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//__**USSR INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM WAR**__// **Research question: In what extend did USSR involve in the Vietnam war? **

**Table of content** -The introduction of first Vietnam and the Soviet Union interaction -The IndoChina War and Ho Chi Min -The split of North and South Vietnam -The Cold War and Vietnam -The Gulf of Tonkin Incident -The Second IndoChina War (Vietnam War) -The massive secret military support from USSR. - The end of war, and the reconstruction of Vietnam and the benefits for USSR

__//**The introduction of first Vietnam and the Soviet Union interaction / The IndoChina War and Ho Chi Min**//__

USSR, the Soviet Union, involved in many events through out the Vietnam history. In the past, Vietnam was actually the one of the colonies that France owned. The word __//**Vietnam**//__ was called after they received their independence. As the colony of France, Vietnam was called **__//"IndoChina"//__.** In the time of 1930, as the Vietnamese started to create Nationalism revolution, the French government used military force to oppressed them. Every time, when there were some rebel moves, France always destroyed the colony forces where the Nationalism revolution started to fall from Vietnam. However, **the slow collapse of the Nationalism revolution caused the** //**Communist force to rise up**//. During, the World War 2, France needed their troops because of the invasion came from Nazi forces so they started to pull out of Vietnam. In this period, France and the Soviet Union made an alliance which help the communist ideology flow into Vietnam. //__**Ho Chi Min**__// was one of the famous Communist where he learned from Soviet Union and spread his communist ideas all around Vietnam. He also **joined the Labor Party** getting support from the **Soviet Union** with weapons and foods, to overcome the France government. However, the communist could not over come the foreign power because during the world war 2, the Japanese captured Vietnam, and lost the chance of independence. After the end of the World War 2, the colony of "IndoChina" was still the French property. Vietnam started to create war for independence from France. The first war they created and named **"IndoChina War" on 1951**. This lead Vietnam to be more interactive with the Soviet Union because the **Soviet Union** **announced that** **Vietnam will be approved as a government, this meant they are treated as a soverign country.**


 * Ho Chi Minh - A Person who led the Communist movement and one of the key leaders of Vietnam.**


 * A French Foreign Legion unit patrols a communist controlled area**.

__//**The Split of North and South Vietnam.**//__

The **Soviet Union** thought that Vietnam was going to become a communist country due to the lack of wealth and poorness that Vietnam had. So Soviet Union, spread their communist ideology throughout Vietnam. However, the United States was not satisfied due to the communization that Vietnam is turning into. When Vietnam turned into a Communist country all of the neighboring countries will become Communist as well. This represented all of the South East Asian countries will become communized. This was called "**__//The Domino Theory//__"** where all the countries is getting influenced from one country to another. The United States noticed that this was critical, and reformed the South Vietnam to become democracy. The **Soviet Union was surprised at the act of American involved with Vietnam**, which caused the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union to become **deteriorate**. The split of Vietnam happened in 1954 and established into two countries. North Vietnam, which became a communist country supported from the Soviet Union and China. South Vietnam, which became ademocracy country support from USA. The isolation between two countries **made an attention for the Soviet Union to involve with Vietnam.**

North Vietnam (Territory) North Vietnam Flag

South Vietnam (Territory) South Vietnam Flag

__//**The Cold War (USSR) and Vietnam**//__

__//**Vietnam was another chance for the Soviet Union to turned their country policy into communism**//__. During the Cold War, the first conflict happened in Korea. The Korean War was happened because both superpower (USA and USSR) nations wanted their political system to be stabilized in Korea. The United States and the Soviet Union needed to create many alliances as possible unifying their political policy so they would become powerful. The reason is because the Soviet Union and the United States can be strengthen by selling their produces and their goods to their similar government policy countries' markets so they can boost their economy. Due to the extent of the Cold War, the Korean War erupted. The Korean War finished and made an armistice between the North and South. __//**This caused both nations to change their attitude toward Cold War**//__. Especially, the Soviet Union now wanted to completely dominate their political policy in Vietnam. USSR wanted to create a perfect form of communist Vietnam having their policy so Vietnam could be powerful alliance for them. This leaded USSR to support Vietnam as much as they can, to defeat their counterpart USA.

__//** The Gulf of Token Incident and the reaction of Soviet Union. **//__


 * The Gulf of Token incident was one of the fabrication that United States government and CIA created to attack North Vietnam which leads to the Vietnam War.** In the early 1964, the United States made an military alliance with South Vietnam to protect their land. There was an American destroyer called "Maddox" entering through the Gulf of Token where it was a territory of North Vietnam. Maddox was attacked by a North Vietnam motor torpedo boat and got slightly damaged. The destroyer "Maddox" counter attacked, and sunk one of the North vietnam ship and two was brutally damaged. The first attack from North Vietnam was real and the North Vietnam announced that "It was a misunderstand US destroyer as a South Vietnam destroyer."

However, there was a second attack from North Vietnam on August 2, 1964. American government made a speech about that "Maddox" was attacked again from North Vietnam ships and accounted as "actual attack." However, the Soviet Union said that the United States is trying to find an opportunity to invade North Vietnam by making a fabricated incident. The **Soviet Union became responsive due to the act of America. So the Soviet Union also made an military agreement with North Vietnam** to protect them and to resist the American forces.

__//**The Second IndoChina War (Vietnam War) / Massive secret military + supply support from USSR**//__

In 1965, the United States declared a war into Vietnam, The **Soviet Union lost their rights to send armies to North Vietnam** because of the announcement that Gulf of Token Incident from American government. Also, America declared that if the Soviet Union joined the war, they will protest it with nuclear weapons. The Soveit Union wanted to avoid a nuclear war, and could not stop American's determination of attacking North Vietnam due to the incident they had. The Soviet Union had no choice to interfere with North Vietnam. However, they made a massive secret support to North Vietnam on weapons and supplies. The South Vietnam forces noticed about the secret support until the war is ended. The Soviet Union gave North Vietnam advance combat weapon called AK-47 and SA-2 missle to fight against the democractic forces, South Vietname. The **Soviet Union played a role on massive support because they believed Norh Vietnam will win the battle because the gorilla warfare conducted by North Vietname was very efficient aginst the South Vietnames and US forces which had superior fire power.**




 * AK-47 : An advance weapon in the late 1970's where it has automatic fire launcher. It is slightly less developed than American M16 but it can produce in great amount than American machine guns.**

**SA-2 : An advance weapon in the late 1970's which it is a cruse missile where can explode ** more than 100m away. Usefully used in Vietnam war to protest American's armored units.
 * //__ The end of war and the reconstruction of Vietnam and the benefit for USSR __//**

The Vietnam War was ended in __//**1975**//__ and North Vietnam was victorious. The Soviet Union was gracious about the victory they heard from Vietnam even-though they didn't joined the war. After the Vietnam War**//__,__//** The Soviet Union was glad to help reconstruct bulidings and teach technology that Vietnam needed. Due to this fact, the Soviet Union inolved from the start and to the end of Vietnam history. **This caused the Soviet Union to join bigger markets to expand their economy through Vietnam.**

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__ **Citations** __

Edmonds, Anthony O. //The War in Vietnam//. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. Print

Murray, Stuart. //Vietnam War//. New York: DK Pub., 2005. Print.

"Vietnam War." //Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Jan. 2012. Web. 02 May 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

Phillips, Charles, and Alan Axelrod. "Vietnam War." //Encyclopedia of Wars//, vol. 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. //Modern World History Online//. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp? ItemID=WE53&iPin=EWAR1673&SingleRecord=True (accessed May 4, 2012).