Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 65.120.150.142 (talk) at 14:27, 3 May 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War (also known colloquially as Vietnam or Nam as well as the American War in Vietnam) Template:Fn was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China, and the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its allies — notably Australia, Korea, and the United States. US combat troops were involved from 1965 until the official withdrawal in 1973. The war ended on April 30, 1975 with the military conquest of the South by the North.

Summary

The Vietnam War began after a very large-scale division of Vietnam into two countries with a de-militarized zone (DMZ) between them. As Maurice Larkin notes, crumbling under the economic strain of the war and fearful of the tide of opinion (which had now turned decisively against further fighting for control in Indochina), the French, under Pierre Mendès-France, simply 'passed the parcel bomb' on to the Americans, slipping out of the back door, so to speak. The Vietnam War ostensibly began as a civil war between feuding governments. Being Western-oriented and perceived as less popular than Hồ Chí Minh's northern government, the South Vietnamese government fought largely to maintain its governing status within the partitioned entity, rather than to "unify the country" as was agreed to at the Geneva Conference. Fighting began in 1957 with the U.S. and Soviet-Chinese involvement, and would steadily escalate from there. The conflict spilled over into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos. North Vietnam did not respect the independence or borders of either country.

The Geneva partition was not a natural division of Vietnam and was not intended to create two separate countries. But the South government, with the support of the United States, blocked the Geneva scheduled elections for unification. In the context of the Cold War, and with the recent Korean War as a precedent, the U.S. had feared that a unified Vietnam would result in a Communist government under Hồ Chí Minh, either freely or fraudulently.

The South Vietnamese government and its Western allies portrayed the conflict as based in a principled opposition to communism —to deter the expansion of Soviet-based control throughout Southeast Asia, and to set the tone for any likely future superpower conflicts. The North Vietnamese government and its Southern affiliated organization (NLF) viewed the war as a struggle to reunite the country and to repel a foreign aggressor —a virtual continuation of the earlier war for independence against the French. While North Vietnam used nationalist propaganda, its party doctrine denounced the very concept of nationalism and any form of unity other than rule by the party.

France had gained control of Indochina in a series of colonial wars beginning in the 1840s and lasting until the 1880s. At the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919, Hồ Chí Minh requested participation in order to arrange more freedom for the Indochinese colonies. His request was rejected, and Indochina's status as a colony of France remained unchanged. During World War II, Vichy France had collaborated with the occupying Imperial Japanese forces. Vietnam was under effective Imperial Japanese control, as well as de facto Japanese administrative control, although the Vichy French continued to serve as the official administrators until 1944. In that year, the Japanese overthrew the French and humiliated the colonial officials of the state in front of the Vietnamese population. The Japanese then began to encourage nationalist activity among the Vietnamese. Late in the war, Japan granted Vietnam nominal independence. After the Japanese surrender, Vietnamese nationalists expect to take control of the country and organize a socialist dictatorship. The Japanese army in Indochina attempted to assist the Viet Minh in their goal by keeping French soldiers imprisoned and handing over public buildings to Vietnamese nationalist groups.

On September 2, 1945, Hồ Chí Minh spoke at a ceremony heralding an independent Vietnam. In his speech he cited the US Declaration of Independence and a band played "The Star Spangled Banner." Ho had hoped that the United States would be an ally of a Vietnamese socialist independence movement based on speeches by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt against the continuation of European imperialism after World War II. However, the death of Roosevelt, the development of the Cold War, and Ho's authoritarian Communist beliefs led to U.S. support being given to the French. Indochina had been in the British and Chinese area of occupation at the end of the war. The Chinese army arrived in September 1945 and took over areas north of the 16th parallel. The British arrived in October 1945 and supervised the surrender and departure of the Japanese army from Indochina south of the 16th parallel. 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, also took matters into their own hands in some areas. In the north, France negotiated with both China and the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh eventually allowed French forces to land outside Hanoi. France agreed to recognize Vietnam within the French Union. Negotiations soon afterward collapsed, setting the stage for the First Indochina War in which France attempted to reestablish Vietnam as part of a French overseas domain. In a gradual process—accelerated by the establishment of the People's Republic of China—the Vietnamese nationalist army, the Viet Minh, gradually built a well-equipped modern conventional army. While they could not defeat the French in the populated areas of the country, they did manage to gain control over the border with China and remote areas in places like Laos.

After the Viet Minh's historic victory over the French at the battle of Điện Biên Phủ France decided to negotiate a withdraw from Indochina. All of Indochina was granted independence, including Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. However, Vietnam was partitioned at the 17 parallel, above which the former Viet Minh established a Communist state and below which an non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bảo Đại. As dictated in the Geneva Accords of 1954 the division was meant to be temporary pending free elections for national leadership. The agreement stipulated that these two military zones, which were separated by the temporary demarcation line, "should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary," and specifically stated "general elections shall be held in July 1956." But such elections were not held as Diem (see below), who had not signed the Geneva Accords, refused to hold them and did not believe that fair elections could be held in the north. The U.S. supported this move to maintain its Southern ally, also claiming that Ho had no intention of holding free elections. A part of the Vietnamese population were angered that the scheduled elections for the unification of the country never took place. The United States, fearing a Communist takeover of the region, supported Ngô Đình Diệm, who had ousted Bảo Đại, as leader of South Vietnam while Hồ Chí Minh became leader of the North.

When Ngo Dinh Diem's government refused to hold elections with the North in 1956, Hanoi proceeded with its alternative plan, which had been prepared before the Geneva Accord was signed.The high ranking communist Le Duan, who stayed in South Vietnam as a covert agent, was in charge of this campaign. When the insurgency was suppressed by the South Vietnam government and had no chance to succeed, Le Duan went back to Hanoi in 1958 to consult with Ho Chi Minh and other communists in the CPV. In December 1959, the Central Committee of the CPV issued a secret resolution to invade South Vietnam by force. To avoid being accused of violating the Geneva Accord, the CPV established the National Liberation Front and used this organization as a cover to invade South Vietnam.

