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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.

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The NLF was composed of several South Vietnam intellectuals, who 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

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.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vietnam (1953-1961)

Milestones of the escalation under Dwight D. Eisenhower.

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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 draftee's date of birth. While this had the effect of giving relative certainty to young men as to their chances of being drafted, it also had the effect of dividing those eligible youth who engaged in war protest, as noted by The New York Times in a December 8, 1969 article: "Draft Lottery Changes Views of Eligibles."

Statistical analysis indicated that the methodology of the lotteries unintentionally disadvantaged men with late year birthdays. This issue was treated at length in a 4 January 1970, New York Times article titled "Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random".

U.S. public opinion became polarized by the war. Many supporters of the war argued for what was known as the Domino Theory, which held that if the South fell to communist guerillas, other nations, primarily in Southeast Asia, would succumb like falling dominoes. Military critics of the war pointed out that the conflict was political and that the military mission lacked clear objectives. Civilian critics of the war argued that the government of South Vietnam lacked political legitimacy and that support for the war was immoral. Some anti-war activists were themselves Vietnam Veterans, as evidenced by the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Some of the U.S. citizens opposed to the Vietnam War stressed their support for ordinary Vietnamese civilians struck by a war beyond their influence. President Johnson's undersecretary of state, George Ball, was one of the lone voices in his administration advising against war in Vietnam.

The growing anti-war movement alarmed many in the U.S. government. On August 16, 1966 the House Un-American Activities Committee began investigations of U.S. citizens who were suspected of aiding the NLF. Anti-war demonstrators disrupted the meeting and 50 were arrested.

On 1 February 1968, a suspected NLF officer was captured near the site of a ditch holding the bodies of as many as 34 police and their relatives, some of whom were the families of General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan's deputy and close friend. General Loan, a South Vietnamese National Police Chief, summarily shot the suspect in the head on a public street in front of journalists. The execution was filmed and photographed and provided another iconic image that helped sway public opinion in the United States against the war.

In Australia, resistance to the war was at first very limited, although the Australian Labor Party (in opposition for most of the period) steadfastly opposed conscription. However anti-war sentiment escalated rapidly in the late 1960s as more and more Australian soldiers were killed in battle. Growing public unease about the death toll was fuelled by a series of highly-publicised arrests of conscientious objectors, and exacerbated by the shocking revelations of atrocities against Vietnamese civilians, leading to a rapid increase in domestic opposition to the war between 1967 and 1970. The Moratorium marches, held in major Australian cities to coincide with the marches in the USA, were among the largest public gatherings ever seen in Australia up to that time, with over 200,000 people taking to the streets in Melbourne alone.

On 15 October 1969, hundreds of thousands of people took part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States. A second round of "Moratorium" demonstrations was held on November 15.

On April 22, 1971, John Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress about the war, when he appeared before a Senate committee hearing on proposals relating to ending the war. He spoke for nearly two hours with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in what has been named the Fulbright Hearing, after the Chairman of the proceedings, Senator J. William Fulbright. Kerry presented the conclusions of the Winter Soldier Investigation, in which veterans claimed to have personally committed or witnessed war crimes.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson began to seek a third term. A member of his own party, Eugene McCarthy, ran against him for the nomination on an antiwar platform. McCarthy lost by just 300 votes to Johnson in the first primary election in New Hampshire. The resulting blow to the Johnson campaign, taken together with other factors, led the President to make a surprise announcement in a March 31 televised speech that he was pulling out of the race. He also announced the initiation of the Paris Peace Talks with Vietnam in that speech. Then, on August 4, 1969, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy began secret peace negotiations at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris. This set of negotiations failed, however, prior to the 1972 North Vietnamese offensive.

On 21 January 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardoned nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.

Concepts

Escalation

The U.S. involvement in the war has been described as an escalation. This is typically meant to refer to the incremental increase in forces in response to greater need, rather than an intentional strategy. However a key element was that there was no traditional declaration of war which would have involved a national commitment to using all available means to secure victory.

Instead U.S. involvement increased over several years, beginning with the deployment of noncombatant military advisors to the South Vietnamese army, followed by the use of special forces for commando-style operations, followed by the introduction of regular troops for defensive purposes, until regular troops were used in offensive combat. Once U.S. troops were engaged in active combat, escalation meant increasing their numbers.

