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History II Miriam Hernandez Essay October 30, 2000 America’s Longest War Vietnam War A war that began in the early 1950’s and ended in the 1973. Vietnam had gained its independence from France in 1954. The country was divided into North and South. The North had a communist government led by Ho Chi Minh. The South had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. The United States supported an anti-communist regime known as the Republic of Vietnam, which is the South Vietnam. The U.S. wanted to prevent South Vietnam from falling to the communists, which eventually led the United States to fight a major regional war. The communist great powers that supported South Asia were the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China. The U.S. involvement in Vietnam began during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), which sent US military to South Vietnam. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) decided to commit American support troops to South Vietnam. By the beginning of 1964, America had about 17,000 troops in Vietnam. The troops were sent to the south part of Vietnam to advise and train the Vietnamese military. The war was costing two-thousand-million dollars every month. Due to this the prices of many goods in the United States began to rise. The value of the dollar began to drop. The result was inflation. President Johnson believed that the United States had to support South Vietnam. Many other Americans agreed. They believed that without American help, South Vietnam would become communist. Some Americans became angry and were against the war many anti-war demonstrations took place in the cities of San Francisco and Chicago, many students began to protest. They wanted the war to end quickly. Then the North attacked the South Vietnam making it hard for many Americans to believe that the communists could actually launch such a major attack against South Vietnam. Due to the lack of strategy many people believed that the U.S. could have kept on fighting the war if they provided more money and military assistance. I have chosen to interview Carlos Villarreal because he experienced the Vietnam War by fixing the airplanes and giving them maintained and by giving me some information on how they were handled and who flew them. Bibliography “America at War”, Isserman, Maurice. Facts on File, Inc. New York, 1992 pgs. (1-134) “The Aftermath”, Doyle, Edward, Boston Publishing Company, Boston, 1975-85, pgs. (1-192) “The Army at War”, Casey, Michael. Dougan, Clark. Kennedy, Denis. Boston Publishing Company, Boston, 1987 pgs. (1-180) “Pawns of War”, Issacs, Arnolds R. Boston Publishing Company, Boston 1987 pgs. (1-179) “The Vietnam War and International Law”, Falk, Richard A. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 1968 pgs. (17-619) Word Count: 449

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