A 1955-75 Indochina war that fused decolonisation, civil war and US intervention -- and remade English-language memory of limited war. The Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, grew out of the First Indochina War (1946-54) and the 1954 Geneva partition at the 17th parallel.
The United States moved from advisers to a bombing campaign (Rolling Thunder, 1965) and a peak of more than 500,000 troops. The Tet Offensive (January 1968) failed militarily for the NLF/PAVN and succeeded politically in the US. Vietnamization, the 1970-71 Cambodian and Laotian campaigns, and the 1973 Paris Accords preceded the final northern offensive. Saigon fell on 30 April 1975.
Check each criteria to confirm findings against the atlas verdict.
A 1955-75 Indochina war that fused decolonisation, civil war and US intervention -- and remade English-language memory of limited war. The Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, grew out of the First Indochina War (1946-54) and the 1954 Geneva partition at the 17th parallel.
The United States moved from advisers to a bombing campaign (Rolling Thunder, 1965) and a peak of more than 500,000 troops. The Tet Offensive (January 1968) failed militarily for the NLF/PAVN and succeeded politically in the US. Vietnamization, the 1970-71 Cambodian and Laotian campaigns, and the 1973 Paris Accords preceded the final northern offensive. Saigon fell on 30 April 1975.
Scholarly estimates of Vietnamese dead run from about 1.3 to 3.8 million, including civilians; US military deaths are about 58,000, with Australian, South Korean, Thai and other allied dead in the thousands. Agent Orange, unexploded ordnance and a refugee diaspora are part of the bill.
The 1954 French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva Accords created a "temporary" partition. Diem, with US backing, refused elections that Ho was expected to win. Nation-building in the south was a police and landlord war as much as a development project.
This explains a campaign, battle, or weapon in context. It is not a league of nations. It does not replace the full topic page.
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Why is "a single assassination headline" the wrong stop when reading the August mobilization in 1914? · Why is "a paper count of tanks" the wrong stop when reading the campaign in France in 1940? · Why is "the landing nickname alone" the wrong stop when reading the Inchon landing in 1950? · Why is "a body-count column" the wrong stop when reading the Tet offensive in 1968? · Why is "the battle nickname alone" the wrong stop when reading Austerlitz in 1805? · Why is "one casualty total" the wrong stop when reading Gettysburg in 1863? · 50 campaign reading notes