The NLF was composed of several South Vietnam intellectuals, who dissented with the South Vietnamese government, and communists who had origin from the South. Some of them were Huynh Tan Phat, Nguyen Huu Tho, and Nguyen Thi Binh. Those communists did not have an independent status from the CPV but received direct orders from Hanoi for the activities of the NLF. The non-communist members of the NLF did not have any role in decision making but their titles. They were used only as the face of the NLF to make the international community believe that the war against the South Vietnam government originated from the people of South Vietnam not from North Vietnam.

The Hanois occupied large parts of eastern Laos and were supplying the NLF via the Hồ Chí Minh Trail with mostly Chinese made weapons. The Soviet Union đid not provide military aid to Hanoi to invade South Vietnam until Nikita Khruschev was ousted in 1964. The Ho Chi Minh trail ran from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia (a violation of neutrality) into South Vietnam. Some boats carrying supplies via the China Sea were caught by South Vietnam authority as well. In 1965, the supposedly neutralist government of Cambodia made a deal with China and the North Vietnamese which allowed Vietnamese forces to establish permanent bases in the country and to use the port of Sihanoukville for delivery of military supplies until the outlet was closed by Lon Nol in 1970. The Hồ Chí Minh Trail was steadily expanded to become the vital lifeline for communist forces in South Vietnam, which included the North Vietnamese Army in the 1960s when it became a major target of U.S. air operations. That the Ho Chi Minh trail was built on the conquered territory of North Vietnam's neighbors was irrelevant to the Communist leadership.

The Diệm government was initially able to cope with the insurgency with the aid of U.S. advisors, and by 1962 seemed to be winning. Senior U.S. military leaders were receiving positive reports from the U.S. commander, Gen. Paul D. Harkins of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Outside Saigon, large areas of the country were infiltrated by communists who were left before the Geneva Accord and newcomers from the North but the South Vietnamese army could still control the local governments. In 1963, a Communist offensive beginning with the Battle of Ap Bac inflicted major loss to South Vietnam army units. This was the first large-scale battle, contrasting the assassinations and guerilla activities which had preceded it. Ap Bac was the sign that the war was escalating as the result of the increasing supplies of men and weapons from the North. The escalation of war made some policy makers in Washington think the Diem government could not cope with the invasion of communists and led to the idea of changing the leadership of South Vietnam. Diem was also unpopular due to religious controversies he had created in the country. The coup, which overthrew Diem, caused chaos in the security and defense systems of the South Vietnamese; Hanoi took advantage of this chaos to increase its infiltrations to South Vietnamese society and supports to its forces in the South. South Vietnam lacked a strong leader after Diem.

Following Diem's demise, the United States involvement dramatically escalated and the Vietnamese call it the "American War" from that point on.

The United States Involvement

ÁÍŚĥÁ===Harry S. Truman and Vietnam (1945-1953)=== Milestones of U.S. involvement under Harry S. Truman

• March 9, 1945 - Japan overthrows nominal French authority in Indochina and declares an independent Vietnamese puppet state. The French administration is disarmed.
• August 15, 1945 - Japan surrenders to the Allies. In Indochina, the Japanese administration allows Hồ Chí Minh to take over control of the country. This is called the August Revolution even though it was not a revolution. Hồ Chí Minh borrows a phrase from the U.S. Declaration of Independence for his own declaration. Hồ Chí Minh fights with a variety of other political factions for control of the major cities.
• August 1945 - A few days after the Vietnamese "revolution", Chinese forces enter from the north and, as previously planned among the allies establish an administration in the country as far south as the 16th parallel.
• September 26, 1945 OSS officer Lt. Col. A. Peter Dewey working with the Viet Minh to repatriate captured Americans from the Japanese was shot by the Viet Minh at a roadblock in Saigon.
• October 1945 - British Troops land in Southern Vietnam and establish a provisional administration. The British free the French soldiers imprisoned by the Japanese. The French begin taking control of the cities of Vietnam within the British region.
• February 1946 - The French sign an agreement with China. France gives up its concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese ports. In exchange, China agrees to assist the French in returning to Vietnam north of the 16th parallel.
• March 6, 1946 - After negotiations with the Chinese and the Viet Minh, the French sign an agreement recognizing Vietnam within the French Union. Shortly after, the French land at Haiphong and occupy the rest of Vietnam.
• December 1946 - Negotiations between the Viet Minh and French break down. The Viet Minh are quickly driven out of Hanoi into the countryside.
• 1947-1949 - The Viet Minh fight a limited insurgency in remote rural areas of Vietnam.
• 1949 - Chinese communists reach the northern border of Indochina. The Viet Minh drive the French from the border region and begin to receive large amounts of weapons from the Soviet Union and China. The weapons transform the Viet Minh from an irregular small-scale insurgency into a conventional army.
• 1950 - After the outbreak of the Korean War, Truman authorizes expenditure of $15 million and sends 123 non-combat troops to help with supplies to fight against the communist Viet Minh.
• 1951 - Truman authorizes $150 million in French support.

You are sooo gay and this is sooo lame and the vietnam is old news its all about that 9/11 oh baby and i betcha cant do it like me hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Ashley Crawford is a PIMP====and you know this man

Timeline

• January 1961 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledges support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world. The idea of creating a neutral Laos is suggested to Kennedy.
• May 1961 - Kennedy sends 400 American Green Beret "Special Advisors" to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese soldiers following a visit to the country by Lyndon Johnson.
• June 1961 - Kennedy and Khrushchev meet at Vienna. Kennedy protests North Vietnam's attacks on Laos and points out that the U.S. was supporting the neutrality of Laos. Both leaders agree to pursue a policy of creating a neutral Laos.
• October 1961 - Following successful Viet Cong attacks, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara recommends sending six divisions (200,000) men to Vietnam, Kennedy sends 16,000 before the end of his Presidency in 1963.
• August 1, 1962 - Kennedy signs the Foreign Assistance Act of 1962 which provides "...military assistance to countries which are on the rim of the Communist world and under direct attack."
• January 3, 1963 - Viet Cong victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
• May 1963 - Buddhists riot in South Vietnam after a conflict over the display of religious flags during the celebration of Buddha's birthday. Some buddhists urge Kennedy to end support of Ngo Dinh Diem who is Catholic
• May 1963 - Barry Goldwater suggests using atomic bombs in the conflict
• November 1, 1963 - Military officers launch a coup against Diem. Diem leaves the presidential residence.
• November 2, 1963 - Diem is discovered and assassinated by rebel leaders.
• November 22, 1963 - Kennedy is assassinated

Containing Communist Expansion

In June 1961, John F. Kennedy met with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, where they had a bitter disagreement over key U.S.-Soviet issues. This led to the conclusion that Southeast Asia would be an area where Soviet forces would test the USA's commitment to the containment policy.

