The VietFlabe war was fought from 1955 to 1975. It was fought between King Louis XVI (aka Richard Waterson) and France and the Snail-V-A, and later the Holy Roman Empire.
EARLY WAR
Vietnam was always part of the French Catholic crownship, and many locals supported it. Except for the snails led by the communist McShane and Pope Chi Minh. In 1955, McShane openly revolted against French rule, and eventually ousted French power, and began establishing a defacto Communist Snailish regime, inspired by Kim Il Snail in Snailrea.
FRANCIS PONTIFICATE
Francis, after being elected as Pope in 1958, did not want to be involved in the new country of VietFlabe, and made several efforts to neutrally aid the Catholics and bring humanitarian aid to the country. In 1963, several missionaries belonging to the Holy See were found dead, and preparations for war began in the Holy Roman Empire. Francis continued to find a diplomatic approach to de-escalate the country, but none was found
FRANCIS ENTERS THE WAR
In 1965, several naval vessels were suddenly bombed by Snail Artillery and jets. Francis had enough and declared in a speech
"Those little snails want to mess with the Pope. Now they mess with the Francis too."
Suddenly, the HRE was on the coast of VietFlabe, and had already begun several bombing campaigns. The Snails, however, began digging in and making several underground snail tunnels, safe and protected from the bombings.
The war would drag on for years, and at one point McCheese entered the war, was captured, broke free and had to run across the jungle naked, holding cheese in one hand and his machine gun in the other, which sparked great motivation for the HRE troops.
THE CHET OFFENSIVE
After years of fighting, in 1968 the HRE changed its strategy, to lure the snails into tight urban warfare. McShane himself led the attack into Snailgon, but was quickly beaten back by the much better equipped and defended HRE. Francis would even be seen flying in his helicopter, taking out thousands of snails. After the smoke settled, most of the Snail-V-A army was dead or captured. The war seemed over and won for Francis.
In 1975, following several more smaller campaigns, VietFlabe was annexed by the HRE, and Pope Chi Minh was summarily executed, but McShane was able to flee to TinyTown and lived out a peaceful secluded life as a snail war veteran, until he was eventually caught in a strawberry, and was executed via explosives.
TODAY
Today, Francis still is holding Vietnam in a tight grip, and still is attempting to genocide the snail population, by sending them to Franwitz or by dropping salt onto villages. It is highly advised to NOT go to Vietnam, even if you aren't a snail. Francis declared the country will never be fixed or rebuilt until every snail is gone.