Abstract
Vietnam was part of the French colonial empire since the late 1850s. During World War II, the French were defeated by the Germans and the Japanese invaded Vietnam. As a consequence, the French and Japanese forces were forced to cooperate in order to rule Vietnam. The Japanese evicted the French in 1945 and started to rule Vietnam alone. A deep famine occurred in 1944 and 1945, urging the population to rebel following the Viet Minh Movement (a league for independence led by Ho Chi Minh). In August 1945, the Japanese were defeated by the Viet Minh. At the end of World War II, the Viet Minh claimed the independence of Vietnam. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union considered that Vietnam belonged to France. In March 1946, Vietnam is recognized as free within the French Union. But when the French army landed near Hanoi, a guerilla war began, the First Vietnam war. The French were defeated and left Vietnam in 1954 and Vietnam was divided into two parts along the 17th parallel: a communist part (North Vietnam led by the Viet Cong) and a non-communist part (South Vietnam led by Ngo Dinh Diem).
South Vietnam was supported by the American and North Vietnam by the other communist countries. Thus a war exploded in 1965 between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. In a first part we will focus on the reasons of the American involvement in the Vietnam war, then we will see the end of the war and in the last part we will see the social and economical consequences of the war.
