Vietnam War

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Vietnam War
Part of the Cold War
Viet Cong base camp after an attack
Date 1959[1] – April 29, 1975 Location Southeast Asia Result Peace treaty providing for U.S. disengagement in 1973 Military victory for North Vietnam Political defeat for United States Casus belli Cold War nation-building and escalation, conflicts of nationalism. Territorial changes Reunification of Vietnam, under North Vietnamese rule.
Combatants
Anti-communist forces Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines	Communist forces Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF/Viet Cong) People's Republic of China Soviet Union North Korea
Commanders
Nguyen Van Thieu Ngo Dinh Diem Lyndon Johnson William Westmoreland Richard Nixon Creighton Abrams	Ho Chi Minh Le Duan Nguyen Chi Thanh Vo Nguyen Giap Van Tien Dung Tran Van Tra
Strength
~1,200,000 (1968)	~520,000 (1968)
Casualties
R.V.N. dead: 230,000 wounded: 300,000 U.S. dead: 58,209 wounded: 153,303 R.O.K. dead: 5,000 wounded: 11,000 Australia dead: 512 wounded: 2,400* New Zealand dead: 37 wounded: 187	DRV/NLF dead: 1,100,000 wounded: N/A PRC dead: 1,100 wounded: 4,200
Civilian dead (total Vietnamese): 900,000–4,000,000* (* = approximations, see Notes below)

Vietnam War

Ap Bac – Binh Gia –Pleiku – Song Be – Dong Xoai – Gang Toi – Ia Drang – Hastings – A Shau – Duc  Co –Long Tan – Attleboro – Cedar Falls – Tra Binh Dong – Junction City – Hill 881 – Ong Thanh – Dak To – 1st Tet – Khe Sanh – 1st Saigon – Hue – Lang Vei – Lima Site 85 – Kham Duc – Dewey Canyon  – 2nd Tet – Hamburger Hill – Binh Ba – Cambodia – Snuol – FSB Ripcord – Lam Son 719 – Ban Dong –FSB Mary Ann – Easter '72 – 1st Quang Tri –Loc Ninh – An Loc – Kontum – 2nd Quang Tri  –Phuoc Long – Ho Chi Minh – Buon Me Thuot – Xuan Loc – Truong Sa –2nd Saigon – Rolling Thunder – Barrell Roll – Pony Express – Steel Tiger – Tiger Hound – Tailwind – Commando Hunt – Linebacker I – Linebacker II – Chenla I – Chenla II – SS Mayagüez

The Vietnam War (also known as the Vietnamese Revolution^[2], the Second Indochina War and, in contemporary Vietnam, as the 'American War') was a military conflict in present day Vietnam occurring from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The conflict was a successful effort by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV or North Vietnam) and the indigenous National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, (also known as the Việt Cộng, or more informally as the "Charlie", "VC" or "Cong") to impose on Vietnam a communist system, defeating the South Vietnamese Republic of Vietnam (RVN). To a degree, the Vietnam War was a "proxy war" between the U.S. and its Western allies on the side of the RVN, with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China supporting the DRV on the other. As a result of this it is often considered part of the Cold War.

The chief cause of the war was the failure of Vietnamese nationalists, in the form of the Viet Minh, to gain control of southern Vietnam both during and after their struggle for independence from France in the First Indochina War of 1946–54.

The U.S., in particular, deployed large numbers of military personnel to South Vietnam between 1954 and 1973. U.S. military advisors first became involved in Vietnam as early as 1950, when they began to assist French colonial forces. In 1956, these advisers assumed full responsibility for training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam or ARVN. President Kennedy increased America's troop number from 500 to 16,000. Large numbers of American combat troops began to arrive in 1965 and remained in South Vietnam until August 1972. Almost all of the remaining U.S. military personnel departed after the Paris Peace Agreement of 1973, leaving behind only an embassy guard. The last American troops left the country on April 30, 1975.^[3]

At various stages the conflict involved clashes between small units patrolling the mountains and jungles, guerrilla attacks in the villages and cities, and finally, large-scale conventional battles. U.S. aircraft also conducted substantial aerial bombing campaigns, targeting both logistical networks and the cities and transportation arteries of North Vietnam. Large quantities of chemical defoliants were also sprayed from the air in an effort to reduce the cover available to enemy combatants.

The Vietnam War was finally concluded on 30 April 1975, with the fall of the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces. The war claimed between 2 and 5.7 million Southeast Asian lives,^[4] a large number of whom were civilians.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 History to 1949 1.2 Exit of the French, 1950–1954 2 The Diem era, 1955–1963 2.1 The Winston Churchill of Asia 2.2 Coup and assassinations 3 Escalation and Americanization, 1964-1968 4 Vietnamization and American withdrawal, 1969–1973 5 South Vietnam stands alone, 1974–1975 5.1 Total U.S. withdrawal 5.2 Campaign 275 5.3 Final North Vietnamese offensive 5.4 Fall of Saigon 6 Aftermath 7 Other countries' involvement 7.1 Soviet Union 7.2 People's Republic of China 7.3 Republic of Korea 7.4 Democratic People's Republic of Korea 7.5 Australia and New Zealand 7.6 Thailand 7.7 Canada 8 Use of chemical defoliants 9 Notes 9.1 Casualties 10 In popular culture 10.1 Names for the conflict 11 See also 12 Lists 13 Footnotes 14 Bibliography 15 Primary sources 16 External links 17 Further reading

Background

History to 1949

From 110 BC to 938 AD (with the exception of brief periods), much of present-day Vietnam, especially the northern half, was part of China. After gaining independence, Vietnam went through a history of resisting outside aggression. The French gained control of Indochina during a series of colonial wars beginning in the 1840s and lasting through the 1880s. At the post-World War I negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Hồ Chí Minh requested that a delegation of Vietnamese be admitted in order to work toward obtaining independence for the Indochinese colonies. He hoped that the United States and in particular, President Woodrow Wilson, would support the effort. But he was sorely disappointed and Indochina's status as a colony of France remained unchanged.

During the Second World War, the government of Vichy France cooperated with Imperial Japanese forces sent to occupy Indochina. Vietnam was under de facto Japanese administrative control, although the French continued to serve as official administrators until 1944.

In 1941, the Communist-dominated national resistance group called the "League for the Independence of Vietnam" (better known as the Viet Minh) was formed.^[5]. Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam for the first time since 1911 and quickly assumed leadership of the organization. He had been a Comintren agent since the 1920s, but as the leader of an independent Vietnamese communist party, Ho freed himself from Moscow's control. ^[6] He maintained good relations with the Soviets, however. The Viet Minh began to develop a strategy to seize control of the country at the end of the war.

Ho Chi Minh's guerillas were armed and trained by the United States Office of Strategic Services (the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency). These teams worked behind enemy lines in Indochina giving support to indigenous resistance groups, of which the Viet Minh was the largest. In 1944, the Japanese overthrew the French administration and humiliated its colonial officials in front of the Vietnamese population. The Japanese then began to encourage nationalist activity among the Vietnamese and, late in the war, granted Vietnam nominal independence.

