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During the late nineteenth century the French concouquered Vietnam and made it

a protectorate and in 1941 the league for the independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh) was

formed to fight for independence from the French and on Sept. 2nd .1945. Ho chi Minh

proclaimed it independent from France. The French opposed this and wanted to

re-establish their rule but where defeated on the battlefield by the Viet Min and where

forced to surrender this ended a war and French rule. After the war there was a

conference in Geneva where Vietnam was divided into two parts along the seventeenth

parallel there where now a north and a south Vietnam similar to Korea the north being

lead by Ho Chi Minh was mainly communist. North Vietnam at the time was a very poor

area being cut off from the agricultural benefits of south Vietnam Ho Chi Minh was

forced to ask for help from communist allies like the soviet union and china whom gave

needed supported both before and during the war.

The south lead by an anti-Communist ruler named ngo Dinh Diem was headed

towards a democracy. The south being supported by the French and the united states of

America clearly shows how closely this conflict was tide to the cold war going on

between the eastern and western superpowers who supported the war efforts on either

side. North Vietnams goal was to unify both north and south Vietnam leaving one

communist state even if it meant using military force, at this time the cold war was still

going on an since the u.s.a. Feared the spread of communist in Asia, John F. Kennedy

gave economic and military aid to south Vietnam in order to prevent the takeover of the

south by the north although all though the conflict was still a civil war and the...