Title: Vietnam War - New World Encyclopedia
Headings: Vietnam War
Vietnam War
History to 1949
Exit of the French, 1950-1955
The Diem era, 1955-1963
Coup and assassinations
Escalation and Americanization, 1963-1968
Gulf of Tonkin and the Westmoreland expansion
Operation Rolling Thunder, 1965-1968
The big build-up
Search and destroy
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
The Tet Offensive
Paris peace talks
Vietnamization and American withdrawal, 1969-1974
Richard Nixon searches for peace with honor
Operation Menu and the Cambodian incursion, 1969-1970
The Easter Offensive
U.S. presidential election of 1972 and Operation Linebacker II
Return to Paris
South Vietnam stands alone, 1974 – 1975
Total U.S. withdrawal
Campaign 275
Final North Vietnamese offensive
Fall of Saigon
Aftermath
Other countries' involvement
Soviet Union
People's Republic of China
Republic of Korea
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Australia and New Zealand
Thailand
Canada
Use of chemical defoliants
Notes
Casualties
Names for the conflict
Footnotes
Sources
Primary sources
External links
Credits

Content: Due to overwhelming popular opposition and damning evidence in the Watergate case Richard Nixon resigned from office in August 1974. Eight months later South Vietnam and Cambodia were communized. In the years immediately following the fall of Vietnam, Laos, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Capa Verde, Santome e Principe, Grenada, Nicaragua, and Afghanistan were all brought into the Soviet sphere of influence. The United States had surrendered its role as the “world’s policeman”. As has often been observed, the Vietnam War was not lost on the battlefield; it was lost in America’s court of public opinion. It remains a lesson that is relevant for all future conflicts. History to 1949
From 110 B.C.E. to 938 C.E. much of present-day Vietnam, except for brief periods, was part of China. After gaining independence, Vietnam went through a history of resisting outside aggression. The French gained control of Indochina during a series of colonial wars beginning in the 1840s and lasting through the 1880s.