Another notable work was the diary of ng Thy Trm, a North Vietnamese doctor who enlisted in the Southern battlefield, and was killed at the age of 27 by U.S. forces near Qung Ngi. [194]:128129 The U.S. Air Force continued to heavily bomb Cambodia in support of the Cambodian government as part of Operation Freedom Deal. troops. Richard Nixon Ten percent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City was suffering from serious venereal diseases when the war ended, and there were 4 million illiterates throughout the South. China accepted 250,000 people. During the land reform, testimony from North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which extrapolated resulted in an initial estimation of nearly 100,000 executions nationwide. [16], Support for the VC was driven by resentment of Diem's reversal of Viet Minh land reforms in the countryside. [194] A practice known as "sand-bagging" started occurring, where units ordered to go on patrol would go into the country-side, find a site out of view from superiors and rest while radioing in false coordinates and unit reports. On V-J Day, 2 September, the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) was proclaimed in Hanoi. As South Vietnam was formally part of a military alliance with the US, Australia, New Zealand, France, the UK, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, the alliance was invoked during the war. [124]:201206 During the battle the South Vietnamese had lost 83 soldiers and 5 US war helicopters serving to ferry ARVN troops that had been shot down by Vietcong forces, while the Vietcong forces had lost only 18 soldiers. It has also been called the "Second Indochina War"[78] and the "Vietnam conflict". . [15] This decision was made at the 11th Plenary Session of the Lao Dong Central Committee. [40]:221 In the same month, Johnson pledged that he was not "committing American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help protect their own land". Following Vietnamization many Montagnard groups and fighters were incorporated into the Vietnamese Rangers as border sentries. [327] Drug use, racial tensions, and the growing incidence of fraggingattempting to kill unpopular officers and non-commissioned officers with grenades or other weaponscreated severe problems for the U.S. military and impacted its capability of undertaking combat operations. Defoliation was also used to clear sensitive areas, including base perimeters and possible ambush sites along roads and canals. "[100]:575 An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Vietnamese boat people died at sea, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [72][40]:131. By the 1950s, the conflict had become entwined with the Cold War. In Vietnam, the diary has often been compared to The Diary of Anne Frank, and both are used in literary education. U.S. public polling in 1978 revealed that nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral. "This article", noted Peter Church, "proved to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out. However, the PAVN/VC insurgents remained elusive and demonstrated great tactical flexibility. [193]:362366, On 10 March 1975, General Dung launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the Central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery. Who was the US president during the Vietnam War until 1963? [97]:230, Between 1954 and 1957, the Dim government succeeded in preventing large-scale organized unrest in the countryside. In 1971, the Pentagon Papers were leaked to The New York Times. "[85]:367, Vietnam was a major political issue during the United States presidential election in 1968. "[123] Eisenhower's put 900 advisors in Vietnam, and by November 1963, Kennedy had put 16,000 American military personnel in Vietnam. 5, pp. The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force Curtis LeMay, however, had long advocated saturation bombing in Vietnam and wrote of the communists that "we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age". 's for Refusing Orders", "Vietnam: An Infantryman's View of Our Failure", "Facts about the Vietnam Veterans memorial collection", "This Day in History 1974: Thieu announces war has resumed", "Congress Resists U.S. Aid In Evacuating Vietnamese", "Transcript of speech by President Gerald R. Ford - April 23, 1975", "Soldier from Thai Binh who put flag on the roof of Independence Palace", "Reunion of the Veterans organization of Tank Amour force in the South Vietnam", "Vietnam Tries to Create New Image 30 Years After End of War", "CBS News Poll: U.S. involvement in Vietnam", 1969: Millions march in US Vietnam Moratorium, "Russians Acknowledge a Combat Role in Vietnam", "Soviet rocketeer: After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly", "The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship during the Vietnam War: Cooperation and Conflict", "Torture: What the Vietcong Learned and the CIA Didn't", "The last missing woman from the Vietnam War", "Fact Check: Why Are So Few Women's Names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall? As resistance in Hu collapsed, PAVN rockets rained down on Da Nang and its airport. [217][218], By the end of April, the ARVN had collapsed on all fronts except in the Mekong Delta. Riots broke out at the 1968 Democratic National Convention during protests against the war. [16] The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 individuals were imprisoned and 2,148 were killed in the process. [34]:450453[44] Extrapolating from