Southeast Asia / Vietnam

It is possible to argue that the past century was one of intellectual, physical and emotional violence that is without parallel in world history. Efforts at colonial domination, wars for freedom, the First and the Second World Wars and the struggle between communism and capitalism kept many nations involved. Vietnam and Southeast Asia were to witness many conflicts and the Vietnam War was to present a devastated nation to the world that had been a battlefield between global superpowers with conflicting ideology. However, it is possible to find the roots of the conflict in Vietnam in the stark social disparities that even the French colonialists were not interested in addressing. This essay presents a discussion about Vietnam, its colonial exploitation, attempts at social transformation, religious and cultural influences and the flawed American military intervention in the region.