The causes of the Vietnam War can all be attributed to rule by foreign countries, the French-Indochinese War, expansion of communism, Gulf of Tonkin incident and American intervention.

For two thousand years Vietnam has been in a continuing quest to establish itself as an independent nation. First in 208 B.C. General Trieu Da conquered and claimed Vietnam for the Chinese emperor. In 40 A.D. the Trung sisters led a Vietnamese rebellion and turned Vietnam from a Chinese providence into an independent state for a short period of time. Emperor Dinh Boh Linh won recognition of independence form China in 967. The Vietnamese defeated Kubial Khan, the great Mongolian warrior, and his 300,000 soldiers in 1287. From 1418-1422 Vietnamese emp

France played an important rule in creating the Vietnam War. In the 1600's Roman Catholics missionaries from France began to convert thousands of Vietnamese from Buddhists to Catholics. In the 1850's the French started to seize parts of Vietnam. At first, France was just protecting its missionaries in Vietnam. Then France became greedy and wanted to gain Vietnam as a colony. In 1883 the French forced the Nguyen ruler to sign a treaty giving control of all Vietnam to the French (Herring 386). Along with Laos and Kampuchea, Cambodia, Vietnam was a part of the French colony, called Indochina. France controlled Indochina from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of World War II. When World War II began Japan took over control of Indochina. Japan controlled the colony until 1945 when they surrendered to the Allies. France tried to reestablish control in Vietnam after the war, but was defeated when Vietnamese captured the French base at Dien Bien Phu. The French -Indochina war officially was ended with the signing of the Geneva Accords. The Geneva Accords split Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel. Due to the French-Indochina relations, France played an important role in escalating in Vietnam (390).

Huckshorn, Kristen. "Vietnam's New Revolution." San Jose Mercury News. 16 April

eror Le Loi led a revolt against China. The revolt was successful and Vietnam again gained its independence from China, thus beginning Vietnam's Golden Age. Having to fight for close to two thousand years of was

Vietnam. Boston: Beacon Press. 1996

Nixon, Richard. The Real War. New York: Warner Books Inc., 1981

Weiner, Tim. "New Files Prove Vietnam Cover-Up." New York Time 9 June 1996: 1+

sent them to Vietnam and then forgot about them, considering them dead. In fact, a large number of them are still alive and are living in the United States. The government paid their families a lump sum to compensate the commandos' families for their deaths. An officer in charge of the operation was later heard saying, "One we had fools running our covert operations. Two we knew they had been captured, and they would get their money if they ever came back, so if they were killed in action, it was no big deal. Three we needed money for cross-boarder operations in Laos-so they killed off people to save money." The same officer said, " We did things with them we couldn't do with Americans, we didn't care about them (Wiener n.p.)."

"Vietnam's Mixed Relations with it's Neighbors." World Wise. April 1995; 6-7. SIRS

Schurman, Frans, Peter Dale Scottland, and Reginuld Zelnik. The Poltics of Escaltion in

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2541
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)