Vietnam War Case Study

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Vietnam War Struggle for Superiority
The Vietnam War was a brutal and bloody conflict that took the lives of more than fifty-eight thousand American soldiers and an estimated two million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. In addition, air bombings, mortar attacks, and gun battles destroyed countless forests, farmlands, villages, and city neighborhoods in both North and South Vietnam. As the war progressed, it also took a great emotional toll on its American and Vietnamese participants as they struggled to keep themselves, their comrades, and—in the case of Vietnamese civilians—their families alive.
To begin with, Most of the battles that were waged in Vietnam were fierce gunfights between small bands of opposing soldiers. But both sides occasionally launched larger military campaigns. The greatest and most important of these major campaigns was called the Tet Offensive. This massive surprise attack by the North Vietnamese Army and its Viet Cong (South Vietnamese Communists) allies hit targets all across South Vietnam. American and South Vietnamese troops eventually pushed back the Co...

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