¶ … Vietnam War which was a legacy of the inability of the French to suppress the nationalist movement in Indochina. The article contains five references. The Vietnam War was a legacy of the inability of the French to suppress the nationalist movement in Indochina and the colonial power had been struggling to restore its dominion after the Second World War. In 1954, France was ousted from Indochina after a communist-dominated revolutionary movement led by Ho Chi Minh frustrated the French attempts to maintain their presence in Indochina. Vietnam was divided into two parts. North Vietnam had a communist government led by Ho Chi Minh while South Vietnam had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

The involvement of the United States in Vietnam was a result of the desire to contain communism and to contain China after its intervention against the United Nations in Korea. The war of liberation from France in Vietnam was fought with Chinese and Soviet arms and using Chinese doctrine of revolutionary warfare indicating that there were Chinese advisors and support in Vietnam. In order to suppress the spread of communism, the United States of America sided with South Vietnam and its anti-communist government. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

South Vietnam faced a major communist threat consisting of an internal communist led military insurgency within its borders and the military of the North Vietnam across its borders. United States engaged in a major military conflict in Asia in order to prop up the government of South Vietnam against communist threats and the major action started after there were limited attacks on American warships visiting Vietnam carried out...

[FAS 2003]
The United States faced the PAVN or the Peoples Army of Vietnam which was the world's third largest after the armies of Soviet Union and China. The PAVN differed from the other armies as it had a political party within itself and was formed as a result of the efforts of a 32-year-old Hanoi teacher who was later to emerge as General Vo Nguyen Giap and other middle class Vietnamese calling themselves the Armed Propaganda Team, hidden in the China Vietnam Border Mountains in the last days of the Second World War. [FAS 2003]

The Vietnam War lasted a long time and its major time frames can be listed as shown:

Early 1958 to late 1960 Revolutionary War Preparation

1961 to late 1964 Revolutionary Guerrilla War

Early 1965 to mid-1968 Regular Force Strategy

Late 1968 to Easter 1972 Neo-Revolutionary Guerilla War

Summer 1972 to end of war High Technology Regular Force Strategy

The military strategy practiced against the Americans by the Army of North Vietnam beginning in 1965 is called the Regular Force Strategy and was an attempt to bypass the advantages that the Americans enjoyed in terms of massive men and massive firepower. [FAS 2003]

The North Vietnamese tactics consisted of "independent fighting method" consisting of mounting dozens of small-scale actions, no single one being important but raising anxiety and destroying self-confidence. These small scale actions also included an occasional block buster called "coordinated fighting" against important targets. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

The strategy of the United States in the war was to attempt to break down the enemy by massive…