Although Kennedy's election campaign had stressed long-range missile parity with the Soviets, Kennedy was particularly interested in Special Forces. Originally intended for use behind front lines after a conventional invasion of Europe, it was quickly decided to try them out in the "brush fire" war in Vietnam.

The Kennedy administration remained essentially committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman administration. Furthermore in 1961 Kennedy found himself faced with a three-part crisis that seemed very similar to that faced by Truman in 1949–1950. 1961 had already seen the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the construction of the Berlin Wall, and a negotiated settlement between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao Communist movement. Fearing that another failure on the part of the United States to gain control and stop Communist expansion would fatally damage the West's position and his reputation, Kennedy was determined to prevent a Communist victory in Vietnam. 'Now we have a problem in making our power credible', he said, 'and Vietnam looks like the place.

Frustrations and Assassination of President Diệm

The Kennedy administration grew increasingly frustrated with Diệm. In 1963 a crackdown by Diệm's forces against Buddhist monks protesting government policies prompted self-immolation by monks, leading to embarrassing press coverage. The most famous event is the self-burning of Thích Quảng Ðức to protest the government's actions against the Buddhist monks. Vietnam was a largely Buddhist nation (two-thirds were Buddhist in the Southern half), while Diệm was a Roman Catholic. Although the protests of the Buddhists came from their sentiments about the role of Buddhism in Vietnam, covert communist agents also took advantage of the situation to fuel the anger of the Buddhists in order to create the instability in South Vietnam. The U.S. attempted to pressure Diệm by asking South Vietnamese generals to act against the excesses, to no avail. There was general anger at Diem in U.S. circles because he was a strong leader who made his own decisions rather than accepting American advice. With "at least the knowledge and approval of the White House and the American ambassador in Saigon" (LeFeber, "America, Russia and the Cold War", p. 233) the South Vietnamese military staged a coup d'état which overthrew and killed Diệm on November 1, 1963. The Americans were shocked at the murder of Diem which they did not expect.

The death of Diệm made the South much more unstable. The new military rulers were politically inexperienced and unable to provide the strong central authority of Diệm's rule and a period of coups and countercoups followed. The overthrow of Diem also created a situation where the military leaders were not willing to stand up to the U.S. as Diem had done. It also created rival centers of power within the Vietnamese government that worked at cross-purposes to each other. Seven different governments rose to power in South Vietnam during 1964, three during the weeks of August 16 to September 3 alone. This was the struggle within the civil war, which itself was not abating. The communists, meanwhile, stepped up their efforts to exploit the vacuum.

Kennedy himself was assassinated three weeks after Diệm's death, and the newly sworn-in president, former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, confirmed on November 24 1963, that the United States intended to continue supporting South Vietnam.

Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam (1963-1969)

Gulf of Tonkin and the Westmoreland Expansion (1964)

Johnson appointed William Westmoreland to be in charge of the Army in Vietnam in June 1964 when he succeeded Paul D. Harkins. Troop strength under Westmoreland was to rise from 16,000 in 1964 to more than 500,000 when he left following the Tet Offensive in 1968. On July 27, 1964 5,000 additional U.S. military advisors were ordered to South Vietnam bringing the total to 21,000.

The massive escalation of the war from 1964 to 1968 was justified on the basis of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident on August 2-4, 1964 in which the Johnson Administration claimed U.S. ships were attacked by the North Vietnamese. The accuracy of that claim is still hotly debated and discussed further in the Gulf article.

On the basis of the attack the U.S. Senate approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August 1964, which gave broad support to President Johnson to escalate U.S. involvement in the war "as the President shall determine". The resolution passed unanimously in the House of Representatives and was opposed in the Senate by only Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska. In a televised speech, Morse asserted that history would show that he and Gruening were serving "the best interests of the American people". In a separate televised address, President Johnson claimed, "the challenge that we face in South-East Asia today is the same challenge that we have faced with courage and that we have met with strength in Greece and Turkey, in Berlin and Korea, in Lebanon and in Cuba." National Security Council members, including Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, and Maxwell Taylor agreed on November 28, 1964, to recommend Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.

With the decision to escalate its involvement in the conflict, The USA's ANZUS Pact allies, Australia and New Zealand also volunteered to contribute troops and material to the war effort. As a result, in late 1964 the Australian government controversially re-introduced conscription for compulsory military service by eligible males aged 18-25, and many Australian soldiers served alongside U.S. troops. (Without the need for U.S. pressure, a few thousand Canadians would also serve.)

The Gulf of Tonkin and the Westmoreland Expansion is explained by Ronnie E. Ford, Lt. Colonel in Military Intelligence, in his article "New Light on Gulf of Tonkin".

Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)

Rolling Thunder was the code name for a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam conducted by the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to destroy the will of the North Vietnamese to fight, to destroy industrial bases and air defenses (Surface to Air Missiles or SAMs), and to stop the flow of men and supplies down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail.

Starting in March 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder gradually escalated in intensity to force the Communists to negotiate. The two principal areas where supplies came from, Haiphong and the Chinese border, were off limits to aerial attack, as were fighter bases. Restrictions on the bombing of civilian areas also enabled the North Vietnamese to use them for military purposes, sitting anti-aircraft guns on school grounds. Rolling Thunder's gradual escalation has been blamed for its failure, by giving the North Vietnamese time to adapt.

On March 31, 1968, in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive, Operation Rolling Thunder was restricted to encourage the North to negotiate. All bombing of the North was halted on October 31 just prior to the U.S. presidential election of 1968.

