How did the cold war affect Korea and Vietnam?

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Most people will say the wars in Korea(1950-1953) and in Vietnam (1946-1954 and again 1961-1975) were direct results of the Cold War. That is the competition for control and influence between the capitalist side and the communist one that lasted from the end of WWII until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990.

What if there were no Cold War that is if Russia and China never became communist? I think both Russia and China would still want to have some influence in Korea, their next door neighbor to the East and the United States would also as Korea was a Japanese colony and the United States defeated Japan in WWII.

As for Vietnam, the Vietnamese declared their independence in 1945 and fought the return of the French beginning in 1946, several years before the establishment of the People's Republic of China (i.e. Communist China) so one cannot really say that war was influenced by Communist China. The Vietnamese also fought China in 1979 while the Cold War was at its height so you cannot say Vietnam was influenced by China after China became dominant in Asia either.

Vietnam is going strong, in fact stronger and richer now than when the Soviet Union was in existence so you cannot say revolutionary Vietnam was a product of the Cold War. If it were, it would have collapsed with the fall of the Soviet Union long ago as did all the Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe.

Neighbour

I think the cold war not only affected Korea and Vietnam and also affected the whole the world. Both of Northern parts of korea and Vietnam were communist, U.S. were concerned about the spread of Communism and wanted to stop it

Brian N

Cold War i think split both Korea and Vietnam into North and South, both the Northern parts were communist, then both are similar in that both went into war, the difference is North Korea and South Korea just stayed split, while North Vietnam beat South Vietnam, and were unified under communism

Steven W

the cold war was a factor to these two countries, us supporting the democratic side, and the soviet union supporting the communist side, korea was pushed back to the thirty eight parrell, but still a threat to the south, vietnam, the communists won that one i just dont know how to explain that, but i think cold war still exists just my oppinion can u belive that us and soviet union were once allies in ww2 , dont really know what happened but why?

earfulofb.s.

It all started during the World War 2, and after it. If you remember what the axis of evil and allied countries were? The allied countries were the British, of course Canada was involved because it was still under British control at the time, France, USA, and Russia. The Axis or the enemies countries were Germany, Austria, Italy, and Japan. There were Russian spies in the allied countries and they were suspicious of Russia at that time even after the war. Especially after the occupation of Berlin, Germany after Germany lost the war. Russian spied on the Manhattan project ( Atomic bomb project) in USA which they stole the top secret information and build their own later on. However, The United States were concerned about the spread of Communism domination around the globe that restricted a lot of people's freedom and rights and were determined to stop it, which is how it affected countries like Korea and Vietnam. It was all about world domination under one country or political rule since Hitler started the megalomania problem, and lead to an nuclear missile arm race. And thank goodness it did not start a nuclear holocaust in the 1980's which was very dangerously close to sparking one. Not only it affected countries like Korea and Vietnam, it also affected the whole world too.

Keith S

The cold war made these two lands battlefields for hot wars. Technically the end of the second world war and how these nations were dealt with created these two wars. Korea - The Soviets and the US split this land. The Soviets came into the war against Japan in the last few days of the war -- grabbing Manchuria and part of Korea. North Korea was encouraged by Stalin to try and conquer South Korea. UN and US forces aided the South. The only reson the UN intervened was that the Soviets did not show up for the vote on UN action to protect South Korea. It was a bloody war that was prolonged due to Chinese intervention on the North's side.
Vietnam was part of French Indochina (a french colony)before World War 2. The Vietnamese resisted Japanese occupation during the war. Ho Chi Min expected Vietnam to become a free nation after the Japanese were defeated. He was in name a communist but he was actually more of a nationalist. After the Japanese were defeated Indochina was returned to France. The Vietnamese fought against the French occupiers. The US backed the French because the insurgents under Ho were communists. The French lost, and indochina was partitioned by treaty. North and South Vietnam were to have an election and be reunited. Ho Chi Min won the referendum but the US supported the South Vietnamese government.
In time that support grew from advisers into a large army. The north relied intially on the viet cong, irregular insurgents who fought the south vietnamese government and US forces. After the TET offensive in 1968 -- The Viet Cong became less of a threat. The North moved troops into the south and engaged US and South Vietnamese forces regulary. After the US forces withdrew, South Vietnamese forces were unable to stop the North.

Essentially both of these lands paid the bill in Human lives and destruction from the cold war. You could also include Afghanistan and a number of Middle East, African and Latin American nations in this conflict. All suffered in wars of insurgency as proxies for the US and Nato vs. the Soviets and their sattelite states.

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