The Vietnamese War: The Causes Of The Vietnam War

As a young Vietnamese-American boy, I have always been curious about my culture and ancestry. My family has gone through a lot of struggles before coming to states, but I never had a history lesson of what their lives were like. Being born in the United States, I didn’t have to experience the hardships that my parents and grandparents had to deal with it. A big part of Vietnamese history is having to deal with the Vietnam War and the impacts of immigration. The Vietnam War took place in 1954 and lasted until 1975. The war grew because of the spread of Communism from North Vietnam to the South. Refugees had to risk losing their family, friends, and their lives in order to have a chance of survival. Vietnam faced many obstacles throughout history
A cause of the Vietnam War was a consequence of the Cold War. According to C.N. Trueman’s article The Causes of the Vietnam War, he states how the Soviet Union and United States could not risk going on an all-out nuclear war, so the Soviet Union helped arm countries in Southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, to reinforce communism. Also with China under communist regime, they provided to arming the North Vietnamese as well. During this time period, Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the communist government and with his tactics of guerilla warfare, he fought to keep Vietnam under his rule. Another cause leading to the war was when the French tried to reclaim the northern territory of Vietnam. As a result, Ho Chi Minh and the “Viet Minh”, which he calls his soldiers, plus the aid from communist China fought to keep Northern Vietnam under Minh’s rule. In the end, the French had to withdraw from the war in 1954, even with the aid from the United States, because there were too many casualties. At this point in time, Vietnam was divided into a North Vietnam lead by Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam lead by President Ngo Diem Dinh. But that’s not the end of the war. Ho Chi Minh wanted to claim Vietnam for himself and have it under his communist rule, so he began militarizing his soldiers, which were known to be the “Viet Cong”. Diem was strongly against communism and had to defend the Southern part of the country with the allied help from
According to Shelley Lee’s novel “A New History of Asian America”, she sates how Vietnamese citizens, especially former elected officials, military officers, police, religious leaders, teachers, and anyone else who opposed the Communist government were forcefully shipped to camps for hard labor. Vietnamese citizens against the regime were stripped of their basic human liberties and taken away from their families and friends. Refugees tried escaping Vietnam, but there were too many civilians fleeing that it was impossible for everyone to leave at once. The reason it was too difficult was because the main source of transportation were by small boats. It was easier for those that were highly educated and wealthy to escape because of their social status and bribery. It was very difficult to survive during the war and many Vietnamese citizens had to fight their way out in order to