Following the Japanese surrender, Vietnamese nationalists, communists, and other groups hoped to finally take control of the country. The Japanese army in Indochina assisted the Viet Minh — Hồ's resistance army — and other Vietnamese independence groups by imprisoning French officials and soldiers and handing over public buildings to the Vietnamese. On 2 September 1945, Hồ Chí Minh declared independence from France and proclaimed the formation of a new Vietnamese government under his leadership. In his exultant speech before a huge audience in Hanoi, he cited the U.S. Declaration of Independence and a band played "The Star Spangled Banner." Hồ, who had been a member of the Third Communist International since the early 1920s, hoped that the Americans would ally themselves with a Vietnamese nationalist movement, communist or otherwise. He based this hope partly on speeches by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who opposed a revival of European colonialism after World War II. As well, he was counting on a long series of anti-colonial American pronouncements, stretching back to the War of Independence. Power politics, however, intervened. Roosevelt had changed his position to comply with Churchill's concerns that supporting Indochina's independence would set a bad precedent for Britain's own colonial holdings, notably in India. In addition, it was recognized that France would play a crucial role in detering communist ambitions in Europe.

The new Vietnamese government only lasted a few days, however, since it had been decided by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference that Vietnam would be jointly occupied by Nationalist Chinese and British forces who would supervise the Japanese surrender and repatriation.^[7] The Chinese army arrived in Vietnam from north only a few days after Hồ's declaration of independence and took over areas north of the 16th parallel. The British arrived in the south in October and supervised both the surrender and departure of the Japanese army from Indochina. With these actions, the government of Hồ Chí Minh effectively ceased to exist. In the South, the French prevailed upon the British to turn control of the region back over to them.

French officials, when released from Japanese prisons at the end of September 1945, immediately sought to reassert their colonial control over the country. Despite a number of smaller clashes, the French negotiated with both the Nationalist government of China and the Viet Minh. By agreeing to give up Shanghai and its other concessions in China, the French persuaded the Chinese to allow them to return to northern Vietnam and negotiate with the Viet Minh. Hồ agreed to allow French forces to land outside of the capital, Hanoi, while France agreed to recognize an independent Vietnam within the new French Union. In the meantime, Hồ took advantage of this period of negotiations to liquidate competing nationalist groups in the north. After negotiations with Hồ collapsed over the possibility of his forming a government within the French Union in December 1946, the French bombarded Haiphong, killing thousands and then entered Hanoi. Ho and the Việt Minh fled into the mountainous north to begin a long running insurgency, marking the beginning of the First Indochina War. After the defeat of the Nationalist Chinese by the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, Chairman Mao Zedong was able to provide direct military assistance to the Viet Minh. By this method, the Viet Minh obtained more modern weapons, supplies and the expertise necessary to transform them into a more conventional military force. A long and bloody struggle ensued, with French military casualties exceeding those of the U.S. during its involvement.

The Pentagon Papers characterized the U.S. position at the time as "ambivalent," on the one hand persuading France to support at least the concept of decolonization, while ultimately relegating the matter of direct control to French authority. During the war, Roosevelt consistently stalled French demands for U.S. help in recolonizing Vietnam, arguing privately that the country was worse off than when the French first arrived. After the war, the French persuaded the U.S. that it would, consistent with the new United Nations principles, grant some degree of liberty and independence to Indochina. However France argued that it could do so only after it regained its control. The uncertain policy meant that Indochina's fate would be likewise uncertain.

Much hinged on the perception of Hồ's communist allegiances. In the wake of WWII, it was agreed that the world would now be shaped according to three main spheres of influence (Western Hemisphere, Europe, Eurasia), in which the wartime Soviet ally would henceforth be a serious competitor to the West. America viewed the Soviet Union and its allies as a "block." As far as Washington was concerned, the entire communist world was ultimately controlled by Moscow. In spite of Hồ's eloquent pleas for U.S. recognition, the U.S. gradually accepted the argument that Ho was ultimately under "Soviet control," and could therefore be regarded as less nationalist than communist. This perception suited the French, who had for years tried various arguments to persuade the U.S. to support its goal of reconquering Indochina and to abandon its checkered anti-colonial stance. American foreign policy recognized the critical role that France would play as an ally against the Soviet Union. In the context of the post-WWII paradigm, this change in the perception of Hồ was critical. Accordingly the U.S. viewed its course of action as limited to supporting French imperialism or else indirectly supporting Soviet imperialism.

Exit of the French, 1950–1954

Main article: First Indochina War

Further information: International Control Commission,  The United States and the Vietnam War#Timeline: Harry S. Truman and the Vietnam War (1945–1953), and The United States and the Vietnam War#Timeline: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Vietnam War (1953–1961)

In the meantime, the U.S. was supplying its French allies with military aid. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 changed everything for the Americans. From the perspective of some in Washington, what had been a colonial war in Indochina became another example of expanding world-wide communism, directed by the Kremlin.^[8] The French did nothing to discourage this view. In 1950, the U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) arrived to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy and train Vietnamese soldiers.^[9] In 1956, MAAG assumed responsibility for training the Vietnamese army.^[10] By 1954, the U.S. had supplied 300,000 small arms and spent one billion dollars in support of the French military effort. The United States was shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war.^[11] The Viet Minh received crucial support from the Soviet Union and the new communist government of the People's Republic of China.

The battle of Dien Bien Phu marked the turning point for the French. As they became surrounded and bogged down in a siege, the U.S. Congress eventually refused additional military support.^[12] The Viet Minh and their mercurial commmander Vo Nguyen Giap handed the French a stunning military defeat. On May 7, 1954 French forces surrendered. The French public and government had had enough. At the Geneva Conference the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh. It allowed the French to leave Indochina and granted independence to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. However, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel. The Viet Minh established a socialist state, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, in the North and in the South a non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bảo Đại, a former pupet of the French. Ngo Dinh Diem became his Prime Minister. More than 400,000 civilians and soldiers had died during the conflict.^[13]

The Diem era, 1955–1963

Main article: Ngo Dinh Diem

The Winston Churchill of Asia

As dictated by the Geneva Conference of 1954, the partition of Vietnam was meant to be only temporary, pending national elections in 1956. The agreement stipulated that the two military zones, which were separated by a temporary demarcation line (known as the Demilitarized Zone or DMZ), "should not in any way be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary." However, the Diem government refused to hold the elections. They were encouraged by U.S. unwillingness to allow a certain Ho Chi Minh victory, as he and his comrades were viewed as national heroes. This called into question the United States' committent to democracy in the region, but also raised questions about the legitimacy of any election held in the communist-run North. The U.S. supported government of South Vietnam justified its refusal to comply with the Geneva Conference by the fact it had not signed the agreement.

