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Vietnam War

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military History and War

   Vietnam War
   Part of the Cold War
   Vietnamese village after an attack
   Vietnamese village after an attack

   Date 1959 – April 30, 1975
   Location Southeast Asia
   Result Peace treaty providing for U.S. disengagement in 1973

   Political defeat for the U.S.
   Military victory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam over Republic of
   Vietnam forces in 1975
   Casus belli Cold War escalation and nationalism.
   Territorial
   changes Reunification of Vietnam.
   Combatants
   Republic of Vietnam
   United States of America
   Republic of Korea
   Thailand
   Australia
   New Zealand
   The Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam
   National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam
   People’s Republic of China
   Democratic People's Republic of Korea
   Strength
   ~1,200,000 (1968) ~520,000 (1968)
   Casualties
   RVN
   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: 520
   D.R.V./N.L.F.
   dead: 600,000*
   wounded: 600,000*
   PRC
   dead: 1100
   wounded: 4200
   Civilian dead (total Vietnamese): 1,000,000* (* = approximations, see
   Notes below)
                                Vietnam War
   Ap Bac - Binh Gia - Song Be - Dong Xoai - Ia Drang - Long Tan - Dak To
   - 1st Tet - Khe Sanh - 1st Saigon - Lang Vei - Hills 881 & 861 - 2nd
   Tet - Hamburger Hill - Ripcord - FSB Mary Ann - Easter '72 - An Loc -
   Kontum - Phuoc Long - Ho Chi Minh - Buon Ma Thuot - Battle of Xuan Loc
   - 2nd Saigon - Barrell Roll - Rolling Thunder - Pony Express - Steel
   Tiger - Commando Hunt - Linebacker 1 - Linebacker 2 - Chenla I - Tiger
   Hound - Lima Site 85 - Tailwind - Chenla II - Cambodia

   The Vietnam War was a military conflict in which communist forces of
   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, "Victor Charlie" or "Charlie" for short, "VC"
   or "Cong" or "Mr. Charlie" or "Mr. Charles") fought the anti-communist
   forces of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN or South Vietnam) and its allies
   — most notably the United States (U.S.) — in a successful effort to
   unify Vietnam into a single independent, communist state.

   It is also known as the Vietnam Conflict, the Second Indochina War and,
   in the U.S. colloquially, as Vietnam, The Nam or simply Nam. Vietnamese
   communists often referred to it as the American War or Kháng chiến
   chống Mỹ (the Resistance War Against America).

   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 1946-1954.

   Allies of the Vietnamese communists included the Soviet Union and the
   People's Republic of China. South Vietnam's main anti-communist allies
   were the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, the
   Philippines, and New Zealand. The U.S. in particular, deployed large
   numbers of military personnel to South Vietnam. U.S. military advisors
   first became involved in Vietnam as early as 1950, when they began to
   assist French colonial forces. In 1956, these advisors assumed full
   responsibility for training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam or
   ARVN. Large numbers of American combat troops began to arrive in 1965
   and the last left the country in 1973.

   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.

   To some degree the Vietnam War was a " proxy war," one of several that
   erupted during the Cold War period that followed the conclusion of the
   Second World War and decolonization. These wars usually grew from
   localized conflicts that expanded to include the U.S. and its Western
   allies on one side and the Soviet Union and/or the People's Republic of
   China on the other. The Korean Conflict, for example, was another such
   war. Proxy wars occurred because the major players - especially the
   U.S. and the Soviet Union - were unwilling to engage each other
   directly due to the threat of escalation into a nuclear exchange.

   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 perhaps 2-2.5 million Southeast Asian lives, a large
   number of whom were civilians.

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. His request was rejected,
   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. Hồ returned
   to Vietnam and formed a resistance group to oppose the Japanese in the
   north. He was aided by teams deployed by the U.S. 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. 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.
   Ho Chi Minh
   Enlarge
   Ho Chi Minh

   After the war and 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 on
   speeches by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who opposed a revival
   of European colonialism after World War II. Roosevelt, however, had
   moderated his position after the British — who wanted to keep their own
   colonies — objected.

   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. 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, took matters into their own hands in some areas. In the
   north, 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 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
   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 an insurgency, marking the beginning of the
   First Indochina War. After the defeat of the Nationalists by the
   Communists in the Chinese Civil War, Premier Mao Zedong was able to
   provide direct military assistance to the Viet Minh. By this method,
   Viet Minh obtained more modern weapons, supplies, and the expertise
   necessary to transform themselves into a more conventional military
   force.

Harry S. Truman and Vietnam (1945-1953)

