The Road to Tet
In popular memory, America’s war in Vietnam begins sometime in the Kennedy administration. But its roots go much deeper, to the end of World War II and the revolution of Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh against French colonial rule.
As part of its broader — in this case misguided — Cold War policy of containing communism, the United States supported France’s war against the Communist-led Viet Minh, paying close to 80 percent of the cost by 1953. The war ended in 1954, with Vietnam divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections to be held in two years.
After the war, the Eisenhower administration backed the refusal of the South Vietnamese president, Ngo Dinh Diem, to hold the elections, sparking a new insurgency by former Viet Minh, later known as the National Liberation Front (and to its enemies, the Viet Cong).… Seguir leyendo »