The cornerstone of U.S. policy was the Domino Theory. This widely accepted idea argued that if South Vietnam were to fall to communist forces, then all of South East Asia would follow. Popularized by the Eisenhower administration, some argued that if communism spread without being opposed, it would reach Hawaii and the west coast of the United States. It was better, therefore, to fight communism in Asia rather than on American soil. Thus, the Domino Theory provided a powerful motive for the American creation of a client state in southern Vietnam.

Diem was an unlikely prospect to lead the Vietnamese people. A devout Roman Catholic, he was aloof, closed-minded, and trusted only the members of his immediate family. For the U.S., however, he was a godsend. He was fervently anti-communist and was untainted by any connection to the French. He was the only prominent Vietnamese nationalist who could claim both attributes. In April and June of 1955, Diem (against U.S. advice) cleared the decks of any political opposition by launching military operations against the Cao Dai religious sect, the Buddhist Hoa Hao, and the Binh Xuyen organized crime group (which was allied with the secret police and some army elements).

Beginning in the summer of 1955, Diem launched a 'Denounce the Communists' campaign, during which communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured or executed. During this period refugees and re-groupees moved across the demarcation line in both directions. It was estimated that around 52,000 Vietnamese civilians moved from south to north. 450,000 people, primarily Catholics, travelled from the north to south, in aircraft and ships provided by the France and U.S.^[14] CIA propaganda efforts increased the outflow with slogans such as "the Virgin Mary is going South." The northern refugees were meant to give Diem a strongly anti-communist constituency.^[15]

In a referendum on the future of the monarchy, Diem rigged the poll and received 98.2 percent of the vote. This American advisors had recommended a winning margin of 60 to 70 percent. Diem, however, viewed the election as a test of authority. ^[16] Emperor Bao Dai left the country. On October 26, 1955, Diem declared the new "Republic of Vietnam," with himself as president. ^[17] After the referendum, the United States agreed to provide military aid to South Vietnam and train its armed forces.

As a wealthy Catholic, Diem was viewed by many ordinary Vietnamese as part of the old elite that had helped the French rule Vietnam. The majority of Vietnamese where Buddhists. So his attack on the Buddhist community only served to deepen mistrust. Diem's human rights abuses further alienated the population. As opposition to Diem's rule in South Vietnam grew, a low-level insurgency began to take shape in 1957. It was conducted mainly by Viet Minh cadres who had remained in the south and had hidden caches of weapons, in case unification failed to take place through elections. Four hundred government officials were assassinated throughout the year. In May, Diem undertook a ten day state visit of the U.S. There, President Eisenhower pledged continued support for his government. A parade in New York city was held in his honor.

In late 1956, one of the leading communists in the south, Lê Duẩn, returned to Hanoi to urge that the Vietnam Workers' Party take a firmer stand on national reunification. But Hanoi hesitated in launching a full-scale military struggle. Finally, in January 1959, under pressure from southern cadres who were being successfully targeted by Diem's secret police, the north's Central Committee issued a secret resolution authorizing an armed struggle in the South. Diem enacted tough new anti-communist laws. Inflitration of men and weapons from the north began along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Observing the increasing unpopularity of the Diem regime, on December 12, 1960, Hanoi authorized the creation of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFL)^[18] to overthrow the government. The NFL was made up of two distinct groups: South Vietnamese nationalist intellectuals who opposed the government and communists who had remained in the south after the partition. While there were many non-communist members of the NLF, they were subject to party control and increasingly side-lined as the conflict continued. They did, however, enable the NFL to portray itself as a nationalist movement. The NFL emphasized patriotism, honesty and good government, while promising to end American influence in Vietnam.

John F. Kennedy won the 1960 U.S. presidential election. In May, 1961, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson visited Saigon. He proudly declared Diem the "Winston Churchill of Asia." ^[19] Johnson promised more aid. Money, equipment and men were shipped overseas, in order to mold a fighting force that could resist the communists. The quality, however, of the South Vietnamese military remained consistently poor. Bad leadership, corruption and political interference all played a part in emasculating the military. The number of U.S. military advisors ballooned, as control of the country steadily slipped from the fingers of the government. The frequency of guerilla attacks rose, as the insurgency gathered steam. Hanoi's support for the NLF played a significant role in the deteriorating situation. But South Vietnamese governmental incompetence also contributed to the worsening climate. When Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow visited in October, they recommend to Kennedy that U.S. troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers. Kennedy rejected idea, but increased military assistance to the Diem regime yet again. By mid-1962, the number of U.S. military advisors rose from 700 to 12,000.

Coup and assassinations

See also: The United States and the Vietnam War#Timeline: John F. Kennedy and Vietnam (1961–1963) and The United States and the Vietnam War#Kennedy and Vietnam

Some policy-makers in Washington began to conclude that Diem was incapable of defeating the communists and some even feared that he might make a deal with Ho Chi Minh. He seemed more concerned with protecting himself from coups, rather than fighting communist insurgents. During the summer of 1963 administration officials began discussing the possibility of a regime change in Saigon. The State Department was generally in favor of encouraging a coup. Pentagon and CIA were more alert to the destabilizing consequences of such an act and wanted to continue applying pressure on Diem to make political reforms.

Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. Nhu was in charge of South Vietnam's secret police and was seen as the man behind the Buddhist repression. As Diem's most powerful advisor, Nhu (and his wife) had become a hated figure in South Vietnam and one whose continued influence was unacceptable to the Kennedy administration. Eventually, the administration decided that Diem was unwilling to modify his policies and the decision was made to pull U.S. support. This choice was made jointly by the State Department, Pentagon, National Security Council and the CIA. President Kennedy agreed with the consensus.

In November 1963, the CIA was in contact with military officers planning to remove Diem. They were told that the United States would support such a move. President Diem was overthrown and executed along with his brother on November 2, 1963. When he was informed of the murders, Maxwell Taylor remembered that Kennedy "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face."^[20]Top CIA officials were baffled that Kennedy didn't understand that this was a possible outcome.^{[citation needed]} The U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., invited the coup leaders to the embassy and congradulated them. Ambassador Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war."^[21]

Following the coup chaos ensued. Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased its support for the insurgents in the south. South Vietnam now entered a period of extreme political instability, as one military junta replaced another in quick succession. Kennedy increased the number of U.S. military advisors to 16,000, in order to cope with rising guerilla activity. Ironically, he was himself assassinated on November 22, 1963 just three weeks after Diệm. He was automatically succeeded by Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declared on November 24, that the U.S. would continue its support of the South Vietnamese. By the end of the year Saigon had received $500 million in military aid.

The Cold War paradigms of containment and the domino theory were in their heyday. From a U.S. geopolitical standpoint, the conflict was to deter a perceived strategy of global aggression directed by the Soviet Union and articulated through its allies. The Saigon government and Washington portrayed their military actions as defensive. As far as the North Vietnamese and the NLF were concerned, the conflict was a struggle to reunite their homeland and to repel foreign aggression and neo-colonialism - battle cries that were a virtual repeat of those of the war against the French.

