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The Vietnam War ((ベトナム語:Chiến tranh Việt Nam)), also known as the Second Indochina War, and also known in Vietnam as Resistance War Against America ((ベトナム語:Kháng chiến chống Mỹ)) or simply the American War, was a Cold War-era proxy war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War (1946–54) and was fought between North Vietnam—supported by the Soviet Union, China and other communist allies—and the government of South Vietnam—supported by the United States, Philippines and other anti-communist allies. The Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF), a South Vietnamese communist common front aided by the North, fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The People's Army of Vietnam, also known as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units to battle. As the war continued, the part of the Viet Cong in the fighting decreased as the role of the NVA grew. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. In the course of the war, the U.S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The U.S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. This was part of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under communist rule. They viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought initially against forces from France and then America, and later against South Vietnam. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina.〔Major General George S. Eckhardt, ''(Vietnam Studies Command and Control 1950–1969 )'', Department of the Army, Washington, D.C. (1991), p. 6〕〔The Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indochina (with an authorized strength of 128 men) was set up in September 1950 with a mission to oversee the use and distribution of US military equipment by the French and their allies.〕 U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962.〔(Vietnam War Statistics and Facts 1 ), 25th Aviation Battalion website.〕 U.S. involvement escalated further following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which a U.S. destroyer clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft, which was followed by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the U.S. president authorization to increase U.S. military presence. Regular U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations crossed international borders: bordering areas of Laos and Cambodia were heavily bombed by U.S. forces as American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, the same year that the communist side launched the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive failed in its goal of overthrowing the South Vietnamese government, but became the turning point in the war, as it persuaded a large segment of the United States population that its government's claims of progress toward winning the war were illusory despite 500,000 U.S. military personnel engaged in the war and massive U.S. economic and military aid to South Vietnam. Gradual withdrawal of U.S. ground forces began as part of "Vietnamization", which aimed to end American involvement in the war while transferring the task of fighting the Communists to the South Vietnamese themselves. Despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U.S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture. The war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North-South relations. Direct U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973.〔.〕 The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities (see Vietnam War casualties). Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 800,000〔Charles Hirschman et al., ("Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate," ) Population and Development Review, December 1995.〕 to 3.1 million.〔Associated Press, 3 April 1995, "Vietnam Says 1.1 Million Died Fighting For North."〕 Some 200,000–300,000 Cambodians,〔Heuveline, Patrick (2001). "The Demographic Analysis of Mortality in Cambodia." In ''Forced Migration and Mortality'', eds. Holly E. Reed and Charles B. Keely. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.〕〔.〕〔Banister, Judith, and Paige Johnson (1993). "After the Nightmare: The Population of Cambodia." In ''Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community'', ed. Ben Kiernan. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.〕 20,000–200,000 Laotians,〔Warner, Roger, ''Shooting at the Moon'' (1996), pp. 366, estimates 30,000 Hmong.〕〔Obermeyer, "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia", ''British Medical Journal'', 2008, estimates 60,000 total.〕〔T. Lomperis, ''From People's War to People's Rule'', (1996), estimates 35,000 total.〕〔Small, Melvin & Joel David Singer, ''Resort to Arms: International and Civil Wars 1816–1980'', (1982), estimates 20,000 total.〕〔Taylor, Charles Lewis, ''The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators'', estimates 20,000 total.〕〔, which estimates 200,000 by 1973.〕 and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict, with a further 1,626 missing in action. ==Names for the war== Various names have been applied to the conflict. ''Vietnam War'' is the most commonly used name in English. It has also been called the ''Second Indochina War'' and the ''Vietnam Conflict''. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this particular conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others.〔Moore, Harold. G and Joseph L. Galloway ''We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam'' (p. 57).〕 In Vietnamese, the war is generally known as ''Kháng chiến chống Mỹ'' (Resistance War Against America). It is also called ''Chiến tranh Việt Nam'' (The Vietnam War).〔(【引用サイトリンク】quote=The Viet Nam War is also called 'The American War' by the Vietnamese )〕 The primary military organizations involved in the war were, on one side, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the U.S. military, and, on the other side, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) (more commonly called the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, in English language sources), and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, more commonly known as the Viet Cong in English language sources), a South Vietnamese communist guerrilla force.〔Tucker, Spencer C. (2011) ''The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History'' ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-961-1, p. xli〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vietnam War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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