Vietnam War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vietnam War
Vietnamese village after an attack
Viet Cong base camp after an attack
Date 1959[1] – April 30, 1975
Location Southeast Asia
Result Peace treaty providing for U.S. disengagement in 1973
Military victory for North Vietnam
Political defeat for United States
Casus
belli Cold War escalation and nationalism.
Territorial
changes Reunification of Vietnam.
Combatants
Anti-communist forces
Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)
United States of America
South Korea
Thailand
Australia
New Zealand
The Philippines
Communist forces
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)
National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF/Viet Cong)
People's Republic of China
Soviet Union
North Korea
Commanders
Lyndon Johnson
William Westmoreland
Richard Nixon
Creighton Abrams
Nguyá»
n VÄn Thiá»u Le Duan
Nguyen Chi Thanh
Vo Nguyen Giap
Van Tien Dung
Tran Van Tra
Strength
~1,200,000 (1968) ~520,000 (1968)
Casualties
R.V.N.
dead: 230,000
wounded: 300,000
U.S.
dead: 58,209
wounded: 153,303
R.O.K.
dead: 5,000
wounded: 11,000
Australia
dead: 512
wounded: 2,400*
New Zealand
dead: 37
wounded: 187
DRV/NLF
dead: 1,100,000
wounded: 600,000*
PRC
dead: 1,100
wounded: 4,200
Civilian dead (total Vietnamese): 900,000–4,000,000*
(* = approximations, see Notes below)
Vietnam War
Ap Bac – Binh Gia –Pleiku – Song Be – Dong Xoai – Ia Drang – Hastings – A Shau – Long Tan – Attleboro – Cedar Falls – Tra Binh Dong – Junction City – Hill 881 – Ong Thanh – Dak To – 1st Tet – Khe Sanh – 1st Saigon – Hue – Lang Vei – Lima Site 85 – Kham Duc – Dewey Canyon – 2nd Tet – Hamburger Hill – Binh Ba – Cambodia – Snoul – FSB Ripcord – Lam Son 719 – Ban Dong –FSB Mary Ann – Easter '72 – 1st Quang Tri –Loc Ninh – An Loc – Kontum – 2nd Quang Tri –Phuoc Long – Ho Chi Minh – Buon Me Thuot – Xuan Loc – Truong Sa –2nd Saigon – Rolling Thunder – Barrell Roll – Pony Express – Steel Tiger – Tiger Hound – Tailwind – Commando Hunt – Linebacker I – Linebacker II – Chenla I – Chenla II – SS Mayagüez
The Vietnam War was a military conflict in present day Vietnam occurring from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The conflict was a successful effort by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam) and the indigenous National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, (also known as the Viá»t Cá»ng, or more informally as the "Charlie", "VC" or "Cong") to unify Vietnam as a communist state, defeating the South Vietnamese Republic of Vietnam (RVN). To a degree, the Vietnam War was a "proxy war" between the U.S. and its Western allies on the side of the RVN, with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China supporting the DRV on the other. As a result of this it is often considered part of the Cold War.
The chief cause of the war was the failure of Vietnamese nationalists, in the form of the Viet Minh, to gain control of southern Vietnam both during and after their struggle for independence from France in the First Indochina War of 1946–54.
The U.S., in particular, deployed large numbers of military personnel to South Vietnam between 1954 and 1973. U.S. military advisors first became involved in Vietnam as early as 1950, when they began to assist French colonial forces. In 1956, these advisors assumed full responsibility for training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam or ARVN. Large numbers of American combat troops began to arrive in 1965. The last American troops left the country on April 30, 1975.[2]
At various stages the conflict involved clashes between small units patrolling the mountains and jungles, guerrilla attacks in the villages and cities, and finally, large-scale conventional battles. U.S. aircraft also conducted substantial aerial bombing campaigns, targeting both logistical networks and the cities and transportation arteries of North Vietnam. Large quantities of chemical defoliants were also sprayed from the air in an effort to reduce the cover available to enemy combatants.
The Vietnam War was finally concluded on 30 April 1975, with the fall of the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces. The war claimed between 2 and 5.7 million Southeast Asian lives,[3] a large number of whom were civilians.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Background
o 1.1 History to 1949
o 1.2 Exit of the French, 1950–1955
* 2 The Diem era, 1955–1963
o 2.1 The Winston Churchill of Asia
o 2.2 Coup and assassinations
* 3 Escalation and Americanization, 1963-1968
* 4 Vietnamization and American withdrawal, 1969–1973
* 5 South Vietnam stands alone, 1973–1975
o 5.1 Total U.S. withdrawal
o 5.2 Campaign 275
o 5.3 Final North Vietnamese offensive
o 5.4 Fall of Saigon
* 6 Aftermath
* 7 Other countries' involvement
o 7.1 Soviet Union
o 7.2 People's Republic of China
o 7.3 Republic of Korea
o 7.4 Democratic People's Republic of Korea
o 7.5 Australia and New Zealand
o 7.6 Thailand
o 7.7 Canada
* 8 Use of chemical defoliants
* 9 Notes
o 9.1 Casualties
o 9.2 Names for the conflict
* 10 See also
* 11 Lists
* 12 Footnotes
* 13 Bibliography
* 14 Primary sources
* 15 External links
* 16 Further reading
Background
See also: History of Vietnam, Second World War, Decolonization, and The United States and the Vietnam War#Background
History to 1949
From 110 BC to 938 AD (with the exception of brief periods), much of present-day Vietnam, especially the northern half, was part of China. After gaining independence, Vietnam went through a history of resisting outside aggression. The French gained control of Indochina during a series of colonial wars beginning in the 1840s and lasting through the 1880s. At the post-World War I negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, HỠChà Minh requested that a delegation of Vietnamese be admitted in order to work toward obtaining independence for the Indochinese colonies. His request was rejected, and Indochina's status as a colony of France remained unchanged.