U.S. troop build-up

184,000 Troops at End of 1965

In February 1965 the U.S. base at Pleiku was attacked twice, killing over a dozen U.S. military. This provoked the reprisal air strikes of Operation Flaming Dart in North Vietnam, the first time a U.S. air strike was launched because its forces had been attacked in South Vietnam. That same month the U.S. began independent air strikes in the South. A U.S. HAWK team was sent to Da Nang, a vulnerable airbase if Hanoi intended to bomb it. One result of Operation Flaming Dart was the shipment of anti-aircraft missiles to North Vietnam which began in a few weeks from the Soviet Union.

On March 8, 1965, 3,500 United States Marines became the first US combat troops to land in South Vietnam, adding to the 25,000 US military advisers already in place. The air war escalated as well; on July 24, 1965, four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi became the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against US planes in the war. One plane was shot down and the other three sustained damage. Four days later Johnson announced another order that increased the number of US troops in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000. The day after that, July 29, the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrived in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.

On August 18, 1965, Operation Starlite began as the first major US ground battle of the war when 5,500 US Marines destroyed a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in Quảng Ngãi Province. The Marines were tipped off by a Viet Cong deserter who said that there was an attack planned against the US base at Chu Lai. The Viet Cong learned from their defeat and tried to avoid fighting a US-style war from then on.

The North Vietnamese committed regular army troops to South Vietnam beginning in late 1964 to use guerilla and regular forces to wear down and destroy the South Vietnamese Army. However some North Vietnamese officials favored an immediate invasion, and a plan was drawn up to use PAVN forces to split South Vietnam in two at the Central Highlands, and then to defeat each half. However in the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley the PAVN suffered heavy casualties, prompting a return to guerilla tactics.

429,000 Troops at August 1966

The Pentagon told President Johnson on November 27, 1965, that if planned major sweep operations needed to neutralize Viet Cong forces during the next year were to succeed, the number of US troops in Vietnam needed to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000. By the end of 1965, 184,000 US troops were in Vietnam. In February 1966 there was a meeting between the commander of the US effort, head of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam General William Westmoreland and Johnson in Honolulu. Westmoreland argued that the US presence had prevented a defeat but that more troops were needed to take the offensive, he claimed that an immediate increase could lead to the "crossover point" in Vietcong and NVA casualties being reached in early 1967. Johnson authorized an increase in troop numbers to 429,000 by August 1966.

The large increase of troop numbers enabled Westmoreland to carry out numerous search and destroy operations in accordance with his attrition strategy. In January 1966 during Operation Masher/White Wing in Binh Dinh Province the U.S. 1 Cavalry Division killed 1,342 Viet Cong by repeatedly marching through the area. The Operation continued under Thayer/Irving until October where a further 1,000 Viet Cong were killed and numerous others wounded and captured. US forces conducted numerous forays into Viet Cong controlled "War Zone C", an area northwest of the densely populated Saigon area and near the Cambodian border, in Operations Birmingham, El Paso, and Attleboro. In 1 Corp Tactical Zone (CTZ) located in the Northern provinces of South Vietnam North Vietnamese conventional forces entered Quang Tri province. Fearing an assault on Quang Tri city might develop, U.S. Marines initiated Operation Hastings which caused the North Vietnamese to retreat over the DMZ. Afterwards, a follow-up operation called Prairie began. "Pacification", or the securing of the South Vietnamese countryside and people, was mostly conducted by the ARVN. However, morale was poor in the South Vietnamese army due to corruption and incompetence of generals and hence little was accomplished in the form of pacification other than high desertion rates.

On 12 October 1967, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk stated during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives were futile because of North Vietnam's opposition. Johnson then held a secret meeting with a group of the nation's most prestigious leaders ("the Wise Men") on November 2 and asked them to suggest ways to unite the US people behind the war effort. Johnson announced on November 17 that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking....We are making progress." Following up on this, General William Westmoreland on November 21 told news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing." Nevertheless it was recognized that although the communists were taking a major beating, true victory could not come until the country was pacified.

Most of the PAVN operational capability was possible due only to the movement of men along the Hồ Chí Minh Trail in Laos. In order to threaten this flow of supplies, a firebase was set up just on the Vietnam side of the Laotian border, near the town of Khe Sanh. The U.S. planned to use the base to draw large forces of the North Vietnamese Army into battle on terms unfavorable to them. The position of the base allowed it to be used as a launching point for raids against the trail. Also, the U.S. launched first in its kind, electronic warfare project. This $2.5 billion project involved "wiring" the trail with sensors connected to data processing centers in order to monitor the traffic on the trail. It was one of the most highly classified operations in the war (from "Boyd" by Robert Coram, p. 268). To the PAVN leaders this looked like a wonderful opportunity to repeat their famous victory at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, and hand the USA a massive defeat. Over the next few months both the PAVN and US Marines added forces to the area, with the Battle of Khe Sanh "officially" starting on January 21, 1968. Every PAVN attempt to take the base was repulsed with heavy casualties, and even their rear areas were under constant attack by U.S. airpower, including B-52 strikes. When the battle finally petered out in April, the PAVN had lost an estimated 8,000 KIA and many more wounded while never seriously threatening resupply into the base (an important feature of Điện Biên Phủ) due to the U.S.'s massive resupply ability and helicopter support. Some have suggested that the PAVN used the battle to divert U.S. attention away from other operations, but modern study suggest s that the opposite was true. The battle forced the PAVN to divert forces that had been intended for other operations to what was seen as the defense of the trail. Though the battle was very successful for the US, constant coverage including allusions to Dien Bien Phu and a false perception that the base was in danger of falling caused it to be seen in a negative light.

