this was the longest war in the history of the United States welcome to watch mojo.com and today we'll be learning more about the Vietnam War as part of the Cold War the Vietnam War was a struggle against communism and an effort to limit its expansion if this little Nation goes down to drain and can't maintain her independence ask yourself what's going to happen to all the other little nations in 1954 Vietnam was split into two zones at the Geneva conference in North Vietnam was the Democratic Republic of Vietnam which was a communist state led by hoochi Min South Vietnam was non-communist and its first president was go Zim by mid 1955 Zim initiated a campaign denouncing communism suspected communist activities were punished with jail time and even death his regime lost popularity to the point where a significant portion of South Vietnam supported the commun this prompted a Guerilla campaign to pop up in the south in late 1956 named the National Liberation Front this movement was more commonly called the Viet Kong as directed by hoochi men they used armed propaganda to fight their battles this targeted violence was initially aimed at politicians but grew more widespread in the hopes of unifying the country under one Communist Regime in an effort to limit the expansion of Communism into neighboring countries the United States states began training forces in the south towards the end of the 1950s it's their War they're the ones who have to win it or lose it we can help them we can give them equipment we can send our men out there as advisers but they have to win it the people of Vietnam against the Communist at this time with support from the US government a coup was being discussed to overthrow zeim however zeim was executed during the coup on November 2nd 1963 without approval from the Americans his death caused the political climate in the South to destabilize and each new government toppled quickly in August 1964 two alleged attacks on American warships were reported off North Vietnam's Coast in the Gulf of tonen this gave the US the ammunition necessary to get more heavily involved in the conflict that year the number of US troops deployed had risen to 16,500 from only 2,000 a few years earlier the war escalated and in March 1965 a series of aerial bombing attacks by us and Vietnamese forces against North Vietnam commenced and continued for 3 years during that period Operation Rolling Thunder dropped a million tons of missiles rockets and bombs on the North with support from the American public the US ground war also began in March 65 3 and a half thousand Marines were sent to the South for a defensive Mission and by December that number had had risen to 200,000 however the Arvin forces of the South experienced great losses in a number of battles over the next few months and morale dropped the United States then decided they must intervene even further in order to win the war prior to this they had insisted it was up to the Vietnamese to end things president Lyndon Johnson and his administration tried to spin the war and its progress in the American Media by highlighting stories that showed the war's progression oh the challenges have been met the enemy is not beaten but he knows that he has met his master in the field this made the media and the public mistrustful of the government the Ted offensive proved to the Americans that progress was not in fact being made on January 31st 1968 the VCS made a surprise attack on the southern Vietnamese and Americans they responded quickly and effectively however the fight raged for months and killed President Johnson's chances of reelection I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office the presidency of your country by the time he left office approximately 30,000 American lives had been lost fighting fighting in Vietnam when President Richard Nixon entered office in 1969 he began withdrawing troops the policy called Vietnamization was put in place and was meant to help prepare the Arvin to take over the battle amid even more attacks us public support plummeted further especially after the National Guard killed four student protesters at Kent State University peace protests became common place on American soil by 1972 and the Vietnam War became a central issue in that year presidential campaigns after Nixon's reelection he was able to negotiate an agreement that ended American involvement in the war a ceasefire internationally supervised will begin at 700 p.m. this Saturday January 27 Washington time within 60 days from this Saturday all Americans held prisoners of War throughout Indochina will be released signed January 27th 1973 the Paris Peace Accords resulted in a ceasefire through the country and the release of American prisoners of War however fighting between the Vietnamese States continued until 1975 on April 30th 1975 the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon was taken the war was over and Communist governments took over Vietnam Cambodia and LA [Music]