Vietnam War
Also called: Second Indochina War
In divided Vietnam, North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front fought US-backed South Vietnam. After the Americans withdrew, Saigon fell in 1975 and Vietnam was united under communist rule.
U.S. Air Force · Public domain · Source
After the war against France, the 1954 Geneva Accords divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel. A US-backed Republic of Vietnam was set up in the South, and in 1960 the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) was formed to wage guerrilla war. Dates for the war’s beginning vary with perspective, from 1955 (the founding of South Vietnam and the US advisory mission) to 1964 (the Gulf of Tonkin incident).
After the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 the US bombed North Vietnam and from 1965 sent ground troops, at the peak more than half a million; South Korea also sent troops from 1964 to 1973. After the 1968 Tet Offensive opposition to the war grew in America, and the Nixon administration signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 and withdrew. Saigon fell on 30 April 1975, and the country was reunified the next year as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.