Successive U.S. administrations also hoped that by limiting its involvement to defending only the South and not directly invading the North, it could support South Vietnam without provoking a major response from China and/or the Soviet Union, as had happened in the Korean War. President Johnson maintained the Kennedy administration's position that South Vietnam's independence was a crucial U.S. defense against Soviet aggression, while at the same time trying to avoid provoking direct participation in the conflict by the Warsaw Pact.

The situation caused friction between the US armed services and the civilian authorities in Washington. Military officials such as General William Westmoreland resented the Johnson Administration's restraints on their operations but feared making outspoken policy criticisms lest they suffer the same fate as General Douglas MacArthur who had been dismissed by Truman on such grounds during the Korean War. The military leadership of the United States also resented the micromanagement of the war by the President and Secretary of Defense.

The relatively slow process of escalation also tended to mute U.S. political debate, since no individual instance of escalation dramatically increased the level of U.S. involvement. However in 1968 the Joint Chiefs of Staff considered increasing the total number of active reserve troops by 200,000, concerned about having roughly a third of U.S. forces committed to one theater of conflict. The Joint Chiefs of Staff asked General Westmoreland, the only military official then commanding U.S. troops in a conflict, to testify to the need to increase. The press portrayed this increase as a need for more troops in Vietnam to reconcile the situation after the Tet Offensive. When this possibility was made public, popular criticism caused the Johnson Administration to abandon the idea. Presidential candidate Richard Nixon called for a decrease in U.S. troop levels. By the end of 1969, under his new administration, they were reduced by 60,000 from their wartime peak.

Pacification and "hearts and minds"

The U.S. realized that the South Vietnamese government needed a solid base of popular support if it was to survive the insurgency. In order to pursue this goal of "winning the hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people, units of the United States Army, referred to as "Civil Affairs" units, were extensively utilized for the first time for this purpose since World War II.

Casualties

Estimating the number killed in the conflict is extremely difficult. Official records from North Vietnam are hard to find or nonexistent and many of those killed were literally obliterated by bombing. For many years the North Vietnamese suppressed the true number of their casualties for propaganda purposes. It is also difficult to say exactly what counts as a "Vietnam war casualty"; people are still being killed today by unexploded ordnance, particularly cluster bomblets. More than 40,000 Vietnamese have been killed or injured so far by landmines and unexploded ordnance.

Environmental effects from chemical agents and the colossal social problems caused by a devastated country with so many dead surely caused many more lives to be shortened.

The lowest casualty estimates, based on North Vietnamese statements which are now discounted by Vietnam, are around 1.5 million Vietnamese killed. Vietnam's Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs released figures on April 3, 1995, reporting that 1.1 million fighters—Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese soldiers—and nearly 2 million civilians in the north and the south were killed between 1954 and 1975. Other figures run as high as 4 million civilian casualties with 1 million casualties being NVA or VC fighters. Robert McNamara, in his regretful memoir of the war, references a figure of 3.2 million. The number of wounded fighters was put at 600,000. It remains even more unclear how many Vietnamese civilians were wounded.

Of the U.S. military, 58,226 were killed in action or classified as missing in action. A further 153,303 US military personnel were wounded to give total casualties of 211,529. The United States Army took the majority of the casualties with 38,179 killed and 96,802 wounded; the Marine Corps lost 14,836 killed and 51,392 wounded; the Navy 2,556 and 4,178; the Air Force lost 2,580 and 931; with the lowest deaths in terms of numbers and percentages among the branches being the Coast Guard, with seven dead and 60 wounded.

U.S. allies took casualties as well. South Korea provided the largest outside force and suffered between 4,400 and 5,000 killed. Full details including WIA and MIA appear difficult to find. Australia lost 501 dead and 3,131 wounded out of the 47,000 troops they had deployed to Vietnam. New Zealand had 38 dead and 187 wounded. Thailand had 351 casualties. It is difficult to locate accurate figures for the losses of the Philippines. Although Canada was not involved in the war, thousands of Canadians joined the U.S. armed forces and served in Vietnam. The US fatal casualties include at least 56 Canadian citizens. It is difficult to estimate the exact number because some Canadians crossed the border to volunteer for service under false pretenses whereas others were permanent residents living in the United States who either volunteered or were drafted. See also Canada and the Vietnam War.