a 1969 US intelligence report, Guenter Lewy estimated 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war. Phuoc Binh, the provincial capital, fell on 6 January 1975. There were over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period. The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955[A 2] to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Further information on the final North Vietnamese offensive: Ousting and assassination of Ng nh Dim, Gulf of Tonkin and Johnson's escalation, 19631969, ARVN taking the lead and U.S. ground-force withdrawal, Easter Offensive and Paris Peace Accords, 1972, United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO). [245] The Phoenix Program, coordinated by the CIA and involving US and South Vietnamese security forces, was aimed at destroying the political infrastructure of the Viet Cong. [358]:376377, On 25 May 2012, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation of the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. The killed in action figure comes from "Special Subject 4: The Work of Locating and Recovering the Remains of Martyrs From Now Until 2020 And Later Years," downloaded from the Vietnamese government website datafile on 1 December 2017. [208] Lon Nol began rounding up Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia into internment camps and massacring them, provoking harsh reactions from both the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese governments. [75]:308309 Further north, at Qung Tr City, the ARVN Airborne Division, the 1st Division and a regiment of the US 1st Cavalry Division had managed to hold out and overcome an assault intended to capture the city. On 23 September 1945, French forces overthrew the DRV government, and declared French authority restored. Most arms were captured from poorly defended ARVN militia outposts. If the enemy persisted, a period of twelve to eighteen months following Phase 2 would be required for the final destruction of enemy forces remaining in remote base areas. Fighting continued after the ceasefire, this time without US participation, and continued throughout the year. [263][264] Some women also served for the PAVN and Viet Cong intelligence services. "Stabbed in the Back! [40]:116 The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time. [74] In 1969, North Vietnam declared the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. [40]:685690. [85]:353354 The idea that the government of South Vietnam could manage its own affairs was shelved. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: "Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days. [160]:508513 This officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, created a ceasefire between North Vietnam/PRG and South Vietnam, guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam under the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for elections or a political settlement between the PRG and South Vietnam, allowed 200,000 communist troops to remain in the south, and agreed to a POW exchange. [326] According to Dale Kueter, "Of those killed in combat, 86.3 percent were white, 12.5 percent were black and the remainder from other races. [40]:486 Refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was also seen as Johnson's admission that the war was lost. However, limitations of the units, including poor voice quality, reduced range, annoying time delays and logistical support issues, led to only one unit in ten being used. [62] These do not include the estimated 300,000500,000 PAVN/VC missing in action. The United States had just sent its first combat. [40]:606637, The war was central to the 1972 U.S. presidential election as Nixon's opponent, George McGovern, campaigned on immediate withdrawal. More than 3million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam. The war also influenced a generation of musicians and songwriters in Vietnam, the United States, and throughout the world, both pro/anti-war and pro/anti-communist, with the Vietnam War Song Project having identified 5,000+ songs about or referencing the conflict. [256] 155,000 refugees fleeing the final North Vietnamese Spring Offensive were reported to have been killed or abducted on the road to Tuy Ha in 1975. How the Vietnam War Ratcheted Up Under 5 U.S. Presidents On 15 March 1973, Nixon implied the US would intervene again militarily if the North launched a full offensive, and Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger re-affirmed this position during his June 1973 confirmation hearings. Chapter 17 index: "Communists provided further corroboration of the proximity of their casualty figures to American figures in a postwar disclosure of total losses from 1960 to 1975. Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun. US ground forces also had access to B-52 and F-4 Phantom II and other aircraft to launch napalm, white phosphorus, tear gas, chemical weapons, precision-guided munition and cluster bombs. For example, the website "African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War" compiles examples of such coverage,[277] as does the print and broadcast work of journalist Wallace Terry whose book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984), includes observations about the impact of the war on the black community in general and on black servicemen specifically. [132], Paramilitary officers from the CIA's Special Activities Division trained and led Hmong tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. [40]:649663 Nixon pressured Thieu to accept the terms of the agreement or else face retaliatory military action from the U.S.