The Vietnam War and Fred Shepherd essays

The Vietnam War and Fred Shepherd essays The Vietnam War was fought in 1964-1975. Before United States involvement, Vietnam was a French colony and the Vietnamese wanted their freedom. They fought for their independence from the French and were successful in 1955. The United States wanted an ally in Asia. As it was, all the countries in Asia were communist. The United States wanted some kind of balance of power in Asia. The Geneva accords where then produced in the hope that it would unify the two nations. In 1956 president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Deim, along with the support of President Eisenhower, did not have an interest in holding an election. The election threatened the possibility of communist influences. North Vietnam also had no interest in the elections fearing that the south influences would prosper. North Vietnam called themselves the National Liberation Front (NLF or Viet Cong). When the United States heard about the guerilla movement against the southern government, the United States approved (08/07/1964) the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving support to President Johnson to increase the U.S. involvement in the war. At the beginning of the war in 1964, Fred Shepherd was still in high school. He graduated high school in 1966 at the age of 18. Fred started worked in banking after he graduated before volunteering for the army in 1969 at the age of 19. Fred went through the basic training, then was nominated for leadership school (2 out of 100 got chosen), and his highest ranking was Sergeant. He was sent and stationed in South Korea for some time. Freds brother, Jack Shepherd, was also involved in the war. He received his draft papers three weeks before his brother Fred and had to go to Vietnam. Fred did not have to go to Vietnam because his brother received his papers first. Fred traveled a good bit in his army experience. He went to Korea, Japan, and his involvement in the war was on the line of demarcation (DMZ) between Nor...