During the Second World War, the government of Vichy France cooperated with Imperial Japanese forces sent to occupy Indochina. Vietnam was under de facto Japanese administrative control, although the French continued to serve as official administrators until 1944. Há» Chi Minh returned to Vietnam and formed a Communist-dominated resistance group called the "League for the Independence of Vietnam" (better known as the Viet Minh) to oppose the Japanese in the north[4]. He was aided by teams deployed by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency). These teams worked behind enemy lines in Indochina giving support to indigenous resistance groups. In 1944, the Japanese overthrew the French administration and humiliated its colonial officials in front of the Vietnamese population. The Japanese then began to encourage nationalist activity among the Vietnamese and, late in the war, granted Vietnam nominal independence.
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
After the war and following the Japanese surrender, Vietnamese nationalists, communists, and other groups hoped to finally take control of the country. The Japanese army in Indochina assisted the Viet Minh — Há»'s resistance army — and other Vietnamese independence groups by imprisoning French officials and soldiers and handing over public buildings to the Vietnamese. On 2 September 1945, Há» Chà Minh declared independence from France and proclaimed the formation of a new Vietnamese government under his leadership. In his exultant speech before a huge audience in Hanoi, he cited the U.S. Declaration of Independence and a band played "The Star Spangled Banner." Há», who had been a member of the Third Communist International since the early 1920s, hoped that the Americans would ally themselves with a Vietnamese nationalist movement, communist or otherwise. He based this hope on speeches by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who opposed a revival of European colonialism after World War II. Roosevelt, however, had moderated his position after the British — who wanted to keep their own colonies — objected.
The new Vietnamese government only lasted a few days, however, since it had been decided by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference that Vietnam would be jointly occupied by Nationalist Chinese and British forces who would supervise the Japanese surrender and repatriation.[5] The Chinese army arrived in Vietnam from north only a few days after Há»'s declaration of independence and took over areas north of the 16th parallel. The British arrived in the south in October and supervised both the surrender and departure of the Japanese army from Indochina. With these actions, the government of Há» Chà Minh effectively ceased to exist. In the South, the French prevailed upon the British to turn control of the region back over to them.
French officials, when released from Japanese prisons at the end of September 1945, took matters into their own hands in some areas. In the north, The French negotiated with both the Nationalist government of China and the Viet Minh. By agreeing to give up Shanghai and its other concessions in China, the French persuaded the Chinese to allow them to return to northern Vietnam and negotiate with the Viet Minh. Há» agreed to allow French forces to land outside of the capital, Hanoi, while France agreed to recognize an independent Vietnam within the new French Union. In the meantime, Há» took advantage of this period of negotiations to liquidate competing nationalist groups in the north. After negotiations with Há» collapsed over the possibility of his forming a government within the French Union in December 1946, the French bombarded Haiphong, killing thousands and then entered Hanoi. Ho and the Viá»t Minh fled into the mountainous north to begin an insurgency, marking the beginning of the First Indochina War. After the defeat of the Nationalist Chinese by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, Premier Mao Zedong was able to provide direct military assistance to the Viet Minh. By this method, Viet Minh obtained more modern weapons, supplies, and the expertise necessary to transform them into a more conventional military force.
Exit of the French, 1950–1955
Main article: First Indochina War
Further information: International Control Commission , The United States and the Vietnam War#Timeline: Harry S. Truman and the Vietnam War (1945–1953), and The United States and the Vietnam War#Timeline: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Vietnam War (1953–1961)
Four power talks: Geneva, 1954
Four power talks: Geneva, 1954
In the meantime, the U.S. was supplying its French allies with military aid. The outbreak of the Korean Conflict in 1950 changed everything for the Americans. Seen from Washington, what had been a colonial war in Indochina became another example of expansive world-wide communism, directed by the Kremlin.[6] In 1950, the U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) arrived to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.[7] In 1956, MAAG assumed responsibility for training the Vietnamese army.[8] By 1954, the U.S. had given 300,000 small arms and machine guns, and one billion dollars to support the French military effort and was shouldering 80 percent of its cost.[9]
The Viet Minh eventually handed the French a major military defeat at Ãiá»n Biên Phủ on 7 May 1954 and the French public and government had had enough. At the Geneva Conference the French government negotiated a peace agreement with the Viet Minh which allowed the French to leave Indochina and granted all three of its colonies, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam their independence. However, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel, above which the Viet Minh established a socialist state, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and below which a non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bảo Äại. Bao Dai's Prime Minister, Ngo Dinh Diem, shortly thereafter removed him from power, and established himself as President of the new Republic of Vietnam.