   Milestones of U.S. involvement under President Truman
     * 9 March 1945 — Japan overthrows nominal French authority in
       Indochina and declares an independent Vietnamese puppet state. The
       French administration is disarmed.
     * 15 August 1945 — Japan surrenders to the Allies. In Indochina, the
       Japanese administration allows Hồ Chí Minh to take over control of
       the country. This is called the August Revolution. Hồ Chí Minh
       borrows a phrase from the U.S. Declaration of Independence for his
       own declaration. Hồ Chí Minh fights with a variety of other
       political factions for control of the major cities.
     * August 1945 — A few days after the Vietnamese "revolution",
       Nationalist Chinese forces enter from the north and, as previously
       planned by the allies, establish an administration in the country
       as far south as the 16th parallel.
     * 26 September 1945: OSS officer Lieutenant Colonel A. Peter Dewey —
       working with the Viet Minh to repatriate Americans captured by the
       Japanese — is shot and killed by the Viet Minh, becoming the first
       American casualty in Vietnam.
     * October 1945 — British troops land in southern Vietnam and
       establish a provisional administration. The British free French
       soldiers and officials imprisoned by the Japanese. The French begin
       taking control of cities within the British zone of occupation.
     * February 1946 — The French sign an agreement with China. France
       gives up its concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese ports. In
       exchange, China agrees to assist the French in returning to Vietnam
       north of the 16th parallel.
     * 6 March 1946 — After negotiations with the Chinese and the Viet
       Minh, the French sign an agreement recognizing Vietnam within the
       French Union. Shortly after, the French land at Haiphong and occupy
       the rest of northern Vietnam. The Viet Minh use the negotiating
       process with France and China to buy time to use their armed forces
       to destroy all competing nationalist groups in the north.
     * December 1946 — Negotiations between the Viet Minh and the French
       break down. The Viet Minh are driven out of Hanoi into the
       countryside.
     * 1947–1949 — The Viet Minh fight a limited insurgency in remote
       rural areas of northern Vietnam.
     * 1949 — Chinese communists reach the northern border of Indochina.
       The Viet Minh drive the French from the border region and begin to
       receive large amounts of weapons from the Soviet Union and China.
       The weapons transform the Viet Minh from an irregular small-scale
       insurgency into a conventional army.
     * 1 May 1950 — After the capture of Hainan Island from Chinese
       Nationalist forces by the Chinese Red Army, President Truman
       approves $10 million in military assistance for anti-communist
       efforts in Indochina.
     * Following the outbreak of the Korean War, Truman announces
       "acceleration in the furnishing of military assistance to the
       forces of France and the Associated States in Indochina…" and sends
       123 non-combat troops to help with supplies to fight against the
       communist Viet Minh.
     * 1951 - Truman authorizes $150 million in French support.

Exit of the French, 1950-1955

   Four power talks: Geneva, 1954
   Enlarge
   Four power talks: Geneva, 1954

   In the meantime, the U.S. was supplying its French allies with military
   aid. The outbreak of the Korean Conflict in 1950 changed everything for
   the Americans. What had been a colonial war in Indochina became another
   example of expansive world-wide communism, directed by the Kremlin. 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. In 1956, MAAG assumed responsibility for training
   the Vietnamese army. By 1954, the U.S. had given 300,000 small arms and
   machine guns, and one billion dollars to support the French military
   effort and was shouldering at least 80 percent of its cost.

   The Viet Minh eventually handed the French a major military defeat at
   Ðiện Biên Phủ on 7 May 1954 and the French public and government had
   had enough. At the Geneva Conference the French government negotiated a
   peace agreement with the Viet Minh which allowed the French to leave
   Indochina and granted all three of its colonies, Cambodia, Laos, and
   Vietnam their independence. However, Vietnam was temporarily
   partitioned at the 17th parallel, above which the Viet Minh established
   a socialist state, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and below which a
   non-communist state was established under the Emperor Bảo Đại. Bao
   Dai's Prime Minister, Ngo Dinh Diem, shortly thereafter removed him
   from power, and established himself as President of the new Republic of
   Vietnam.

The Diem Era, 1955-1963

The Winston Churchill of Asia

   As dictated by the Geneva Accords of 1954, the partition of Vietnam was
   meant to be only temporary, pending free elections for a national
   leadership. The agreement stipulated that the two military zones, which
   were separated by a temporary demarcation line (which eventually became
   the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ), "should not in any way be interpreted
   as constituting a political or territorial boundary," and specifically
   stated that elections would be held in July 1956. However, the Diem
   government refused to enter into negotiations to hold the stipulated
   elections, encouraged by U.S. unwillingness to allow a certain
   communist victory in an all-Vietnam election (this was the only
   occasion during the post-war period in which the U.S. opposed the
   reunification of a divided nation). Questions were also raised 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 Accords by virtue of the fact it had not signed
   them.

   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 Sect,
   the Hoa Hao, and the Binh Xuyen organized crime group (which was allied
   with the secret police and some army elements).

   Surprisingly, Diem was successful, gaining from his surprised American
   sponsors the sobriquet of "the Winston Churchill of Asia." Later in the
   year Diem organized an election for president and a legislature, and
   wrote a constitution. In the election (which he might have won legally)
   Diem received 98.2 percent of the vote, raising the eyebrows of even
   his American supporters.

   Beginning in the summer of 1955, he launched a 'Denounce the
   Communists' campaign, during which communists and other anti-government
   elements were arrested, imprisoned or executed. During this period
   refugees and regroupees moved across the demarcation line in both
   directions. It was estimated that around 52,000 Vietnamese civilians
   moved from south to north, while 450,000 were air- or boat-lifted from
   north to south.

Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vietnam (1953–1961)

   Milestones of the escalation under President Eisenhower.
     * 1954 — The Viet Minh defeat the French at the battle of Dien Bien
       Phu. The defeat, along with the end of the Korean war the previous
       year, causes the French to seek a negotiated settlement to the war.
     * 1954 — The Geneva Conference (1954), called to determine the
       post-French future of Indochina, proposes a temporary division of
       Vietnam, to be followed by nationwide elections to unify the
       country in 1956.
     * 1954 — Two months after the Geneva conference, North Vietnam forms
       Group 100 with headquarters at Ban Namèo. Its purpose is to direct,
       organize, train and supply the Pathet Lao to gain control of Laos,
       which along with Cambodia and Vietnam formed French Indochina.
     * 1955 — North Vietnam launches an 'anti-landlord' campaign, during
       which counter-revolutionaries are imprisoned or killed. The numbers
       killed or imprisoned are disputed, with historian Stanley Karnow
       estimating about 6,000 while others (see the book "Fire in the
       Lake") estimate only 800. R.J. Rummel puts the figure as high as
       200,000.
     * 1 November 1955 — Eisenhower deploys the Military Assistance
       Advisory Group to train the South Vietnamese Army. This marks the
       official beginning of American involvement in the war as recognized
       by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
     * April 1956 — The last French troops leave Vietnam.
     * 1954–1956 — 450,000 Vietnamese civilians flee the Viet Minh
       administration in North Vietnam and relocate in South Vietnam.
       52,000 move in the opposite direction.
     * 1956 — National unification elections do not occur.
     * December 1958 — North Vietnam invades Laos and occupies parts of
       the country
     * 8 July 1959 — Charles Ovnand and Dale R. Buis become the first two
       American Advisers to die in Vietnam.
     * September 1959 — North Vietnam forms Group 959 which assumes
       command of the Pathet Lao forces in Laos

   As opposition to Diem's rule in South Vietnam grew, a low-level
   insurgency began to take shape there in 1957, 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. 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 Central Committee of the Party issued a secret resolution
   authorizing the use of armed struggle in the South.

   On 12 December 1960, under instruction from Hanoi, southern communists
   established the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam in
   order to overthrow the government of the south. The NLF was made up of
   two distinct groups: South Vietnamese intellectuals who opposed the
   government and were nationalists; and communists who had remained in
   the south after the partition and regrouping of 1954 as well as those
   who had since come from the north. While there were many non-communist
   members of the NLF, they were subject to the control of the party
   cadres and increasingly side-lined as the conflict continued; they did,
   however, enable the NLF to portray itself as a primarily nationalist,
   rather than communist, movement.
   South Vietnam, Military Regions, 1967
   Enlarge
   South Vietnam, Military Regions, 1967

Vietnam is the Place

   Back in Washington, the new administration of President John F. Kennedy
   remained essentially committed to the bi-partisan, anti-Communist
   foreign policies inherited from the administrations of Presidents
   Truman and Eisenhower. During his first year in office Kennedy found
   himself faced with a three-part crisis: The failure of the Bay of Pigs
   invasion in Cuba; the construction of the Berlin Wall by the Soviets;
   and a negotiated settlement between the pro-Western government of Laos
   and the Pathet Lao communist movement. Fearing that another failure on
   the part of the U.S. to stop communist expansion would fatally damage
   U.S. credibility with its allies, Kennedy realized, "Now we have a
   problem in making our power credible", he told reporter James Reston,
   "and Vietnam looks like the place." The commitment of the defend
   Vietnam was reaffirmed by Kennedy on 11 May in National Security Action
   Memorandum 52 which became known as "The Presidential Program for
   Vietnam". Its opening statement reads:

     "U.S. objectives and concept of operations [are] to prevent
     communist domination of South Vietnam; to create in that country a
     viable and increasingly democratic society, and to initiate, on an
     accelerated basis, a series of mutually supporting actions of a
     military, political, economic psychological, and covert character
     designed to achieve this objective."

   Kennedy was intrigued by the idea of utilizing U.S. Army Special Forces
   for counterinsurgency conflicts in Third World countries threatened by
   the new "wars of national liberation". Originally intended for use
   behind front lines after a conventional invasion of Europe, Kennedy
   believed that the guerrilla tactics employed by special forces would be
   effective in the "brush fire" war in Vietnam. He saw British success in
   using such forces during the Malayan Emergency as a strategic template.
   Thus in May 1961 Kennedy sent detachments of Green Berets to South
   Vietnam to train South Vietnamese soldiers in guerilla warfare.

   The Diệm regime had been initially able to cope with the insurgency
   with the aid of U.S. materiel and advisers, and, by 1962, seemed to be
   gaining the upper hand. Senior U.S. military leaders received positive
   reports from the U.S. commander, General Paul D. Harkins of the
   Military Assistance Command, Vietnam or MACV. By the following year,
   however, cracks began to appear in the facade of success. In January a
   possible victory that was turned into a stunning defeat for government
   forces at the Battle of Ap Bac caused consternation among both the
   military advisors in the field and among politicians in Washington.

   Diem was already growing unpopular with many of his countrymen because
   of his administration's nepotism, corruption, and its apparent bias in
   favour of the Catholic minority - of which Diem was a part - at the
   expense of the Buddhist majority. Promised land reforms were not
   carried out and Diem's strategic hamlet program for village
   self-defense (and government control) was a disaster. The Kennedy
   administration was growing increasingly frustrated with Diệm. In 1963,
   a crackdown by Diệm's forces was launched against Buddhist monks
   protesting discriminatory practices and demanding a political voice.
   Diem's repression of the protests sparked the so-called Buddhist
   Revolt, during which self-immolations by several monks took place and
   which were covered in the world press. The communists took full
   advantage of the situation and fueled anti-Diem sentiment to create
   further instability.

Coup and Assassination

   Some policy-makers in Washington began to believe that Diem was
   incapable of defeating the communists, and some even feared that he
   might make a deal with Ho Chi Minh. During the summer of 1963
   administration officials began discussing the possibility of a regime
   change in Saigon. The State Department was generally in favour of
   encouraging a coup while the Pentagon and CIA were more alert to the
   destabilizing consequences of such a coup and wanted to continue
   applying pressure to Diem to make political changes.

   Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of his younger brother
   Ngo Dinh Nhu from all of his positions of power. 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 (along with
   his wife) had become a hated figure in South Vietnam, and one whose
   continued influence was unacceptable to all members of the Kennedy
   administration. Eventually, the administration determined that Diem was
   unwilling to further modify his policies and the decision was made to
   remove U.S. support from the regime. This choice was was made jointly
   by the State Department, Pentagon, National Security Council, and the
   CIA. President Kennedy agreed with the consensus.

   In November, the U.S. embassy in Saigon communicated through the CIA to
   the military officers that made up the conspiracy that the U.S. would
   not oppose the removal of Diem. The president was overthrown by the
   military and later executed along with his brother. After the coup,
   Kennedy appeared to be genuinely shocked and dismayed by the murders.
   Top CIA officials were baffled that Kennedy didn't understand that this
   was a possible outcome.

   Chaos ensued in the security and defense systems of South Vietnam and,
   once again, Hanoi took advantage of the situation to increase 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. Ironically, Kennedy was himself
   assassinated just three weeks after Diệm. He was automatically
   succeeded by Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, who declared on 24
   November that the U.S. would continue its support of the South
   Vietnamese. During this period, the U.S. military involvement in South
   Vietnam dramatically increased and the 'Americanization' of the war
   began.

   The Saigon governments, and their new-found Western allies, portrayed
   their military actions as simply a defense against the use of armed
   violence to effect political change. At a geopolitical level, the
   conflict was conducted in order to deter what was then perceived as
   expansive global communism emanating from Moscow and Beijing, which had
   been a keystone of Western foreign policy since the late 1940s. The
   Cold War paradigms of containment and the domino theory were in their
   heyday and framed many of the arguments on the issue of Vietnam. As far
   as the North Vietnamese and the NLF were concerned, the conflict was a
   struggle to reunite the nation and to repel foreign aggressors and
   neo-colonialists - battlecries that were a virtual repeat of those of
   the war against the French.

John F. Kennedy and Vietnam (1961–1963)

     * 20 December 1960 - The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
       (NLF) is founded.
     * January 1961 — Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledges support for
       " wars of national liberation" throughout the world. The idea of
       creating a neutral Laos is suggested to Kennedy.
     * May 1961 — Kennedy sends 400 United States Army Special Forces
       personnel to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese soldiers
       following a visit to the country by Vice-President Johnson.
     * June 1961 — Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna. He protests
       North Vietnam's attacks on Laos and points out that the U.S. was
       supporting the neutrality of Laos. Both leaders agree to pursue a
       policy of creating a neutral Laos.
     * October 1961 — Following successful NLF attacks, Defense Secretary
       Robert S. McNamara recommends sending six divisions (200,000 men)
       to Vietnam. Kennedy sends just 16,000 before his death in 1963.
     * 1 August, 1962 — Kennedy signs the Foreign Assistance Act of 1962
       which provides "…military assistance to countries which are on the
       rim of the Communist world and under direct attack."
     * 3 January 1963 — NLF victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
     * May 1963 — Buddhists riot in South Vietnam after a conflict over
       the display of religious flags during the celebration of the
       Buddha's birthday. Some urge Kennedy to end U.S. support for Ngo
       Dinh Diem, who is Catholic. Photographs of protesting Buddhist
       monks burning themselves alive appear in U.S. newspapers.
     * May 1963 — Republican Barry Goldwater declares that the U.S. should
       fight to win or withdraw from Vietnam. Later on, during his
       presidential campaign against Lyndon Johnson, his Democratic
       opponents accuse him of wanting to use nuclear weapons in the
       conflict.
     * 1 November 1963 — Military officers launch a coup d'état against
       Diem, with the tacit approval of the Kennedy administration. Diem
       leaves the presidential residence.
     * 2 November, 1963 — Diem is discovered and killed by rebel leaders,
       along with his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.
     * 22 November, 1963 — Kennedy is assassinated.

Escalation and Americanization, 1963-1968

Gulf of Tonkin and the Westmoreland Expansion

   Commandant of the Marine Corps Wallace Greene (l), III MAF commander
   General Robert Cushman (c), and General Westmoreland (r)
   Enlarge
   Commandant of the Marine Corps Wallace Greene (l), III MAF commander
   General Robert Cushman (c), and General Westmoreland (r)

   On 27 July 1964 5,000 additional U.S. military advisors were ordered to
   South Vietnam, bringing the total U.S. troop commitment to 21,000. The
   massive escalation of the war from 1964 to 1968 was justified by the
   administration as a response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incidents of 2-4
   August 1964. The first incident concerned the U.S. Destroyer Maddox
   which was conducting an electronic intelligence gathering mission four
   miles off the North Vietnamese coast. It was attacked by three torpedo
   boats of the North Vietnamese Navy. After being joined by the Destroyer
   C. Turner Joy, both ships returned to "fly the flag" in what the U.S.
   claimed were international waters. During the evening of the 4th, both
   ships claimed to have been attacked by many North Vietnamese vessels,
   which fired "dozens" of torpedoes at the American vessels.

   There was rampant confusion in Washington, but the incident was seen by
   the administration as the perfect opportunity to present Congress with
   "a pre-dated declaration of war. Unfortunately, neither Congress nor
   the American people were going to learn the whole story about the
   events in the Gulf of Tonkin until the publication of the Pentagon
   Papers in 1969. It was on the basis of the administration's assertions
   that the attacks were "unprovoked aggression" on the part of North
   Vietnam, that the U.S. Congress approved the Southeast Asia Resolution
   (also known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) on 7 August. The law gave
   the president broad powers to conduct military operations without an
   actual declaration of war. The resolution passed unanimously in the
   House of Representatives and was opposed in the Senate by only two
   members.

