What were the two different sides fighting in the Vietnam War?

The two different sides fighting in the Vietnam War were the communist forces of North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries.

The North Vietnamese forces were led by the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), and they were supported by communist allies such as the Soviet Union and China. The North Vietnamese also had a powerful guerrilla ally within South Vietnam known as the Viet Cong, a South Vietnamese communist faction that fought against the South Vietnamese government.

On the other side were the forces of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), which were supported militarily and politically by the United States and other nations including Australia, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines, among others, as part of the anti-communist bloc during the Cold War era.

The Vietnam War was a manifestation of the Cold War tensions between the Western bloc, led by the United States, which sought to contain communism, and the Eastern bloc, led by the Soviet Union and China, which sought to promote and protect it.