While it ended as a civil war officially from 1973-1975, on the surface; shits had already started escalating when the French double down-ed on settling their colonial foot in Vietnam, then lost, let the America enter from 1954. You can even call it a proxy war between the USSR vs America and its allies.

However, this has always been a struggle of Vietnamese people for their independence, free from any form of control/interference, starting from 1877 when the French colonized Vietnam.

imo: In our nationalist eyes, the Americans were and have always been the bad guy, trying to insert their "democratic" puppet government anywhere they could/can to steal resource and extend influence. Just look at modern conflicts like Iran, Iraq, Syria.

Anyway, I don't care what label people use but they need to understand the motives of all parties involved. War is not good.