   In a televised address, President Johnson argued that "the challenge
   that we face in Southeast Asia today is the same challenge that we have
   faced with courage and that we have met with strength in Greece and
   Turkey, in Berlin and Korea, in Lebanon and in Cuba." National Security
   Council members, including Secretary of Defense McNamara, Secretary of
   State Dean Rusk, and General Maxwell Taylor, agreed on 28 November to
   recommend that Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of the
   bombing of North Vietnam.

Operation Rolling Thunder, 1965-1968

   U.S. F-105 aircraft dropping bombs.
   Enlarge
   U.S. F-105 aircraft dropping bombs.

   In February 1965, a U.S. air base at Pleiku, in the Central Highlands,
   was attacked twice by the NLF, resulting in the deaths of over a dozen
   U.S. personnel. These guerilla attacks prompted the administration to
   order retaliatory air strikes ( Operation Flaming Dart) against North
   Vietnam. It was as though the administration had just been awaiting
   such an opportunity. National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy stated
   that "the incident at Pleiku was like a streetcar - you had to jump on
   board when it came along."

   Operation Rolling Thunder was the code name given to a sustained
   strategic bombing campaign targeted against North Vietnam by aircraft
   of the U.S. Air Force and Navy that was inaugurated on 2 March 1965.
   Its original purpose was bolster the morale of the South Vietnamese and
   to serve as a signaling device to Hanoi. U.S. airpower would act as a
   method of "strategic persuasion," deterring the North politically by
   the fear of continued or increased bombardment. Rolling Thunder
   gradually escalated in intensity, with aircraft striking only carefully
   selected targets. When that did not work, its goals were altered to
   destroying the will of the North to fight by destroying the nation's
   industrial base, transportation network, and its (continually
   increasing) air defenses. After more than a million sorties were flown
   and three-quarters of a million tons of bombs were dropped, Rolling
   Thunder was ended on 11 November 1968. Other aerial campaigns (
   Operation Commando Hunt) were directed to counter the flow of men and
   supplies down the Hồ Chí Minh Trail.

The Big Build-Up

   President Johnson had already appointed General William C. Westmoreland
   to succeed Paul D. Harkins as Commander of MACV in June 1964. Under
   Westmoreland, the expansion of American troop strength in Vietnam took
   place. American forces rose from 16,000 during 1964 to more than
   553,000 by 1969. With the U.S. decision to escalate its involvement,
   ANZUS Pact allies Australia and New Zealand agreed to contribute troops
   and material to the conflict. They were quickly joined by the Republic
   of Korea (second only to the Americans in troop strength), Thailand,
   and the Philippines. The U.S. paid for (through aid dollars) and
   logistically supplied all of the allied forces. Meanwhile, political
   affairs in Saigon were finally settling down (at least as far as the
   Americans were concerned}. On 14 February the most recent military
   junta, the National Leadership Committee, installed Air Vice-Marshal
   Nguyen Cao Ky as prime minister. In 1966, the junta selected General
   Nguyen Van Thieu to run for president with Ky on the ballot as the
   vice-presidential candidate in the 1967 election. The best thing that
   can be said about the election of 1967 was that it was held. Thieu and
   Ky were elected and would remain in office for the duration. In the
   presidential election of 1971, Thieu ran for the presidency unopposed.
   With the installation of the Thieu and Ky government (the Second
   Republic), the U.S. finally had a legitimate government in Saigon with
   which to deal.
   U.S. bombs NLF positions in 1965
   Enlarge
   U.S. bombs NLF positions in 1965

   With the advent of Rolling Thunder, American airbases and facilities
   would have to be constructed and manned for the aerial effort. And the
   defense of those bases would not be entrusted to the South Vietnamese.
   So, on 8 March 1965, 3,500 United States Marines came ashore at Da Nang
   as the first U.S. combat troops in South Vietnam, adding to the 25,000
   U.S. military advisers already in place. On 5 May the 173d Airborne
   Brigade became the first U.S. Army ground unit committed to the
   conflict in South Vietnam. On 18 August, Operation Starlite began as
   the first major U.S. ground operation, destroying a NLF stronghold in
   Quảng Ngãi Province. The NLF Cong learned from their defeat and
   subsequently tried to avoid fighting an American-style ground war by
   reverting to small-unit guerrilla operations.

   The North Vietnamese had already sent regular army units to southern
   Vietnam beginning in late 1964. Some officials in Hanoi had favored an
   immediate invasion of the south, and a plan was developed to use PAVN
   units to split southern Vietnam in half through the Central Highlands.
   The two imported adversaries first faced one another during
   OperationSilver Bayonet, better known as the Battle of the Ia Drang.
   During the savage fighting that took place, both sides learned lessons.
   The North Vietnamese, who had taken horrendous casualties, began to
   adapt to the overwhelming American superiority in airmobility,
   supporting arms, and close air support. The Americans learned that the
   Vietnam People's Army (VPA/PAVN) (which was basically a light infantry
   force) was not a rag-tag band of guerrillas, but was instead a
   highly-disciplined, proficient force and one which was extremely well
   motivated.