Escalation and Americanization, 1964-1968

See also: Opposition to the Vietnam War and Gulf of Tonkin Incident

On August 2, 1964, just days after the U.S. increased the number of military advisers in South Vietnam to 21,000, a U.S. destroyer reported being attacked by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was on an intelligence mission in support of covert South Vietnamese operations along North Vietnam's coast. A second attack was reported two days later. The circumstances of the attack were murky. It is possible that a radar malfunction led the crew to believe they were under attack. Lyndon Johnson commented to his Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish."^[22]The second attack led to retaliatory air strikes by the U.S. and prompted Congress to approve the South East Asia Resolution, commonly known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The resolution gave the president power to conduct military operations in South East Asia without a declaration of war. It was later revealed that the second attack never occurred. Rather, reaction to the attack came to be viewed as a piece of political theater, orchestrated by the Johnson administration, in order to gain approval for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.^[23] "The Gulf of Tonkin incident," writes Louise Gerdes, "is an oft-cited example of the way in which Johnson misled the American people to gain support for his foreign policy in Vietnam."^[24]

The National Security Council recommended that Johnson adopt a plan for a three-stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. On March 2, 1965, following an attack on a U.S. Marine barracks at Pleiku (see Operation Flaming Dart), Operation Rolling Thunder commenced. The bombing campaign, which would ultimately last three years, was intended to force North Vietnam to cease its support for the NLF in South Vietnam by threatening to destroy North Vietnam's air defenses and its transportation and industrial infrastructure. As well, it was intented to bolster the morale of the South Vietnamese.^[25] Between March 1965 and November 1968, Operation Rolling Thunder deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs. Each day approximately eight hundred tons were dropped.^[26] Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam, and other aerial campaigns, such as Operation Commando Hunt, targeted different parts of the NLF and PAVN infrastructure, including their supply chains (most famously the Ho Chi Minh Trail) that ran through Laos, Cambodia and of course South Vietnam.

After several attacks it was decided that U.S. Air Force bases in South Vietnam needed more protection. The South Vietnamese military seemed incapable of providing security. On 8 March 1965, 3,500 United States Marines were dispatched to South Vietnam. This marked the beginning of the American ground war. U.S. public opinion overwhelmingly supported the deployment. Due to attacks from the NLF, Operation Starlite began as the first major ground operation by U.S. troops and proved largely successful. Learning from their defeat, the NLF began to engage in small-unit guerrilla warfare instead of conventional American-style warfare. This allowed them to control the pace of the fighting, engaging in battle only when they believed they had a decisive advantage.

Under the command of General Westmoreland, the U.S. dramatically increased its troop commitment in Vietnam from 21,000 military advisers in 1964 to more than 553,000 servicemen by 1969. U.S. personnel were the best equipped and supplied force in history. The country was also flooded by civilian specialists from every conceivable field, many hired by the U.S. to advise the South Vietnamese government and improve its performance. Westmoreland performed a logistical miracle, building a complex series of bases, ports, airstrips, medical facilities, fuel depots, warehouse, roads and bridges from scratch. A third world nation, South Vietnam was inundated with manufactured goods. As Stanley Karnow writes, "the main PX, located in the Saigon suburb of Cholon, was only slightly smaller than the New York Bloomingdale's ...." ^[27] The American build-up transformed the economy and had a profound impact on South Vietnamese society.

Washington encouraged its allies to contribute troops. Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines all agreed to send in troops, which were supported by U.S. aid and logistics. Major U.S. allies, however, notably European nations, Canada and Great Britain declined Washington's troop requests.^[28] The U.S. and its allies mounted complex operations, such as operations Masher, Attleboro, Cedar Falls, and Junction City. However, communist forces remained elusive and demonstrated great tactical flexibility. The Americanization of the war was an implicit acknowledgement that the government of South Vietnam was unable to prosecute the conflict successfully.

Meanwhile, the political situation in South Vietnam began to stabilize with the coming to power of Nguyen Van Thieu as President and Nguyen Cao Ky as Vice President in 1967. Thieu remained president until 1975. This ended a long series of military juntas that had begun with Diem's assassination in 1963. The relative calm allowed the ARVN to collaborate more effectively with their western allies and to become a more effective force in the war.

The Johnson administration employed a "policy of mimimum candor"^[29] in it's dealings with the media. Military information officers sought to manage media coverage, by emphasizing stories which portrayed progess in the war. Over time, this policy damaged the public's trust in official pronouncements. As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called "credibility gap" developed.^[30]

Having lured General Westmoreland's forces into the hinterland at Khe Sanh^[31], in January 1968, the PAVN and NLF broke the truce that had traditionally accompanied the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday. They launched the surprise Tet Offensive in the hope of sparking a national uprising. Over 100 cities were attacked. Although the U.S. and South Vietnamese were initially taken aback by the scale of the urban offensive, they responded quickly and decimated the ranks of the NLF. After the war North Vietnamese officials acknowledged that the Tet Offensive caused grave damage to the Viet Cong (NLF) guerilla forces. But the offensive had another unintended consequence.

General Westmoreland had became the public face of the war. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine three times and was named 1965's Man of the Year.^[32] Time described him as "the sinewy personification of the American fighting man .... (who) directed the historic buildup, drew up the battle plans, and infused the ... men under him with his own idealistic view of U.S. aimes and responsibilities." ^[33] In November 1967, Westmoreland spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson administration to bolster flagging public support.^[34] In a speech before the National Press Club he said that a point in the war had been reached "where the end comes into view." ^[35] Thus, the public was shocked and confused when Westmoreland's predictions were trumped by Tet a few months later. ^[36]The American media, which had been largely supportive of U.S. efforts, rounded on the Johnson administration, for what had become a creditility "chasm."^[37] By the end of 1967, over 1000 U.S. combat deaths were reported each month. ^[38] In January, 1,163 U.S. troops were killed; in February the number rose to 2,197 and in the three following months 5,000 more were killed.^[39] Despite its military failure, the Tet Offensive became a political victory and ended the career of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declined to run for re-election. Johnson's approval rating slumped from 48% to 36%. ^[40] As James Witz noted, Tet "contradicted the claims of progress ... made by the Johnson administration and the military." ^[41] The Tet Offensive was the turning point in America's involvement in the Vietnam War and had a profound impact on domestic support for the conflict. The offensive constituted a serious intelligence failure. ^[42] Westmoreland was promoted to Army Chief of Staff in March. The move was technically a promotion. However, his position had become untentable, because of the Tet Offensive and because his request for troop increases that had been leaked to the media. "Westy" was succeeded by his deputy Creighton Abrams.

