We Were Soldiers Movie Review questions.
1. Both the North Vietnamese and the U.S. had political agendas before this battle was ever fought. From looking at the movie and research name and explain the major political concern from each side.
In 1930 a 40-year-old Communist revolutionary named Nguyen Sinh Cung helped found the Indochinese Communist Party with the goal of shaking off the French rule in Vietnam. By World War II Nguyen was using the name Ho Chi Minh and had also formed the League for the Independence of Vietnam - in Vietnamese the name was Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, but it became best known in the West as the Viet Minh. In their fight against the Vichy French government of Vietnam and the Japanese, the Viet Minh briefly assisted Allied forces during the war. Source: http://www.weweresoldiers.com/splash.html (accessed April 28, 2004)
When World War II was over, the Viet Minh declared Vietnam's independence from France, but France insisted on maintaining control of the colony, calling Vietnam a "free state" within the French Union.
Within a year fighting had broken out in the country, with China and the Soviet Union supplying the Viet Minh with weapons. The armed struggle against France continued for eight years, with the French finally withdrawing after a crushing defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
Source: http://www.weweresoldiers.com/splash.html (accessed April 28, 2004)
The Geneva Peace Accords that followed temporarily divided Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel, with the intent that free elections would be held in both halves of the country in 1956, after which the entire country would be reunited under a single democratically elected government. Source: http://www.weweresoldiers.com/splash.html (accessed April 28, 2004)
However, the South's prime minister, Ngo Dinh Diem, refused to hold the wider elections and instead had himself...