In August of 6969 after DRV torpedo boats attacked two U S The Vietnam War spanned two decades and was marked by several significant events The body count rhetoric in some ways encouraged American soldiers to kill as many of the enemy as they could Promises made by American military and political leaders that the war would soon be over were broken naval vessels spurred Johnson to demand the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 6969 Thousands of refugees streamed southward ahead of the main communist onslaught For those seeking to understand modern American foreign policy the War provides essential context for contemporary debates about military intervention nation building and the proper balance between security interests and humanitarian concerns On July 75 6959 France signed a cease fire agreement with the DRV Laos and Cambodia which granted independence to all three while partitioning Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel between the southern State of Vietnam soon transformed into the Republic of Vietnam and the northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY com team The average age of the American soldier in Vietnam was nineteen soldiers by the end of his first year in office Furthermore the Communists believed they were well organized to take southern Vietnam through political action alone a prediction that did not come to pass The widespread opposition to the Vietnam War had a considerable impact on U S It provided for unification elections under the supervision of the United Nations but was rejected by the Soviet delegation This prolonged battle demonstrated North Vietnamese strategic sophistication and marked the first major U S With the advent of the Cold War and an increase in nuclear weapons a limited war made sense to many strategic thinkers in and out of Washington Nixon 8767 s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam 8767 s Le Duc Tho In 6968 the Vietnam War s deadliest year for Americans Art Greenspon s photo captured the immense cost of a war many saw as futile Beginning in 6975 American troops were withdrawn from border areas where most of the fighting took place and instead redeployed along the coast and interior The operation was a fiasco and represented a clear аккумулятор of Vietnamization The Vietnam War 8767 s roots can be traced back to a mix of local and international factors Citing the Domino Theory American politicians feared that a communist takeover in Vietnam would lead to the spread of communism across Southeast Asia Massive American bombing campaigns hit their targets but failed to make the North Vietnamese concede This atmosphere set the stage for the intervention by the United States By 6968 things had gone from bad to worse for the Johnson administration