On May 10, 1968, in spite of low expectations, peace talks began in Paris between the U.S. and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave preliminary orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. This gave an electoral boost to the Democratic candidate, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, who was running against Republican former Vice-President Richard Nixon. Through an intermediary, Nixon advised Saigon to refuse to participate in the talks until after elections, claiming that Nixon would give them a better deal once elected. Thieu obliged, leaving almost no progress made in the negotiations by the time Johnson left office. As historian Robert Dallek writes, "Lyndon Johnson's esclation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps, had cost 30,000 American lives by the time he left office, destroyed Johnson's presidency, and blocked further domestic reform ...." ^[43]

Vietnamization and American withdrawal, 1969–1973

Further information: The United States and the Vietnam War#Vietnamization and American Withdrawal, 1969–1974

During the 1968 presidential election, Nixon had promised to bring "peace with honor". The means he later used to achieve this was to build up the armed forces of America's allies until they could take responsibility for their own defense (the Nixon Doctrine), while simultaneously pursuing negotiations. The Nixon Doctrine, when applied to Vietnam, became known as "Vietnamization". The war in general shifted to smaller operations aimed at NLF logistics, better use of power, more cooperation with the South Vietnamese, and more openness in the media. Nixon also began to pursue détente with the Soviet Union, and rapprochement with China and other communist nations, helping to decrease anti-war opposition in the United States itself and ease global tensions generally. This caused a short era of détente that led to nuclear arms reduction on the part of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. However, the anti-war movement was strengthened by incidents such as the leak of the Pentagon Papers, the revelations of the My Lai Massacre, and the Kent State Shootings. And to Nixon's disappointment, China and the Soviet Union continued to supply the North Vietnamese with materiél and financial aid in order to prove their "fraternal socialist links" with Hanoi, despite their increased interest in a negotiated settlement.

Due to a change of stance on the part of Cambodian leader Prince Sihanouk in 1969, the North Vietnamese were no longer welcome to use the Ho Chi Minh Trail. President Nixon took this as an opportunity to launch a massive secret bombing campaign, called Operation Menu, against the PAVN/NLF bases and sanctuaries along Cambodia's eastern border. Over 14 months, approximately 2,750,000 short tons of bombs were dropped, more than the total tonnage dropped by the Allies in all of World War II. In 1970, Cambodian Prince Sihanouk was deposed while out of the country and replaced by the pro-American general Lon Nol. The country's borders were immediately closed off, and the U.S. and its South Vietnamese allies launched incursions into Cambodia to attack PAVN/NLF bases and buy time for South Vietnam. The coup against Sihanouk and the heavy U.S. bombing gravely destabilized Cambodia and increased support for the Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas.

In 1971, the ARVN launched Operation Lam Son 719, aimed at cutting the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. The operation was a fiasco and a failure of Vietnamization. As Stanley Karnow noted "the blunders were monumental .... The (South Vietnamese) government's top officers had been tutored by Americans for ten or fifteen years, many at training schools in the United States, yet they had learned little." ^[44] After meeting resistance, ARVN forces retreated in a confused rout. They fled along roads littered with their own dead. When they ran out of fuel, soldiers abondoned their vehicles and attempted to barge their way on to American choppers sent to evacuate the wounded. Many ARVN soldiers clung to helicopter skids in a desperate attempt to save themselves. Most fell to their deaths.

In 1971, Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers. The U.S. troop count was further reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972.

Vietnamization was again tested by the Easter Offensive of 1972, a massive conventional invasion of South Vietnam by PAVN forces. The PAVN/NLF quickly invaded the northern provinces of South Vietnam and in co-ordination with another attack from Cambodia, threatened to divide the country in half. Although U.S. troop withdrawals continued despite the attack, American airpower came to the rescue of the South Vietnamese Operation Linebacker and the offensive was halted. However, it became clear that without American airpower South Vietnam would not have survived. The last remaining American ground combat troops were withdrawn in August. But a force of civilian and military advisors remained in place.

The war was the central issue of the 1972 presidential election, with Nixon's opponent, George McGovern, campaigning on a platform of withdrawal from Vietnam. Nixon's National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho. In October 1972, they came to an agreement. However, South Vietnamese President Thieu demanded massive changes to the peace agreement. When North Vietnam went public with the agreement's details, the Nixon administration claimed that North Vietnam's negotiators were attempting to undermine the proceedings and embarrass the President. The negotiations became deadlocked, with Hanoi demanding changes of its own to counter those of Thieu. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II, a massive bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong. The offensive destroyed much of the economic and industrial capacity of North Vietnam. Simultaneously Nixon pressured Thieu to accept the terms of the agreement, threatening to conclude a bilateral peace with North Vietnam and end American aid.

On 15 January 1973, Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action against North Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords on 'Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam' were signed on 27 January, 1973, officially ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. A cease-fire was declared across South Vietnam, but North Vietnamese forces were allowed to remain on South Vietnamese territory. U.S. POWs were released. The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for national elections in the north and south. The Paris Peace Accords stipulated a sixty day period for the total withdrawl of U.S. forces. "This article," noted Peter Church, "proved ... to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out." ^[45]

Nixon had promised Thieu that he would use airpower to support his government. The growing Watergate scandal and an American public tired of the war in Vietnam, however, made it impossible for Nixon to keep his promise. The balance of power shifted decisively in North Vietnam's favor.

South Vietnam stands alone, 1974–1975

Total U.S. withdrawal

Further information: Watergate scandal

In December 1974, Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, which cut off all military funding to the South Vietnamese government and made unenforceable the peace terms negotiated by Nixon. Nixon, faced with impeachment because of Watergate, had resigned his office. Gerald R. Ford, Nixon's vice-president stepped in to finish his term. The new president signed the Foreign Assistance Act.

By 1975, South Vietnamese Army was much larger on paper then its opponent. But they faced a well-organized, highly determined and well-funded North Vietnam. Much of the North's material and financial support came from the communist block. Within South Vietnam, there was increasing chaos. The withdrawal of the American military had compromised an economy dependant on U.S. financial support and the presence of large numbers of troops. Along with the rest of the non-oil exporting world, South Vietnam suffered from the price shocks caused by the Arab oil embargo and the subsequent global recession.

Between the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accord and late 1974 both antagonists had been satisfied with minor land-grabs. The North Vietnamese, however, were growing impatient with the Thieu regime, which remained intransigent on the issue of national elections. Hanoi was also concerned that the U.S. would, once again, support its former ally if large scale operations were resumed.

By late 1974, the Politburo gave its permission for a limited VPA offensive from Cambodia into Phuoc Long Province. The strike was designed to solve local logistical problems, gauge the reaction of Saigon forces and determine if the U.S. would return to the fray. In late December and early January the offensive kicked off and Phuoc Long Province quickly fell to the VPA. There was considerable relief when American air power did not return. The speed of this success forced the Politburo to reassess the situation. It was decided that operations in the Central Highlands would be turned over to General Van Tien Dung and that Pleiku should be seized, if possible. Before he left for the south, General Van was addressed by First Party Secretary Le Duan: "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage as great as we have now."^[46]

Campaign 275

On 10 March, 1975, the General Dung launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the Central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery. The target was Ban Me Thuot, in Darlac Province. If the town could be taken, the provincial capital of Pleiku and the road to the coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in 1976. The ARVN proved incapable of resisting the onslaught and its forces collapsed on 11 March. Once again, Hanoi was surprised by the speed of their success. Van now urged the Politburo to allow him to seize Pleiku immediately and then turn his attention to Kontum. He argued that with two months of good weather remaining until the onset of the monsoon, it would be irresponsible to not take advantage of the situation.

