NCERT Class 10 History The End of the War

The End of the War

The prolongation of the war created strong reactions even within the US. It was clear that the US had failed to achieve its objectives: the Vietnamese resistance had not been crushed; the support of the Vietnamese people for US action had not been won. In the meantime, thousands of young US soldiers had lost their lives, and countless Vietnamese civilians had been killed. This was a war that has been called the first television war. Battle scenes were shown on the daily news programmes. Many became disillusioned with what the US was doing and writers such as Mary McCarthy, and actors like Jane Fonda even visited North Vietnam and praised their heroic defence of the country. The scholar Noam Chomsky called the war ‘the greatest threat to peace, to national self-determination, and to international cooperation’.

The widespread questioning of government policy strengthened moves to negotiate an end to the war. A peace settlement was signed in Paris in January 1974. This ended conflict with the US but fighting between the Saigon regime and the NLF continued. The NLF occupied the presidential palace in Saigon on 30 April 1975 and unified Vietnam.

Write in brief

1. Write a note on:

a) What was meant by the ‘civilising mission’ of the colonisers

b) Huynh Phu So

2. Explain the following:

a) Only one-third of the students in Vietnam would pass the school-leaving examinations.

b) The French began building canals and draining lands in the Mekong delta.

c) The government made the Saigon Native Girls School take back the students it had expelled.

d) Rats were most common in the modern, newly built areas of Hanoi.

3. Describe the ideas behind the Tonkin Free School. To what extent was it a typical example of colonial ideas in Vietnam?

4. What was Phan Chu Trinh’s objective for Vietnam? How were his ideas different from those of Phan Boi Chau?

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 10 History The End of the War