[212], On 15 January 1973, all U.S. combat activities were suspended. 11719. [173] The U.S. claimed 17,000 of the PAVN and Viet Cong had been killed and 15,000 wounded. Chloro-dioxins, which are inevitably formed as a byproduct of Agent Orange synthesis, are highly teratogenic, and there is substantial evidence that the birth defects carry on for three generations or more. Commitment of U.S. (and other allies) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965. [74], Prior to Tet, in November 1967, Westmoreland had spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson administration to bolster flagging public support. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. [332] And behind the scenes Secretary of Defense McNamara wrote in a memo to President Johnson his doubts about the war: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one. [174][175] By then it had become the bloodiest year of the war up to that point. [97]:706, The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor"[97]:18 in its dealings with the media. JFK and Vietnam: The September 1963 TV Interviews While Hanoi's support for the Viet Cong played a role, South Vietnamese governmental incompetence was at the core of the crisis. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians found that they had no way out. [165] The first few days were considered a success but the momentum had slowed after fierce resistance. [195][40]:526 From 1969 on, search-and-destroy operations became referred to as "search and evade" or "search and avoid" operations, falsifying battle reports while avoiding guerrilla fighters. The north was supported by the Soviet Union, China,[21] and other communist states, while the south was supported by the United States and other anti-communist allies. Living in a male-dominated environment created tensions between the sexes. [267] Many women joined provincial and voluntary village-level militia in the People's Self-Defense Force especially during the ARVN expansions later in the war. [258]:57 One civilian doctor, Eleanor Ardel Vietti, who was captured by Viet Cong on 30 May 1962, in Bun Ma Thut, remains the only American woman unaccounted for from the Vietnam War. [165]:148149 By the end of 1968, the VC insurgents held almost no territory in South Vietnam, and their recruitment dropped by over 80%, signifying a drastic reduction in guerrilla operations, necessitating increased use of PAVN regular soldiers from the north. In July 1965, at the beginning of this steady escalation, President Johnson attempted to explain the need for increased military intervention in Vietnam in a press conference announcing that draft inductions would increase from 17,000 to 35,000 per month. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963. Stanley Karnow noted that "the main PX [Post Exchange], located in the Saigon suburb of Cholon, was only slightly smaller than the New York Bloomingdale's"[97]:453, Washington encouraged its SEATO allies to contribute troops. [87]:18 By 1954, the United States had spent $1billion in support of the French military effort, shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war. Only five high-ranking congressional officials were informed of Operation Menu. [40]:702704, On 7 April, three PAVN divisions attacked Xun Lc, 40 miles (64km) east of Saigon. All-female units were present throughout the entirety of the war, ranging from front-line combat troops to anti-aircraft, scout and reconnaissance units. Additional common crimes included theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by military necessity.[238]. [37][38] The Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 1955 to 1975. [313], Failure of U.S. goals in the war is often placed at different institutions and levels. ", American War and Military Operations: Casualties: Lists and Statistics, "Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 196272", "America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War", "Vietnam Reds Said to Hold 17 From Taiwan as Spies", "20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate", "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme", "Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict", "It's Called the Vietnam Syndrome, and It's Back", "The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War", "The National Archives Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File", "Research Guides: Vietnam Conflict: Maps", "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics", "Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues:: The American / Viet Nam War", "The History Place Vietnam War 19451960", "The Final Declarations of the Geneva Conference July 21, 1954", "Geneva Accords | history of Indochina | Britannica", "China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar", "The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954? Group 559 was headquartered in Na Kai, Houaphan province in northeast Laos close to the border. Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite groups opposed to U.S. anti-communism and imperialism,[227] and for those involved with the New Left, such as the Catholic Worker Movement. The reaction to the incident by the Nixon administration was seen as callous and indifferent, reinvigorating the declining anti-war movement. A successful effort in Vietnamin Kennedy's words, "the cornerstone of the free world in Southeast Asia"would provide to both allies and adversaries evidence of U.S. determination to meet the challenge of communist expansion in the Third World. Myths play a central role in the historiography of the Vietnam War, and have become a part of the culture of the United States. [97]:18 Despite Johnson and Westmoreland publicly proclaiming victory and Westmoreland stating that the "end is coming into view",[162] internal reports in the Pentagon Papers indicate that Viet Cong forces retained strategic initiative and controlled their losses. The election was won by Republican party candidate Richard Nixon who claimed to have a secret plan to end the war. [34]:450453, According to figures released by the Vietnamese government there were 849,018 confirmed military deaths on the PAVN/VC side during the war. France and the United States also discussed the use of three tactical nuclear weapons, although reports of how seriously this was considered and by whom are vague and contradictory. The modern classical composer George Crumb composed a string quartet, a threnody, regarding the war in 1970 titled Black Angels. The city was defended by about 30,000 ARVN troops. [40]:106107 In December 1960, North Vietnam formally created the Viet Cong with the intent of uniting all anti-GVN insurgents, including non-communists. "[97]:546 The American public and media began to turn against Johnson as the three offensives contradicted claims of progress made by the Johnson administration and the military. For a full history of wars in Vietnam, see. [265][264] Other women were embedded with troops on the front-lines, serving as doctors and medical personnel. The United States enters the war. This scholarship challenges myths about American society and soldiery in the Vietnam War. [290], On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. [97]:17 As Army Chief of Staff Harold Keith Johnson noted, "if anything came out of Vietnam, it was that air power couldn't do the job. [A 8] The end of the Vietnam War would precipitate the Vietnamese boat people and the larger Indochina refugee crisis, which saw millions of refugees leave Indochina, an estimated 250,000 of whom perished at sea. Phase 2. Although Kennedy stressed long-range missile parity with the Soviets, he was also interested in using special forces for counterinsurgency warfare in Third World countries threatened by communist insurgencies. [40]:35, During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954), U.S. carriers sailed to the Gulf of Tonkin and the U.S. conducted reconnaissance flights. High-profile opposition to the Vietnam War increasingly turned to mass protests in an effort to shift U.S. public opinion. May 12, 1975, "Chapter I, Background to the Crisis, 1940-50", "Stabbed in the back! Lyndon Johnson presidency The major initiative in the Lyndon Johnson presidency was the Vietnam War. [A 12]. Calculating U.S. Xiaoming, Zhang. The Vietnam War came to dominate Nixon's presidency. Viet Cong attacks against static US positions accounted for 30% of all engagements, VC/PAVN ambushes and encirclements for 23%, American ambushes against Viet Cong/PAVN forces for 9%, and American forces attacking Viet Cong emplacements for only 5% of all engagements. Which US president started the Vietnam War? [40]:515[182], U.S. president Richard Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969. Brandishing a captured Chinese machine gun, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara appeared at a televised news conference in the spring of 1965. Official figures from the Vietnamese government estimate 1.1 million dead and 300,000 missing from 1945 to 1979, with approximately 849,000 dead and 232,000 missing from 1960 to 1975. War crimes were committed by both sides during the conflict and included rape, massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, the widespread use of torture, and the murder of prisoners of war. [165]:9094 He reasoned that this could be achieved through sparking a general uprising within the towns and cities,[165]:148 along with mass defections among ARVN units, who were on holiday leave during the truce period. What Led to the Start of the Vietnam War? The Viet Cong was now tasked with destroying the ARVN and capturing and holding areas; however, the Viet Cong was not yet strong enough to assault major towns and cities. According to the Vietnamese government, ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the war officially ended. [249]:77 During their visit to the Con Son Prison in 1970, U.S. congressmen Augustus F. Hawkins and William R. Anderson witnessed detainees either confined in minute "tiger cages" or chained to their cells, and provided with poor-quality food. [103]:570571 Election and the Vietnam War Lyndon B. Johnson campaign button Lyndon B. Johnson campaign button American presidential election, 1964 In the presidential election of 1964, Johnson was opposed by conservative Republican Barry Goldwater. The French-speaking Australian journalist Kate Webb was captured along with a photographer and others by the Viet Cong in Cambodia and travelled into Laos with them; they were released back into Cambodia after 23 days of captivity. In 1967, Thieu became president with Ky as his deputy, after rigged elections. 