President Thieu, a former general, now made a strategic blunder. Fearful that his forces would be cut off in the north by the attacking communists, Thieu ordered a retreat. The president declared this to be a "lighten the top and keep the bottom" strategy. But in what appeared to be a repeat of Operation Lam Son 719, the withdrawal soon turned into a bloody rout. While the bulk of ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. ARVN General Phu abandoned Pleiku and Kontum and retreated toward the coast, in what became known as the "column of tears". As the ARVN tried to disengage from the enemy, refugees mixed in with the line of retreat. Roads and bridges, already damaged by years of conflict, slowed Phu's column. As the North Vietnamese forces approached, panic set in. Often abandoned by their officers, the soldiers and civilians were shelled incessantly. The retreat degenerated into a desperate scramble for the coast. By 1 April the "column of tears" was all but annihilated. It marked one of the poorest examples of a strategic withdrawal in modern military history.

On 20 March, Thieu reversed himself and ordered Hue, Vietnam's third-largest city, be held at all costs. But as the North Vietnamese attacked, panic set in and ARVN resistance withered. On 22 March, the VPA opened the siege of Hue. Civilians flooded the airport and the docks hoping for any mode of escape. Some even swam out to sea, in order to reach boats and barges anchored offshore. In the confusion, routed ARVN soldiers fired on civilians to make way for their retreat. On 31 March, after a three-day battle, Hue fell. As resistance in Hue collapsed, North Vietnamese rockets rained down on Da Nang and its airport. By the 28 March, 35,000 VPA troops were poised to attack the suburbs. By the 30th, 100,000 leaderless ARVN troops surrendered as the VPA marched victoriously through Da Nang. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces came to an end.

Final North Vietnamese offensive

Main article: Ho Chi Minh Campaign

With the northern half of the country under their control, the Politburo ordered General Van to launch the final offensive against Saigon. The operational plan for the Ho Chi Minh Campaign called for the capture of Saigon before 1 May. Hanoi wished to avoid the coming monsoon and prevent any redeployment of ARVN forces defending the capital. Northern forces, their morale boosted by their recent victories, rolled on, taking Nha Trang, Cam Ranh, and Da Lat.

On 7 April, three North Vietnamese divisions attacked Xuan-loc, 40 miles east of Saigon. They met fierce resistance from the ARVN 18th Infantry Division. For two bloody weeks, severe fighting raged as the ARVN defenders, in a last-ditch effort, tried to block their advance. By 21 April, however, the exhausted garrison surrendered. An embittered and tearful President Thiệu resigned on the same day, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam. He left for Taiwan on 25 April, leaving control of the government in the hands of General Duong Van Minh. At the same time, North Vietnamese tanks had reached Bien Hoa and turned towards Saigon, brushing aside isolated ARVN units along the way.

By the end of April, the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam had collapsed on all fronts. On the 27th, 100,000 North Vietnamese troops encircled Saigon. The city was defended by about 30,000 ARVN troops. In order to hasten a collapse and foment panic, the VPA shelled the airport and forced its closure. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians found that they had no way out. On 29 April, the U.S. launched Operation Frequent Wind, arguably the largest helicopter evacuation in history.

Fall of Saigon

Main articles: Fall of Saigon and Operation Frequent Wind

Chaos, unrest, and panic ensued as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. American helicopters began evacuating both U.S. and South Vietnamese citizens from the U.S. embassy. The evacuations had been delayed until the last possible moment due to U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached with the communists. The evacuations began in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited seats on the helicopters. Martin pleaded with the U.S. government to dispatch $700 million in emergency aid to bolster the regime and help it to mobilize fresh military reserves. But American public opinion had long soured on this conflict halfway around the world.

In the U.S., South Vietnam was now perceived as doomed. President Ford had given a televised speech on April 23, declaring the end of both the Vietnam War and of all U.S. aid to Saigon. The evacuations continued day and night, as North Vietnamese tanks breached defenses on the outskirts of the city. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy roof by helicopter, as civilians swamped the embassy perimeter and poured into the grounds. Many of them had been employed by the Americans and were now left to their fate.

On that day, VPA troops overcame all resistance, quickly capturing the U.S. embassy, the South Vietnamese General Staff, the police headquarters, the airport, the radio station, the Presidential Palace, and other vital facilities. Tanks broke down the gates of the Presidential Palace and the NLF flag was raised over it. Thieu's successor, President Dương Văn Minh attempted to surrender Saigon, but VPA Colonel Búi Tín informed him that he did not have anything left to surrender. Minh then issued his last command, ordering all South Vietnamese troops to lay down their arms.

When General Duong Van Minh ordered the surrender of ARVN units still fighting in Saigon and in Military Region IV, five ARVN generals committed suicide rather than surrender to the enemy.

Aftermath

Main articles: Mayagüez Incident, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Democratic Kampuchea, and Third Indochina War

The last official American military action in Southeast Asia occurred on 15 May 1975, when 18 Marines were killed during a rescue operation known as the Mayagüez incident.

The dire predictions of a generation did not come to fruition. Since Thailand did not fall to the Communists, the Domino Theory, so widely trumpeted, was said to have been an illusion. However, others argue that the reason other nations did not fall to Communism was due to the fact that the war "bought time" for their development.

The Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot that took the lives of 1.5 million Cambodians can be directly related to the withdrawal of American troops. Vietnam, without the presence of the United States, showed itself to be of little economic or strategic value to it's Soviet backers. ^[47] In 1972, the United States signed a strategic arms limitation treaty with its arch-foe the Soviet Union. At home, a generation of Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of military intervention without clear motives or objectives.^[48] The war demonstrated that no power, not even a superpower, has unlimited strength and resources. But perhaps most significantly, the Vietnam War illustrated that political will, as much as material might, is a decisive factor in the outcome of conflicts.

Other countries' involvement

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, ground-air missiles and other military equipment. Hundreds of military advisors were sent to train the Vietnamese army. Soviet pilots acted as a training cadre and many have flown combat missions as "volunteers". Fewer than a dozen Soviet citizens lost their lives in this conflict. After the war, Moscow became Hanoi's main ally.

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China's involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1949, when the communists took over the country. The Communist Party of China (CPC) provided material and technical support to the Vietnamese communists. In the summer of 1962, Mao Zedong agreed to supply Hanoi with 90,000 rifles and guns free of charge. After the launch of Operation Rolling Thunder, China sent anti-aircraft units and engineering battalions to North Vietnam to repair the damage caused by American bombing, rebuild roads, railroads and to perform other engineering works. This freed North Vietnamese army units for combat in the South. Between 1965 and 1970 over 320,000 Chinese soldiers served in North Vietnam. The peak was 1967, when 170,000 served there. Although Chinese assistance was accepted gladly, the North Vietnamese remained distrustful of their larger neighbour. This was due to the historical antipathy between the two nations. The People's Republic of China briefly launched an invasion of Vietnam in 1979. In April 2006, a ceremony was held in Vietnam to honor the almost 1100 Chinese soldiers who were killed in the Vietnam War.

