Vietnam War :: essays research papers

France occupied all of Vietnam by 1884. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when communistic forces under Ho Chi Minh, who as wellk control over the north, defeated them. Eisenhowers advisers believed that Ho Chi Minhs powerful communist-nationalist appeal might set get through a geographical chain reaction. As Ho Chi Minhs government established itself in wedlock Vietnam, Eisenhower supported a noncommunist government in southeastward Vietnam and ordered covert operations and economic programs to prevent Ho Chi Minh from being elected the leader of a unified Vietnam.The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975. It was started by the Communist guerrillas (the so-called Vietcong) in the South, whom were backed by Communist North Vietnam, in an attempt to overthrow the South Vietnam government. Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown and killed in a coup detat in 1963 by his own generals causing political co nfusion in South Vietnam. By 1965 the Vietcong was strong sufficiency to form main force units to fight pitched battles with the South Vietnamese army in the countryside, although not in the urban areas which stayed under Saigon government control. The trade protection in South Vietnam continued to deteriorate putting the Communists in reach of a victory. By 1965, the US president Lyndon Johnson approved regular bombing of North Vietnam to prevent the total collapse of the Saigon regime by the dispatch of troops and marking their overt entry into the war. United States forces landed at Da Nang and began contend in Vietnam. On March 2 1965 the first of four phases of the telephone circuit wars in Vietnam happened, along with the first sustained bombing of the United States bomibg campain against North Vietnam accord. This air was war was called Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder had three objectives reduce the infiltration boost South Vietnamese morale and to inform Hanoi of the eve r change magnitude expense of a continued insurgence in the South.In Hanoi, Rolling Thunder was seen as another obstacle to overcome in the struggle to relate the North and the South under the Vietnamese rule of Ho Chi Minh followers. They would find a way to withstand the American air assault, making it too expensive for Washington to maintain. On March 2 1965, the United States Air Force participated in Rolling Thunder for the first time, and inflicted heavy damage by large numbers of aircrafts, available at Thai bases, that accompanied b-57s to an ammunition depot Xom Bong.