Speakers

A Look Back and Forward

The Vietnam War was a prolonged conflict that took place in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1955 and 1975. It pitted the communist government of North Vietnam, supported by the Soviet Union and China, against South Vietnam and its allies, including the United States. The war stemmed from the Cold War and the domino theory, the fear that if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would spread to other countries in Southeast Asia. The conflict ended with North Vietnam's victory and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. 

The US sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Vietnam, with peak troop numbers reaching 543,000 in April 1969. The war resulted in the deaths of over 58,000 US service members, along with a significant number of Vietnamese and other casualties.