President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet President Ngo Dinh Diem in Washington
President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet President Ngo Dinh Diem in Washington
The Diem era, 1955–1963
Main article: Ngo Dinh Diem
The Winston Churchill of Asia
As dictated by the Geneva Accords of 1954, the partition of Vietnam was meant to be only temporary, pending free elections for a national leadership. The agreement stipulated that the two military zones, which were separated by a temporary demarcation line (which eventually became the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ), "should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary," and specifically stated that elections would be held in July 1956. However, the Diem government refused to enter into negotiations to hold the stipulated elections, encouraged by U.S. unwillingness to allow a certain communist victory in an all-Vietnam election. Questions were also raised about the legitimacy of any election held in the communist-run North. The U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam justified its refusal to comply with the Geneva Accords by virtue of the fact it had not signed them.
Diem was an unlikely prospect to lead the Vietnamese people. A devout Roman Catholic, he was aloof, closed-minded, and trusted only the members of his immediate family. For the U.S., however, he was a godsend. He was fervently anti-communist and was untainted by any connection to the French. He was the only prominent Vietnamese nationalist who could claim both attributes. In April and June of 1955, Diem (against U.S. advice) cleared the decks of any political opposition by launching military operations against the Cao Dai religious sect, the Buddhist Hoa Hao, and the Binh Xuyen organized crime group (which was allied with the secret police and some army elements).
Surprisingly, Diem was successful, gaining from his surprised American sponsors the nickname of "the Winston Churchill of Asia." Later in the year Diem organized an election for president and a legislature, and wrote a constitution. In the election (which he might have won legally) Diem received 98.2 percent of the vote, raising the eyebrows of even his American supporters.
Beginning in the summer of 1955, he launched a 'Denounce the Communists' campaign, during which communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned or executed. During this period refugees and re-groupees moved across the demarcation line in both directions. It was estimated that around 52,000 Vietnamese civilians moved from south to north, while 450,000 were air- or boat-lifted from north to south.[10]
As opposition to Diem's rule in South Vietnam grew, a low-level insurgency began to take shape there in 1957, conducted mainly by Viet Minh cadres who had remained in the south and had hidden caches of weapons in case unification failed to take place through elections. In late 1956 one of the leading communists in the south, Lê Duẩn, returned to Hanoi to urge that the Vietnam Workers' Party take a firmer stand on national reunification, but Hanoi hesitated in launching a full-scale military struggle. Finally, in January 1959, under pressure from southern cadres who were being successfully targeted by Diem's secret police, the north's Central Committee of the Party issued a secret resolution authorizing the use of armed struggle in the South.
On 12 December 1960, under instruction from Hanoi, southern communists established the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam in order to overthrow the government of the south. The NLF was made up of two distinct groups: South Vietnamese intellectuals who opposed the government and were nationalists; and communists who had remained in the south after the partition and regrouping of 1954 as well as those who had since come from the north. While there were many non-communist members of the NLF, they were subject to the control of the party cadres and increasingly side-lined as the conflict continued; they did, however, enable the NLF to portray itself as a primarily nationalist, rather than communist, movement.
South Vietnam, Military Regions, 1967
South Vietnam, Military Regions, 1967
Coup and assassinations
See also: The United States and the Vietnam War#Timeline: John F. Kennedy and Vietnam (1961–1963) and The United States and the Vietnam War#Kennedy and Vietnam
Some policy-makers in Washington began to believe that Diem was incapable of defeating the communists, and some even feared that he might make a deal with Ho Chi Minh. During the summer of 1963 administration officials began discussing the possibility of a regime change in Saigon. The State Department was generally in favor of encouraging a coup while the Pentagon and CIA were more alert to the destabilizing consequences of such a coup and wanted to continue applying pressure to Diem to make political changes.
Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu from all of his positions of power. Nhu was in charge of South Vietnam's secret police and was seen as the man behind the Buddhist repression. As Diem's most powerful advisor, Nhu (along with his wife) had become a hated figure in South Vietnam, and one whose continued influence was unacceptable to all members of the Kennedy administration. Eventually, the administration determined that Diem was unwilling to further modify his policies and the decision was made to remove U.S. support from the regime. This choice was made jointly by the State Department, Pentagon, National Security Council, and the CIA. President Kennedy agreed with the consensus.
In November 1963, the U.S. embassy in Saigon communicated through the CIA to the military officers that made up the conspiracy that the U.S. would not oppose the removal of Diem. The president was overthrown by the military and executed along with his brother on November 2, 1963. After the coup, Kennedy appeared to be genuinely shocked and dismayed by the murders. Top CIA officials were baffled that Kennedy didn't understand that this was a possible outcome.[citation needed]
Chaos ensued in the security and defense systems of South Vietnam and, once again, Hanoi took advantage of the situation to increase its support for the insurgents in the south. South Vietnam now entered a period of extreme political instability, as one military junta replaced another in quick succession. Ironically, Kennedy was himself assassinated on November 22, 1963 just three weeks after Diá»m. He was automatically succeeded by Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declared on 24 November that the U.S. would continue its support of the South Vietnamese. During this period, the U.S. military involvement in South Vietnam dramatically increased and the 'Americanization' of the war began.
