Answer:
Conflicts in French Indochina (later Vietnam) went from 1946 to 1975, first as a Vietnamese war of independence (the First Indochina War), and then as a Cold War ideological war (the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam War).
The chronological framework and content of the First Indochina War are most clearly defined. This war was fought by France to preserve its Indochinese colonies. It began in 1946, and ended in 1954 with the signing of the Geneva Agreements. The main events of the war took place in Vietnam. The fighting was also conducted on the territory of Cambodia and Laos, but here they did not have a significant impact on the course of the war. In all cases, France, with the support of local allies (and since 1950 with the support of the USA), fought against local communist rebels who fought for the independence of their countries with the active assistance of China and the Soviet Union.
The Second Indochina War started in 1955 as a continuation of the previous conflict, and ended in 1975. In this case, South Vietnam, of capitalist ideology and supported by the United States, faced North Vietnam and the communist guerrillas of the Viet Cong, supported by China and the communist bloc. The war ended in 1975 with the annexation of South Vietnam to North Vietnam under a communist regime, two years after the withdrawal of the American forces from the conflict.