In the aftermath of the war many U.S. citizens came to believe that some of the 2,300 US soldiers listed as Missing in Action had in fact been taken prisoner by the DRV and held indefinitely. The Vietnamese list over 200,000 of their own soldiers missing in action.

Both during and after the war, significant human rights violations occurred. Both North and South Vietnamese had large numbers of political prisoners, many of whom were killed or tortured. In 1970, two U.S. congressmen visiting South Vietnam discovered the existence of "tiger cages", which were small prison cells used for torturing South Vietnamese political prisoners (see Con Son Island). After the war, actions taken by the victors in Vietnam, including firing squads, torture, concentration camps and "reeducation," led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Additionally, economic problems in Vietnam led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Many of these refugees fled by boat and thus gave rise to the phrase "boat people." They immigrated to Hong Kong, France, the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries, creating sizable expatriate communities, notably in the United States.

Among the many casualties of the war were the people of the neighboring state of Cambodia. Approximately 50,000–300,000 died as a result of U.S. bombing campaigns. The bombing campaigns also drove some Cambodians into the arms of the nationalist and communist Khmer Rouge, who took power after the USA cut off funds for bombing them in 1973, and continued the slaughter of opponents or suspected opponents. About 1.7 million Cambodians were murdered or fell victim to starvation and disease before the regime was overthrown by Vietnamese forces in 1979.

About 6 thousand Soviet personnel participated in the Vietnam War; 16 of them died or were killed.

War Legacy

Vietnam

Virtually all Vietnamese were affected by the war, having endured large scale bombardments and targeted killings. During the war's height in the late 1960s, about half of South Vietnam's population of 20 million people have been displaced. To the northerners, fighting and hostility continued on with neighboring countries until 1989. Many Vietnamese lost relatives as a result of the war in general. The end of the war marked the first time that Vietnam was not engaged in substantial civil war or active military conflict with an external opponent in many years. North and South Vietnam were unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam following the war.

Persecution caused many highly skilled and educated South Vietnamese connected with the former regime to flee the country during the fall of Saigon and the years following, severely depleting human capital in Vietnam. The new government promptly sent people connected to the South Vietnam regime to concentration camps for "reeducation", often for years at a time. Others were sent to so-called "new economic zones" to develop the undeveloped land. Furthermore, the victorious Communist government implemented land reforms in the south similar to those implemented in North Vietnam earlier. Persecution and poverty prompted an additional two million people to flee Vietnam as boat people over the 20 years following unification. The problem was so severe that during the 1980s and 1990s the UN established refugee camps in neighboring countries to process them. Many of these refugees resettled in the United States, forming large Vietnamese-American emigrant communities with a decidedly anti-communist viewpoint.

The military occupation authorities promptly implemented currency reforms. The dong previously used in South Vietnam was converted to the "liberation dong" at a rate of 500 old dongs to 1 liberation dong, essentially rendering much of the South Vietnamese money worthless. After unification in 1976, the liberation dong was abandoned in favor of a new unified dong. While the north exchanged at the 1:1 rate, the south had to exchange 5 liberation dong for each 4 unified dong. Private enterprises in the South were socialized. During much of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Vietnam underwent an economic depression and came close to famine.

The large number of people born after 1975 may be indicative of a postwar baby boom, and despite the devastating effect of the civil war on their parents' generation, a general disinterest in politics and recent history among this postwar generation of Vietnamese is notable.

The Soviet collapse in 1991 left Vietnam without its main economic and political partner, and thus it began to seek closer ties with the West. After taking office, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced his desire to heal relations with Vietnam. His administration lifted economic sanctions on the country in 1994, and in May 1995 the two nations renewed diplomatic relations, with the U.S. opening an embassy on Vietnamese soil for the first time since 1975.

The economic reforms known as đổi mới (renovation), instituted by the government since the late 1980s, have been producing spectacular results. Today, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, fueled by exports and foreign direct investment. In less than two years after the signing the bilateral trade agreement in 2001, the U.S. became the largest export market for Vietnam. However, it remains among the poorest countries in the world, largely dependent on foreign aid.

Unexploded U.S. explosives

It is estimated that six million unexploded bombs dropped by U.S. bombers are left in the region. This has been a major problem in agriculture. The cost of removing them would be enormous. However, people and organizations are attempting to remove these mines and unexploded bombs.