The Saigon governments, and their new-found Western allies, portrayed their military actions as simply a defense against the use of armed violence to effect political change. At a geopolitical level, the conflict was conducted in order to deter what was then perceived as expansive global communism emanating from Moscow and Beijing, which had been a keystone of Western foreign policy since the late 1940s. The Cold War paradigms of containment and the domino theory were in their heyday and framed many of the arguments on the issue of Vietnam. As far as the North Vietnamese and the NLF were concerned, the conflict was a struggle to reunite the nation and to repel foreign aggressors and neo-colonialists - battle cries that were a virtual repeat of those of the war against the French.
Escalation and Americanization, 1963-1968
For more details on this topic, see The United States and the Vietnam War#Americanization.
See also: Opposition to the Vietnam War and Gulf of Tonkin Incident
U.S. F-105 aircraft dropping bombs.
U.S. F-105 aircraft dropping bombs.
On August 2 1964, just days after the U.S. increased the number of military advisers in South Vietnam to 21,000, the destroyer USS Maddox reported being attacked by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats off the coast of North Vietnam while on an intelligence mission in support of covert South Vietnamese attacks on North Vietnam. Two days later a second U.S. naval vessel believed it had come under attack in similar circumstances. This caused retaliatory strikes by the U.S. against North Vietnam, and prompted Congress to approve the Southeast Asia Resolution (also known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which among other things gave the president power to conduct military operations without a declaration of war. It was later discerned, however, that this second attack never took place.[11]
Following this, the National Security Council recommended that Johnson adopt a plan for a three-stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. On March 2 1965, following an attack on a U.S. Marine barracks at Pleiku (see Operation Flaming Dart), Operation Rolling Thunder commenced. The bombing campaign, which would ultimately last three years, was intended to force North Vietnam to cease its support for the NLF in South Vietnam by threatening to destroy North Vietnam's industrial, transportation, and air defense infrastructures and bolster the morale of the South Vietnamese.[12] Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam, and other aerial campaigns, such as Operation Commando Hunt, targeted different parts of the NLF and PAVN infrastructure, including their supply chains (most famously the Ho Chi Minh Trail) that ran through Laos, Cambodia and of course South Vietnam.
After several attacks it was decided the U.S. Air Force bases in South Vietnam needed more protection, so on 8 March 1965, 3,500 United States Marines were assigned to South Vietnam. Due to attacks from the NLF, Operation Starlite began as the first major ground operation by U.S. troops and proved largely successful; learning from their defeat, the NLF began to engage in small-unit guerrilla warfare instead of the standard American-style ground war. This allowed them to control the pace of the war, engaging U.S. and South Vietnamese forces only when they believed they had an advantage.
The Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1967
The Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1967
Under the command of General Westmoreland, the U.S. dramatically increased its troop commitment in Vietnam from 16,000 military advisers in early 1964 to more than 553,000 servicemen by 1969. Because of this decision, allies Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines agreed to send in troops as well, which were supported by U.S. aid money and logistics. This allowed for more complex operations on the behalf of the U.S., such as operations Masher, Attleboro, Cedar Falls, and Junction City.
Meanwhile, the South Vietnamese government began to settle down with the election of Nguyen Van Thieu as President and Nguyen Cao Ky as Vice President in 1967, ending the series of military juntas that had begun with Diem's assassination in 1963. This allowed the ARVN to collaborate more effectively with their western allies, and to become a more effective force in the war.
General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes an NLF officer in Saigon during the Tet Offensive.
General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes an NLF officer in Saigon during the Tet Offensive.
In January 1968, the PAVN an NLF broke the truce that had traditionally accompanied the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday and launched the Tet Offensive in the hopes of sparking an uprising among the South Vietnamese. Although the U.S. and South Vietnamese were initially surprised by the scale and scope of the offensive, they responded quickly and devastated the ranks of the NLF. Despite its tactical failure, however, the Tet Offensive effectively ended the political career of President Johnson, who refused to run for reelection and spent the rest of his term working for peace in Vietnam. It is commonly seen as a turning point in America's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Vietnamese children flee an ARVN napalm strike
Vietnamese children flee an ARVN napalm strike
On 10 May 1968, in spite of low expectations, peace talks began in Paris between the U.S. and the DRV. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave preliminary orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. This gave an electoral boost to the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, who was running against Republican former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Through an intermediary, Nixon advised Saigon to refuse to participate in the talks until after elections, claiming that Nixon would give them a better deal once elected. Thieu obliged, leaving almost no progress made in the negotiations by the time Johnson left office.
