the korean war lasted only a few years, but led to american soldiers being in korea since then. the vietnam war lasted much longer. it started with a few american troops in vietnam, but by the 1960s thousands of americans were being sent to vietnam. both wars were between a northern communist government helped by the soviet union and communist china and a southern government helped by the u.s. the korean war resulted in a split korea, but the vietnam war resulted in a communist vietnam after the united states left due to american people wanting to end the war. over a quarter million americans died or were wounded in vietnam, which was very much a military failure. the u.s. and soviet union argued about where they could place nuclear weapons. one of these arguments was the cuban missile crisis. during the cuban missile crisis, the u.s. and soviet union came very close to attacking each other with nuclear weapons.