Essay --

The Vietnam War was fought from December 1956 to April 1975 in the Indohchina region that encompasses Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. At its to the highest degree basic level, it mess be described as a state of war between the communist regime in North Vietnam, headed by Ho chi Minh, with its sympathizers in the South and the Southern non-communist Vietnamese regime. Its roots can be traced back to the end of the Second World War, when Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh (nationalist communist party) seized power in formally French-controlled Vietnam after the Japanese occupants withdrew. France, noncompliant to relinquish their power, sent troops into Indochina in order to regain their control. Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh continued to consolidate his power through his Soviet and Chinese communist alliesemploying tactics such as imprisonment, exile, and sometimes correct murder to be rid of any political opposition or threats to his Communist regime. The struggle continued until the Vietnimh with Chinese support in weapons and advisingtook beleaguering of the village Dien Bein Phu, where French troops were located. In May 1954, the Vietnamese successfully took the village, and soon after that the French left Indochina all together acknowledging their defeat. In the late 50s, South Vietnam was under control of Ngo Dinh Diem, who implemented a severe and brutal anti-Communist regime, leading to small collectives of communist revolutionaries, who last in 1959 were supported and aided materially by the North. Thus the Vietnam War as we know it today began. The Communist North, aided by Chinese and Soviet allies, fought battles with the anti-communist South, aided primarily by the U.S. Yet, how did the U.S. become involved so firmly in a war that seemed to have nothing to do with... ...relenting. It is argued that a fundamental difference between the experiences of Vietnam vets as opposed to veterans of other wars is that veterans of a war such as World War II, though b e quiet had a difficult time with what they did and witnessed, had a feeling that what they did in the war was significant and important beyond what they individually may have seen or donethere was a greater purpose to all of it (i.e. WWII fish filet the Nazi invasion and terror). However, considering the turn the war in Vietnam tookhow the U.S. public eventually protested strongly against it and its goalsthat feeling was not always present for the surviving soldiers. This occurrence among the various other factors like the horrors and gruesomeness of the war contributes to the widespread mental problems that plagued the veterans of the war long after they returned home to the U.S.