Talk:Indochina Wars

Wars of National Liberation

 * Although this term is definitely correct for the Viet Minh war against the French (and arguably, a continuation of it in Vietnam), it is equally arguable that the Vietnamese assertion of control of Laos and Cambodia (whatever the respective pretexts) make this term incorrect for those respective nations. Jkp1187 (talk) 15:09, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Vietnamese invaded Cambodia
The Vietnamese invaded Cambodia for imperialistic reasons...see the book "Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia."
 * Vietnamese invaded Cambodia because the Khmer Rouge attacked Vietnamese villages near the border and massacred ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. See all other sources except the book you mentioned.--81.100.174.75 15:18, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Periodization
The Vietnamese Invasion of Cambodia was not a seperate war but the opening act of the Third Indochina War; this needs to be clarified here and in the article on the Third Indochia War. Cripipper 18:01, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

This article is ludicrous. How did the North Vietnamese conduct a war in South Vietnam without conducting a war (through their Pathet Lao proxies) in Laos? How did the North Vietnamese conduct a war in South Vietnam without 1. the acquiescence of Nordom Sihanouk, 2. the creation of the Sihanouk Trail? In what manner was the Cambodian Civil War related to the Vietnam Conflict? To the Laotian Civil War? Was it possible that the three conflicts were interlinked by geography, politico-military history? By ethnic-racial antagonisms? By ideological similarities or differences? Get a grip. Round Two - So the Sino-Vietnamese war was fought in a vacuum? There was absolutely no casus belli for the Chinese to invade the Socialist Republic of Vietnam? Hilarious! RM Gillespie 01:12, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Second Indochina War Vs. Vietnam War
Although related, the 2IW should encompass the cross border actions undertaken by the US and NVA/NLF between 1955 and 1975 in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. Throughout this time period, with and without the cooperation of the governments of the respective countries both the US and NVA/PLF fought each other and locals, esp Montagnards. This doesn't seem to be covered in the Vietnam War article. There was a show on Discovery last night about some of the Ravens, who were FACs in Laos and lived with the Hmong, but various US special forces and CIA were in all three countries throughout the 2IW, as were the NVA/PLF. 69.19.14.29 16:12, 29 May 2007 (UTC) anonymous internet user guy

Fix
The war between Viet Nam and Cambodia is a separate from the war between Viet Nam and China. We should count the Cambodian-Vietnamese War was the 3rd Indochina War and the Sino-Vietnamese War as the 4th Indochina War, just like the Vietnamese article. Kinh Duong Vuong (talk) 21:16, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The First Indochina War
I feel that the two following paragraphs should be added to the Section titled, The First Indochina War:

During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France’s elite paratroopers and Legionnaires were decisively defeated by the Vietminh on the 7th of May 1954, thus ended the 56-day battle into which the French had poured more than 16,000 troops and suffered nearly 1,300 killed and more than 5,000 wounded.

During the more than seven years (from December 1946 to July 1954) that the French had been fighting in Vietnam, French Union Forces (made up of Frenchmen, French Foreign Legionnaires, and French Colonial troops from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) suffered more than 74,000 deaths, of which 20,685 were Frenchmen.

Source: A. T. Lawrence, author of Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant (2009 ed.). McFarland. ISBN 0786445173, pp. 16-17. [Footnoted sources: Bernard B. Fall, Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu. (Cambridge, Mass: Da Capo Press, 2002); Bernard B. Fall, Street Without Joy. (Mechanicsburg, Penn: Stackpole Books, 1994); and, Micheal Clodfelter, Vietnam in Military Statistics: A History of the Indochina Wars, 1772 – 1991. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1995).] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.197.57.247 (talk) 01:06, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

Laotian Civil War
Hello, all,

I see some difficulties with the present layout of this article. Let me supply a bit of background.

Official American involvement in Southeast Asia began with funding the French effort in Laos as early as 1950. Through the Eisenhower administration, Laos was denominated as the first domino in line. That only began to change in 1961, when Kennedy took office. However, in 1964, under LBJ, the focus shifted to the war in Vietnam because of the North Vietnamese use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The focus of history has reflected this change. However, this is scarcely a NPOV; it is unabashedly American.

Moreover, there was ongoing fighting in other regions of Laos than the Trail. Fighting on the Plain of Jars had nothing to do with the Trail and went for over a decade, as the communists tried to overrun Laos. Then there was still a third theater of operations in northwestern Laos, on the Burmese/Lao/Chinese border, with sporadic combat in such places as Namtha. Fourthly, there was also a turbulent political struggle going on in the capitol of Vientiane, with multiple coups and political assassinations. All of these events are peripheral to Vietnam, and have nothing to do with the Vietnam War.

I have written this note to point out several facts:
 * The Vietnam War took place there, in Vietnam; the Second Indochina War included the Laotian Civil War plus the fighting in Cambodia and the communist insurgency in northern Thailand.
 * The Laotian Civil War predated the Vietnam War, and and in large part was fought separately from the Vietnam War. And while the U.S. military fought the Vietnam War, the Laotian Civil War was run by the Central Intelligence Agency.
 * The Second Indochina War, then, consisted of the Laotian Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the Cambodian Civil War.
 * Wikipedia has yet to catch on to this reality, as the present article shows.

It behooves us to keep these realities in mind as we work on this array of articles. Otherwise we are perpetrating a skewed view of history.

Georgejdorner (talk) 16:51, 8 March 2015 (UTC)