attacked by night. The North Vietnamese
army trained and supported the Viet
Cong. Communist fighters from the
north later joined the fighting themselves.
The United States supported Diem
because U.S. leaders hated Communism.
U.S. military advisers trained the
South Vietnamese army. Nevertheless,
the Viet Cong seized control of much of
South Vietnam in the early 1960s.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is in Washington,
D.C. It includes a wall with the
names of U.S. soldiers who died or were
missing because of the Vietnam War.
86 Vietnam War BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Meanwhile Diem was losing support
among the South Vietnamese people.
One reason was his harsh treatment of
followers of the Buddhist religion. Most
Vietnamese were Buddhist, but Diem
was a Roman Catholic. Diem imprisoned
and killed hundreds of Buddhists.
More and more people turned against
him. In 1963 members of the South
Vietnamese army murdered Diem. A
group of army officers took over the
government.
More U.S. Troops Arrive
The United States continued to help
South Vietnam. In August 1964 the
North Vietnamese attacked a U.S. warship
in a waterway called the Gulf of
Tonkin. Afterward the U.S. Congress
gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the
power to expand the U.S. role in the
VietnamWar.
By 1968 the United States had more
than 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Small
units from South Korea, Australia, New
Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines
also helped the South Vietnamese. The
Communist governments of the Soviet
Union and China supported North
Vietnam and the Viet Cong.
U.S. warplanes dropped bombs on highways
and bridges in North Vietnam.
The United States also bombed the Ho
Chi Minh Trail, a Viet Cong supply
road in Laos and Cambodia. Soon U.S.
bombers were striking Hanoi and other
North Vietnamese cities.
In February 1968, during a Vietnamese
holiday called Tet, the Communists
attacked about 30 cities in South Vietnam.
The Viet Cong suffered heavy
losses in these battles. But many U.S.
soldiers died, too. Some people in the
United States started to think that the
war could not be won. Other people
protested the war.
U.S. Troops Leave Vietnam
In 1968 President Johnson gradually
ended the bombing of North Vietnam.
Peace talks began. In 1969 Richard M.
Nixon became president. Nixon began
U.S. Marines wade through a marsh during
the Vietnam War.
People march in New York City in 1968 to
protest the Vietnam War. Many Americans
were against the war. They participated in
protests and demonstrations.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Vietnam War 87
to remove U.S. troops from Vietnam.
But he also started bombing North Vietnam
again, and he expanded the war to
neighboring countries. U.S. and South
Vietnamese troops attacked North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong hiding places in
Cambodia and Laos.
In January 1973 North and South Vietnam,
the Viet Cong, and the United
States signed an agreement to stop fighting.
The United States then removed
almost all its troops from Vietnam. But
the war did not end. The United States
continued to give money and equipment
to South Vietnam.
TheWar Ends
In August 1974 the United States cut
back its military aid to the south. The
South Vietnamese army fell apart
quickly after that. In 1975 the North
Vietnamese launched a massive invasion
of South Vietnam. North Vietnamese
troops entered Saigon, the capital of
South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975. The
war was over, and the Communists had
won. Thousands of South Vietnamese
people fled the country.
In 1976 the Communists combined
North and South Vietnam into one
country, called Vietnam. They made
Hanoi the capital. They renamed Saigon
as Ho Chi Minh City in honor of Ho,
who had died in 1969.
#More to explore
Communism • Ho Chi Minh
• Johnson, Lyndon B. • Nixon, Richard
M. • Vietnam
Vikings
The Vikings, who are also called Norsemen
or Northmen, were warriors from
northern Europe. They sailed the seas
from the late 700s to the 1000s. They
attacked many countries and took away
much treasure. Their northern European
neighbors gave them the name of
Viking, which means “pirate.”
People
The homeland of the Vikings was in the
region that is now called Scandinavia.
The region now contains the modern
countries of Denmark, Norway, and
Sweden. Vikings also settled peacefully
on Iceland, Greenland, and other islands
in the North Atlantic Ocean. At home
the Vikings were farmers. They belonged
to clans, or large families, and were ruled
by chiefs.
The U.S. government
sometimes
used the
term Vietnam
Conflict
instead of
Vietnam War
because the
United States
never officially
declared war.
A picture from a handwritten
book shows the Vikings in their
ships. They are preparing to
attack the island of Great Britain.
88 Vikings BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
The Vikings were good sailors. They
sailed in ships called longships. Rowers
and sails moved the longships across the
seas. In about 1000 a Viking named Leif
Eriksson sailed all the way to North
America.
The Vikings also were fierce warriors.
The gods they worshipped were warriors,
too. Their chief god was called
Odin. Odin ruled over a warrior heaven
called Valhalla.
The Vikings buried their chiefs with the