35 facts about the vietnam war
We're here to talk about another huge conflict that struck the world the ramifications of which are still felt today no not batman vs superman if only this one could have been resolved that easily hello talking about the vietnam war but how did the war start what were some of the most unbelievable traps and operations used by both sides and is this the only piece of vietnam war-related media that doesn't include fortunate sun by creed's clearwater revival is it is it i mean we're definitely not going to use it because we'll be sued to oblivion two out of three those questions are going to be answered so i hope you're prepared for an awful lot of history as well as some bouts of you weren't there man you weren't there as we go through 35 facts about the vietnam war.
1. So this war was a conflict in vietnam but also laos and cambodia from the 1st of november 1955 to the fall of saigon on the 30th of april 1975. nearly 20 whole years long.
2. And who was it between well predominantly it was between north and south vietnam with help from china north korea and the soviet union from the north whereas the south had the us south korea australia and new zealand to give them a helping hand.
3. To hugely hugely simplify all this and believe me we'll go into more detail a bit later on because that's what this is north vietnam's communists south vietnam is not communist fight north vietnamese communists and south vietnamese communist rebels known as the viet cong wanted to overthrow the south vietnamese government and reunite the country.
4. But how did this whole thing kick off well it's not as easy to summarize as it seems frankly but to begin we have to go back to the year 1887 with would you believe the french it was in this year that they put a big old colonial system in vietnam as part of what it called french indochina.
5. French indochina was a group including coach in china cambodia and nam and tonkin and then eventually laos this didn't directly cause the war you understand but it's important to set the scene.
6. Now you may remember something quite massive happened in the 1940s danny devito was born oh and uh world war ii happened though those two things are directly unrelated during this time france was taken over by those rotters the nazis and the japanese who were on their side invaded vietnam which was a french colony.
7. The french eventually took back control again after they won the second world war though in august of 1945. however a month later something changed and that something requires us to talk about a man named ho chi minh.
8. You see men had been introduced to the shiny concept of communism in the early 20s while studying in of all places france i don't know why i'm constantly surprised by the french but there we are in fact he later established the indo-chinese communist party in hong kong an important part of this here tale.
9. He then planned to go back to indochina and lead his people to independence however the french were on his case and basically acted like club bouncers saying he couldn't come in and need a liberation of those inside not with those trainers or at least that's what club bouncers have said to me.
10. So he tried to settle in hong kong under the false name lai tai but the british government said nah so he made his way to moscow where he appealed to the organization com intern would you believe a communist organization for funding to launch a movement in indochina he planned to base himself in neighboring siam which isn't me by the way but instead is what we now call thailand.
11. He also got a dose of tb during this time so ouch that stuff that killed arthur morgan ain't nothing to play with anyway then in 1941 he tried to head back to his country to lead the revolution.
12. Poor timing on his part though because that's when the nazis were invading everything remember though he did still manage to get in so props to him.
13. The people called him the bringer of light when he returned which is a bit silly because we know that the sun is the bring of light really that's just science he found that japan had seized control of the north of vietnam in 1940 so he led a guerrilla movement known as the viet minh to fight back for their country.
14. Guerrilla warfare in case you've ever wondered what that means means small pockets of non-military soldiers and was heavily used by the viet minh they set up hundreds of booby traps which cause injuries and death to their opponents.
15. If you want an example of a vicious booby trap that would make indiana jones wet himself the viet cong who we'll talk about a bit later on would tie vicious bamboo pit viper snakes to the top of caves or from trees to try and nibble on the enemy at face height this would not only really hurt but it would pump horrific venom into their body killing them very quickly and painfully.
16. It's worth noting by the way that there's a difference between the viet minh and the viet cong the viet minh had been fighting against the japanese and french rule in the north whereas the viet cong were rebels in the south fighting for the north.
17. Anyway in september of 1945 ho chi minh declared that north of vietnam as independent from the rest he apparently took inspiration for the winding of set declaration from the americans very own declaration of independence to try and woo them a little bit.
18. This didn't work though you see the president at the time in the us addressed congress with the truman doctrine nothing to do with the truman show but it was the foreign policy that the u.s would assist any country that was threatened by communism.
19. So this whole shebang caught the attention of the usa and it made them a tad concerned you see they later subscribe to a theory that they call domino theory which has nothing to do with pizza or old games but has more to do with you guessed it communism it essentially meant that if one country became more communist inclined the others surrounding it would too eventually turning the whole world communist.
20. It of course didn't help that the soviet union and china had supported the democratic republic of vietnam and was supplying them with military aid in their fight for freedom.
21. Then in 1954 this all led to a very important conflict the battle of dien bien fu between the french and the viet minh the viet minh had placed cannons in the caves in mountains surrounding the french military camps and like a wenger boys song went boom boom boom boom.
22. As the french position in 1954 became more precarious they reached out to good old friendly america for support the us then made plans for operation vulture the idea was for two to three hundred american aircraft to fly in and save the day at dien pien fu.
23. And u.s planning went even further than that with the idea that three tactical a-bombs would win the day calm down lads calm down.
24. It's not clear how serious these plans were to use nuclear weapons but military intervention of some kind was definitely an option there was just one obstacle here though president eisenhower wouldn't intervene unilaterally the british had to come along for the ride too and they wouldn't so operation vulture was cancelled.
25. Anyway back to the battle of dmpn few the viet minh targeted important pressure points of the french like their airstrips and other strongholds this meant french morale began to wane a little because they could no longer get support drops as easily and monsoon weather didn't really help things either.
26. The chinese were also a big help for the viet minh here retraining them in siege techniques and providing them with weaponry and all sorts over the weeks bit by bit of the french perimeter was worn down.
27. After 14 000 dead wounded or captured the french eventually conceded defeat and signed the geneva accords in may of 1954.
28. With these accords the countries of the united nations in geneva came together to look at how the french could strategically pull out without incident don't laugh at that come on these accords essentially use the 17th parallel line as the dividing line between the states of north and south vietnam.
29. You therefore had north vietnam in the well north under the control of ho chi minh and then the south had nego din diem a catholic nationalist the us rather liked.
30. Following the partition of vietnam eisenhower sent negotiate a ton of help actually in fact it was more than a ton between 1955 and 1960 money and weapons were sent u.s military advisors reached a thousand and almost two billion dollars in aid was handed on over.
31. Support for negotiating in south vietnam began to erode though because he was autocratic and had a tendency to appoint family members to positions of power according to some historians he also jailed around forty thousand political prisoners and executed around twelve thousand my experience at high school is anything to go by that's not gonna make you popular.
32. The calls also stipulated that vietnam should be reunified within two years under one government however the us would not agree to vietnam holding a general election since they feared the communist party in the north of the country and what would happen if they won it remember the truman doctrine using communism do not mix like peanut butter and uh roast pork.
33. Like so in order to prevent vietnam from following in the steps of say china the united states decided to support negotiating dm's cancellation of the elections some speculate the result of the election would have very likely been a unified vietnam under ho chi minh.
34. Now ho chi minh responded to this news not very positively if i'm honest by activating the viet minh can't raise in south vietnam who began to wage small scale attacks on the southern government.
35. the north also created what was later known as the ho chi minh trail which isn't a lovely nature hike might be these days but wasn't back then but actually a supply route through cambodia and laos to get their troops in the south food and weapons or a combination of the two although i don't know what that would look like
Soo that was 35 facts about the vietnam war did you learn anything new i do hope so let me know in the comments.
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