The Vietnam War
The Vietnam war involving the United States stemmed from French involvement in Indochina. The French had taken control of many of the regions in Indochina, including that of Vietnam. Vietnam had suffered under the rule of the French for years upon years, until finally finding a temporary freedom during the second world war. French forces were focused upon fighting off the Axis powers and therefore could not properly exert control over Vietnam as Japan began to claim land in the area. Communist leader Ho Chi Minh then set up camp in northern Vietnam and established the Viet-Minh, a military group whose goal was to free Vietnam from foreign rule. The Viet-Minh fought fiercely against the French, who were constantly facing immense defeats. Due to paranoia stirred by the Cold War, the United States was desperate to control and cease the spread of Communism. The US saw the rise of the Viet-Minh as a communist threat and decided to promptly step in the combat the Viet-Minh. After a devastating defeat in Dien Bien Phu, the French decided to remove themselves from the conflict. This caused a split between the country upon the 17th parallel, which divided the communist North Vietnam and the non-communist South Vietnam. In 1956, the country decided to hold a democratic election to bring the two regions back together. However, the United States feared that the communists would win the election and therefore only allowed southern Vietnam to commence the election. This allowed Ngo Dinh Diem to rise to power and become elected. Ngo used his power corruptly and his mistreatment of his citizens made him one of the most hated men in Vietnam. Realizing their terrible mistake, the U.S. aided in a successful assassination of the evil ruler. Ngo's legacy, unfortunately for the United States, did not end with his demise. Due to the cruel treatment under Ngo's rule, groups of Vietnamese came together to form the National Liberation Front, which also came to be known as the Vietcong. Fighting for communism, the Vietcong waged war upon South Vietnam. As fighting continued between the two forces, the U.S. did nothing more then send supplies. This all changed when the Vietcong attacked two U. S. ships that were sitting of the Tonkin Gulf, which became known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. This attack allowed the U.S. to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which provided the president with the ability to use any military means necessary in Vietnam without necessarily declaring war. By March of 1965, U.S. boots had landed upon Vietnamese soil. President Johnson desired to avoid as much U.S. involvement as possible and only wanted to support South Vietnam until they could defeat the Vietcong by themselves. However, Johnson's reluctance to enter a full-on war only resulted in American troops' inability to make any real progress. Another great obstacle for the American troops was that of the Vietcong tactics. The Vietcong would use the environment to cloak themselves and hide from danger. The Vietcong would build complex underground tunnels to stay hidden and sometimes would merely just hide in the houses of villagers. To root out the hidden enemies, the U.S. began dropping napalm and Agent Orange upon the jungles that would horrifically burn the soldiers to death. This similar fighting continued on until January 30th of 1968 when Northern Vietnam launched a large scale surprise attack upon Southern Vietnam. The attack, which became known as the Tet Offensive, resulted in a great decrease of U.S. morale and support of the war, causing many more Americans to desire a retreat from the conflict. Once Nixon became president in 1969 he introduced a plan called Vietnamization, which outlined the withdrawal of American troops in Vietnam. When Nixon contradicted this plan by launching attacks in Laos in Cambodia, numerous amounts of protests erupted at college campuses back in America. This created even a greater desire for peace to spread through America. This thirst for peace was eventually quenched on January 27th of 1973, when the Paris Peace Accords finally declared a cease-fire. On March 29th, fully aware that they were leaving Southern Vietnam nearly defenseless, the very last U.S. troops left the broken and distraught country and the Vietnam war involving America was over.
Iranian Hostage Crisis
On November 4th of 1979 a large group of Iranian students, aroused by the Iranian Revolution, raided and took control of the US embassy in Tehran. Those in America perceived the attack as a barbaric act of terrorism inflicted upon America and its citizens, whose only goal was to help create peace. Most Iranians viewed the attack as a just opposition upon the tyrannical country who only intended to thwart the revolution taking place. All of the American diplomats and citizens in the embassy, a total of 66 individuals, were then taken hostage. Despite America's demands, the Americans were kept hostage in US embassy in Tehran. Outrage erupted through the crowds of Americans back home, who resorted to rage and racism. Collections of citizens came together to protest the deportation of Iranians from American. Iranians in America were constantly subject to mistreatment and aggression. After negotiation failed to rescue the hostages, the U.S. resorted to more desperate attempts. Secret rescue teams were sent from U.S. boats outside of Tehran to steal the Americans back from the embassy. However, operation Eagle Claw, as it became known, resulted in nothing more than death and no saved hostages to show for it. Both countries resorted back to negotiations, using Algeria as a mediator between the two. Luckily, this resulted in the Algiers Accords which resulted in the hostages release only a day later. After 444 days being held prisoner, the hostages were finally released back to their homes, greeted by relief and open arms. All across the country, from doorstep to doorstep, Americans celebrated the hostages joyful return. This release marked the end of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the settling of tensions between the United States and Iran.
SALT I and II
As the nuclear arms race progressed between the Soviet Union and the United States, both nations agreed that they desperately needed an agreement to prevent an all-out nuclear war. Both nations were rapidly producing more and more nuclear weapons that were capable of destroying the entire planet multiples of times over. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and President Richard Nixon came together in an attempt to contain the production of bombs. This meeting and establishment of treaties became known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Meeting, or SALT. While the two powers commenced the negotiations on November of 1969, the treaty wasn't actually finished until May 26th of 1972. The main agreements established was the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Interim Agreement regarding offensive weaponry. ABM, as it became known, functioned as a regulator to the amount of anti-ballistic missiles, which are missiles that are used as a protection against other missiles, that could be held. The Interim Agreement, on the other hand, regulated the amount of offensive missiles that could be held, such as nuclear missiles launched from submarines. By the end of 1972, another treaty discussion had began which became known as SALT II. This second set of treaties lasted a whopping seven years until the SALT II treaty was signed on June 18th of 1979. Located in Vienna, this treaty was signed between Soviet Leader Brezhnev and now acting president of the U.S., Jimmy Carter. Regulating the missiles was trickier the second time around due to different preference in missiles between the two countries. The Soviet Union focused on creating the larger and more destructive bombs, while the U.S., on the other hand, focused more on creating more accurate missiles. Therefore, regulations created during SALT II fixed this problem by simply establishing different regulations depending on the missiles.