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Vietnam War

Explorer · ages 7 and underAdapted from Wikipedia
Bao Dai, who served as an advisor to the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam, stands with President Ho Chi Minh in September 1945.

What Was the Vietnam War?

The Vietnam War was a very hard time in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It lasted from about 1955 to 1975. It was the second of the Indochina wars, and it was part of a time called the Cold War.

Who Took Part?

North Vietnam had help from the Soviet Union and China. South Vietnam had help from the United States and other countries that were anti-communist. Many people in both halves of the country were very sad during this time.

Important People

Ngo Dinh Diem was a leader of South Vietnam. John F. Kennedy was the president of the United States, and he sent helpers to South Vietnam. After him came Lyndon B. Johnson. Later, Richard Nixon began bringing American soldiers home.

How It Ended

In 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed, and the last American forces left. In 1975, Saigon fell, and the long time of trouble came to an end. In 1976, North and South Vietnam joined together to become one country.

Pictures

Soldiers of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) pictured around 1966 during the Vietnam War.
A burial ceremony in Huế, Vietnam, held in 1968 for victims of the Hue Massacre, which happened during the Tet Offensive. Many people attended to honor those who had lost their lives.
Diplomats gather at the 1954 Geneva Conference, which discussed ending the fighting in Indochina.
A 1954 political cartoon from Vietnam showing animals as countries sharing a feast at the Geneva Conference. A small dove, representing Vietnam, lies on the table while an Angel of Peace looks on with worry.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington National Airport in 1957.
President John F. Kennedy speaks at a press conference at the State Department Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on March 23, 1961. Maps behind him show areas of Laos held by communist rebels.
President John F. Kennedy meets with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in the Cabinet Room of the White House in 1962.
Delegates gathered at the Second Nationwide Congress of the Indochinese Communist Party in Tuyên Quang, Vietnam, in February 1951.
A crowd gathers at the city hall in Saigon in May 1955, during a period of political change in Vietnam when groups opposed to Emperor Bảo Đại came together.
South Vietnamese soldiers guard a man who has raised his hands in surrender during the Vietnam War, photographed in 1964.
A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, Da Nang, 3 August 1965
ARVN Forces and a US Advisor inspect a downed helicopter, Battle of Dong Xoai, June 1965
A Marine from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, moves a suspected Viet Cong during a search and clear operation held by the battalion 15 miles (24 km) west of Da Nang Air Base, 1965.
Viet Cong before departing to participate in the Tet Offensive around Saigon-Gia Dinh
A chiêu hồi ('open arms') center for defectors from communist forces to the Republic of Vietnam, 1969.
ARVN and US Special Forces, 1968
An alleged Viet Cong captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.
American POWs recently released from North Vietnamese prison camps, 1973
Memorial commemorating the 1974 Buon Me Thuot campaign, depicting a Montagnard of the Central Highlands, a NVA soldier and a T-54 tank
The 1967 March on the Pentagon, an antiwar demonstration organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
Soviet air defense instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an air defense training center in Vietnam
A nurse treats a Vietnamese child, 1967
Guerrillas assemble shells and rockets delivered along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, Hanoi. Downed during Operation Linebacker II, its remains have been turned into a war monument.
Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984

Keep exploring

Vietnam
Laos
Cold War
Soviet Union
United States
John F. Kennedy

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Vietnam War, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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