Vietnam War
Protracted Cold War conflict across Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, ending with the fall of Saigon.
Historical overview
Overview adapted from a Wikipedia summary and stored locally on May 11, 2026.
The Vietnam War was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
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Border context
Early Cold War and decolonization
Cold War blocs emerge while Asian and African decolonization creates new sovereign states.
Korea is divided after war. Israel and neighboring armistice lines reshape the Levant. Algeria's war signals the end of French North Africa.Decolonization and proxy wars
Postcolonial borders, Cold War interventions and regional wars define much of Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Portuguese Africa moves toward independence. The 1967 war changes control of Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights.