An explosion goes off and the soldiers cover their heads. Children are fleeing, screaming, and crying as their houses are destroyed. Women grieving over lost husbands, brothers, and fathers. The Vietnam War was a macabre time that lasted for 20 years and killed millions of people. In 1975, North and South Vietnam became one country again after a long, difficult war and many other complications and conflicts, even if there were some smooth spots in the years that they were attempting to reunify. After being torn apart by other countries, the Vietnams tried to reconcile and ended up only getting themselves into a 20-year-long war that allowed them to choose a lifestyle for their citizens and begin living in harmony, which was difficult because the lengthy separation had given the citizens time to grow apart.
Vietnam is a country in southeastern Asia, and it shares borders with China, Laos, and Cambodia. It also has a coast that runs along the South China Sea, part of which used to be the Gulf of Tonkin. Vietnam consists of many cities, but a couple of its most well known are called Ho Chi Minh City-- previously Saigon-- in the southern area, and Hanoi in the northern. Long ago, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam were all in a territory together called French Indochina. Back then, Vietnam was split into different areas that resulted in the naming of the Gulf of Tonkin, which has since been deprived of the name. Also, because North Vietnam won the Vietnam War, the country is communist, to the reluctance of the South. However, the North had been living that way for years before and during the Vietnam War, and they didn’t care how they lived their lives, just that they lived them.
As the result of a mass invasion, France took over Vietnam in 1940, and over the years also took over Laos and Cambodia. Altogether, the area was known as French Indochina. Because the Vietnamese were rebelling, the French split them into three different areas: Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. At this time, World War II had begun and Vietnam decided to help the Allies, hoping to receive assistance in return. In 1945, the same day that World War II ended, Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese leader, then wrote Tuyên Ngôn độc Lập, or the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence. In it, he mentioned that they had been captured trying to spy on Japan, who took Indochina for themselves when the Allies didn’t repay Vietnam. Finally, the Declaration allowed Vietnam to secede and erase the borders between the three territories. However, the north and south had developed different ways that they wanted to live, so they put down a border and made two countries: North and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was communist, which South Vietnam and America took as a threat. The Vietnam War began in 1955. It lasted 20 years, and when it was finally over, the Vietnams were able to reunite. It had taken so long because they had been separated for many decades and they had grown into different lifestyles.
Because Vietnam was split so many different times into so many different ways over the past three or four decades, the people of the country had grown and developed into new cultures and lifestyles. Their daily lives were completely different than the other half of the country. When the leaders were getting ready to bring the country back together, they made it slow. They first allowed communication between all of the citizens. After that, it just got better and better until the country was one again. However, plenty of people had to change their lives almost completely to fit in with their own country. North Vietnam had won the Vietnam War, so South Vietnam had to change their ways. When their pride and joy city Saigon was captured by Northern forces, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, and it had stayed that way ever since. That wasn’t the only permanent change that was made to the country. Additionally, all of the conflicts that had come between the reunification, such as the French invasion or the Vietnam War, had caused strong tensions between the people of the north and south, especially soldiers. It must be difficult to live peacefully next to someone who invaded and destroyed the lives of close friends and family.
Although Vietnam is one country again, there was a lot of conflict leading up to the reunification. What with the French invasion, World War II, the Japanese invasion, the First Indochina War, and the Vietnam War, the people of Vietnam have seen many difficult times. They braved through it and made it to where they are today, but at a huge price, and they even still have tensions after over 40 years. And because of that, the people of Vietnam seem to have been through more hardships than joy to get to the beautiful, united country they have now.
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