The Events that Led up to the Vietnam War

Vietnam at War

Vietnam is one of the most beautiful countries of the world. It had fought for independence for over two thousand years to protect its culture from the invading countries like China, Japan, France and America. The Vietnam War which is also referred to as the Second Indochina War lasted from 1959 to 1975 (Bradley, 2009). Before French colonization Vietnam was under the influence of Chinese domination. It was known to contain different ethnicities and languages, and great diversity in social, religious and cultural values. Vietnam absorbed most of the Chinese culture in terms of political system, arts, literature, and education.

France colonialism civilized the backward people of Vietnam and modernized the country in various aspects. The infrastructure was improved to a high extent, and also led to the introduction of democratic institutions. Most of the constructions during this period were built in the French style. But France was always in the motto of achieving commercial profit. France wanted cheaper raw materials from Vietnam to produce in their own country and obtain profits and greater markets for the French goods (Bradley, 2009). In addition to this, the profits incurred through farming were taken by the French and the native Vietnamese were limited to work as labors, often with fewer wages. The French controlled key plantations all over the country. Forced labor, heavy taxes, and a centralized government was a result of the French colonization (Duiker, 2009).

Some of the nationalists could not tolerate the ill treatment of France over the poor peasants. One of such revolutionary leaders was Ho Chi Minh. After he founded the Communist Party of Vietnam (Bradley, 2009), he led the Vietnamese revolution rigo...

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... continued to take place between China and Cambodia every now and then. In 1989, Vietnam completely withdrew its forces from Cambodia (Duiker, 2009). The exploitation of land came to an end and private ownership was abolished. The Vietnamese economy started to improve gradually by 1986 with the introduction of the market free policy and relations began to resume between the United States and Vietnam by 1990’s (Bradley, 2009). In the present time, Vietnam is said to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world sharing a respectable position in the global market. It is one of the biggest textile exporters in the world.

Works Cited

Bradley, M. P. (2009). Vietnam at War. Oxford University Press.

Duiker, W. J. (2009). Contemporary World History. Cengage Learning.

Overfield, J. H. (2001). Sources of twentieth-century global history. Houghton Mifflin.