Veitnam War

THE VIETNAM WAR Do you know why the Viet Nam war started, or when it really began? Well, it may surprise you to know that the war actually began shortly after the end of World War II. When WWII ended many countries had taken control of smaller countries in Asia. Vietnam was controlled by the French, but after WWII Vietnam wanted it's independence. France did not want to give up it's colonies because they needed the extra income to help rebuild it's country after WWII. A man named Ho Chi Minh, who declared their independence from the French after the end of WWII, led Vietnam. His resistance force was first called the Viet Ð'- Minh, which stood for the Vietnam Independence League (DRV). Ho Chi Minh formed a government called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, although he was a true communist. Vietnam became divided into North and South Vietnam, with the French controlling South Vietnam and the DRV the North. As the French moved into North Vietnam fighting broke out and the French became involved in a new kind of war. The General in charge of the DRV, a man named Giap used "guerrilla warfare" to defeat the French. In this type of war the General used small groups of men to kill or wound French soldiers and then run away into the jungle before the French could use a large army to fight back. This fighting lasted for years and the people in France did not like having French soldiers killed again as in WWII. By 1954 the French knew that they could not win a war against the DVR. They were defeated in a big battle at Dien Bien Phu and quickly left Vietnam. After this defeat a meeting was held in Geneva Switzerland and Vietnam was divided into North and South Vietnam along the 17th parallel of latitude. This was supposed to last two years and then the people of Vietnam would vote on whether to reunite the country and what kind of government all the people wanted. Well suddenly Dominos decide to help decide Vietnams fate. Yes, that's right, you know the game of Dominos. Well I'm sure many of you have seen or maybe even tried the trick of standing Dominos up and making all of them fall over. The United States thought of the countries in Southeast Asia as Dominos. They thought that if Vietnam became a Communist country all countries in the region would soon also become Communist's. Worried about the South and the possibility that Vietnam would become another Communist country the American's began sending food and "advisors or trainers" to help the new South Vietnamese army train and defend themselves. About a million people from the North moved to South Vietnam because they were Catholic and the Communist's in the North did not allow this type of religion. But, an even bigger and more important reason they moved south was because of food. Yes that's right food. You see North Vietnam rice fields flood more often then those in the south because of the rain. Additionally, the rice fields in the south produced enough rice that they were know as the "Rice Bowl" of Indochina. Now remember, I told you this all began in 1954. Well, by 1961 the Americans had sent more than 2,000 "advisors" to train the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Well as you can expect the North continued its "guerrilla war" against ARVN forces and their advisors. These North Vietnamese soldiers became the famous

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