Nguyen Cao Ky: The Vietnam War

“If the war has faded into history, democracy’s defeat in Vietnam has left deep marks in the consciousness of both nations,” said Nguyen Cao Ky. The Vietnam War was a long and costly conflict that lasted several years from 1954 to 1975. It extended the problems with the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies, the Viet Cong, led by Ho Chi Minh, against the government of South Vietnam and its major ally, the United States. The North and the South had different perspectives and desires for what type of government they wanted to pursue. The North wanted to unify the entire country under a single communist regime, while the South fought to maintain a government that had more connections with the west. Nonetheless, throughout 1968

This did not take long, since the French soon met a defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954, creating the 17th Parallel. The battle prompted negotiators at the Geneva conference, an arranged settlement which brought an end to the first Indochina War, to produce the final accords which established the 17th Parallel, temporarily splitting Vietnam into two parts, the North and the South. By doing so, “the North was under the full control of the … Vietnamese Communist Party, led by Ho Chi Minh… In the South the French transferred most of their authority to the State of Vietnam… and was nominally under the authority of the former Vietnamese emperor, Bao Dai” (Encyclopedia Britannica, Paragraph 5). The two sides had been split into separate governments that are at the beginning of an argument over domination. Because the 17th Parallel created a split between the two military forces, there was a loss of translation to how the country would work together as a whole. This resulted in a call for war because of the separation in allies, communication, and laws that one side would soon

The lesson learned from the Vietnam War is to remain committed to decisions that are made because one step back leads to surrendering of choice. Even if the South did have an immense amount of support from Dwight Eisenhower’s letter that wrote, “the purpose of this offer is to assist the Government of Viet-Nam in developing and maintaining a strong, viable state, capable of resisting attempted subversion or aggression through military means,” once the U.S. lost heart in fighting, they withdrew their troops and from there, the North knew it was their time. With high motivation, they attacked and in return, North Vietnam received the government they fought