The origins of conflict in the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War constitutes a defining moment in modern history. Starting from a time soon after the Japanese surrender in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, and lasting to the North Vietnamese conquest of South Vietnam in 1975 to re-create a unified Vietnamese state, the war pitted the Communists of Vietnam, against a number of opponents. Those included first the French and second the South Vietnamese and Americans, the latter supported by a number of allies.