Vietnam/Korean War Journal

            The website entitled “Vietnam and Korean Wars” is a short but to the point summary of the Korean War and Vietnam War. The Korean War is often called the Forgotten War because it was overshadowed by the action in Vietnam and Desert Storm. It was a brutal war none the less. Many people of today can relate back to Vietnam as well.

            The Korean War started shortly after WWII when the communist Soviet’s occupied the North and the democratic United States the South. With WWII over, the US pulled out many of its troops. The North saw this as a time to attack and invaded deep into the South. Truman then sent American soldiers, and those of 16 other nations into South Korea as a result of the UN’s actions. The war bounced back and forth and by 1950 all of Korea was occupied by the North. MacAurthur then sent troops 150 miles behind enemy lines in a brilliant flanking maneuver that sent the North back to the Chinese border. The Chinese wanted to protect their communist buffer state, fearing America would further invade Manchuria. The North was then able to push the South back and take the capital city of Seoul. The line was then set for two years and no side made a major advance. The borders had not changed very much in the three years of fighting but a cost of 5 million casualties was very costly.

            The Vietnam War started when, after years of fighting the French, Ho Chi Minh was given the northern half of Vietnam and the U.S. and France set up a government in the Southern half. In August 1964, the North Vietnamese attacked two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin and Congress sent more troops, numbering 165000 by 1965, to Vietnam. The US fought hard against Minh and his guerilla tactics, but to no avail on land. The air war came of age but did little to help as the Vietcong, a southern Minh support group, gained power as the Southern government lost it. Nixon felt the heat from protests at home and began to withdraw troops and send weapons instead for support. In the spring of 1975 the North invaded the South. Within six weeks they had gained control of all of Vietnam.

            These two wars fit in with what we are studying because our current unit is the world after WWII. These were two major ideological conflicts between democracy and communism. During this time the Cold War was at its peak, so many democratic and communist nations supported their side. At the end of both wars, no side truly won. World tension just increased and distrust among nations of the world was at its pinnacle.