The Vietnam War: From the Vietnamese Perspective – e-book

A short, factual history of the war that Vietnamese call the American War, told from inside Vietnam: the long struggle against colonial rule, the division of the country, life under the bombs in the North and in the villages of the South, the different Vietnamese sides in the conflict, and what the war left behind. One of two books in Planodium's Opposite views series; the companion book tells the same story from the American side.

• 6 chapters, approx. 12 pages
• Chapters: A Long Struggle for Independence; Two Vietnams; Living Under the Bombs; Tet and the Long War; 1975: Reunification and Its Price; Memory and Reconciliation
• Companion book tells the same war from the American side
• EPUB for e-readers and PDF for reading on screen or printing
• Written with the help of AI and reviewed before publishing

A Long Struggle for Independence

In Vietnam, the conflict that the rest of the world calls the Vietnam War is usually called the American War, or more formally the Resistance War against America to Save the Nation. The name says a great deal. For many Vietnamese, the war with the United States was not a separate event but the last and most destructive chapter of a struggle for independence and unity that had lasted for generations. Vietnamese history is often told as a history of resistance against foreign rule. For about a thousand years, until the tenth century, much of what is now northern Vietnam was ruled by Chinese dynasties. Vietnamese heroes of that era, such as the Trung sisters, who led a rebellion in the first century, are still celebrated today. Even after independence, Vietnamese rulers fought several wars to keep invading armies from the north at bay, including the Mongols in the thirteenth century. In the second half of the nineteenth century, France conquered Vietnam step by step, beginning in 1858. Together with Cambodia and Laos, Vietnam became part of French Indochina. Colonial rule brought railways, rubber plantations and new cities, but most of the profit went to France and to a small elite. Peasants lost land, taxes were heavy, and Vietnamese who demanded rights or independence were imprisoned or executed. Many different groups opposed French rule, from scholars and monarchists to nationalists and communists. The most successful was led by a man who used many names and became known to the world as Ho Chi Minh. He had left Vietnam as a young man, worked and studied in France and elsewhere, and become a communist. In 1941 he returned and founded the Viet Minh, a broad front that combined the goals of national independence and social revolution. During the Second World War, Japan occupied Indochina. A terrible famine in 1944 and 1945 killed a very large number of people in northern Vietnam; estimates range from several hundred thousand to two million. When Japan surrendered in August 1945, the Viet Minh seized power in what became known as the August Revolution. On 2

… The excerpt continues in the book.

1. A Long Struggle for Independence
2. Two Vietnams
3. Living Under the Bombs
4. Tet and the Long War
5. 1975: Reunification and Its Price
6. Memory and Reconciliation

Format: E-book as EPUB (Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, Kindle via “Send to Kindle”) and PDF.. Made with the help of AI and tested by our quality control. Not tax, accounting or legal advice. Terms and right of withdrawal