HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR (MAPS)
(PHOTOS)
It's all too easy to focus on the brief period in Vietnam's history when the
United States was fighting to help the South Vietnamese Government become
established and survive.
In the end, South Vietnam fell to a North Vietnamese invasion several years
after U.S. forces withdrew. But this was not Vietnam's first or last war.
South
Vietnam was established after the (First) Indochina War between Vietnamese
nationalists and French Colonial forces after the close of the Second
World War. From 1945 to 1954 a bitter struggle in Vietnam ended in the
partioning of Vietnam into two countries after the French defeat at
Dien Bien Phu.
Even
prior to French colonization, Vietnam was subject to invasions by the
Chinese and others going back to 500 B.C. Alas, war is no stranger to
the Vietnamese people.
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