Search and Destroy, the Strategy of Attrition

   On 27 November 1965, the Pentagon declared that if the major operations
   needed to neutralize North Vietnamese and NLF forces were to succeed,
   U.S. troop levels in South Vietnam would have to be increased from
   120,000 to 400,000. In a series of meetings between Westmoreland and
   the president held in Honolulu in February 1966, Westmoreland argued
   that the U.S. presence had succeeded in preventing the immediate defeat
   of the South Vietnamese government, but that more troops would be
   necessary if systematic offensive operations were to be conducted. The
   issue then became in what manner American forces would be used. What
   was to be the American strategy?
   Image:Pat1.jpg
   American troops sweep through a paddy

   The nature of the American military's strategic and tactical decisions
   made during this period would colour the conduct and nature of the
   conflict for the duration of the American commitment. Military logic
   demanded that the U.S. attack the locus of PAVN/NLF in North Vietnam
   itself. If that country could not be invaded, then the enemy's
   logistical system in Laos and Cambodia should have been cut by ground
   forces, isolating the southern battlefield. The gloves should have come
   off in Rolling Thunder and the ports and harbors of the North should
   have be mined. But political considerations limited U.S. military
   actions, mainly due to the memory of communist reactions during the
   Korean Conflict. Ever present in the minds of diplomats, military
   officers, and politicians was the possibility of a spiraling escalation
   of the conflict into a superpower confrontation and the possibility of
   a nuclear exchange. Therefore, there would be no invasion of North
   Vietnam, the "neutrality" of Laos and Cambodia would be respected, and
   Rolling Thunder would not resemble the bombing of Germany and Japan
   during the Second World War.

   These limitations were not foisted upon the military as an
   afterthought. Before the first U.S. combat boot stepped ashore at Da
   Nang, the Pentagon was cognizant of all of the parameters that were
   going to be imposed by their civilian masters, yet they still agreed
   that the mission could be accomplished within them. Westmoreland
   believed that he had found a strategy that would either defeat Hanoi
   or, at the very least, force it into serious negotiations. Attrition
   was to be the key. The general claimed that larger offensive operations
   would eventually lead to a "crossover point" in PAVN and NLF casualties
   after which a decisive victory would be possible.

   American forces would conduct operations against the PAVN, pushing the
   enemy further back into the countryside away from the heavily populated
   coastal lowlands. In the backcountry the U.S. could fully utilize its
   superiority in firepower and mobility to bleed the enemy in set-piece
   battles. The cleaning out of the NLF and the pacification of the
   villages and would be the province of the South Vietnamese military.
   The adoption of this strategy, however, brought Westmoreland into
   direct conflict with his Marine Corps commander, General Lewis Walt,
   who had already recognized the security of the villages as the key to
   success. Walt had immediately commenced pacification efforts in his
   area of responsibility, but Westmoreland was unhappy, believing that
   the Marines were being underutilized and fighting the wrong enemy. In
   the end, MACV won out and Westmoreland's search and destroy concept,
   predicated on the attrition of enemy forces, won the day.

   It is highly ironic that, at this point in the conflict, both sides
   chose similar strategies. The PAVN, which had been operating a more
   conventional, large-unit war, switched back to small-unit operations in
   the face of U.S. military capability. The real struggle now began in
   the villages, where the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese peasants,
   whose cooperation was absolutely necessary to military success, were to
   be won or lost. Unfortunately for the U.S., it had given responsibility
   for this struggle to the ARVN, whose troops and commanders were
   notoriously unfit for the task. Only time would tell which side would
   feel the pain of the attritional war first and concede victory to the
   other side.

   For the American soldier, whose doctrine was one of absolute commitment
   to total victory (a la World War II), this strategy led to an extremely
   frustrating small-unit war. Most of the combat was conducted by units
   smaller than battalion-size (the majority at the platoon level). Since
   the goal of the operations was to kill the enemy, ground was not taken
   and held as in previous wars. Savage fighting and the retreat of the
   enemy was immediately followed by the abandonment of the terrain just
   seized, leaving the Americans only in control of the ground upon which
   they stood. Combined with this was the anger and frustration engendered
   among American troops by the effective tactics of the NLF, who
   conducted a war of sniping, booby traps and mines, and terror against
   the Americans.
   President Johnson conferring with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van
   Thieu in July 1968
   Enlarge
   President Johnson conferring with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van
   Thieu in July 1968

   As a result of the Honolulu conference, President Johnson authorized an
   increase in troop strength to 429,000 by August 1966. The large
   increase in troops enabled MACV to carry out numerous operations that
   grew in size and complexity during the next two years. For U.S. troops
   participating in these operations (Masher/White Wing, Attleboro, Cedar
   Falls, Junction City and dozens of others) the war boiled down to hard
   marching through difficult terrain and weather that was alternately
   murderously hot and bone-chillingly cold and wet. Hours and days passed
   in excruciating repetition and boredom that was punctuated by
   adrenaline-pumping minutes of sheer terror when contact was made with
   the enemy. It was the PAVN/NLF, however, that actually controlled the
   pace of the war. Fighting only when they believed that they had the
   upper hand and then disappearing when the Americans and/or ARVN brought
   their superiority in numbers and firepower to bear. Hanoi, utilizing
   the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk Trails, matched the U.S. at every point of
   the escalation, funneling manpower and supplies to the southern
   battlefields.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail

   The Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1967
   Enlarge
   The Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1967

   North Vietnam received foreign military aid shipments through its ports
   and rail system. This materiel (and PAVN manpower) was then shuttled
   south down the logistical corridor called by the Americans the Ho Chi
   Minh Trail (the Truong Son Strategic Supply Route to the North
   Vietnamese). At the end of an arduous journey the men and supplies
   entered South Vietnam's border areas. Complicating matters, the Trail
   system ran for most of its length through the neighboring neutral
   nations of Laos and Cambodia. It was impossible to block the
   infiltration of men and supplies from the north without bombing or
   invading those countries. Beginning in December 1964, however, the U.S.
   began a covert aerial interdiction campaign in Laos that would continue
   until the end of the conflict in 1973 (see Operation Barrell Roll,
   Operation Steel Tiger, Operation Tiger Hound, and Operation Commando
   Hunt).