Unexploded NLF and North Vietnamese devices

Hundreds of thousands of land mines and other explosive devices were placed in areas of Vietnam by the NLF and North Vietnamese Army. This has been a major problem in agriculture. The Vietnamese army also left mines all over Cambodia and Laos. The Vietnamese government refuses to accept any responsibility for these explosives and by official policy considers any explosive device to be U.S. in origin. The Vietnamese government does not consider removal of the mines or other devices to be cost-effective.

Contamination from U.S. Chemicals

U.S. herbicides, most importantly the dioxin-based Agent Orange which was used to remove plant cover from large areas, continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and poisoning within food-chain in the areas where they were used.

Domestic effects and aftermath in Cambodia

In 1975, shortly before the end of the war, the Communist Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia after a bloody civil war. This led to a genocide known as the "Killing Fields" that collectively killed some 1.7 million people (possibly even more), one-fifth of the country's population. A month after taking power, Khmer Rouge soldiers seized the SS Mayaguez, a U.S. merchant ship, which resulted in a military response from President Ford, who ordered air strikes on Cambodian oil installations and the landing of troops at Koh Tang Island, where it was believed the crew was being held. The ship was seized and the crew repatriated (see Mayaguez Incident) but a significant number of U.S. casualties occurred at Koh Tang. The Khmer Rouge were driven from power in 1979, when Vietnam invaded and installed a pro-Vietnam 'puppet' government.

Domestic effects and aftermath in Laos

The North Vietnamese army, in violation of the peace accords, never left Laos. When all US forces pulled out, the Royalist government brought the Pathet Lao into the government as equals. Laos was to be neutral. Large portions of the government and anti-communist armies in Laos were demobilized due to lack of money as US aid ended. After North Vietnam had won its victory in South Vietnam, it encouraged the Pathet Lao to begin attacking the government. As in the past, PAVN army units provided direct support to the operations. After seeing what had happened in Cambodia and South Vietnam, the government of Laos effectively negotiated a transfer of power to the Pathet Lao. The King was encouraged to abdicate and then was years afterward killed by the government along with his family.

Most of the educated people in Laos fled the country. True to their nature, the Pathet Lao remained for many years little more than a puppet colonial regime taking orders from Vietnam. A treaty of friendship was signed which legalized the presence of the Vietnamese army in the country. Large numbers of Vietnamese "advisors" were resettled in the country and given prominent roles. On orders from Vietnam, the borders of Laos with China and Thailand were closed which made Laos totally dependent on Vietnam economically. Vietnam eventually withdrew from Laos in the late 1980s. The regime they left behind has liberalized the economy and some aspects of daily life, but retains all political power.

Large areas in eastern parts of Laos remain occupied by unexploded U.S. bombs.

Domestic effects and aftermath in the U.S.

The Vietnam war had many long term repercussions for U.S. society and foreign policy.

Social impact

The Vietnam War had a powerful impact on U.S. sociopolitical opinion, especially that of the young U.S. citizens of the baby boom. For both supporters and critics these opinions generated political positions regarding US foreign and domestic policy. The Vietnam War was also significant in encouraging the belief that mass mobilization and protest can influence government policy.

The war and the Communist victory led to a mass emigration from Vietnam, primarily to six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Great Britain, and West Germany. During the postwar period over 1 million refugees arrived in the United States (see Vietnamese American). They included Cambodians and Vietnamese of many ethnicities (such as the Hmong of Laos) as well as Amerasians, the offspring of Vietnamese and U.S. citizens. The integration of these groups, particularly Vietnamese ethnic minorities, generated further social issues in the U.S. Amerasians were the victims of racism in Vietnam. Racial and ethnic cleansing as practiced by Vietnam and Laos received little coverage by the American media.

