9781422285992

Chapter 1 Roots of the Vietnam War F rom 1947 until 1991, the world’s two most powerful countries, the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union, or USSR), were locked in a tense, high-stakes conflict. It was known as the Cold War. The Cold War was not really a war in the way people typically use that term. The armed forces of the United States and the Soviet Union didn’t fight each other directly. Instead, the Cold War is best understood as a political strug- gle—albeit one that was extremely wide ranging. The United States and the

The Vietnam War, in which American soldiers were engaged from the late 1950s until 1973, was different from past conflicts. U.S. troops found it hard to tell friend from foe, and their enemy struck quickly and then vanished into the jungle. These American soldiers are looking for communist-supported guerrillas known as the Vietcong.