Summary Of The Vietnam War By Howard Zinn

Many students were taught in their U.S. History class in high school that United States went to war with Vietnam because they wanted to prevent the Vietnam from becoming communists, and if Vietnam were to fall it could result in the whole region of Indochina to become communists (domino theory). In Howard Zinn’s essay gives a different perspective to its readers and he raises questions in minds of his reader such as, “what was the real reason for U.S to invade Vietnam and how come a wealthiest and a powerful country lose war, so miserably against a third world country?” According to Howard Zinn the hidden reason for U.S. entering and supporting French in the Vietnam War was because “Communist had control over all of Southeast Asia, which

Him and millions of people marched into the capital city of Hanoi, he issued the Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence. “From the American Declaration of Independence he borrow the famous statements, All men are created equal and they endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”(Zinn 469) Ho Chi Minh and his people were fighting for their freedom against French like the our founding fathers they fought against the British in 1776 for their freedom. The reason Vietnamese wanted to end the French occupation was because they imposed inhuman laws on the vietnamese. For instance, “the French government built more prisons than schools, they have slain their patriots, they have robbed their natural resources, they have enforced unnecessary taxes, people are living in a state of poverty, and two million Vietnamese people suffered from malnutrition and they were starved to death.”(Zinn

describing the situation of the vietnamese people and the need for urgent humanitarian aid for two million people; who are suffering from starvation because of French occupation. According to Zinn, Turman never replied to the cry of innocent vietnamese people and the French began their bombardment of Haiphong and a port in northern Vietnam, which resulted in a eight year war a between Vietnam movement and France. In addition to that, Zinn also stated that, “U.S. was the one who equipped the French army with 300,000 small arm weapons and they invested $1 billion in the Vietnam and they financed 80 percent of the Vietnam War. On the other hand, the astonishing thing was that U.S. didn’t support Vietnam to win their independence against the France, but rather they declare war on a third world nation for materialistic and political reasons in order to benefit themselves and their