The Third Indochina War soon followed. Of the three great powers that intervened in Indochina after the ouster of France in the s, the Soviet Union gained the most. The former U. Just as the Soviets and Chinese had armed and equipped Vietnamese opponents of U. The Soviet war in Afghanistan was the third major proxy war in the Cold War. In , the year in which the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War effectively ended, the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan, as the United States had withdrawn its troops from Indochina a decade and a half earlier.
The discredited secular creed of Marxism-Leninism has survived in only a few dictatorships, including China, North Korea and Vietnam. As the narrative of the 20th century is interpreted, historians are regarding the Vietnam War in a global context that spans decades and concludes with the fall of the Soviet Union.
No matter their differences of perspective, they will define the Vietnam War as the Cold War in Indochina. This provides an answer to those who claim that the United States, by its intervention, mistakenly turned a pure civil war in Vietnam into part of the Cold War. Was South Vietnam too marginal an interest to justify a U. Indeed, a U. Viewing the Indochina wars as Cold War proxy wars, along with the conflicts of that era in Korea and Afghanistan, answers one set of critics: the realists.
It also provides an answer to other critics who claim that the United States should have been more aggressive toward North Vietnam. In , Adm. In my view, it was partly because political and diplomatic circles in Washington were disproportionately concerned with the possibility of Chinese and Soviet intervention.
The late Col. Harry Summers Jr. Undermining this critique is the fact that China and the Soviet Union played a much greater role in the Vietnam War than Americans realized at the time.
Fifty percent of all Soviet foreign aid went to North Vietnam between and Soviet anti-aircraft teams in North Vietnam brought down dozens of U. The North Vietnamese continued to insist on complete and unconditional U. The next few years would bring even more carnage, including the horrifying revelation that U. After the My Lai Massacre , anti-war protests continued to build as the conflict wore on. In and , there were hundreds of protest marches and gatherings throughout the country.
On November 15, , the largest anti-war demonstration in American history took place in Washington, D. The anti-war movement, which was particularly strong on college campuses, divided Americans bitterly.
For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked authority they had come to resent. For other Americans, opposing the government was considered unpatriotic and treasonous. As the first U. Nixon ended draft calls in , and instituted an all-volunteer army the following year. In , a joint U. The invasion of these countries, in violation of international law, sparked a new wave of protests on college campuses across America.
At another protest 10 days later, two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed by police. By the end of June , however, after a failed offensive into South Vietnam, Hanoi was finally willing to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representatives drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing raids against targets in Hanoi and Haiphong.
Known as the Christmas Bombings, the raids drew international condemnation. Some of the papers from the archive of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in A top-secret Department of Defense study of U. The report, leaked to the Times by military analyst Daniel Ellsberg, further eroded support for keeping U. In January , the United States and North Vietnam concluded a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two nations.
In , Vietnam was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, though sporadic violence continued over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under a broad free market policy put in place in , the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and an influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the U.
In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War would linger long after the last troops returned home in Psychologically, the effects ran even deeper. The war had pierced the myth of American invincibility and had bitterly divided the nation. Many returning veterans faced negative reactions from both opponents of the war who viewed them as having killed innocent civilians and its supporters who saw them as having lost the war , along with physical damage including the effects of exposure to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange , millions of gallons of which had been dumped by U.
On it were inscribed the names of 57, American men and women killed or missing in the war; later additions brought that total to 58, But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
The Vietnam War started in the s, according to most historians, though the conflict in Southeast Asia had its roots in the French colonial period of the s.
Vietnam War protests began small among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses but gained national prominence in , after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Of the nearly 1 million Americans who served on active duty in the U.
Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Table of Contents Expand. The Domino Theory. Anti-Communist Fervor. French Indochina War. Military Assistance Command Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Reasons for Escalation.
American Pride. Robert McNamara. History Expert. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. He was Amazon. Updated March 23, Key Takeaways: U. Involvement in Vietnam The Domino Theory held that communism would spread if Vietnam became communist. Anti-communist sentiment at home influenced foreign policy views.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident appeared to be a provocation for war. As war continued, desire to find an "honorable peace" was motivation to keep troops in Vietnam. Featured Video. View Article Sources. Cite this Article Format. McNamara, Robert. An Overview of the Vietnam War Protests. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo.
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