Vietnamization and American withdrawal, 1969–1973
Further information: The United States and the Vietnam War#Vietnamization and American Withdrawal, 1969–1974
During the 1968 presidential election, Nixon had promised to bring "peace with honor". The means he later used to achieve this was to build up the armed forces of America's allies until they could take responsibility for their own defense (the Nixon Doctrine), while simultaneously pursuing negotiations. The Nixon Doctrine, when applied to Vietnam, became known as "Vietnamization". The war in general shifted to smaller operations aimed at NLF logistics, better use of power, more cooperation with the South Vietnamese, and more openness in the media. Nixon also began to pursue détente with the Soviet Union, and rapprochement with China and other communist nations, helping to decrease anti-war opposition in the United States itself and ease global tensions generally. This caused a short era of détente that led to nuclear arms reduction on the part of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. However, the anti-war movement was strengthened by incidents such as the leak of the Pentagon Papers, the revelations of the My Lai Massacre, and the Kent State Shootings. And to Nixon's disappointment, China and the Soviet Union continued to supply the North Vietnamese with materiél and financial aid in order to prove their "fraternal socialist links" with Hanoi, despite their increased interest in a negotiated settlement.
Due to a change of stance on the part of Cambodian leader Prince Sihanouk in 1969, the North Vietnamese were no longer welcome to use the Ho Chi Minh Trail; President Nixon took this as an opportunity to launch a massive secret bombing campaign, called Operation Menu, against the PAVN/NLF bases and sanctuaries along Cambodia's eastern border. Over 14 months, approximately 2,750,000 short tons of bombs were dropped, more than the total tonnage dropped by the Allies in all of World War II. In 1970, Cambodian Prince Sihanouk was deposed while out of the country on a state visit, and replaced by the pro-American general Lon Nol. The country's borders were immediately closed off, and the U.S. and its South Vietnamese allies launched incursions into Cambodia to attack PAVN/NLF bases and buy time for South Vietnam. The coup against Sihanouk and the heavy U.S. bombing gravely destabilized Cambodia and increased support for the Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
In 1971, the ARVN launched Operation Lam Son 719, aimed at the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. This operation was seen as a failure for Vietnamization[citation needed]; Australia and New Zealand withdrew their support. Nonetheless the U.S. troop count was further reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972.
The Nguyen Hue Offensive, 1972; part of the Easter offensive.
The Nguyen Hue Offensive, 1972; part of the Easter offensive.
Vietnamization was severely tested by the Easter Offensive of 1972, a massive conventional invasion of South Vietnam by PAVN forces in spring 1972. The PAVN/NLF quickly invaded the northernmost provinces of South Vietnam, and proceeded with another attack out of Cambodia, threatening to divide South Vietnam in half. Although U.S. troop withdrawals continued in the face of the attack, American airpower came to the aid of the South Vietnamese with Operation Linebacker, and the PAVN offensive was halted; however, it was clear that without American air support South Vietnam would not have survived. Despite this, the last U.S. ground combat troops left in August.
The war remained a major issue in the 1972 presidential election, with Nixon's opponent, George McGovern, campaigning on a platform of withdrawal from Vietnam. Nixon's National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho, which came to agreement in October 1972. However, South Vietnamese President Thieu demanded massive changes to the peace agreement; and when the North Vietnamese went public with the agreement's details, the Nixon administration claimed that North Vietnam's negotiators were attempting to undermine the proceedings and embarrass the President. The negotiations re-entered deadlock, with Hanoi demanding changes of its own to counter those demanded by Thieu. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II, a massive campaign of bombing aimed at Hanoi and Haiphong that destroyed much of the economic and industrial capacity of North Vietnam. Simultaneously Nixon pressured Thieu to accept the terms of the agreement, threatening otherwise to make a bilateral peace with North Vietnam and to leave Saigon without American aid.
Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger (fourth and fifth from the left, respectively)
Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger (fourth and fifth from the left, respectively)
On 15 January 1973, Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action against North Vietnam, to be followed by a unilateral withdrawal of the remaining U.S. forces. The Paris Peace Accords on 'Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam' were signed on 27 January, officially ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. A cease-fire was declared across South Vietnam, but North Vietnamese forces were allowed to remain on the South Vietnamese territory they had seized; U.S. POWs were released, and both sides agreed to seek a political solution to the future of South Vietnam.
Nixon had promised Thieu that he would use air-power to enforce the agreement; however, the growing Watergate scandal weakened Nixon and made him unable to fulfill his promise in the face of public opinion tired of American war in Southeast Asia. The balance of power shifted decisively in North Vietnam's favor.
South Vietnam stands alone, 1973–1975
Total U.S. withdrawal
Further information: Watergate scandal
In December 1974, the Democratic majority in Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, which cut off all military funding to the South Vietnamese government and made unenforceable the peace terms negotiated by Nixon. Nixon, threatened with impeachment because of Watergate, had resigned his office. Gerald R. Ford, Nixon's vice-president stepped in to finish his term. The new president vetoed the Foreign Assistance Act, but his veto was overridden by Congress.
By 1975, the South Vietnamese Army stood alone against the well-organized, highly determined, and foreign-funded North Vietnamese. Within South Vietnam, there was increasing chaos. The withdrawal of the American military had compromised an economy that had thrived largely due to U.S. financial support and the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops. Along with the rest of the non-oil exporting world, South Vietnam suffered economically from the oil price shocks caused by the Arab oil embargo and a subsequent global economic downturn.
Between the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accord and late 1974 both antagonists had been satisfied with minor land-grabbing operations. The North Vietnamese, however, were growing impatient with the Thieu regime, which remained intransigent as to the called-for national reunification. Hanoi also remained wary that the U.S. would, once again, support its former ally if larger operations were undertaken.