Republic of Korea

The military of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) had the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam. South Korea dispatched its first troops in 1964. Large combat battalions began arriving a year later. South Korean troops developed a reputation for ruthlessness. A total of approximately 300,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to Vietnam. As with the United States, soldiers served one year, and then were replaced with new soldiers, from 1964 until 1973. The maximum number of South Korean troops in Vietnam at any one time was 50,000. More than 5,000 South Koreans were killed and 11,000 were injured in the war.

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

As a result of a decision of the Korean Workers' Party in October 1966, in early 1967, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) sent a fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese 921st and 923rd fighter squadrons defending Hanoi. They stayed through 1968, and 200 pilots were reported to have served.^[49] In addition, at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well. North Korea also sent weapons, ammunition and two million sets of uniforms to their comrades in North Vietnam.^[50] Kim Il Sung is reported to have told his pilots to "fight in the war as if the Vietnamese sky were their own".^[51][52][53]

Australia and New Zealand

Main articles: Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War and New Zealand in the Vietnam War

As U.S. allies under the ANZUS Treaty, Australia and New Zealand sent ground troops to Vietnam. Both nations had gained valuable experience in counterinsurgency and jungle warfare during the Malayan Emergency. Geographically close to Asia, they subscribed to the Domino Theory of communist expansion and felt that their national security would be threatened if communism spread further in Southeast Asia. Australia's peak commitment was 7,672 combat troops, New Zealand's 552 and most of these soldiers served in the 1st Australian Task Force which was based in Phuoc Tuy Province. Australia re-introduced conscription to expand its army in the face of significant public opposition to the war. Like the U.S., Australia began by sending advisers to Vietnam, the number of which rose steadily until 1965, when combat troops were committed. New Zealand began by sending a detachment of engineers and an artillery battery, and then started sending Special Forces and regular infantry. Several Australian and New Zealand units were awarded U.S. unit citations for their service in South Vietnam. The ANZUS forces were cohesive and well-disclipined.

Thailand

Thai Army formations, including the "Queen's Cobra" battalion saw action in South Vietnam between 1965 and 1971. Thai forces saw much more action in the covert war in Laos between 1964 and 1972. There, Thai regular formations were heavily outnumbered by the irregular "volunteers" of the CIA-sponsored Police Aerial Reconnaissance Units or PARU, who carried out reconnaissance activities on the western side of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The activities of these personnel remain one of the great unknown stories of the South East Asian conflict.

Canada

Canadian, Indian and Polish troops formed the International Control Commission, which was supposed to monitor the 1954 ceasefire agreement. The Canadian government also lent diplomatic assistance to the United States in order to establish contact with the North Vietnamese regime. The government of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson resisted considerable U.S. pressure to send troops to Vietnam. Although not a major arms supplier, Canadian made military hardware was used in Vietnam, including large amounts of Agent Orange. Most Canadians who served in the Vietnam War were members of the United States military with estimated numbers ranging from 2,500 to 3,000. Most became U.S. citizens upon returning from Vietnam or were dual citizens prior to joining the military.^[54] The Canadian government gave political asylum to significant numbers of American deserters and draft dogders during the conflict. Many returned to the United States after a pardon was issued by President Jimmy Carter.

Use of chemical defoliants

One of the most controversial aspects of the of the U.S. military effort in Southeast Asia was the wide-spread use of herbicides between 1961 and 1971, which were utilized to remove plant cover from large areas. These chemicals continue to change the landscape, cause diseases, and poison the food-chain in the areas where they were sprayed.

Early in the American effort, the U.S. military decided that, since PAVN/NLF activities were being hidden by triple-canopy jungle and undergrowth, a useful first step might be to "defoliate" areas, especially those surrounding base camps (both large and small) in what became known as Operation Ranch Hand. Corporations like Dow and Monsanto were given the task of developing herbicides for this purpose. The defoliants (which were distributed in drums marked with color-coded bands) included the Rainbow Herbicides Agent Pink, Agent Green, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent White, and, most famously, the dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange. About 12 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed over Southeast Asia during the American commitment. A prime area of Ranch Hand operations was in the Mekong Delta, where the U.S. Navy patrol boats were vulnerable to attack from the undergrowth at the water's edge.

In 1961-1962, the Kennedy administration authorized the use of chemical weapons to destroy rice crops. Between 1961 and 1967, the U.S. Air Force sprayed 20 million U.S. gallons (76,000 m³) of concentrated herbicides over 6 million acres (24,000 km²) of crops and trees, affecting an estimated 13 percent of South Vietnam's land. In 1997, an article published by the Wall Street Journal reported that up to half a million children were born with dioxin-related deformities, and that the birth defects in southern Vietnam were fourfold those in the north. The use of chemical defoliants may have been contrary to international rules of war at the time. A 1967 study by the Agronomy Section of the Japanese Science Council concluded that 3.8 million acres (15,000 km²) of foliage had been destroyed, possibly also leading to the deaths of 1,000 peasants and 13,000 pieces of livestock.

As of 2006, the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.^[55]

The U.S. Veterans Administration has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as possible side effects of their parent's exposure to the herbicides.^{[citation needed]} Although there has been much discussion over whether the use of these defoliants constituted a violation of the laws of war, it must be noted that the defoliants were not considered weapons, since exposure to them did not lead to immediate death or even incapacitation.

Notes

Casualties

Main article: Vietnam War casualties

Even today the number of those killed, military and civilian, in the period covered (1959-1975) is open to debate and uncertainty. To illustrate the problem, below are three reference works by three or more authors listing casualty figures. What is remarkable about them is that the only ones that seem to match are the ones that must be, at best, approximations. None of the figures include the members of South Vietnamese forces killed in the final campaign. Nor do they include the Royal Lao Armed Forces, thousands of Laotian and Thai irregulars, or Laotian civilians who all perished in that peculiar conflict. They do not include the tens of thousands of Cambodians killed during the civil war or the estimated one and one-half to two million that perished in the genocide that followed Khmer Rouge victory

1. Harry G. Summers, The Vietnam War Almanac. Novato CA: Presidio Press, 1985.

U.S. killed in action, died of wounds, died of other causes, missing and declared dead - 57,690. South Vietnamese military killed - 243,748. Republic of Korea killed - 4,407. Australia and New Zealand (combined) - 469. Thailand - 351. The Vietnam People's Army and NLF (combined) - 666,000. North Vietnamese civilian fatalities - 65,000. South Vietnamese civilian dead - 300,000.

2. Marc Leepson, ed, Webster's New World Dictionary of the Vietnam War. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.

