The Vietnam & Korean War:
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The war began in 1954 (though conflict in the region stretched back to the mid-1940s), after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including 58,000 Americans) were killed in the Vietnam War; more than half were Vietnamese civilians. By 1969, at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.
Korea was a war between armies, North Korea and China vs South Korea and the United Nations.
Vietnam had a big Communist backed insurgency, the Viet Cong, besides the war between armies.
North Korean troops almost overran all of South Korea, and the UN/U.S. troops almost overran all of North Korea.
U.S. troops never invaded North Vietnam, and North Vietnam didn't overrun the South until after the U.S. left.
Chinese troops fought in Korea.
Aside from some "advisors", no Chinese troops fought in Vietnam.
Both were between Communist dictatorships in the north, and US backed dictatorships in the South.
Both ended with negotiated treaties rather than clear victories. The treaty in Korea lasted. The treaty in Vietnam was ended when the North conquered the South in 1975. Curiously, we have normal relations with Communist Vietnam, but view North Korea as a rogue state.
Korea is much further in the past, shorter, less controversial, and with fewer U.S. dead, probably why Vietnam gets more ink.
Vietnam had a big Communist backed insurgency, the Viet Cong, besides the war between armies.
North Korean troops almost overran all of South Korea, and the UN/U.S. troops almost overran all of North Korea.
U.S. troops never invaded North Vietnam, and North Vietnam didn't overrun the South until after the U.S. left.
Chinese troops fought in Korea.
Aside from some "advisors", no Chinese troops fought in Vietnam.
Both were between Communist dictatorships in the north, and US backed dictatorships in the South.
Both ended with negotiated treaties rather than clear victories. The treaty in Korea lasted. The treaty in Vietnam was ended when the North conquered the South in 1975. Curiously, we have normal relations with Communist Vietnam, but view North Korea as a rogue state.
Korea is much further in the past, shorter, less controversial, and with fewer U.S. dead, probably why Vietnam gets more ink.
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