ˌVietnam ˈWar, the BrE AmE
(1954–75) a ↑ civil war between the Communist forces of North Vietnam and the non-Communist forces of South Vietnam, which ended when South Vietnam was finally defeated in 1975, and Vietnam was united again as one country. Between 1965 and 1973, US soldiers fought in Vietnam to support the army of South Vietnam, and when people in the West talk about the Vietnam War, or simply about Vietnam, they usually mean this period of US involvement. It was a long war in which many Americans soldiers died, and on some occasions people express the fear that the US may get involved in another similar war:
There is a reluctance to see America getting drawn into another Vietnam.