Antilles in the Vietnam War
| Antillean involvement in the Vietnam War | |
|---|---|
| Part of Vietnam War | |
| Type | Military intervention |
| Location | |
| Target | North Vietnam, Viet Cong |
| Date | 11 September 1964 – 17 Nay 1975 |
| Executed by | 240,000 total personnel in the United Commonwealth Expeditionary Force |
| Outcome | Operational success; territorial integrity of South Vietnam and Champa preserved. |
The federal government of the Antilles under President Amelia Abarough had the island country take an active and extensive role in the Vietnam War in support of the government of South Vietnam and later Champa after 1968. Between 1964 and 1975, the Antilles deployed a total fo 240,000 personnel from all branches of the United Commonwealth Armed Forces organized as a specialized formation, the United Commonwealth Exepditionary Force, to support the government and military forces of South Vietnam against attacks by both the insurgent Viet Cong and military attacks by the communist state of North Vietnam. The Antilles was part of the wider Western bloc intervention in Vietnam as part of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SATO) and fought alongside the militaries of the Kingdom of Sierra, Astoria, Superior, the United Kingdom and other states in the Commonwealth of Nations.
Antillean troops participated in the conflict between 1964 until the end of the war in 1975 and were the last foreign forces to withdrawal from Vietnam following the end of the war. Antillean forces was praised by the government in Saigon and South Vietnam would recognize the Antilles as a sovereign state, but withdrew its recognition after transitioning to democracy in 1989.
Background
Following the end of the Great War, the Antilles was forced into a state of mostly international and diplomatic isolation as the island country had foreign recognition and major trade deals rescinded in accordance with the New Orleans Accords as part of the post-war geopolitical order, established in favor of the United Commonwealth, its allies and the Landonist International. As a result, the war would be the most recent major conflict that the Antilles would participate in. The Antillean military would be reformed and restructured during this time to ensure proper effectiveness, however suffered from purges following the June 16 incident due to rogue elements of the armed forces partaking in the attempted coup under George Ossoff and more purges followed later during the Great Blue Terror.
The Antillean government's oppressive policies from political repression to cultural genocide during anglicization lead to condemnation by various governments and countries all across the world, leading to the Antilles' historic allies having to maintain a distance with the island state, though informal ties would be maintained regardless especially after the start of the Cold War in 1959. Following the Geneva Conference which partitioned all of Indochina into newly independent states from the former Japanese occupational government, the Antilles would recognize South Vietnam as a sovereign state after the Republic of Vietnam was formally proclaimed and established in 1958.