participation in Vietnam had begun in 1945 when it gave support to a French effort to reconquer its colony in Vietnam, a nation which had just declared independence in August 1945. Indochina had been a French colony from late 19th century to mid-20th century.
Hostilities escalated into the First Indochina War (beginning in December 1946).
By the 1950s, the conflict had become entwined with the Cold War.
In January 1950, China and the Soviet Union recognized the Viet Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam, based in Hanoi, as the legitimate government of Vietnam.
The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 convinced many Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina was an example of communist expansionism directed by the Soviet Union. Military advisors from the People's Republic of China (PRC) began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950.
In September 1950, the United States created a Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.
The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time. Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression.
After the French quit attempted recolonization of Indochina in 1954, the US assumed financial and military support for the South Vietnamese state.
By 1954, the United States had spent $1 billion in support of the French military effort, shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war. During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954), U.S.
intelligence estimates remained sceptical of France's chance of success. On 7 May 1954, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered.
At the Geneva Conference, the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. ==Transition period== At the 1954 Geneva peace conference, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel.
In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners. The south, meanwhile, constituted the State of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as Emperor and Ngô Đình Diệm (appointed in July 1954) as his prime minister.
Neither the United States government nor Ngô Đình Diệm's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference.
senator, said in a speech to the American Friends of Vietnam: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam." ==Diệm era, 1954–1963== ===Rule=== A devout Roman Catholic, Diệm was fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and socially conservative.
Although Diệm was publicly praised, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles privately conceded that Diệm had been selected because they could find no better alternative. ===Insurgency in the South, 1954–1960=== Between 1954 and 1957, the Diệm government succeeded in quelling large-scale, disorganized dissidence in the countryside.
About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation.
The Vietnam War (Chiến tranh Việt Nam), also known as the Second Indochina War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.
As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm increasingly sought to blame the communists. In a referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam on 23 October 1955, Diệm rigged the poll supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu and was credited with 98.2 percent of the vote, including 133% in Saigon.
Historian Luu Doan Huynh notes that "Diệm represented narrow and extremist nationalism coupled with autocracy and nepotism." Most Vietnamese people were Buddhist, and they were alarmed by Diệm's actions, like his dedication of the country to the Virgin Mary. Beginning in the summer of 1955, Diệm launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed.
Elections throughout the country were to be held in 1956 to establish a unified government.
The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in April 1956.
The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time. Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression.
In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners. The south, meanwhile, constituted the State of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as Emperor and Ngô Đình Diệm (appointed in July 1954) as his prime minister.
He instituted the death penalty against any activity deemed communist in August 1956.
Despite this, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956.
The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 individuals were imprisoned and 2,148 were killed in the process.
According to Gabriel Kolko, 40,000 political prisoners had been jailed by the end of 1958. In May 1957, Diệm undertook a ten-day state visit to the United States.
Although Diệm was publicly praised, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles privately conceded that Diệm had been selected because they could find no better alternative. ===Insurgency in the South, 1954–1960=== Between 1954 and 1957, the Diệm government succeeded in quelling large-scale, disorganized dissidence in the countryside.
In early 1957, South Vietnam enjoyed its first peace in over a decade.
Douglas Pike estimated that insurgents carried out 1,700 assassinations and 2,000 abductions from 1957 to 1960.
According to Gabriel Kolko, 40,000 political prisoners had been jailed by the end of 1958. In May 1957, Diệm undertook a ten-day state visit to the United States.
Communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959, and, in May, Group 559 was established to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos.
Kennedy through the MAAG program, from just under a thousand military advisors in 1959 to 23,000 in 1964.
Despite the incidents of political violence that began to occur in mid-1957, the government "did not construe it as a campaign, considering the disorders too diffuse to warrant committing major GVN [Government of Vietnam] resources." By early 1959, however, Diệm had come to regard the (increasingly frequent) violence as an organized campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death and property confiscation.
Communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958. The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959, and, in May, Group 559 was established to maintain and upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos.
The first arms delivery via the trail was completed in August 1959.
"From a strength of approximately 5,000 at the start of 1959 the Viet Cong's ranks grew to about 100,000 at the end of 1964 ...
