<Tab/>The Second Indochina War, 1954-1975, started out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. After one hundred years of colonial rule, a defeated France was forced to leave Vietnam in July 1954. Communist forces defeated the allied French troops at the remote mountain outpost in the northwest corner of Vietnam known as Dien Bien Phu. This decisive battle victory for the North Vietnamese convinced the French that they could no longer maintain their Indochinese colonies and withdrew from Vietnam. The two sides came together in Geneva, Switzerland, to compromise for peace and signed the Geneva Peace Accords. The United States did not support the Geneva Accords because they thought it granted too much power to the Communist Party of Vietnam and as a result, we eventually went to war with North Vietnam. The Johnson administration wanted it to become a limited war, which is defined as a limited mobilization of resources, little effect on human life, and caused little disruption in everyday life in America. The Ironic twist to this is that it did exactly the opposite and as the deaths mounted and Americans continued to leave for Southeast Asia, the Johnson administration was met with the full weight of American anti-war sentiments. Everyone was getting together and opposing the war in Vietnam including Vietnam veterans, students in college, and pacifists who all shared the same goal and that was to end the corrupt war in Vietnam and bring about peace to the world. …
