This Thursday will mark the 34th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, April 30th, 1975. In class we discussed some of the causes of the war and the reason for the involvement of the U.S., but we have not yet discussed the outcome of the war. To recap from class, the U.S. entered the war to stop the spread of communism from North Vietnam to other parts of Southeast Asia and beyond. However, the more interesting part more interesting part is the end of the war and its effect. After more than a decade and a half of fighting, the United States, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords, removing U.S. from Vietnam. This peace treaty came after widespread opposition to the war was occurring in the United States. Once the U.S. troops withdrew from South Vietnam, North Vietnam launched its final attack on the south. The north captured the southern capital of Saigon on April 30th, 1975, known as the fall of Saigon. The city was immediately renamed Ho Chi Minh City after North Vietnamese leader. Soon after the fall of Saigon, North and South Vietnam united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
On the contrary to their original intent, the United States was very unsuccessful in ending communist rein in Vietnam. In the process, 58,000 Americans died and 153,000 were seriously wounded. In addition, 1 million Vietnamese combatants and 4 million Vietnamese civilians died over the years of fighting. Not to mention, many of the soldiers who came back physically unharmed were never the same mentally, with a large number of veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. The Vietnam war taught the United States effects of military intervention in foreign countries, and how the outcome is not always pleasing. So in light of our unit guiding question, what was the Vietnam war good for? How can the concepts learned through Vietnam be applied to the War on Terror and the War in Iraq? What progress has been made between the wars in terms of the US's strategy?
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