Douglas Pike estimated that insurgents carried out 1,700 assassinations and 2,000 abductions from 1957 to 1960.
Violence between the insurgents and government forces increased drastically from 180 clashes in January 1960 to 545 clashes in September. In December 1960, the Viet Cong was formally created with the intent of uniting all anti-GVN insurgents, including non-communists.
About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963. ==Kennedy's escalation, 1961–1963== In the 1960 U.S.
He seemed concerned only with fending off coups and had become more paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962, which he partly attributed to U.S.
About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963. ==Kennedy's escalation, 1961–1963== In the 1960 U.S.
Although Eisenhower warned Kennedy about Laos and Vietnam, Europe and Latin America "loomed larger than Asia on his sights." In April 1961, Kennedy approved the Bay of Pigs Invasion and that invasion failed.
In June 1961, he bitterly disagreed with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev when they met in Vienna to discuss key U.S.–Soviet issues.
In April 1962, John Kenneth Galbraith warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force in the area and bleed as the French did." By November 1963, 16,000 American military personnel were stationed in South Vietnam. The Strategic Hamlet Program was initiated in late 1961.
Between 1961 and 1964 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men." The numbers for U.S.
troops deployed to Vietnam during the same period were much lower: 2,000 in 1961, rising rapidly to 16,500 in 1964.
Only 16 months later, the Cuban Missile Crisis (16–28 October 1962) played out on television worldwide.
In April 1962, John Kenneth Galbraith warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force in the area and bleed as the French did." By November 1963, 16,000 American military personnel were stationed in South Vietnam. The Strategic Hamlet Program was initiated in late 1961.
It was implemented in early 1962 and involved some forced relocation, village internment, and segregation of rural South Vietnamese into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from the Viet Cong.
He seemed concerned only with fending off coups and had become more paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962, which he partly attributed to U.S.
By 1963, the North Vietnamese had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in South Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin incident in early August 1964, a U.S.
About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963. ==Kennedy's escalation, 1961–1963== In the 1960 U.S.
In April 1962, John Kenneth Galbraith warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force in the area and bleed as the French did." By November 1963, 16,000 American military personnel were stationed in South Vietnam. The Strategic Hamlet Program was initiated in late 1961.
He was difficult to reason with ..." Historian James Gibson summed up the situation: Discontent with Diệm's policies exploded in May 1963 following the Huế Phật Đản shootings of nine unarmed Buddhists protesting against the ban on displaying the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the Buddha's birthday.
On 21 August 1963, the ARVN Special Forces of Colonel Lê Quang Tung, loyal to Diệm's younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, raided pagodas across Vietnam, causing widespread damage and destruction and leaving a death toll estimated to range into the hundreds. U.S.
officials began discussing the possibility of a regime change during the middle of 1963.
President Diệm was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963.
forces in South Vietnam, confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963.
The CIA also ran the Phoenix Program and participated in Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MAC-V SOG), which was originally named the Special Operations Group, but was changed for cover purposes. ==Johnson's escalation, 1963–1969== President Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963.
On 24 November 1963, he said, "the battle against communism ...
Kennedy through the MAAG program, from just under a thousand military advisors in 1959 to 23,000 in 1964.
By 1963, the North Vietnamese had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in South Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin incident in early August 1964, a U.S.
in 1969, while the Laos route had been heavily bombed since 1964.
Lodge, frustrated by the end of the year, cabled home about Minh: "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?" Minh's regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General Nguyễn Khánh.
If they want to make peace, we shall make peace and invite them to afternoon tea." Some have argued that the policy of North Vietnam was not to topple other non-communist governments in South East Asia. ===Gulf of Tonkin incident=== On 2 August 1964, , on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast, allegedly fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish." An undated NSA publication declassified in 2005 revealed that there was no attack on 4 August. The second "attack" led to retaliatory airstrikes, and prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August 1964.
Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S.
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". ===The 1964 Offensive=== Following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Hanoi anticipated the arrival of US troops and began expanding the Viet Cong, as well as sending increasing numbers of North Vietnamese personnel southwards.
