Twentieth Century Wars - the Cold War - Essay Example

Cold War The Vietnam War was a Cold War from 1955 to 1975 between the remnants of the South Vietnam-based French colonial government and the US against the communist and indigenous independence movement of Vietnam, the Viet Minh, after the French were expelled in 1954. The fear of Domino Theory and the commitment of the US to the Truman Doctrine led the country to visualizing the South Vietnamese government’s defense as an element of the global war against communism. Tens of thousands of Americans lost their lives in the Vietnam War and the damage was equally colossal for Vietnam.

The war caused massive social upheaval in America as the conduct and the underlying objectives of the war were questioned, particularly by the youth that was being involved in the war through the Draft. Vietnam was unified by the communists forcefully after the withdrawal of America in 1975. Upon their return, the Vietnam veterans did not receive the respect typically given to war veterans. Professor Pham Quang Minh from the University of Hanoi considers the Resolution Eight of July 2003 as a prime development in the adjustment of Vietnam to the change of alignment in Asia after the Cold War.

He says that till then “it was not easy to determine how to play the game, and who shared the same idea. [Resolution Eight] provided for the first time the new definitions different from previous ones in Vietnamese foreign policy” (Minh cited in Elliott 237). Works Cited:Elliott, David W. P. Changing Worlds: Vietnams Transition from Cold War to Globalization. Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.