It was this decision that led to the Viet Minh, now renamed the Viet Cong, launching a campaign of armed resistance in South Vietnam. No election was held: the US rallied behind South Vietnam because it was a Western-style republic and could help contain the spread of communism from the northern Communist state. In fact, US President Eisenhower estimated the Communists would muster around 80 percent of the vote. However, the South Vietnamese government reneged on the Geneva agreement when it became clear which way the wind was blowing. The 1956 elections were intended to put an end to this temporary division so that the countries could be united as their people wished. North Vietnam would exist as a communist state while South Vietnam would be a republic backed by the French and Americans. However, the country would be temporarily split in two at the seventeenth parallel. The French would leave, while Vietnam would become de facto independent. This First Indochina War lasted from 1946 to 1954.Įven though the French military was backed by US advisors and weaponry after 1950, it was the Viet Minh who doggedly managed to gain the upper hand.Įventually in Geneva in 1954, both sides agreed to peace accords. Specifically, in Vietnam, the French found themselves fighting against the Viet Minh, a revolutionary pro-independence organization led by Ho Chi Minh. As empires crumbled in the aftermath of the Second World War, the French were faced with increasing cries for national self-determination in their colonies. The French had ruled over what are now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia under the name of French Indochina since the nineteenth century. In fact, the reasons for the conflict go much further back. More than 40 years since it came to a close, the horrors of the Vietnam War remain etched into our collective memory, a proxy for the Cold War at large. The Vietnam War was rooted in the region’s colonial history. the symbolism of the flag raised above Hue by the Communists.some basic strategies for urban warfare and.how anti-war sentiment ruined Lyndon B.This article explains this battle and its effects on US military strategy and American politics. These blinks explain this battle and its effects on US military strategy and American politics. It was largely the result of one battle, for the ancient city of Hue, that turned public opinion against the Vietnam War.

Before 1968, the Vietnam War had been largely supported across the United States. The continued resistance of North Vietnamese troops coupled with the massive loss of American lives was taken as proof that the US attempt to prevent the spread of Communism by force was futile.Īnd yet, this wasn’t always the view. To many, the war symbolized the futility of the US’s cold war policy. Since its end in 1975, the Vietnam War continues to retain a special place in the American psyche, and indeed internationally.

Huế 1968 by Mark Bowden