the Soviets.

The war was in progress more or less continuously since the surrender of [[Japan]], which occupied Vietnam during [[World War II]], in 1945.  [[Ho Chi Minh]], an operative of the [[Comintern]] (the Soviet organization charged with promoting Marxist-Leninist revolution around the world),<ref>[http://www.triumphforsaken.com/index.php?pr=Excerpt Triumph Forsaken], book by [[Mike Moyar]]</ref> led the movement for a unified, [[Communist]] Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969.

The war was in progress more or less continuously since the surrender of [[Japan]], which occupied Vietnam during [[World War II]], in 1945.  [[Ho Chi Minh]], an operative of the [[Comintern]] (the Soviet organization charged with promoting Marxist-Leninist revolution around the world),<ref>[http://www.triumphforsaken.com/index.php?pr=Excerpt Triumph Forsaken], book by [[Mike Moyar]]</ref> led the movement for a unified, [[Communist]] Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969.

America at first operated on the assumption that [[victory by body count]] was possible and would eventually bring the North Vietnamese to the peace table.  There were in fact peace negotiations following [[Operation Linebacker II]] in December 1972, but these succeeded mostly in giving the United States its prisoners back and time to withdraw from the fight.  It was simply impossible for the North Vietnamese leadership, which had been fighting in some form for 30 years, to imagine the indefinite existence of South Vietnam apart from unification under their rule.

America at first operated on the assumption that [[victory by body count]] was possible and would eventually bring the North Vietnamese to the peace table.  There were in fact peace negotiations following [[Operation Linebacker II]] in December 1972, but these succeeded mostly in giving the United States its prisoners back and time to withdraw from the fight.  It was simply impossible for the North Vietnamese leadership, which had been fighting in some form for 30 years, to imagine the indefinite existence of South Vietnam apart from unification under their rule.

==Fall of South Vietnam==

==Fall of South Vietnam==