"From a strength of approximately 5,000 at the start of 1959 the Viet Cong's ranks grew to about 100,000 at the end of 1964 ...
Between 1961 and 1964 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men." The numbers for U.S.
troops deployed to Vietnam during the same period were much lower: 2,000 in 1961, rising rapidly to 16,500 in 1964.
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. In December 1964, ARVN forces had suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Bình Giã, in a battle that both sides viewed as a watershed.
Army base in Pleiku on 7 February 1965, a series of airstrikes was initiated, Operation Flaming Dart, while Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin was on a state visit to North Vietnam.
Between March 1965 and November 1968, Rolling Thunder deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs. ===Bombing of Laos=== Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam.
Tellingly, South Vietnamese forces were again defeated in June 1965 at the Battle of Đồng Xoài. ===American ground war=== On 8 March 1965, 3,500 U.S.
The first deployment of 3,500 in March 1965 was increased to nearly 200,000 by December.
(and other free world) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965. Phase 2.
and its allies mounted complex search and destroy operations, designed to find enemy forces, destroy them, and then withdraw, typically using war [In November 1965, the U.S.
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, one of the principal architects of the war, began expressing doubts of victory by the end of 1966.
Operations crossed national borders: Laos was invaded by North Vietnam early on, while Cambodia was used by North Vietnam as a supply route starting in 1967; the route through Cambodia began to be bombed by the U.S.
Westmoreland predicted victory by the end of 1967.
North Vietnam was backed by the USSR and the People's Republic of China. With the VC and PAVN mounting large-scale offensives in the Tet Offensive throughout 1968, U.S.
The VC sustained heavy losses during the Tet Offensive and subsequent U.S.-ARVN operations in the rest of 1968, losing over 50,000 men.
Between March 1965 and November 1968, Rolling Thunder deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs. ===Bombing of Laos=== Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam.
By the end of the year, the VC insurgents held almost no territory in South Vietnam, and their recruitment dropped by over 80% in 1969, signifying a drastic reduction in guerrilla operations, necessitating increased use of PAVN regular soldiers from the north.
In 1969, North Vietnam declared a Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vietnam in an attempt to give the reduced VC a more international stature, but the southern guerrillas from then on were sidelined as PAVN forces began more conventional combined arms warfare.
in 1969, while the Laos route had been heavily bombed since 1964.
The deposing of the monarch Norodom Sihanouk by the Cambodian National Assembly resulted in a PAVN invasion of the country at the request of the Khmer Rouge, escalating the Cambodian Civil War and resulting in a U.S.-ARVN counter-invasion. In 1969, following the election of U.S.
By 1970, over 70% of communist troops in the south were northerners, and southern-dominated VC units no longer existed.
By 1970, the ARVN was the world's fourth largest army, and the PAVN was not far behind with approximately one million regular soldiers.
Within the U.S, the war gave rise to what was referred to as Vietnam Syndrome, a public aversion to American overseas military involvements, which together with the Watergate scandal contributed to the crisis of confidence that affected America throughout the 1970s. ==Names== Various names have been applied to the conflict.
ground forces had largely withdrawn by early 1972 and support was limited to air support, artillery support, advisers, and materiel shipments.
support, stopped the first and largest mechanized PAVN offensive during the Easter Offensive of 1972.
involvement ending in 1973, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975. The conflict emerged from the First Indochina War between the French and the communist-led Viet Minh.
The Paris Peace Accords of January 1973 saw all U.S.
Congress on 15 August 1973, officially ended direct U.S.
Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S.
The Vietnam War (Chiến tranh Việt Nam), also known as the Second Indochina War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.
involvement ending in 1973, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975. The conflict emerged from the First Indochina War between the French and the communist-led Viet Minh.
Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975 while the 1975 Spring Offensive saw the capture of Saigon by the PAVN on 30 April; this marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The scale of fighting was enormous.
Chinese forces directly invaded Vietnam in the Sino-Vietnamese War, with subsequent border conflicts lasting until 1991.
Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish." An undated NSA publication declassified in 2005 revealed that there was no attack on 4 August. The second "attack" led to retaliatory airstrikes, and prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August 1964.
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