Descriptive Vietnam War Essays (986 words) - Vietnam War

Descriptive: Vietnam War The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975. It began as a determined attempt by Communist guerrillas (Vietcong) in the South, backed by Communist North Vietnam, to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. The struggle widened into a ward between South Vietnam and North Vietnam and ultimately into a limited international conflict. The United States and some other countries supported South Vietnam by supplying troops and munitions, and the USSR and the People's Republic of China furnished munitions to North Vietnam and the Vietcong. On both sides, however, the burden of the war fell mainly on the civilians. The war also engulfed Laos, where the Communist Pathet Lao fought government from 1965 to 1973 and succeeded in abolishing the monarchy in 1975, and Cambodia, where the government surrendered in 1973 to the Communist Khmer Rouge. The position taken by Diem won the backing of the U. S. The government in Hanoi, however, indicated its determination to renunify the nation under Hanoi. The truce arranged at Geneva began to crumble and by January 1957, the International Control Commission set up to implement the Geneva accords was reporting armistice violations by both North and South Vietnam. Throughout the rest of the year, Comunist sympathizers who had gone north after partition began returning south in increasing numbers. The Vietcong's began launching attacks on U. S. military installations that had been established, and in 1959 began their guerilla attacks on the Diem government. The attacks were intensified in 1960, the year in which North Vietnam roclaimed its intention to liberate South Vietnam from the ruling of the U. S. imperialists. ?The statement served to reinforce the belief that the Vietcong were being directed by Hanoi. On November 10, the Saigon government charged that regular North Vietnamese troops were talking a direct part in Vietcong attacks in South Vietnam. to show that the guerrilla movement was independent, however, the Vietcong set up their own political arm, known as the National Liberation Front (NLF), with its headquarters in Hanoi. In the face of the deteriorating situation, the U. S. restated its support for Saigon. In April 1961, a treaty of mity and economic relations was signed with South Vietnam, and in December, President John F. Kennedy pledged to help South Vietnam maintain its independence significantly. In December 1961, the first U. S. troops, consisting of 400 uniformed army personnel, arrived in Saigon in order to operate two helicopter companies; the U. S. proclaimed, however, that the troops were not combat units as such. A year later, U. S. military strength in Vietnam stood at 11,200. On November 1, 1963, the Diem regime was overthrown in a military ?coup.? Diem and his brother and political advisor, Ngo Dinh Nhu, were executed. The circumstances surrounding the ?coup? were not fully clear at the time. The government that replaced teh Diem regime was a revolutionary council headed by Brigadier General Duong Van Minh. A series of other ?coups? followed, and in the 18 months after Diem's overthrow South Vietnam had ten different governments. None of these proved capable of dealing effectively with the country's miliary situation. A military councilunder General Nguyen Van Thieu and General Nguyen Cao Ky was finally created in 1965, and it restored basic political order. Later, in September 1967, elections were held and Thieu becambe president of South Vietnam. A Deepening U. S. Involvement The Vietnam War was unlike any other conventional wars, in the respect that, the war had no defined front lines. Much of it consisted of hit-and-run attacks, with the guerrillas striking at government outposts and retreating into the jungle. The war, however, began to escalate in the first week of August 1964, when North Vietnamese torpedo boats were reported to have attacked two U. S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. As a result of this attack, former-President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered jets to South Vietnam and the retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Throughout 1965, U. S. planes began regular bombing raids over North Vietnam, but a halt was ordered in May in hopes of initiating peace talks. Bombings were resumed after North Vietnam had rejected all negotiations. During this time the United States continued to build up its troops in South Vietnam. By the end of 1965 the American combat strength was nearly 200,000. The Vietnam War had much, much more details and complexities, but for the sake of time, I only covered a few of them. Peace... Despite the stepping up of U. S. bombing, both sides appeared

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bla essays The democracy we have in America today is very complex. This democracy starts out with political parties whose main purpose is to gain control of the government by winning elections Appelbaum and Chambliss(1997:366). In the United States, unlike in most other democracies, there are only two political parties with any substantial influence over government policies Appelbaum and Chambliss (1997:366). Third parties are also apparent in elections. These third parties are often successful in smaller elections, but when we are dealing with national elections it is very difficult for the third party to survive the bigger two due to the lack of funding and publicity of the PACs and other interest groups. However, third parties serve a very good purpose. They provide us with more candidates giving us more choices which is what democracy is about. According to my class notes (lecture on government) third parties are sometimes chosen when people are opposed to the candidates from the other two parties. Third parties stand as a sign of choice as well. Voting for a third party is also seen as voting for a better selection of candidates rather than voting for the usual two candidates from the other parties. The president of the United States is not chosen on the popular vote of the people alone but on the Electoral College whose vote is determined by the popular vote of each state Appelbaum and Chambliss (1997:367). This Electoral College is in a sense a vote of the people but at the same time it keeps bigger states from becoming to powerful overwhelming the smaller states. The United States also has three branches of government the legislative, judicial and executive branches. The constitution of the United States provides a system of checks and balances Appelbaum and Chambliss (1997:369). This system of checks and balances pu...