Political Effects Of The Vietnam War

Vietnam War: Impact on Politic in Domestic and Regional level

With increasing tension and pressure from the Cold War, two global superpowers at that time: The United states of America and The Soviet Union both attempted to spread their influence in various region including Southeast Asia, for instance Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and especially Vietnam which had been divided into two parts: The North Vietnam with the communist regime led by Ho Chi Minh and the South Vietnam with its important ally, The United States. The war started in 1954 after the increasing power of the Viet Minh communist party in Northern part of Vietnam. After Viet Minh had defeated French colonial at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the result was a decisive victory for

Conflict started to rise in this land once again when the communist insurgency in the South began to conduct the guerrilla warfare against the South Vietnamese force. The United States started to interfere in the region. Firstly, they began to send military advisors, weapons and money to the South Vietnam. But after the Tonkin incident, the United States decided to send troops into Vietnam in order to stop the spread of the communists. This situation extremely intensified tension between the two superpower countries. In 1969, at the peak of war, the US had more than 500,000 troops in Vietnam. However, after North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and National Liberation Front (NLF) as known as Viet Cong launched their major offensive called TET offensive. Even though the North had been defeated in this battle, they won in term of political aspect. Many American civilians did not agree with the war. Richard Nixon, the President of the United States at that time ordered the withdrawal of U.S. Military forces out of Vietnam as a part of Nixon doctrine or ‘Vietnamization’ in 1973. In 1975, the communist forces took control of Saigon, ending the prolonged conflict that had been in this country for more than 20 years since 1954. Ultimately, in 1976 the

It was the program that get over 1 million Northern Vietnamese migrated to the South and central regions during 1975 to 1980. This program displaced and relocated between 750,000 to over 1 million Southern Vietnamese to uninhabited mountainous forested areas. They were forced to work in a labour camp, in an extremely brutish environment without proper food or shelter. An estimated of 20,000 to 155,000 Vietnamese died consequently. Moreover, their property were confiscated, collectivized and redistributed by the communist authorities to North Vietnamese. This act of communist party went directly against Human rights and was a mismanagement of centrally planned economy.
With Communist system, Vietnam was under stricted political policies and treatment which lead to deterioration of the country in terms of economic freedom. This brought about dissatisfaction among South Vietnamese as a result of fleeing their homeland to other countries by ship or boat called ‘Boat people’ causing refugee problem. The United Nations high commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had given their hand to set up refugee camps around neighboring countries. Although many lives were luckily succeeded in landing on camps, some were not. Around 2 million people horrifically died during their