The Tet Offensive (1968)

Late in 1967, General Westmoreland had asserted that it was "conceivable" that in "two years or less" US forces could be phased out of the war, turning over more and more of the job to the Vietnamese. As a result it was a considerable shock to public opinion when on January 30, 1968 NLF and PAVN forces broke the Tet truce and mounted the Tet Offensive (named after Tết Nguyên Ðán, the lunar new year festival which is the most important Vietnamese holiday) in South Vietnam attacking nearly every major city in South Vietnam with small groups of well armed soldiers . The goal of the attacks was to take over all importants offices of the government in order to paralyze the South Vietnam government and its army and also ignite an uprising among the Vietnamese people. To the contrary, no such uprising occurred and it drove some previously apathetic Vietnamese to fight with the RVN government. Attacks everywhere were shortly repulsed except in Saigon where the fighting lasted for three days and in Huế for a month. During the temporary communist occupation of Huế, 2,800 Vietnamese were killed by the Viet Cong in what was the single worst massacre during the war (see Massacre at Huế). Massacre though it was, casualties were immeasurably higher for the Viet Cong than for the South Vietnamese. Most of local communist agents in the South were exposed in this offensive and were destroyed. Within a month General Westmoreland claimed, correctly, that the Tet Offensive had been a military disaster for the Viet Cong and that their backs were essentially broken. Fighting after this point was left almost entirely to PAVN forces.

While the US had tactically won a victory by the destruction of the NLF/Viet Cong during the Tet Offensive, it was left strategically in a bad position. Rather than an irregular war, the war was now between the North Vietnamese regular army and the US/South Vietnam. Short of expanding the war to all of Indochina, there was no clear US strategy for victory. Leaders considered the logical step of expanding the war into North Vietnam to be unacceptable due to the high risk of Chinese intervention, and any attempt at expanding the war into Laos or Cambodia would result only with Vietnam's moving its forces westward farther into those countries.

Although the Communists' military objectives had not been achieved, the propaganda effect was considerable and had a profound impact on public opinion. Many U.S. citizens felt that the government was misleading them about a war without a clear end. When General Westmoreland called for still more troops to be sent to Vietnam, Clark Clifford, a member of Johnson's own cabinet, came out against the war. Beyond public opinion, most of the political leaders regardless of their beliefs could no longer see a strategy for success. Even the biggest supporters of the war were unwilling to call for the domestic sacrifices necessary for a victory.

Creighton W. Abrams Assumes Command

Soon after Tet, Westmoreland was replaced by his deputy, General Creighton W. Abrams. Abrams pursued a very different approach from Westmoreland's, favoring more openness with the media, less indiscriminate use of air strikes and heavy artillery, elimination of body count as the key indicator of battlefield success, and more meaningful cooperation with ARVN forces. His strategy, although yielding positive results, came too late to influence U.S. public opinion.

Facing a troop shortage, on October 14, 1968, the United States Department of Defense announced that the United States Army and Marines would be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours. Two weeks later on October 31, citing progress with the Paris peace talks, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced what became known as the October surprise when he ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1. Peace talks eventually broke down, however, and one year later, on November 3, 1969, then President Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation on television and radio asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.

Richard Nixon and Vietnam (1969-1974)

Vietnamization

Nixon was elected President and began his policy of slow disengagement from the war. The goal was to gradually build up the South Vietnamese Army so that it could fight the war on its own. This policy became the cornerstone of the so-called "Nixon Doctrine". As applied to Vietnam, the doctrine was called "Vietnamization". The stated goal of Vietnamization was to enable the South Vietnamese army to increasingly hold its own against the NLF and the North Vietnamese Army. The unstated goal of Vietnamization was that the primary burden of combat would be returned to ARVN troops and thereby lessen domestic opposition in the U.S to the war. It was also expected that the US would continue to supply air power over South Vietnam as long as it was necessary.

During this period, the United States conducted a gradual troop withdrawal from Vietnam. Nixon continued to use air power to bomb the enemy. The US also attempted to organize strategic operations to disrupt North Vietnam's supply system in the lead-up to withdrawal. The US attacked Vietnamese base areas inside Cambodia, encouraged a change in government that closed Cambodian ports to war supplies and encouraged South Vietnam to launch a massive but ultimately unsuccessful operation into Laos to pinch off the Ho Chi Minh trail. Ultimately more bombs were dropped under the Nixon Presidency than under Johnson's, while U.S. troop deaths started to drop significantly. The Nixon administration was determined to remove U.S. troops from the theater while not destabilizing the defensive efforts of South Vietnam.

One of Nixon's main foreign policy goals had been the achievement of a "breakthrough" in U.S. relations with the two nations, in terms of creating a new spirit of cooperation, and treating the Vietnam War as simply another limited conflict forming part of a bigger tapestry of super-power relations. This gambit helped defuse some anti-war opposition at home and secured movement at the negotiation table but succeeded only partially as far as material conditions on the ground. China and the USSR had been the principal backers of the North Vietnamese army through large amounts of military and financial support. The two communist powers competed with one another to prove "fraternal socialist links" with the communist regime in the North. That support continued, enabling the North Vietnamese to mount a full-scale conventional war against the south, complete with tanks, upgraded jet fighters and a modern fuel pipeline snaking through parts of Laos and North Vietnam to the front, to feed the North Vietnamese invasions in 1972 and 1975. The fact that the NVA/PAVN was able to mount such attacks despite massive US bombing indicates that military assistance had increased. Nixon's "opening" to China helped pressure North Vietnam back to the bargaining table, allowing America a face saving exit, or "a decent interval" as Kissinger called it. Military writers such as David Palmer ("Summons of the Trumpet") and Harry Summers ("On Strategy") detail the massive influx of material to the NVA/PAVN even after Nixon's diplomatic moves, as well as the continued presence of personnel from other communist countries, including Chinese and Russian troops.

Newspaper Revelations

My Lai massacre

The morality of U.S. conduct of the war continued to be a political issue under the Nixon Presidency. In 1969, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh exposed the My Lai massacre and its cover-up, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. It came to light that Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader in Vietnam, had led a massacre of several hundred Vietnamese civilians, including women, babies, and the elderly, at My Lai a year before. The massacre was stopped only after three US soldiers (Glenn Andreotta, Lawrence Colburn and Hugh Thompson, Jr.) noticed the carnage from their helicopter and intervened to prevent their fellow soldiers from killing any more civilians. Calley was given a life sentence after his court-martial in 1970 but was later pardoned by President Nixon. Cover-ups may have happened in other cases, as contended in the Pulitzer Prize-winning article series about the Tiger Force by the Toledo Blade in 2003.

Pentagon Papers

The credibility of the government suffered further in 1971 when The New York Times, and later The Washington Post and other newspapers, published The Pentagon Papers. This top-secret historical study of Vietnam, contracted by Robert McNamara (the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson), presented a pessimistic view of victory in the Vietnam War and generated additional criticism of U.S. policy. While there was little in the actual material of much consequence, the government's strong-arm tactics in trying to prevent their publication and the false impression that there was critically secret material in the papers created a false impression of their contents among the public.

Cambodian Incursion and the Kent State Massacre (1970)

In 1970, Prince Sihanouk was deposed by Prime Minister Lon Nol in Cambodia, who became the chief of state. In 1965, Sihanouk had made a secret deal with China and North Vietnam giving them bases and access to Cambodia's ports. Three years later, Sihanouk's neutrality was rewarded by the outbreak of an uprising by Khmer Rouge guerillas who took shelter in the areas of Cambodia controlled by Vietnam. After Lon Nol took power, he closed Cambodia's ports to Vietnamese war supplies and demanded that North Vietnam remove its army. Ironically, these moves were reported in the western media as being moves away from Sihanouk's enlightened policy of neutrality. Nixon ordered a military incursion into Cambodia in order to destroy NLF sanctuaries bordering on South Vietnam and take some pressure off the fragile Cambodian government. The Cambodian Incursion prompted even more protests on U.S. college campuses. Six students were killed and a score injured by National Guard and police forces during demonstrations at Kent and Jackson State universities.

One effect of the incursion was to push communist forces deeper into Cambodia, which destabilized the country and resulted in the rise of the Khmer Rouge. Prince Sihanouk ended up in China where he became the political figurehead for the Khmer Rouge. He lent his personal credibility and popularity to their cause of overthrowing the Cambodian government which they did in 1975. The goal of the 1970 attacks, however, was to bring the North Vietnamese negotiators back to the table with some flexibility in their demands that the South Vietnamese government be overthrown as part of the agreement. It was also alleged that U.S. and South Vietnamese casualty rates were reduced by the destruction of military supplies the communists had been storing in Cambodia. All U.S. forces left Cambodia by June 30.

In an effort to help assuage opposition to the war, Nixon announced on October 12, 1970, that the United States would withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas. Later that month on October 30, the worst monsoon to hit Vietnam in six years caused large floods, killed 293, left 200,000 homeless and virtually halted the war.

Laos Incursion (1971)

Backed by U.S. air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invaded the portions of Laos occupied by North Vietnam on 13 February 1971 in a failed attempt to close the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On August 18 of that year, Australia and New Zealand decided to withdraw their troops from Vietnam. The total number of U.S. troops in Vietnam dropped to 196,700 on 29 October 1971, the lowest level since January 1966. On November 12, 1971, Nixon set a 1 February 1972 deadline to remove another 45,000 U.S. troops from Vietnam.

Vietnamization received a severe test in the spring of 1972 when the North Vietnamese launched a massive offensive across the DMZ using conventional forces. Beginning March 30, the "Eastertide Offensive" quickly overran much of Military Region 1, formerly known as I Corps, including Quang Tri, and threatened the city of Hue. Early in April the North Vietnamese opened three additional fronts in the offensive in the Central Highlands and Binh Dinh province of Military Region 2, and against An Loc in Military Region 3, threatening to overrun the entire country.

The United States countered with a buildup of American airpower to support ARVN defensive operations and to conduct Operation Linebacker against North Vietnam, but continued the withdrawal of American troops, now numbering less than 100,000, as scheduled. By June only six infantry battalions remained in South Vietnam, and in August the last combat troops left the country. The ARVN eventually stopped the North Vietnamese offensive on all fronts, recapturing Quang Tri in September. Both sides considered this somewhat of a validation of the overall strategy of Vietnamization supported by heavy US airpower.

1972 Election and the Christmas Bombings

In the 1972 U.S. presidential election the war was again a major issue. An antiwar candidate, George McGovern, ran against President Nixon. Nixon ended Linebacker on October 22 and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger declared that "peace is at hand" shortly before Election day, dealing a deathblow to McGovern's campaign, which was already far behind in opinion surveys. However, the peace agreement was not signed until the next year, leading to charges that Kissinger's announcement was a political ploy. The Nixon Administration claimed that North Vietnamese negotiators had made use of Kissinger's pronouncement as an opportunity to embarrass the president and to weaken the U.S. position at the negotiation table. White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler on November 30 1972, told the press that there would be no more public announcements concerning U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels were then down to 27,000.

With a perceived stalemate in the Paris peace negotiations, President Nixon ordered a resumption of the bombing of North Vietnam using B-52s. Operation Linebacker II began December 18 with large raids against both Hanoi and Haiphong. Although causing many protests both domestically and internationally, and despite significant losses of B-52s over North Vietnam, Nixon continued the bombing until December 29, when the North Vietnamese agreed to resume talks.

Paris Peace Accords (1973)

On 15 January 1973, citing progress in peace negotiations, President Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam which was later followed by a unilateral withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords were later signed on 27 January 1973, which officially ended U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict, marking the first loss in United States military history. This won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for Kissinger and North Vietnamese Politburo member and lead negotiator Le Duc Tho while fighting continued. However, five days before the peace accords were signed, Lyndon Johnson, whose presidency was marred by the war, died. The mood during his state funeral was one of intense recrimination because the war's wounds were still raw. However, there was relief that not only U.S. involvement in Vietnam ended but also the chapter on one of the most tragic and divisive eras in America came to a close.

The first U.S. prisoners were released on February 11 and all U.S. soldiers were ordered to leave by March 29. In a break with history, soldiers returning from the Vietnam War were generally not treated as heroes, and soldiers were sometimes even condemned for their participation in the war. The peace agreement did not last.

Nixon had promised South Vietnam that he would provide military support to them in the event of a crumbling military situation, or a military offensive from North Vietnam, to convince the Thieu government to sign the 'peace agreement'. But Nixon was fighting for his political life in the growing Watergate Scandal at the time, facing an increasingly hostile Congress, which held the power of appropriations, and a hostile public, sick of the Vietnam War. Thus, Nixon broke his promises to South Vietnam. Economic aid to South Vietnam continued (after being cut nearly in half), but most of it was siphoned off by corrupt elements in the South Vietnamese government, and little of it actually went to the war effort. At the same time, aid to North Vietnam from the USSR and China began to increase, and with the U.S. out, the two countries no longer saw the war as significant to their U.S. relations. The balance of power had clearly shifted to the North, and North Vietnam subsequently launched a major military offensive against the south.

Gerald Ford and Vietnam (1974-1975)

Total U.S. Withdrawal

In December 1974, Congress completed passage of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, which cut off all military funding to the Saigon government and made unenforceable the peace terms negotiated by Nixon. Many in the US congress seemed to want the government of South Vietnam to fall and encouraged its collapse by cutting off aid.

By 1975, the South Vietnamese Army stood alone against the well-organized and highly determined North Vietnamese. In contrast to the US cutoff of economic and military aid, China and the Soviet Union stepped up all forms of assistance to North Vietnam. In South Vietnam, the cities were full of refugees and withdrawal of the US had collapsed the wartime economy that had existed due to the presence of large US forces since 1965. South Vietnam also suffered economically from oil price shocks and a global economic downturn. Early March, the North Vietnamese Army launched an invasion of the Central Highlands supported by tanks and heavy artillery, splitting the Republic of Vietnam in two. President Thieu was fearful that ARVN troops in the northern provinces would be isolated due to a PAVN encirclement. He decided on a redeployment of ARVN troops from the northern provinces to the Central Highlands. But the withdrawal of South Vietnamese forces soon turned into a bloody retreat as the North Vietnam launched its army south over the border. While South Vietnamese forces retreated from the northern provinces, splintered South Vietnamese forces in the Central Highlands fought desperately against the PAVN.

Final North Offensive

North Vietnam had effectively launched a full-scale conventional military invasion designed to conquer South Vietnam by force. Western Media however covered events as if the NLF was conquering the country through an insurgency. The North Vietnamese invasion was an unprecedented action in the history of the conflict and that such actions were required proved, if anything, that the South Vietnam in spite of all its problems was still reasonably strong against any sort of NLF insurgency.

On March 11, 1975 Ban-Me-Thuot fell to North Vietnam. North Vietnam's 3 Army Corps (Tay Nguyen) began its attack in the early morning hours. After a violent artillery barrage, the 4,000-man garrison defending the city retreated with their families. On March 15, President Thieu ordered the Central Highlands and the northern provinces to be abandoned, in what he declared to 'lighten the top and keep the bottom'. General Phu abandoned the cities of Pleiku and Kontum and retreated to the coast in what became known as the "column of tears". General Phu led his troops to Tum Ky on the coast, but as the ARVN retreated, the civilians also went with them. Due to already-destroyed roads and bridges, the column slowed down, as the PAVN closed in. As the column staggered down mountains to the coast, PAVN shelling attacked. By April 1, the column ceased to exist after 60,000 ARVN troops were killed.

On March 20, Thieu reversed himself and ordered Huế, Vietnam's 3-largest city be held out 'at all cost'. But as the PAVN attacked, a panic ensued, and South Vietnamese resistance collapsed. On March 22, the PAVN launched a siege on Huế. The civilians, remembering the 1968 massacre, jammed into the airport, seaports, and the docks. Some even swam into the ocean to reach boats and barges. The ARVN were routed along with the civilians, and some South Vietnamese shot civilians just to make room for themselves to retreat. On March 25, after a 3-day siege, Huế fell.

As Huế fell, PAVN rockets hit downtown Da Nang and the airport. By March 28, 35,000 troops of PAVN's 2 Corps (Huong Giang) were poised in the suburbs. On March 29, a World Airways jet led by Edward Daley landed in Da Nang to save women and children, instead 300 men jammed onto the flight, mostly ARVN troops. On March 30, 100,000 leaderless ARVN troops surrendered as the PAVN marched victoriously through Da Nang on that Easter Sunday. With the fall of Da Nang, the defense of the Central Highlands and northern provinces collapsed. With the northern half of South Vietnam under their control, PAVN prepared for its final phase in its offensive, the Hồ Chí Minh campaign, the plan: By May 1, capture Saigon before South Vietnamese forces could regroup to defend it.

North Vietnam continued its attack, as South Vietnamese forces attempted to hold back the invasion. On April 7, 3 PAVN divisions of the 4 Army Corps (Cuu Long) attacked Xuan-loc, 40 miles east of Saigon , where they met fierce resistance from the ARVN 18 Infantry division. For 2 bloody weeks, severe fighting raged in the city as the ARVN defenders, in a last-ditch effort tried desperately to save South Vietnam from conquest and (remembering 1968) massacres. Also the ARVN 18 Infantry division used many advanced weapons against the PAVN, and it was in the final phase in which Saigon government troops fought well. But on April 21, the exhausted and besieged army garrison defending Xuan-loc surrendered. A bitter and tearful Nguyễn Văn Thiệu resigned on April 21, saying the USA had 'betrayed South Vietnam', and then displayed the 1972 document claiming the USA would retaliate against North Vietnam should they attack. Thiệu left for Taiwan on April 25, leaving control of the doomed government to General Dương Văn Minh.

By now, PAVN tanks had reached Bien Hoa. They turned towards Saigon, clashing with occasional isolated South Vietnamese units on the way.

Fall of Saigon

By April, the weakened South Vietnamese Army had collapsed on all fronts. The powerful North Vietnamese invasion forced South Vietnamese troops on a bloody retreat that ended as a siege at Xuan-loc, a city 40 miles from Saigon, and the last South Vietnamese defense line before Saigon. On April 21, the defense of Xuan-loc collapsed and PAVN troops and tanks rapidly advanced to Saigon. On April 27, 100,000 PAVN troops encircled Saigon, which was to be defended by 30,000 ARVN troops. In order to increase the panic and disorder in the city, the PAVN troops began shelling the airport. With the closure of the airport large numbers of people who might otherwise have fled the city had no way out. On April 29, the U.S. launched Option IV, the largest helicopter evacuation in history. Chaos, unrest, and panic ensued as hysterical Vietnamese scrambled to leave Saigon before it was too late. Helicopters began evacuating from the U.S. embassy and the airport. Evacuations were held to the last minute because U.S. Ambassador Martin thought Saigon could be held and defended. The operation began in an atmosphere of desperation as hysterical mobs of South Vietnamese raced to takeoff spots designated to evacuate, many yelling to be saved. Martin had 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 to mobilize fresh South Vietnamese units. But the plea was rejected. With the government surrounded in Saigon and outnumbered, no amount of money could possibly change the situation.