By late 1974, the Politburo in Hanoi gave its permission for a limited VPA offensive out of Cambodia into Phuoc Long Province that would solve a local logistical problem, determine how Saigon forces would react, and determine if the U.S. would indeed return to the fray. In December and January the offensive took place, Phuoc Long Province fell to the VPA, and the American air power did not return. The speed of this success forced the Politburo to reassess the situation. It was decided that operations in the Central highlands would be turned over to General Van Tien Dung and that Pleiku should be seized, if possible. Before he left for the south, General Van was addressed by First Party Secretary Le Duan: "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage as great as we have now."[13]
Campaign 275
On 10 March 1975, the General Dung launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the Central Highlands supported by tanks and heavy artillery. The target was Ban Me Thuot, in Darlac Province. If the town could be taken, the provincial capital at Pleiku and the route to the coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in 1976. The ARVN proved no match for the onslaught and its forces collapsed on 11 March. Once again, Hanoi was surprised by the speed of their success. Van now urged the Politburo to allow him to seize Pleiku immediately and then turn his attention to Kontum. He argued, there would be two months of good campaigning weather until the onset of the monsoon, so why not take advantage of the situation?
President Thieu, fearful that the bulk of his forces would be cut off in the northern provinces and Central Highlands, decided to redeploy those troops southward in what he declared to be a "lighten the top and keep the bottom" strategy. But the withdrawal of the northern forces soon turned into a bloody retreat as the VPA suddenly attacked from the north. While ARVN forces tried to redeploy, splintered elements in the Central Highlands fought desperately against the North Vietnamese. ARVN General Phu abandoned the cities of Pleiku and Kontum and retreated toward the coast in what became known as the "column of tears". As the ARVN retreated, civilian refugees mixed in with them. Due to already-destroyed roads and bridges, Phu's column slowed down as the North Vietnamese closed in. As the exodus staggered down the mountains to the coast, it was shelled incessantly by the VPA and, by 1 April it ceased to exist.
On 20 March, Thieu reversed himself and ordered that Hue, Vietnam's third-largest city, be held at all costs. But as the North Vietnamese attacked, panic ensued and ARVN resistance collapsed. On 22 March, the VPA opened a siege against Hue. Civilians jammed into the airport and docks hoping for escape. Some even swam into the ocean to reach boats and barges. The ARVN were routed along with the civilians, and some South Vietnamese soldiers shot civilians just to make room for a passageway for their retreat. On 31 March, after a three-day fight, Hue fell. As resistance in Hue collapsed, North Vietnamese rockets rained down on Da Nang and its airport. By the 28 March, 35,000 VPA troops were poised to attack in the suburbs. By the 30th, 100,000 leaderless ARVN troops surrendered as the VPA marched victoriously through Da Nang. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces collapsed.
Final North Vietnamese offensive
Main article: Ho Chi Minh Campaign
With the northern half of the country under their control, the Politburo ordered General Van to seize the opportunity for a final offensive against Saigon. The operational plan for the Ho Chi Minh Campaign called for capturing Saigon before 1 May, thereby beating the onset of the monsoon and preventing the redeployment and regroupment of ARVN forces to defend the capital. Northern forces, their morale boosted by their recent victories, rolled on, taking Nha Trang, Cam Ranh, and Da Lat.
On 7 April, three North Vietnamese divisions attacked Xuan-loc, 40 miles east of Saigon, where they met fierce resistance from the ARVN 18th Infantry Division. For two bloody weeks, severe fighting raged as the ARVN defenders, in a last-ditch effort, tried desperately to save South Vietnam from conquest. By 21 April, however, the exhausted garrison had surrendered. A bitter and tearful President Thiá»u resigned his office on the same day, declaring that the Americans had betrayed South Vietnam. He left for Taiwan on 25 April, leaving control of his doomed nation to General Duong Van Minh. By that time, North Vietnamese tanks had reached Bien Hoa and turned towards Saigon, clashing with occasional isolated ARVN units along the way.
By the end of April, the weakened South Vietnamese military had collapsed on all fronts. On the 27th, 100,000 North Vietnamese troops encircled Saigon, which was defended by only about 30,000 ARVN troops. In order to increase panic and disorder in the city, the VPA began shelling the airport and eventually forced its closure. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians who might otherwise have fled the city found that they had no way out. On 29 April, the U.S. launched Operation Frequent Wind, arguably the largest helicopter evacuation in history.
Fall of Saigon
Vietnamese civilians scramble to board an Air America helicopter during Operation Frequent Wind
Vietnamese civilians scramble to board an Air America helicopter during Operation Frequent Wind
Main articles: Fall of Saigon and Operation Frequent Wind
Chaos, unrest, and panic ensued as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon before it was too late. American helicopters began evacuating both U.S. and South Vietnamese citizens from the U.S. embassy. The evacuations had been delayed until the last possible moment due to U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement was still possible. The evacuations began in an atmosphere of desperation as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for the limited number of seats available on the departing helicopters. Martin pleaded with the U.S. government to send $700 million in emergency aid to South Vietnam in order to bolster the Saigon regime's ability to fight and mobilize fresh military units, but it was to no avail.