By this time, facilitated by modern transportation reaching the region, the opium and heroin trade that had arisen in the infamous Golden Triangle region was also beginning to escalate. The arrival of regular air transport to Laos and the activities of the KMT in Burma inevitably lead to local heroin traffickers developing for the first time a local capability to chemically refine the drug in large quantities. Significant amounts of heroin started to flow into Vietnam during 1970 and this was followed soon after by the first large-scale seizures of Asian heroin in the United States and Europe. Historian and expert on the drug trade Dr Alfred W. McCoy claims that there was significant covert US involvement in the drug trade which, he alleges, was the result of what he calls the CIA's policy of "radical pragmatism". Others have strongly suggested that the North Vietnamese and NLF individuals were equally involved in the drug trade and allowed heroin to flow through their lines into South Vietnam. In truth, it can be said that rather than a CIA conspiracy, the heroin production in 1970 had more to do with cheap prices, a large ready-made market among the U.S. military in Vietnam and Thailand and the arrival of the skills to refine heroin in Asia. Rather than a CIA plot, events in southeast Asia reflected many individuals taking advantage of the war to make money off the heroin trade.

Although McCoy's broader claims remain controversial, the indisputable fact was that by late 1970 heroin use was emerging as a major health issue among U.S. servicemen, with some medics reporting that as many as 10% of GIs in some units were regular heroin users by the end of 1970. The penetration of cheap drugs into U.S. military in Vietnam also led to a rapid increase in drug importation into Australia, thanks in part to the thriving Rest and Recreation circuit, with some U.S. personnel sent to Sydney on R&R leave being used as drug "mules". Demand among ex U.S. personnel who returned to the states created increased heroin demand in the U.S. Around this time, U.S. journalists also began to report allegations that South Vietnamese politicians were using money from the drug trade to finance their election campaigns, and that senior intelligence personnel were directly involved in drug running operations. U.S. journalists at the time were less likely to ask questions as to how the drugs were getting through the NLF and North Vietnamese controlled border areas or who among them was profiting off the drug trade.

Social attitudes and treatment of veterans

Service in the war was unpopular and opposition to the war generated negative views of veterans in some quarters. Some Vietnam veterans experienced social exclusion in the years following the war and some experienced problems readjusting to society. In the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, many Vietnam veterans were looked down upon by the veterans of World War II and were excluded from joining war veteran organisations for a number of years on the grounds that the Vietnam War veterans did not fight a "real war". One example of the negative views and attitudes that the World War II veterans gave to the Vietnam War veterans occurred in Australia and New Zealand with many Australian Vietnam veterans being excluded from joining the Returned Servicemen's League during the 1960's and 1970's (the RSL had a large number of World War II veterans in charge of the organisation at the time and their views and attitudes towards the Vietnam veterans were highly negative) as well as many ANZAC Vietnam veterans being excluded from marching in the ANZAC Day parades during the 1970's because many of the ANZACs who fought in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War saw the ANZAC Vietnam veterans as unworthy of being heirs to the ANZAC title and tradition, a view which hurt many ANZAC Vietnam veterans.

Negative stereotyping of veterans in popular culture was common in the 1970s. Eventually, however, a greater understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder, previously known as battle fatigue, together with the development of Vietnam veterans' associations, generated more sympathy for Vietnam veterans.

In contrast to the generous benefits afforded veterans of World War II, Vietnam veterans received benefits no better than those in the prior peacetime service period.

Many veterans who had been exposed to the defoliation agent known as Agent Orange later developed health problems, resulting in class action lawsuits against the government. The U.S. department of Veterans Affairs awarded compensation to 1,800 of some 250,000 claimants.

Another important contrast to the post–World War II period is that the acceptability of avoiding service during the Vietnam War has resulted in an increasing majority of U.S. officials, including those elected to major positions, not being war, or even military service, veterans. Every president from 1945 to 1992 was a war veteran - even George McGovern, the pacifist Democratic candidate in 1972, was a highly decorated B-24 bomber pilot. Many who did perform military service during this period did not serve in the war itself, including U.S. President George W. Bush who served stateside in the National Guard. Former President Bill Clinton, after enrolling in the ROTC, successfully withdrew his commitment, did not serve in the military at all, and even took part in anti-U.S. policy protests on foreign soil.

In 1982, construction began on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (also known as 'The Wall') designed by Maya Lin. It is located on the National Mall adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial. The Three Soldiers statue was added in 1984.

Popular opinion regarding the war and its veterans changed slowly through the late 1970s and 1980s. Vietnam service has become more respected and has been an important feature of several election campaigns, notably U.S. Senators John McCain and John F. Kerry. Kerry, the first Vietnam combat veteran to be nominated as a presidential candidate by a major party, made his service record a major issue in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. Although Republicans maintain that the specifics of his record were controversial, the fact that he had actually served in combat in Vietnam and had been awarded the Purple Heart was viewed as a major political asset.

