Between 19 the Vietnam People's Army was commanded by General Vo Nguyen Giap, Ho Chi Minh's military strategist since the early 1940s and a veteran of the struggle against the Japanese. The Vietnam People's Army existed within the Viet Minh movement and lasted until the Vietnam War and beyond. Eight years of war followed before the French were defeated by the Viet Minh, or the League for the Independence of Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh who became president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). The Vietnamese endured terrible hardships during the Japanese occupation, which lasted until the end of the Second World War in 1945.Īfter the war the French tried to regain control of Vietnam despite local and world-wide anti-colonial sentiment. French colonial rule was in turn interrupted in 1940 when the Japanese invaded Vietnam. Following this victory, Vietnam itself began to expand southwards at the expense of Champa, a kingdom whose remnants were ultimately incorporated into Vietnam by the early nineteenth century.įurther Vietnamese expansion was halted only by the French, who forcibly established themselves as colonial masters at the end of the nineteenth century. During the centuries that followed the Vietnamese repelled three invasions by the fearsome Mongols and resisted further Chinese attempts to regain control, finally defeating a vast invasion force sent by the Chinese Ming Dynasty in the fifteenth century. Vietnam was ruled by China for almost a millennia before gaining independence in the tenth century. The war against the United States was, therefore, seen by many Vietnamese as another in series of conflicts for independence dating back almost a thousand years. Those on the other side, however, thought of themselves more as nationalists fighting against foreign invaders and colonialists. The Americans and their allies saw the Vietnam War as part of a struggle against international communism. The Vietnamese communists and 'the American War'
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |