Vietnam War Research Paper

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Praveen John
Prof. Paul
CUL493
23 October 2015
Vietnam War
America’s military involvement in Vietnam lasted more than twenty years (1954-1975). During those two decades, more than 8.7 million Americans served in the U.S. military, some 2 million of whom actually saw combat duty in Vietnam or operated offshore. American military personnel suffered 47,244 battle deaths, and another 300,000 were wounded in action. Casualty totals among the Vietnamese people were even higher: South Vietnam saw 300,000 of its civilians killed, 224,000 of its soldiers killed, and 570,000 of its soldiers wounded. North Vietnam saw 65,000 of its civilians killed, 660,000 of its soldiers killed, …show more content…

Two months later a ceasefire agreement was signed at Geneva, stipulating that Vietnam be divided along the 17th parallel – the northern portion belonging to the Communists, and the southern part to the West. The agreement further stipulated that Vietnam would be re-unified two years later by means of a national election. American involvement in the Vietnam War grew most dramatically under the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In 1964 the North Vietnamese (aided by China and Russia) began a massive drive to conquer the whole country. General Earl Wheeler of the Joint Chiefs told President Johnson that victory would require 700,000 to a million men and seven years to …show more content…

With America deeply divided thanks to the pressures of the anti-war left and a Democratic Party that had turned its back on the war, the President was persuaded that the United States could neither win the war nor maintain its armies in the battle. During his first four years in office, Nixon reduced the U.S. presence in Vietnam from 550,000 troops to 24,000. In 1973 he signed a truce with North Vietnam that led to the withdrawal of all American forces. Nixon hoped the agreement would preserve the governments of South Vietnam and Cambodia. But the North Vietnamese had no intention of observing the truce; neither did Pol Pot in