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After World War II,
Korea was divided in half at the 38th parallel. To the
north were the Communists; to the south were the United Nations
peacekeeping forces. In June, 1950, North Korean soldiers -
backed by soviet-built tanks - poured across the parallel.
The
Korean conflict became one of the first expressions of the cold
war between Russia
and America. It was an attempt to balance the power which had
been thrown so badly out of alignment by World War II. But Korea
would bring victory to neither side. It would merely reaffirm
the deadlock.
In
1954, the country of Vietnam was also divided in half
- at the 17th parallel. To the north was the Communist regime
of Ho Chi Mihn; to the south was the America-backed regime of
Ngo Dihn Diem. Elections to unify the country were scheduled
for 1956, but they were never held. Instead, each side used
military means to accomplish political goals.
To
America, Vietnam symbolized her ability to contain communism
in Asia. To the Communists, Vietnam symbolized their ability
to defeat America in warfare. It became a struggle to the death
between East and West - not only between military forces, but
also between opposing ideologies.
By
1961, John F. Kennedy was in the White House; Nikita
Khrushchev was in the Kremlin. Both sides held nuclear weapons,
and they tested each other for weakness. But by 1964, Kennedy
had been assassinated. The Soviets - at odds with communist
China
- were talking détente with America. America's new president,
Lyndon B. Johnson, found himself trapped in a war without
end. His solution was to escalate America's military commitment
in Vietnam. Between November 1963 and July 1965, Johnson transformed
America's limited engagement in Vietnam into an open-ended commitment.
This
same strategy would lead America's next president, Richard
M. Nixon, to order one of the most criticized events of
the war; the bombing of Cambodia. American opinion clamored
for an end to war, and eventually prevailed. The names of more
than 58,000 Americans are inscribed on a black granite monument
in Washington, D.C., memorializing those who died in Vietnam.
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