The Vietnam War: The Occupation Of Vietnam

The Vietnam War was a conflict that was originally seen as an easy fix. Even so, It continued on and became one of the longest lasting wars in history. Originally, France had total control of the countries Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. They were a part of the french territory French Indochina. France took control in 1887 with the intention of converting its people to catholicism. In September of 1940 during World War II, Japan occupied Indochina in hope of closing China’s southern border. Their occupation was also good for their plans of imperialism. “The occupation of Vietnam also fit into Japan’s long term imperial plans. Japanese leaders, driven by militarism and hungry for profit, dreamed of creating what they called a Greater East Asia

South Vietnam lost the war because of their military weakness, Poor leadership, and its unpopularity among civilians and the american public. There was too much conflict for one country to avoid. Corrupt president of south vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, caused the viet cong to rise up, creating both internal and external conflicts for South Vietnam to fight against. Diem began to persecute Viet Minh sympathizers in South Vietnam, and they became known as the Viet Cong. Many of the people in south vietnam who resisted against Diem began to organize attacks on government officials. They had even established a group against his regime. “In December 1960, Diem’s opponents within South Vietnam–both communist and non-communist–formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime.” (“Vietnam War”). Many of the south vietnamese sympathizers and communist groups decided to stay in south vietnam rather than go to the north. There were large amounts of people that were communists in south vietnam. “by 1959 there were as many as 20 different communist cells scattered around South Vietnam. In total these cells contained as

soldiers. This caused the war to grow less and less popular. In march of 1968, the Charlie Company division of the U.S. army had killed the majority of the village known as pinkville by the soldiers. Many soldiers claimed they were told to attack pinkville or my lai because there were going to be Viet Cong. “The intelligence reports said that they (the Viet Cong) are in there, and they were gonna be there and that when we landed, there wasn’t going to be any villagers in the area” (“Interviews”). Despite what they thought, every one of the victims was a civilian, mostly women, children, and elders. They were murdered brutally, most tortured and raped. “Calley was reported to have dragged dozens of people, including young children, into a ditch before executing them with a machine gun. Not a single shot was fired against the men of Charlie Company at My Lai.” (“My Lai”). The news of the My Lai Massacre would cause a scandal, so the officers in command of the charlie company had covered it up. The story broke through after an investigative journalist had interviewed a soldier with knowledge of the massacre. American public did not react too happily when documentation was released. Documentation of the vietnam war had sparked anti war movements all throughout the United States. Student activism played a main role in the antiwar movement and civil rights movement. In may of