   Laos and Cambodia also had their own indigenous communist insurgencies
   to deal with. In Laos, the North Vietnamese-supported Pathet Lao
   carried on a see-saw struggle with the Royal Lao armed forces. These
   regular government forces were supported by CIA-sponsored Hmong army of
   General Vang Pao and by the bombs of the U.S. Air Force. In Cambodia
   Prince Norodom Sihanouk maintained a delicate political balancing act
   both domestically and between eastern and western powers. Believing
   that the triumph of communism in Vietnam was inevitable, he made a deal
   with the Chinese in 1965 that allowed North Vietnamese forces to
   establish permanent bases in his country and to use the port of
   Sihanoukville for delivery of military supplies in exchange for
   payments and a proportion of the arms. In the meantime, the Hồ Chí Minh
   Trail was steadily improved and expanded and became the logistical
   jugular vein for communist forces fighting in the south.

The Border Battles and the Tet Offensive

   Late in 1967, Westmoreland said that it was conceivable that in two
   years or less U.S. forces could be phased out of the war, turning over
   more and more of the fighting to the ARVNHe should have known better.
   During the second half of the year, savage fighting broke out in the
   northern provinces. Beginning below the DMZ at Con Tien and then
   spreading west to the Laotian border near Dak To, the PAVN began to
   stand its ground and fight. This readiness of the enemy to remain fixed
   in place inspired MACV to send reinforcements from other sectors of
   South Vietnam. The Border Battles had begun.

   Most of the PAVN/NLF operational capability was possible only because
   of the unhindered movement of men along the Hồ Chí Minh Trail. In order
   to threaten this flow of supplies, a Marine Corps combat base had been
   established on the Vietnamese side of the Laotian frontier near the
   village of Khe Sanh. The U.S. utilized the base as a border
   surveillance position overlooking Route 9, the only east-west road that
   crossed the border in the province. Westmoreland also hoped to use the
   base as a jump-off point for any future incursion against the Trail
   system in Laos. During the spring of 1967, a series of small-unit
   actions near Khe Sanh prompted MACV to beef up its defenses. These
   small unit actions and increasing intelligence information indicated
   that the PAVN was building up significant forces just across the
   border.

   Indeed, the PAVN was doing just that. Three regular divisions (and
   later a fourth) were moving toward Khe Sanh, eventually surrounding the
   base and cutting off its only road access. Westmoreland, contrary to
   the advice of his superiors, reinforced the Marines. As far as he was
   concerned if the communists were willing to mass their forces for
   destruction by American air power, so much the better. MACV then
   launched the largest concentrated aerial bombardment effort of the
   conflict to defend Khe Sanh (see Operation Niagara). Another massive
   aerial effort was undertaken to keep the beleaguered Marines supplied.
   There were many comparisons (by the media, the Americans, and the North
   Vietnamese) to the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, but the differences
   outweighed the similarities.

   MACV used this opportunity to field its latest technology against the
   PAVN. A sensor-driven anti-infiltration system known as Igloo White was
   in the process of being field tested in Laos as the siege of Khe Sanh
   began. Westmoreland ordered that it be employed to detect PAVN troop
   movements near Marine base and the system worked well. By March, the
   long-awaited ground assault against the base had failed to materialize
   and communist forces began to melt back toward Laos. MACV (and future
   historians) were left with only questions. What was the goal of the
   PAVN? Was the siege a real attempt to stage another Dien Bien Phu? Or
   had the battles near the border (which had eventually drawn in half of
   MACV's maneuver battalions) been a diversion, meant to pull forces away
   from the cities, where another PAVN offensive was about to get under
   way?

   General Westmoreland's public reassurances that the "light at the end
   of the tunnel" was about to be reached were barely out of his mouth
   when, on 30 January 1968, PAVN and NLF forces broke the truce that
   accompanied the annual Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday and mounted their
   largest offensive thus far in the conflict in hopes of sparking a
   "General Uprising" among the South Vietnamese. These forces, ranging in
   size from small groups to entire regiments, attacked nearly every city
   and major military installation in South Vietnam. The Americans and
   South Vietnamese, initially surprised by the scope and scale of the
   offensive, quickly responded and inflicted severe casualties on their
   enemy (the NLF was essentially eliminated as a fighting force, the
   places of the dead within its ranks were increasingly filled by North
   Vietnamese).

   The PAVN/NLF attacks were speedily and bloodily repulsed except in
   Saigon, where the fighting lasted for three days, and in the old
   imperial capital of Hue, where it continued for a month. During their
   occupation of Hue, 2,800 South Vietnamese were murdered by the NLF in
   the single worst massacre of the conflict (see Massacre at Hue). The
   hoped for uprising never took place, indeed, the offensive drove some
   previously apathetic South Vietnamese to fight for the government.
   Another surprise for the communists was that the ARVN did not collapse
   under the onslaught, instead turning in a performance that pleased even
   their American patrons.
   Burial of victims of VC massacre at Hue
   Enlarge
   Burial of victims of VC massacre at Hue

   Contrary to contemporary opinion, the American media did not
   characterize the Tet Offensive as a military defeat for the U.S. What
   shocked and dismayed the American public was the realization that
   either it had been lied to or that the American military command had
   been dangerously overoptimistic in its appraisal of the situation in
   Vietnam. The public could not understand how such an attack was
   possible after having been told for several years that victory was just
   around the corner. The Tet Offensive came to embody the growing
   credibility gap at the heart of U.S. government statements. These
   realizations and changing attitudes forced the American public (and
   politicians) to face hard realities and to reexamine their position in
   Southeast Asia. The days of an open-ended commitment to the conflict
   were over.