In the U.S., South Vietnam was now perceived as doomed. President Ford had given a televised speech on 23 April declaring the end of both the Vietnam War and of all U.S. aid to the Saigon regime. The helicopter evacuations continued day and night as North Vietnamese tanks breached the defenses on the outskirts of the city. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy roof by helicopter as civilians poured over the embassy perimeter and swarmed onto its grounds.
On that day, VPA troops overcame all resistance, quickly capturing the U.S. embassy, the South Vietnamese government army garrison, the police headquarters, radio station, presidential palace, and other vital facilities. The presidential palace was captured and the NLF flag waved victoriously over it. Thieu's successor, President DÆ°Æ¡ng VÄn Minh attempted to surrender Saigon, but VPA Colonel Búi TÃn informed him that he did not have anything to surrender. Minh then issued his last command, ordering all South Vietnamese troops to lay down their arms.
Aftermath
Main articles: Mayagüez Incident, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Democratic Kampuchea, and Third Indochina War
The last official American military action in Southeast Asia occurred on 15 May 1975, when 18 Marine and airmen were killed during a rescue operation known as the Mayagüez incident.
Other countries' involvement
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, ground-air missiles and other military equipment. Hundreds of military advisors were sent to train the Vietnamese army. Soviet pilots acted as training cadre and many have flown combat missions as "volunteers". Fewer than a dozen Soviet citizens lost their lives in this conflict.
People's Republic of China
The People's Republic of China's involvement in the Vietnam War began in the summer of 1962, when Mao Zedong agreed to supply Hanoi with 90,000 rifles and guns free of charge. After the launch of Operation Rolling Thunder, China sent engineering battalions and supporting anti-aircraft units to North Vietnam to repair the damage caused by American bombing, build roads, railroads and to perform other engineering works. This freed North Vietnamese army units to go to the South. Between 1965 and 1970 over 320,000 Chinese soldiers served in North Vietnam; the peak year was 1967 when 170,000 were serving there. In April 2006, an event was held in Vietnam to honor the almost 1100 Chinese soldiers who were killed in the Vietnam War.
Republic of Korea
The military of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) had the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam. South Korea dispatched its first troops in 1964. Large combat battalions began arriving a year later. A total of approximately 300,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to Vietnam. As with the United States, soldiers served one year, and then were replaced with new soldiers, from 1964 until 1973. The maximum number of South Korean troops in Vietnam at any one time was 50,000. More than 5,000 South Koreans were killed and 11,000 were injured in the war.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea
As a result of a decision of the Korean Workers' Party in October 1966, in early 1967, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) sent a fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese 921st and 923rd fighter squadrons defending Hanoi. They stayed through 1968, and 200 pilots were reported to have served.[14] In addition, at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well. North Korea also sent weapons, ammunition and two million sets of uniforms to their comrades in North Vietnam.[15] Kim Il Sung is reported to have told his pilots to "fight in the war as if the Vietnamese sky were their own".[16][17][18]
Australia and New Zealand
Main article: Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War
New Zealand forces with Viet Cong prisoners during the Vietnam War
New Zealand forces with Viet Cong prisoners during the Vietnam War
As U.S. allies under the ANZUS Treaty, Australia and New Zealand sent ground troops to Vietnam. Both nations had gained valuable experience in counterinsurgency and jungle warfare during the Malayan Emergency. Geographically close to Asia, they subscribed to the Domino Theory of communist expansion and felt that their national security would be threatened if communism spread further in Southeast Asia. Australia's peak commitment was 7,672 combat troops, New Zealand's 552 and most of these soldiers served in the 1st Australian Task Force which was based in Phuoc Tuy Province. Australia re-introduced conscription to expand its army in the face of significant public opposition to the war. Like the U.S., Australia began by sending advisers to Vietnam, the number of which rose steadily until 1965, when combat troops were committed. New Zealand began by sending a detachment of engineers and an artillery battery, and then started sending Special Forces and regular infantry. Several Australian and New Zealand units were awarded U.S. unit citations for their service in South Vietnam.
Thailand
Thai Army formations, including the "Queen's Cobra" battalion saw action in South Vietnam between 1965 and 1971. Thai forces saw much more action in the covert war in Laos between 1964 and 1972. There, Thai regular formations were heavily outnumbered by the irregular "volunteers" of the CIA-sponsored Police Aerial Reconnaissance Units or PARU, who carried out reconnaissance activities on the western side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The activities of these personnel remain one of the great unknown stories of the Southeast Asian conflict.
Canada
Most Canadians who served in the Vietnam War were members of the United States military with estimated numbers ranging from 2,500 to 3,000. Most became U.S. citizens upon returning from Vietnam or were dual citizens prior to joining the military.[19]
Use of chemical defoliants
One of the most controversial aspects (and certainly the longest lasting in its effects) of the U.S. military effort in Southeast Asia was the wide-spread use of herbicides between 1961 and 1971, which were utilized to remove plant cover from large areas. These chemicals continue to change the landscape, cause diseases, and poison the food-chain in the areas where they were sprayed.
