Vietnam War (1957-1975)

Good Morning. Today I'd like to talk about Vietnam War. For starters I'd like to briefly touch on backgrounds. Vietnam was one of the French colonies in the 19th century. During the 2nd World War Japan conquered Vietnam and drove the French away. In a sense Japan contributed to the independence of Vietnam. But as you all know, Japan lost the war to America and the Soviet Union. In the course of time Cold War began. There were further complicated  developments in Vietnam. In 1954 the Vietnam issue was discussed at the Geneva Conference. They divided Vietnam into two nations, namely North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Soviet Union supported North Vietnam for Communism, while the US South Vietnam for the causes of capitalism and freedom. Then uprisings induced by the Viet Congs broke out. Immediately US President Lyndon B.Johnson sent his troops to Vietnam to cramp down the rebels. This is the very beginning of Vietnam War. Throuout the war American B 50s bombarded North Vietnam relentlessly and dropped napalm bombs and orange agents on the Vietnamese civillians.
The results is tragic. 60,000 American soldiers died. 1 million Vietnamese were lost and 3 million Vietnamese wounded. In the meantime there were demonstrations against Vietnam War all over the world. Even the Americans criticised their soldiers' inhuman brutality on the Vietnamese people. At last  US President  Richard Nixon took back his soldiers.
I wonder on what context I should interepret Vietnam War? In a nutshell, it was the representative war fought between the two Super Powers. It is similar to Korean War (1951), the blockade of Berlin (1961) and Cuba Crisis (1963). It goes without saying that America lost the war for the first time.
 America came tumbling down. The rest is history.