Joey
you are vastly oversimplifying a complex war and time period. The U.S.
did not come in to "help a war that was already taking place" unless
perhaps you mean the struggle against French colonialism...
Contrary
to your assertions south Vietnam was mostly propped up by the U.S.
there was no "civil war" among the Vietnamese, the division of Vietnam
along the 17th parallel was called for by the 1954 Geneva Accords and
was meant to be a temporary boundary until the Reunification election of
1956 when the people of Vietnam could choose their own government. If
the Diem/south Vietnam government were as popular as you say they would
not have insisted on the cancellation of those elections as they did.
But don't take my word for it. Here's what President Dwight D.
Eisenhower had to say:
“I have never talked or corresponded with
a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that
had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, a possible 80
per cent of the population would have voted for the communist Ho Chi
Minh as their leader.”
I think you would benefit from the following debate.
Jeremy,
you are wrong. There was a Vietnamese civil war. If there was not a
civil war, they would not call one of their holidays the Reunification
Day. You cannot unify a country that was never divided. If Vietnam was
divided, then that is why they have the Reunification Day and that is
why it was the Vietnam Civil War as well. If Vietnam was not divided,
then it was not a civil war and they should not call it a Reunification
of a country that did not need to be unified. Why didn't southern and
northern Vietnam surround the United States and defeat them sooner? Why
did that not happen?
Contrary to your assertions south Vietnam was mostly propped up by the U.S. there was no "civil war" among the Vietnamese, the division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel was called for by the 1954 Geneva Accords and was meant to be a temporary boundary until the Reunification election of 1956 when the people of Vietnam could choose their own government. If the Diem/south Vietnam government were as popular as you say they would not have insisted on the cancellation of those elections as they did. But don't take my word for it. Here's what President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to say:
“I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, a possible 80 per cent of the population would have voted for the communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader.”
I think you would benefit from the following debate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k9aTeoDBxw