CRITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE VIETNAM WARThe Vietnam War was a Cold War that spanned from 1956 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. It can be seen that the end result of the Vietnam War The war tainted America's image due to its failure to demolish the Vietnamese communist government. It should be noted that many years before America was directly involved in the war, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were under French colonial rule where the Việt Minh (the communist nationalist coalition for independence) spent many years fighting to free themselves from the French. The Geneva Conference allowed the greatest powers to reach an agreement on Indochina that would temporarily divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel. In the future, the country would experience a division of leadership between the North and the South; the North was to be led by the Việt Minh and the South by Emperor Bảo Đại. It was hoped that a permanent government would be established within a few years, but the United States did not entirely agree with the terms of the election. However, Ngô Đình Diệm, the new supposedly democratic president of the South, was elected and was strongly supported by the United States government. It was then that the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong, began rebelling against Diệm's regime while promoting North Vietnamese communist efforts through guerrilla clashes. The US military would then become more involved in the Vietnam War as the threat of a communist takeover potentially threatened all of Indochina. Across the world, it is clear that there was a range of views in which individuals participated in and endured the Vietnam War. War. From American military personnel to Vietnamese inhabitants... middle of paper... land, with access to the thriving Mekong River. Additionally, any ability to oversee this region of Asia would give a Western power an advantage on the Asian continent. You would think that the United States government had far more interests than suppressing communism in Vietnam. ALL MEN ARE IMPACTED BY WAR. Through the literary works examined and the characters and individuals detailed, we can see that the American soldiers and the Vietnamese soldiers both had their reasons for fighting, but it can be seen that both sides had similar traumatic experiences during the war and that the human spirit is diminished in these circumstances. It is clear that the unifying factor among these men is the inhumanity they faced and the effects it had on their lives if they were lucky enough to survive the Vietnam War..