Weapons of the Vietnam War

A wide variety of weapons were used by the different armies operating in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was a time of great technological development and a testing ground for new weapons of the era. The allies of the US were armed with U.S. Army weapons, some of which, such as the M1 Carbine, were substitute standard weapons dating from World War II. The NVA, although having inherited a miscellany of American, French, and Japanese weapons from earlier stages of the conflict, were largely armed and supplied by its Warsaw Pact allies. In addition some weapons were manufactured in Vietnam or "home-made", most notably anti-personnel explosives.

Common military medals of the Vietnam War

During the war, a wide array of military decorations for bravery, meritorious actions, and general service were created by both nations of Vietnam.

In U.S.

They began issuing combat decorations which were last bestowed in the Korean War as well as several new service medals. Most South Vietnamese decorations were issued to both members of the South Vietnamese military and the United States armed forces. As such, several of the current U.S. senior military officers, who served during the Vietnam War, can today still be seen wearing South Vietnamese medals on active duty uniforms. Since South Vietnam as a country no longer exists, such medals are in fact considered obsolete and may be only privately purchased.

In Vietnam

Some of the medals include Liberation Order, Ho Chi Minh Insignia, Brass Fortress of the Fatherland Decoration, Friendship Decoration and Defeat American Aggression Badge.

See also

• Background to the Vietnam War
• History of Vietnam
• Vietnam War casualties
  • Massacre at Hue
  • My Lai Massacre
  • Con Son Island
  • Phoenix Program
  • Tiger Force
  • Winter Soldier Investigation
• Opposition to the Vietnam War
  • Vietnam Veterans Against the War
  • Canada and the Vietnam War
• Military history of the United States
  • Cold War
  • Military history
• Weapons of the Vietnam War
• Aircraft losses of the Vietnam War
• Cu Chi tunnels
• Hanoi Hannah
• Prisoner-of-war camp
• Studies and Observations Group

Notes

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Names for the war

Various names have been given to the war, and these have shifted over time, though Vietnam War is the dominant standard in English. It has been called the Second Indochina War, the Vietnam Conflict, the Vietnam War, and, in Vietnamese Cuộc chiến Việt Nam, "The Vietnam War", or Nội chiến, "The Civil War".

The usage of these names may represent a particular viewpoint.

1. Second Indochina War: puts the conflict into context with other distinctive but related and contiguous conflicts in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the prior ending in 1954 and the subsequent beginning in 1979.
2. Vietnam Conflict: largely a US term, it acknowledges that the US never declared war on any other party in it. Legally, the US was not at war and certain wartime legal measures, such as soldiers serving for "the duration" never came into effect.
3. Vietnam War: the most commonly-used term in English, it implies that the location was chiefly within the borders of the nation (which is disputed, as many regard the scope as including at least Cambodia); it sidesteps the issue of the lack of a US declaration of war.
4. Resistance War Against the Americans to Save the Nation: the term favored by North Vietnam (and after its victory, Vietnam); it is more of a slogan than a name, and its meaning is self-evident. Its usage has been largely abolished in recent years as the communist Vietnamese government seeks better relations with the United States. Official publications now increasingly refer to it generically as "Chiến tranh Việt Nam" (Vietnam War).

Vietnamese who are knowledgeable of the Vietnam War oppose the lengthy propagandist term Resistance War Against the Americans to Save the Nation because it does not reflect the civil war nature of the conflict, while others oppose calling it the "Vietnam War" because it reflects a Western viewpoint, not a Vietnamese one. The western view point is though not Vietnamese, but is one portraying the critical cause of war. Given the nature of the government in Vietnam, open discussion even with regard to the name of the conflict is not really possible.

Lists

http://www.stopusa.be/scripts/texte.php?section=CL&langue3&id=24471

http://www.monde-solidaire.org/spip/article.php3?id_article=2295

• Major Operations during the Vietnam War
• Major Battles during the Vietnam War
• Major bombing campaigns
• Common Military Medals
• Anti-War publications

External links

Ronnie E. Ford "New Light on Gulf of Tonkin" Ronnie E. Ford's book, Tet: 1968 Understanding the Surprise

Further reading

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• Civil wars
• Guerrilla wars
• History of Vietnam
• Vietnam War