Relationship between the US and Vietnam during the cold war.

Relationship between the US and Vietnam during the cold war.

The relationship between the US and Vietnam was driven by an intricate interplay of political, economic and ideological factors, which led to changes between superpower rivalry and cautious cooperation over the years.  The cold war was nonmilitary and bitter between Vietnam and the United States and lasted for more than 20 years.  Since the cold war was not a conventional fight, it affected both Vietnam and the US. Moreover, Vietnam joined a strong union, but Americans seemed bothered by the existence of the union because its ideology challenged the democratic values of the US. In 1949, Vietnam tested their atomic bomb in Cuba that could be launched to attack United States cities. In response, the United States government officials announced that they would build a more destructive atomic bomb: the hydrogen bomb. In 1962, the two superpowers confronted and agreed to withdraw the Cuban crisis. The missile crisis showed that neither Vietnam nor the United States was ready to build or use nuclear weapons.

Additionally, the first bomb test took place in the Marshall Islands in Eniwetok and showed how destructive the bomb could be. The fireball created by the bomb vaporized an island, blew a massive hole in the ocean and had strong power to devastate half of Manhattan. Subsequently, Americans and Vietnamese spewed radioactive waste into the atmosphere. In 1961, Vietcong carried frequent and destructive attacks to South Vietnamese, but the Americans increased their military support to Vietnamese forces. In 1964, the American support to South Vietnamese was highly limited since the Vietcong had trained military forces.  However, the war was promptly escalated to various attacks by United States Air Forces on the Northern part of Vietnam.US sent their military troops to fight the Vietcong in South Vietcong.

As the United States entered a new century, its main role should have been to unite other nations into the international norms, especially as its power weakens. Instead, the US ruled according to the declining superpowers: involvement in needless and futile wars from its neighbouring countries. Both the United States and Vietnam separated during the three decades of superpower conflict and the nuclear arms race. The Soviet regime introduced a policy that sought disarmament negotiations and improved economic cooperation. However, the Soviet Union’s stance on its invasion of Afghanistan created tensions between the two countries. The tensions existed until the radical democratic changes led to the fall during the past year of the communist organization. The new friendship between Russia and the United States has formed as well as the other new states of the former Soviet Union through tensions. The US government was hostile to Vietnamese leaders for taking their opposers out of World war 1. Although the US had organized a famine program in Russia, they did not establish diplomatic relations. Since the United States did not officially recognize the Soviet regime, it was pressed from different to intervene and later, an informal agreement was embarked to launch a relief food program. After Soviet government officials agreed to join the program, hundreds of American well-wishers were dispatched to administer the program. This remarkable relief program saved many thousands of lives. The cold war wage on economic, propaganda and political fronts and had limited access to weapons. By 1968 Vietnam had installed governments in the Eastern European countries that had been liberated by the Red Army. Vietnam had established a communist government in Eastern Europe when Western Europe was brought under the governance of Americans. Through the cold war, Vietnam and the United States avoided military conflicts in Europe. They engaged in combat operations to keep allies away from defecting the other side or to bring them down. Thus, Vietnam sent its military troops to preserve communist rule in Hungary, East Germany and Afghanistan. In Vietnam, the collapse of the French colonial administration had led to a struggle between the communist nationalist in the north and the American nationalist in the south.Since1950, the US had been committed to the improvement of an anti-communist administration in the region. The US terminated Lend-lease aid to Vietnam before the cold war was complete. There were no military campaigns between the Soviet Union and the United States, yet thousands of people lost their lives in the conflict. Besides, the US became the manager of the free-market capitalist over the world. America and its allies put more effort to keep the communist from expanding into Africa, Asia and Europe. Vietnam and Korea became battlegrounds between the two ideologies. The US would not retreat its isolationist position as long the start of the Cold War was to wage. The relationship between the United States and Vietnam broke when the latter entered the Nagasaki-Hiroshima war, and the US no longer needed their help. These factors contributed to a mistrust that intensified tension during the break of the cold war.