U.S. killed in action, etc. - 58,159. South Vietnamese military - 224,000. Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand - not listed. DRV military - not listed. DRV civilians - 65,000. South Vietnamese civilians - 300,000.

3. Edward Doyle, Samuel Lipsman, et al, Setting the Stage. Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1981.

U.S. - 57,605. South Vietnamese military - 220,357. Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand - not listed. DRV and NLF deaths - 444,000. Combined DRV and RVN civilian deaths -587,000.

A fourth Source, John Rowe's Vietnam: The Australian Experience. Sydney: Time-Life Books Australia, 1987, gives a figure of 496 Australians killed in action or died of wounds.

In popular culture

The Vietnam war is featured heavily in the films: Forrest Gump, The Green Berets, The Ugly American, The Quiet American, Heroes, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Casualties of War, Coming Home, Who'll Stop the Rain, Bat*21, Born on the Fourth of July, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Missing in Action, Heaven and Earth, We Were Soldiers and Hamburger Hill. Documentaries include Hearts and Minds and The Ten Thousand Day War - Vietnam: 1945-1975. The war also influenced a generation of musicians and song writers.

Names for the conflict

Various names have been applied to the conflict and these have shifted over time, although Vietnam War is the most commonly used title in English. It has been variously called the Second Indochina War, the Vietnam Conflict, the Vietnam War, and, in Vietnamese, Chiến tranh Việt Nam (The Vietnam War) or Kháng chiến chống Mỹ (Resistance War against America).

1. Second Indochina War: places the conflict into context with other distinctive, but related, and contiguous conflicts in Southeast Asia. Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are seen as the battlegrounds of a larger Indochinese conflict that began at the end of World War II and lasted until communist victory in 1975. This conflict can be viewed in terms of the demise of colonialism and its after-effects during the Cold War.
2. Vietnam Conflict: largely a U.S. designation, it acknowledges that the U.S. Congress never declared war on North Vietnam. Legally, the President used his constitutional discretion - supplemented by supportive resolutions in Congress - to conduct what was said to be a "police action".
3. Vietnam War: the most commonly-used designation in English, it suggests that the location of the war was exclusively within the borders of North and South Vietnam, failing to recognize its wider context.
4. Resistance War against the Americans to Save the Nation: the term favored by North Vietnam (and after North Vietnam's victory over South Vietnam, by Vietnam as a whole); it is more of a slogan than a name, and its meaning is self-evident. Its usage has been abolished in recent years as the communist government of Vietnam seeks better relations with the U.S. Official Vietnamese publications now refer to the conflict generically as "Chiến tranh Việt Nam" (Vietnam War).

See also

• History of Vietnam
• History of Laos
• History of Cambodia
• Democratic Kampuchea
• Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Vietnam People's Army
• Army of the Republic of Vietnam
• Vietnam War casualties
• Boat people
• Kit Carson Scouts
• Phoenix Program
• Tiger Force
• Opposition to the Vietnam War
  • Vietnam Veterans against the War
  • Winter Soldier Investigation
• Canada and the Vietnam War
• Military history of the United States
  • Cold War
  • Military history
  • United States Air Force In South Vietnam
  • United States Air Force In Thailand
• Weapons of the Vietnam War
• Aircraft losses of the Vietnam War
• Cu Chi tunnels
• Prisoner-of-war camp
• Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group
• Operation Bolo

Lists

Main article: Vietnam War (lists)

• Major Operations during the Vietnam War
• Major Battles during the Vietnam War
• Major Air Campaigns
• Common Military Medals
• Anti-War publications

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Anderson, David L. Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War (2004)
• Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road to Stalemate (1991)
• Church, Peter ed. A Short History of South-East Asia (2006)
• Duiker, William J. The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam (1996)
• Fincher, Ernest Barksdale, The Vietnam War (1980) ISBN 0-531-04112-3
• Gerdes, Louise I. ed. Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons: The Vietnam War (2005)
• Hammond, William. Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962-1968 (1987); Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1968-1973 (1995). full-scale history of the war by U.S. Army; much broader than title suggests.
• Herring, George C. America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 (4th ed 2001), most widely used short history.
• Hitchens, Christopher. The Vietnam Syndrome
• Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History (1983), popular history by a former foreign correspondent; strong on Saigon's plans.
• Kutler, Stanley ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1996)
• Lewy, Guenter. America in Vietnam (1978), defends U.S. actions
• McMahon, Robert J. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays (1995) textbook
• McNamara, Robert, James Blight, Robert Brigham, Thomas Biersteker, Herbert Schandler, Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy, (Public Affairs, 1999)
• Moise, Edwin E. Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War (2002)
• Moss, George D. Vietnam (4th ed 2002) textbook
• Moyar, Mark. Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, (Cambridge University Press; 412 pages; 2006). A revisionist history that challenges the notion that U.S. involvement in Vietnam was misguided; defends the validity of the domino theory and disputes the notion that Ho Chi Minh was, at heart, a nationalist who would eventually turn against his Communist Chinese allies.
• Palmer, Bruce. The Twenty-Five Year War (1984), narrative military history by a senior U.S. general
• Schell, Jonathan. The Time of Illusion (1976).
• Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975 (1997).
• Spector, Ronald. After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam (1992), very broad coverage of 1968
• Tucker, Spencer. ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1998) 3 vol. reference set; also one-volume abridgement (2001)
• Witz, James J. The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War (1991).

Primary sources

• McMahon, Robert J. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays (1995) textbook
• Kim A. O'Connell, ed. Primary Source Accounts of the Vietnam War (2006)
• McCain, John. Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir (1999) the Senator was a POW
• Marshall, Kathryn. In the Combat Zone: An Oral History of American Women in Vietnam, 1966-1975 (1987)
• Myers, Thomas. Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam (1988)
• Major General Spurgeon Neel. Medical Support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1965-1970 (Department of the Army 1991) official medical history; online complete text
• Tang, Truong Nhu. A Vietcong Memoir (1985), revealing account by senior NLF official
• Terry, Wallace, ed. Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984)
• The Pentagon Papers (Gravel ed. 5 vol 1971); combination of narrative and secret documents compiled by Pentagon. excerpts
• U.S. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States (multivolume collection of official secret documents) vol 1: 1964; vol 2: 1965; vol 3: 1965; vol 4: 1966;

External links

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Further information: Vietnam War (lists)#External links

• Vietnam war timelinevery comprehensive timeline of the Vietnam War

• Vietnam War Bibliography covers online and published resources
• China Vietnam War Chronology
• Russia Vietnam War Chronology
• USA Vietnam War Chronology
• Vietnam Vietnam War Chronology
• U.S. Casualty Statistics
• Casualties - U.S. vs NVA/VC
• The Effects of Vietnamization on the Republic of Vietnam's Armed Forces, 1969-1972
• The American War: the U.S. in Vietnam - a Pinky Show online video
• UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: Anti-Vietnam War Protests

Further reading

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Further information: Vietnam War (lists)#Fiction

Further information: Vietnam War (lists)#Non-fiction

Further information: Vietnam War (lists)#History texts