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Vietnam War

Introduction:

In this report I'm going to give a summary of the Vietnam war. Why it happened and what happened during the war. Sort of like a timeline, only a bit more in depth.

I´ll start of by giving a brief description of Vietnam and its history, and then go on to the French settlers, who really are the reason why the war started. Most of my report however will be about America's part in the war, and mainly the years from 1964-73.

Vietnam(background):

Vietnam has, for the most part, been a chaotic country. During the over 2000 years the country has existed, it has been under foreign rule for the largest part. In 111 BC Vietnam became a part of the Chinese Empire, and it wasn´t until 938 AD that Vietnam finally got their independence back. Some 800 years later French missionaries arrived in Vietnam. They converted some Vietnamese from Buddhists to Catholics, and taught them the French way of living. A lot of the Vietnamese people were not happy with the French missionaries, and during the end of the 17th century and start of the 18th century a lot of French missionaries were killed by Vietnamese Buddhists. In 1847 the French government sent troops to Vietnam to protect the missionaries. After a few years, the French government, lead by Napoleon III, decided that Vietnam would make a great addition to the French Empire, so in 1858 14 ships and some 2500 soldiers were sent to Vietnam. The soldiers arrived at Da Nang, and after 10 years of fighting the Vietnamese finally surrendered in 1868, and turned the country over to the French. However the Chinese were not happy with the French presence, so they invaded
Vietnam that same year. The war lasted for 17 years, and in 1885 the Chinese surrendered, after realising they could not defeat the French army. France kept control over Vietnam, and in 1893 Laos and Cambodia was under French rule as well. The three countries would now be known as Indochina.

During the years Vietnam(and Laos and Cambodia as...