Vietnam: winning the war and losing the peace (1954-2002)

Résumé du document

With the exception of Cambodia, there is hardly any other country in the world that can claim to have suffered as much as Vietnam in the post-World War II period. The country was marked by continual conflict, leaving it with generations traumatised by war, terror and bombings. There was only a brief period of peace in the country following the Geneva settlement of 1954. The long war in which the US was involved, divided the public opinion all over the globe, along with the spectacle of the third world people resisting and defeating the best militarily equipped nation in the world. The Wars ravaged a country which after having occupied the front pages of newspapers for years sank into poverty and indifference. Twenty-seven years after the end of the American War, the Vietnamese would rather move forward than stay stuck in the past.

Extraits

[...] Vietnam: winning the war and losing the peace (1954-2002) With the exception of Cambodia, there is hardly any other country in the world that could claim to have suffered as much as Vietnam in the post- World War II period. The country was marked by continual conflict, with only a brief period of peace following the Geneva settlement of 1954, leaving it with generations traumatised by war, terror and bombings. The long war in which the US was involved divided the public opinion all over the globe, along with the spectacle of a third world people resisting and defeating the best militarily equipped nation in the world. [...]

[...] Since the Americans opposed the Japanese in WWII, Ho Chi Minh convinced American leaders to secretly supply the Vietminh with weapons to fight their new oppressors. By the end of the war, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam, naming the country the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). However, the French didn't recognize Ho Chi Minh's declaration. They returned to the country and tried to re-establish their authority thus driving the Vietminh to retire in the Northern part of the country. In 1945, Ho Chi Minh wrote letters to Harry Truman, the US President, appealing for official US recognition of the DRV. [...]

[...] Indeed, talk to Vietnamese and most will say their only objection to Americans returning is that they took so long to come back. BIBLIOGRAPHY: -BOOKS D.R.Sardesai,,Southeast Asia: Past and Present, fourth edition (Westview Press 1997) S.Karnow, The war nobody won, in Vietnam: A History (1983) R.MacNamara with Brian Vandemark, In Retrospect : The Tragedy and lessons of Vietnam, Times Books, Random Books G.Kolko, “Winning the war and Losing the peace” in his Vietnam: Anatomy of a peace (1997) Yves Henri Nouilhat, ed.Armand Colin, Les Etats-Unis et le monde au 20ème siècle, deuxième edition 2000. [...]

[...] But above all the image remaining is one of absolute horror and barbarianism, the figures being beyond comprehension: 3,5 million Vietnamese dead or wounded million bombs dropped on the country tons of Napalm, and 40 million liters of defoliant (orange agent) . Nowadays, there are hopes on the horizon. The brightest involve investments from Vietnamese from overseas turned into refugees at the war's end. Some have returned, bringing money and, equally important, new ideas and western management skills. It's a tenuous alliance, marked more by failure than success. Since the uplifting of the embargo, American do- gooders, like Non Governmental Organizations have also flooded back to help a nation many say they razed. [...]

[...] Moreover, in an attempt to gain a place in the world economic system, Vietnam evacuated Cambodia and worked for the normalisation of its relation with the United States, which was not completed until 1994 when President Clinton announced that the US economic embargo would be lifted. B-American responsibility On April immediately after the last Americans were evacuated from Saigon, presidential Press Secretary Ron Nessen read a statement from President Ford to a packed press conference. Part of that statement urged: "We must now close ranks, avoid recriminations . " In other words, the President wanted no one blamed for the tragedy that had just befallen South Vietnam. [...]