Early in the American effort, the U.S. military decided that, since PAVN/NLF activities were being hidden by triple-canopy jungle and undergrowth, a useful first step might be to "defoliate" areas, especially those surrounding base camps (both large and small) in what became known as Operation Ranch Hand. Corporations like Dow and Monsanto were given the task of developing herbicides for this purpose. The defoliants (which were distributed in drums marked with color-coded bands) included the Rainbow Herbicides Agent Pink, Agent Green, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent White, and, most famously, the dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange. About 12 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed over Southeast Asia during the American commitment. A prime area of Ranch Hand operations was in the Mekong Delta, where the U.S. Navy patrol boats were vulnerable to attack from the undergrowth at the water's edge.
U.S. helicopter spraying chemical defoliants in South Vietnam
U.S. helicopter spraying chemical defoliants in South Vietnam
In 1961-1962, the Kennedy administration authorized the use of chemical weapons to destroy rice crops. Between 1961 and 1967, the U.S. Air Force sprayed 20 million U.S. gallons (76,000 m³) of concentrated herbicides over 6 million acres (24,000 km²) of crops and trees, affecting an estimated 13 percent of South Vietnam's land. In 1997, an article published by the Wall Street Journal reported that up to half a million children were born with dioxin-related deformities, and that the birth defects in southern Vietnam were fourfold those in the north. The use of chemical defoliants may have been contrary to international rules of war at the time. A 1967 study by the Agronomy Section of the Japanese Science Council concluded that 3.8 million acres (15,000 km²) of foliage had been destroyed, possibly also leading to the deaths of 1,000 peasants and 13,000 pieces of livestock.
As of 2006, the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.[20]
The U.S. Veterans Administration has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as possible side effects of their parent's exposure to the herbicides. [citation needed] Although there has been much discussion over whether the use of these defoliants constituted a violation of the laws of war, it must be noted that the defoliants were not considered weapons, since exposure to them did not lead to immediate death or even incapacitation.
Notes
Casualties
Main article: Vietnam War casualties
Even today the number of those killed, military and civilian, in the period covered (1959-1975) is open to debate and uncertainty. To illustrate the problem, below are three reference works by three or more authors listing casualty figures. What is remarkable about them is that the only ones that seem to match are the ones that must be, at best, approximations. None of the figures include the members of South Vietnamese forces killed in the final campaign. Nor do they include the Royal Lao Armed Forces, thousands of Laotian and Thai irregulars, or Laotian civilians who all perished in that peculiar conflict. They do not include the tens of thousands of Cambodians killed during the civil war or the estimated one and one-half to two million that perished in the genocide that followed Khmer Rouge victory
1. Harry G. Summers, The Vietnam War Almanac. Novato CA: Presidio Press, 1985.
U.S. killed in action, died of wounds, died of other causes, missing and declared dead - 57,690. South Vietnamese military killed - 243,748. Republic of Korea killed - 4,407. Australia and New Zealand (combined) - 469. Thailand - 351. The Vietnam People's Army and NLF (combined) - 666,000. North Vietnamese civilian fatalities - 65,000. South Vietnamese civilian dead - 300,000.
2. Marc Leepson, ed, Webster's New World Dictionary of the Vietnam War. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.
U.S. killed in action, etc. - 58,159. South Vietnamese military - 224,000. Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand - not listed. DRV military - not listed. DRV civilians - 65,000. South Vietnamese civilians - 300,000.
3. Edward Doyle, Samuel Lipsman, et al, Setting the Stage. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1981.
U.S. - 57,605. South Vietnamese military - 220,357. Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand - not listed. DRV and NLF deaths - 444,000. Combined DRV and RVN civilian deaths -587,000.
A fourth Source, John Rowe's Vietnam: The Australian Experience. Sydney: Time-Life Books Australia, 1987, gives a figure of 496 Australians killed in action or died of wounds.
Names for the conflict
Various names have been applied to the conflict and these have shifted over time, although Vietnam War is the most commonly used title in English. It has been variously called the Second Indochina War, the Vietnam Conflict, the Vietnam War, and, in Vietnamese, Chiến tranh Viá»t Nam (The Vietnam War) or Kháng chiến chá»ng Mỹ (Resistance War against America).
1. Second Indochina War: places the conflict into context with other distinctive, but related, and contiguous conflicts in Southeast Asia. Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are seen as the battlegrounds of a larger Indochinese conflict that began at the end of World War II and lasted until communist victory in 1975. This conflict can be viewed in terms of the demise of colonialism and its after-effects during the Cold War.
2. Vietnam Conflict: largely a U.S. designation, it acknowledges that the U.S. Congress never declared war on North Vietnam. Legally, the President used his constitutional discretion - supplemented by supportive resolutions in Congress - to conduct what was said to be a "police action".
3. Vietnam War: the most commonly-used designation in English, it suggests that the location of the war was exclusively within the borders of North and South Vietnam, failing to recognize its wider context.
4. Resistance War against the Americans to Save the Nation: the term favored by North Vietnam (and after North Vietnam's victory over South Vietnam, by Vietnam as a whole); it is more of a slogan than a name, and its meaning is self-evident. Its usage has been abolished in recent years as the communist government of Vietnam seeks better relations with the U.S. Official Vietnamese publications now refer to the conflict generically as "Chiến tranh Viá»t Nam" (Vietnam War).