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides (like Agent Orange) were sprayed on 6 million acres of forests and crops by the U.S. Air Force. [279], During the early stages of the war, the Viet Cong mainly sustained itself with captured arms; these were often of American manufacture or were crude, makeshift weapons used alongside shotguns made of galvanized pipes. [165]:4852, In the post-war era, Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds. [88][40]:75 According to then-Vice President Richard Nixon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up plans to use small tactical nuclear weapons to support the French. Although female military nurses lived in a heavily male environment, very few cases of sexual harassment were ever reported. L c Th and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister Nguyn Th Bnh and a reluctant President Thiu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January 1973. [224] Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam.[225][226]. Why did the Vietnam War start? | Britannica [79][80][81], Given that there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this particular conflict is known by its primary protagonists' names to distinguish it from others. When did U.S. start sending troops to Vietnam? [40]:7576 Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained skeptical of France's chance of success. "[97]:265), the construction of the Berlin Wall in August, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. [160]:153156 Despite the continual conductance of major operations, which the Viet Cong and PAVN would typically evade, the war was characterised by smaller-unit contacts or engagements. This phase would end when the enemy had been worn down, thrown on the defensive, and driven back from major populated areas. 4, p. 7. On 15 October 1969, the Vietnam Moratorium attracted millions of Americans. According to a native observer, 443,360 people had to register for a period in re-education camps in Saigon alone, and while some of them were released after a few days, others stayed there for more than a decade. [314] Others point to a failure of U.S. military doctrine. Over time, this policy damaged the public trust in official pronouncements. [77], Various names have been applied to the conflict. The bombing halt achieved no breakthrough but rather brought on a period of prolonged bickering between the United States and its South Vietnamese ally about the terms and procedures to govern the talks. This joint U.S.South Vietnamese program attempted to resettle the rural population into fortified villages. Once in office, his administration sought to achieve "peace with honor." [176], At one point in 1968, Westmoreland considered the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam in a contingency plan codenamed Fracture Jaw, which was abandoned when it became known to the White House. [34]:270279, Notable Viet Cong atrocities include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Hu[255] during the Tet Offensive and the killing of 252 civilians during the k Sn massacre. [85]:349351. [271] Many mixed-blood Amerasian children were left behind when their American fathers returned to the United States after their tour of duty in South Vietnam; 26,000 of them were permitted to immigrate to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. A counter-offensive in 1971 as part of Operation Chenla II by the PAVN would recapture most of the border areas and decimate most of Lon Nol's forces. VC/PAVN Attacks U.S. Forces was characterised by lowered morale, lack of motivation, and poor leadership. South Vietnam was inundated with manufactured goods. [289], Former U.S. Air Force official Earl Tilford has recounted "repeated bombing runs of a lake in central Cambodia. [161] Up to the war's end, the Viet Cong and PAVN would initiate 90% of large firefights, of which 80% were clear and well-planned operations, and thus the PAVN/Viet Cong would retain strategic initiative despite overwhelming US force and fire-power deployment. Half of the ARVN troops involved were either captured or killed, half of the ARVN/US support helicopters were downed by anti-aircraft fire and the operation was considered a fiasco, demonstrating operational deficiencies still present within the ARVN. [33] Between 195,000 and 430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war. [231], The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. At the 1954 Geneva Conference, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel. [89] The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 PAVN/VC forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Among the internal refugees were many young women who became the ubiquitous "bar girls" of wartime South Vietnam, "hawking her waresbe that cigarettes, liquor, or herself" to American and allied soldiers. Moyar, Mark. Others, such as Stephen Spiro, opposed the war based on the theory of Just War. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces came to an end. [40]:486 His escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps, cost 30,000 American lives by that point and was regarded to have destroyed his presidency. [63] Some 275,000310,000 Cambodians,[64][65][66] 20,00062,000 Laotians,[63] and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict. [127], Following the coup, chaos ensued. [358]:373, Kuzmarov in The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs challenges the popular and Hollywood narrative that US soldiers were heavy drug users,[359] in particular the notion that the My Lai massacre was caused by drug use. Nixon appealed to the "silent majority" of Americans who he said supported the war without showing it in public.

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