Visual Source 22.2: Vietnamese Independence and Victory over the United States

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Following decades of opposition to French colonial rule and Japanese aggression, Vietnam found itself in a long struggle against American military intervention during the 1960s and 1970s. That struggle took shape as an effort by North Vietnam and communist supporters in the south to reunify their country and to drive out the American military forces, which numbered over a half million by the mid-1960s. By 1975, the North Vietnamese had succeeded. It was a stunning reversal for the American superpower and an equally stunning triumph for the small Southeast Asian country. While the reasons for this surprising turn of events have been debated ever since, it was clearly of enormous significance for Vietnamese understandings of their national independence. Visual Source 22.2 presents a Vietnamese poster, dating from somewhere between 1965 and 1975, that celebrates one aspect of that unlikely achievement. The caption reads: “Bravo for Hanoi’s Tremendous Victory When 23 B-52s Were Shot Down!”

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Visual Source 22.2 Vietnamese Independence and Victory over the United States (Courtesy Track 16 / Smart Art Press, Culver City, California)
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