Chapter 2

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        The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government ofSouth Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations.The Viet Cong, a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery and airstrikes. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy ofcontainment. The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were withdrawn as part of a policy called Vietnamization. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued.

          U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress. The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese army in April 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities. Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from less than one million to more than three million. 

      The conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, known as"Vietnam War", The U.S. has been involved in this conflict, by supporting the North Vietnamese or Viet Minh movement of troops and weapons. And from this event, there was 7 the U.S. air bases in Thailand, one of them is Ubon Ratchathani.

The forces of the United States from air base in Ubon Ratchathani province, has affected the life and culture of the people of Ubon Ratchathani very much both economic, social, educational, cultural and constructional effect, as follows... 

Economy

Forming military air base of the united states of America in ubonratchathani at that time led this province to the prosperity in economy. People in Ubonratchathani started having jobs such as mercenary, soldiers, waiter in the bar or entertainment place, or even the taxi driver. Moreover, having military base helped develop the business as well. There were an exchange of goods among the traders, American soldiers and people, causing the rotation of money. A lot of goods was bought, even the sam-lor driver had a good income. Those events showed the progress of ubonratchathani during Vietnam war abviously.

Social effect

 The shop, bar, bungalow were built in Ubon Ratchathani. Ubon Ratchathani women believed that to be an American wife would lead their life to convenience. What is more, there were so many American people who had Ubon Ratchathani wives, so the number of person of mixed parentage in Ubon Ratchathani was increased. The word “Wife for rent” was created in this time. By this time, American soldiers would take woman into bungalow to live together, and he also gave some money to her a month.  When the war came to the end, so few American soldiers came back to their wives and children, because they thought they didn’t have to be responsible for this.

Educational effect

Ubon Ratchathani children, in that time, had a very good command of language, especially English and Chinese.

Cultural effect

Ubon Ratchathani people had the traditional belief that having American husband was good. Owing to this belief, Ubon Ratchathani people prefer convenient and extravagant life which came from American tradition. On the other hand, Ubon Ratchathani people got some good cultures, those were being on time, paying respect to each other. Moreover, they got the ‘Guay Jub Vietnam’ cuisine which is very famous in this country.

Constructional effect

Coming of American military resulted in some construction, such as “Uposatha Wat Paknam” which was the last mission of American forces and very important for Buddhism in Ubon Ratchathani.