America's Global Engagement

America's Global Engagement

Vietnam War was an armed conflict that occurred in Southeast Asia between 1955 and April 30 of 1975. The war brought them into confrontation, on the one hand, the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the United States, with effective participation, however minor, of South Korea, the Australia and New Zealand, and on the other, the Republic Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (NLF). The China, to North Korea, and especially the Soviet Union provided logistical support to North Vietnam, but were not involved in the conflict effectively (Rowe & Berg, 1991).

In 1965, the United States sent troops to support the government of South Vietnam, which showed itself unable to quell the insurgent nationalists and communists, who had joined the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam (NLF) (Rowe & Berg, 1991). However, despite its immense military and economic power, the Americans failed in its objectives, being forced to withdraw from the country in 1973 and two years later Vietnam was reunified under government socialist, officially becoming, in 1976, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In war, about three to four million Vietnamese on both sides were killed, and another two million Cambodians and Laotians, dragged into the war with the spread of the conflict, and about 58,000 U.S. soldiers. During the conflict, the troops of the army of North Vietnam fought a conventional war against U.S. troops and South Vietnamese, and the militia of FNL less equipped and trained, fought a war of guerrillas in the region, using the jungles of Vietnam spreading traps deadly to enemy soldiers, while the United States armed themselves with big firepower in artillery and aviation combat, to destroy the bases and prevent their enemy offensive (Rowe & Berg, 1991).

Except for the front lines ...