As well, many U.S. citizens felt the Saigon government would meet certain collapse. President Gerald Ford gave a speech on April 23, declaring the end of the Vietnam War and the end of all U.S. aid to the Saigon regime. The helicopter evacuation continued all day and night while PAVN tanks reached the outskirts of Saigon. In the early hours of April 30, the last U.S. Marines left the embassy as Vietnamese breached the embassy perimeter and raided the place. PAVN T-54 tanks moved into Saigon. Tank skirmishes began as ARVN M-41 tanks attacked the heavily armored Soviet T-54 tanks. PAVN troops soon dashed to capture the U.S. embassy, the government army garrison, the police headquarters, radio station, presidential palace, and other vital targets. The PAVN encountered greater than expected resistance as small pockets of ARVN resistance continued. By now, the helicopter evacuations that had evacuated 7,000 U.S. and Vietnamese had ended. The presidential palace was captured and the NLF flag waved victoriously over it. The raising of the NLF flag was ironic given how the NLF had contributed in the end almost nothing to the final battles. President Dương Văn Minh surrendered Saigon to PAVN colonel Bùi Tín. The surrender came over the radio as Minh ordered South Vietnamese forces to lay down their weapons. Columns of South Vietnamese troops came out of defensive positions and surrendered. Saigon fell on April 30, 1975. As for the people of South Vietnam, many stayed in South Vietnam but by May 1, 1975 most U.S. citizens had fled, leaving the city of Saigon forever. Finally, despite the fact that the United States military had decisively won most major engagements, and had withdrawn troops from the country two years earlier following a peace accord, the Vietnam War is widely considered the USA's first defeat, with over 58,000 dead and many left severely injured. As for the people of South Vietnam, over a million ARVN soldiers died in the 30-year conflict. Three million communist soldiers and Vietnamese civilians also died.

The last official U.S. battle in the conflict was the May 15, 1975 when 18 soldiers were killed on the last day of a rescue operation known as the Mayagüez incident involving a skirmish with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Those soldiers are listed last on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

North Vietnam united both North and South Vietnam on 2 July 1976, to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Saigon was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City in honor of the former president of North Vietnam. Thousands of supporters of the South Vietnamese government were rounded up and sent to "re-education" camps. North Vietnam followed up its victory by first conquering Laos and then Cambodia. Vietnamese troops controlled both countries until the late 1980s. North Vietnam also entered into a brief war with China.

Post War Policies (1975-Present)

The Soviet collapse in 1991 effectively ended the Cold War, and left Vietnam without its primary economic benefactor. This led the government in Hanoi to seek to improve relations with the United States. Vietnam entered into bilateral negotiations after Bill Clinton, who had once protested the Vietnam War, became President in 1993. In 1995 Vietnam and the USA finally established diplomatic and trade relations, with the US opening up an embassy in Vietnam for the first time since 1975. Direct flights between USA and Vietnam resumed in 2005 when United Airlines started daily service between San Francisco and Hồ Chí Minh City via Hong Kong.

Other Countries Commitment

The Australian and New Zealand commitment

Along with US forces, Australia and New Zealand sent ground troops to Vietnam. After assisting in the Malayan Emergency, both nations had gained valuable experience at Jungle Warfare and counter-insurgency. They also believed that the domino theory was playing out, and that they could be a victim of communism too. Australia's peak commitment was 7672 combat troops and New Zealand 552. To achieve this, both Australia and New Zealand re-introduced conscription, a highly controversial act due to the significant level of public opposition to the war in both countries. Australia, like the US, first sent advisors to Vietnam, the number of which continued to rise steadily until 1965 when combat troops were committed. New Zealand first committed a detachment of engineers and an Artillery Battery, and then started sending special forces. The New Zealanders in 161 Artillery Battery were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation 1st Class.

Unlike their US counterparts, the Australian and New Zealand soldiers used small scale guerilla warfare rather than large scale assaults. They never used paths or trails, always carried extra water and fired less ammunition. They also employed counter-insurgency operations that were much less destructive than the search and destroy operations that the US used. Consequently, the ANZACs received more support from the local population and suffered fewer casualties than US forces. However, the US complained that these operations were too detailed for a place like Vietnam, and the body count was significantly lower than that achieved by US soldiers. One thing the US could not complain about were the Australian and New Zealand Special Forces, the Australian Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) and the Special Air Service of New Zealand (NZ SAS). Together they achieved a stunning kill ratio of 500:1, the highest of any unit in Vietnam. ANZAC regular forces were committed to the province of Phuoc Tuy, south east of Saigon.

Thailand's role

Thai soldiers fought in Laos for several years. While in theory volunteers fighting as so-called Unity Battalions, they were in fact Thai regulars fighting against North Vietnam and the Pathet Lao. The battalions were active between 1970 and 1972.

Opposition to the war

Small-scale opposition to the war began in 1964 on college campuses. This was happening during a time of unprecedented leftist student activism, and of the arrival at college age of the demographically significant Baby Boomers.

Conscription in the United States had existed continually (except for a lapse during 1947-1948) since 1940, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted the first peacetime draft in U.S. history. Though conscription remained at a low level through much of the Cold War, it increased dramatically in 1964 to provide troops for the Vietnam Conflict. Formal protests against the draft began on October 15, 1965, when the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States.

Abuses in the Selective Service System were one cause of protest, as local "draft boards" had wide latitude to decide who should be drafted and who should be granted "deferments" which usually meant escaping military service. The first draft lottery since World War II in the United States was held on 1 December 1969, based on a potential dra