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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 fought between [[Communist]] [[North Vietnam]] troops and [[South Vietnam]]; America sided with South Vietnam and sent ever increasing forces but withdrew abruptly in 1973.  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 '''Vietnam War'''  was 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 loss of power in the late 1950s. He remained a figurehead--and was a popular icon of the New Left around the world, until his death in 1969.

 

 

* Once you are going to commit yourself to a combat role and you’re going to ask young men to fight and die for your country, then you have a moral obligation as a nation to throw the full resources of the nation behind them and to win that war as quickly as possible and get it over with, and this is where we made the mistake: to pour half a million men in there, to kill 54,000 young men in a cause that Washington, that the government was unable or unwilling to win. And don’t tell me that we couldn’t have licked the North Vietnamese–my God! their gross national product is the equivalent of that of Cleveland, Ohio!<ref> [http://www.reason.com/news/show/29318.html Inside Ronald Reagan: A Reason Interview - Reason Magazine]</ref>

==Prelude==

==Prelude==

 

During World War II the Japanese occupied Vietnam and disarmed the French. With the vacuum caused by the defeat of Japan, an opportunity arose for the Communists to declare the independence" of Vietnam in 1945. No nation recognize the new regime and the French returned and swept it away, with remnants hiding in the mountains. The [[United States]] backed France and its puppet emperor [[Bao Dai]] and Ho began a campaign to fight a weakened France and seize independence through force.  France's economy was shattered by the war and so by 1953, 80% of the money and material used by Bao Dai's troops came from the United States.  Nonetheless, in early 1954 French were defeated at the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] over many months when the fortress was overrun by a well-forged Vietnamese fighting force.  The French sued for peace at talks in [[Geneva]], the upshot of which was the creation of four independent countries in their former colony of [[Indochina]]:  [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]].  North Vietnam was run by Ho Chi Minh as a Communist nation, while the South was run based on the Western model.  Ho expected the two entities to merge as one nation in a vote.  The United States did not sign on in agreement and the time period came and passed with the United States taking the official position that there could not be a fair election in North Vietnam.  The start of the campaign by the North to take over the South was underway.  

Ho declared the "independence" of Vietnam in 1945 with the removal of Japanese occupying forces with Japan's defeat in the war and before France had the opportunity to return.  The French ignored Ho's proclamation and put troops back in Vietnam to re-establish their colony. The [[United States]] backed France and its ally [[Bao Dai]] and Ho began a campaign to fight a weakened France and seize independence through force.  France's economy was shattered by the war and so by 1953, 80% of the money and material used by Bao Dai's troops came from the United States.  Nonetheless, in early 1954 French were defeated at the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] over many months when the fortress was overrun by a well-forged Vietnamese fighting force.  The French sued for peace at talks in [[Geneva]], the upshot of which was the creation of four independent countries in their former colony of [[Indochina]]:  [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]].  North Vietnam was run by Ho Chi Minh as a Communist nation, while the South was run based on the Western model.  Ho expected the two entities to merge as one nation in a vote.  The United States did not sign on in agreement and the time period came and passed with the United States taking the official position that there could not be a fair election in North Vietnam.  The start of the campaign by the North to take over the South was underway.  

==The War==

==The War==

Numerous bits of conventional wisdom have accreted around the Vietnam War. It is commonly held that [[Ho Chi Minh]] was a Vietnamese nationalist above all, not a true [[communist]], and that his victory was inevitable. That [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] was an unpopular and repressive [[reactionary]]. That the United States had no vital strategic interest in defending South Vietnam. That the ‘[[domino theory]]’ was a myth. That the U.S. was right not to invade North Vietnam or Laos for fear of triggering Chinese intervention. [[Mark Moyar]], a young, bold, and iconoclastic historian, takes a sledge hammer to these hoary beliefs. [His boox] is ‘revisionist’ in the best sense of the word.” [http://www.triumphforsaken.com/]

Numerous bits of conventional wisdom have accreted around the Vietnam War. It is commonly held that [[Ho Chi Minh]] was a Vietnamese nationalist above all, not a true [[communist]], and that his victory was inevitable. That [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] was an unpopular and repressive [[reactionary]]. That the United States had no vital strategic interest in defending South Vietnam. That the ‘[[domino theory]]’ was a myth. That the U.S. was right not to invade North Vietnam or Laos for fear of triggering Chinese intervention. [[Mark Moyar]], a young, bold, and iconoclastic historian, takes a sledge hammer to these hoary beliefs. [His boox] is ‘revisionist’ in the best sense of the word.” [http://www.triumphforsaken.com/]

Jeffrey Record contends that the military was relegated, as a result of its constitutional position, to the role of an accomplice in what Records states was the ''most strategically reckless American enterprise of the 20th century.''  He charges President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara with harshly suppressing their military advisers, with Johnson believing that his hawkish Joint Chiefs of Staff were out to destroy his Great Society by their wild-eyed schemes.<ref>The wrong war. Why We Lost in Vietnam, by Jeffrey Record.</ref>

Jeffrey Record contends that the military was relegated, as a result of its constitutional position, to the role of an accomplice in what Records states was the ''most strategically reckless American enterprise of the 20th century.''  He charge President Lyndon B. Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara with harshly suppressing their military advisers, with Johnson believing that his hawkish Joint Chiefs of Staff were out to destroy his Great Society by their wild-eyed schemes.<ref>The wrong war. Why We Lost in Vietnam, by Jeffrey Record.</ref>

==Media Bias==

==Media Bias==