Vietnam
...project on the experiences of Vietnam War
veterans. There is a lot of controversy as to whether or not the Vietnam
War veterans are given enough recognition for what they went through. I have
heard horrible stories of US soldiers dying from US bombs, shell shock, and
soldiers returning to America and not being able to function as active
members of society due to the horrors of the war. All I really know about
the war is what I have seen on television. I wanted to learn about the war
through the firsthand accounts of those who were there.
The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam from
1959 to 1975. It began as an attempt by Communist guerrillas (or Vietcong)
in the South, backed by Communist North Vietnam, to overthrow the
government of South Vietnam. The struggle grew into a war between South
Vietnam and North Vietnam and ultimately into an international conflict. The
United States and some 40 other countries supported South Vietnam by
supplying troops and munitions, and the USSR and the People's Republic
of China furnished munitions to North Vietnam and the Vietcong. On both
sides, however, the burden of the war fell mainly on the civilians.1
On January 27, in Paris, delegations representing the United States,
South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Provisional Revolutionary
Communist Government of South Vietnam signed an Agreement on Ending
the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam. The cease-fire officially went into
effect on January 28. Both the US and North Vietnam asserted that there
were no secret peace terms.2
All the US fighting forces had withdrawn from Vietnam by March
1973, but not without major losses on both sides. Two million Vietnamese
were killed and 3 million were wounded. The extensive use of napalm and
defoliants (such as Agent Orange) left many people badly burned, and
destroyed the ecology of a...
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