   The psychological impact of the Tet Offensive effectively ended the
   political career of Lyndon Johnson. On 11 March, Senator Eugene
   McCarthy won 42 percent of the vote in the Democratic New Hampshire
   Primary. Although Johnson was not on the ballot, commentators viewed
   this as a defeat for the president. Shortly thereafter, Senator Robert
   Kennedy announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for
   the 1968 presidential election. On 31 March, in a speech that took
   America and the world by surprise, Johnson announced that "I shall not
   seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term
   as your president" and pledged himself to devoting the rest of his term
   in office to the search for peace in Vietnam^ (Text and audio of
   speech). Johnson announced that he was limiting bombing of North
   Vietnam to just north of the DMZ, and that U.S. representatives were
   prepared to meet with North Vietnamese counterparts in any suitable
   place "to discuss the means to bring this ugly war to an end." A few
   days later, much to Johnson's surprise, Hanoi agreed to contacts
   between the two sides. On 13 May, what would become known as the Paris
   peace talks began.

Paris Peace Talks

   On 12 October 1967, Secretary of State Dean Rusk had declared that
   proposals in the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives with Hanoi were
   futile due to the DRV's repeated refusals to negotiate. The position of
   Hanoi was simply that the U.S. should evacuate South Vietnam and leave
   Vietnamese affairs to the Vietnamese. In the wake of the Tet Offensive,
   Lyndon finally seemed to realize the predicament that his policies had
   led to. Neither the strategic "carrot and stick" approach of Rolling
   Thunder nor the attritional stalemate in the ground war had solved the
   problem in Vietnam. His chief concern then became getting Hanoi
   participate in serious negotiations.

   U.S. and DRV negotiators met in Paris on 10 May 1968 for the opening
   session of the peace talks. The DRV delegation was headed by Xuan Thuy,
   while his American counterpart was U.S. ambassador-at-large Averell
   Harriman. For five months, however, the negotiations stalled as neither
   Hanoi nor Washington was willing to give ground that would allow full
   negotiations to begin; Hanoi insisted on a total cessation of the
   bombing of North Vietnam, while Washington demanded a reciprocal
   de-escalation of North Vietnamese military activities in South Vietnam.
   Matters were further complicated by the fact that delegations from the
   NLF and South Vietnamese government would also be participating.

   Neither gave way until late in October when Johnson issued preliminary
   orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam (which ended on 11
   November). Johnson's vice-president, and the Democratic Party's nominee
   in the U.S. presidential election, Hubert H. Humphrey, had managed to
   close a large lead held by the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon,
   partly by breaking with Johnson in September and calling for an end to
   the bombing of North Vietnam. Humphrey was further boosted by the
   apparent breakthrough in Paris. Nixon feared that this lead would be
   sufficient to give electoral victory to Humphrey. Using an
   intermediary, Nixon encouraged South Vietnamese President Thieu to stay
   away from the talks by promising that Saigon would get a better deal
   under a Nixon presidency. Thieu obliged, and Nixon went on to win the
   election by a narrow margin. By the time President Johnson left office,
   about all that had been agreed in Paris was the shape of the
   negotiating table.

Vietnamization and American Withdrawal, 1969-1974

Richard Nixon Searches for Peace with Honour

   Nixon had continuously campaigned under the slogan that he "had a plan
   to end the Vietnam War." Unfortunately, no such plan existed and the
   American commitment would continue for another five years. The goal of
   the American military effort was now to buy time, gradually build up
   the strength of the South Vietnamese armed forces, and to re-equip them
   with modern weapons so that they could defend their nation on their
   own. This policy became the cornerstone of the so-called " Nixon
   Doctrine". As applied to Vietnam, it was labelled "Vietnamization".
   President Johnson in conversation with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
   Staff Earle Wheeler (l) and General Creighton Abrams (r)
   Enlarge
   President Johnson in conversation with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
   Staff Earle Wheeler (l) and General Creighton Abrams (r)

   Soon after Tet, the axe fell on General Westmoreland (who was
   inexplicably promoted to Army Chief of Staff) and he was replaced by
   his deputy, General Creighton W. Abrams. Due to the sea change in
   American strategy posed by Vietnamization, Abrams pursued a very
   different approach. The U.S. was gradually withdrawing from the
   conflict and Abrams favored smaller-scale operations aimed at PAVN/NLF
   logistics, more openness with the media, less indiscriminate use of
   American firepower, elimination of the body count as the key indicator
   of battlefield success, and more meaningful cooperation with South
   Vietnamese forces.

   One of Nixon's main foreign policy goals had been the achievement of a
   breakthrough in U.S. relations with China and the Soviet Union. An
   avowed anti-communist since early in his political career, Nixon could
   make diplomatic overtures to the communists without being accused of
   being "soft." The result of his overtures was an era of détente that
   led to nuclear arms reductions by the U.S. and Soviet Union and the
   beginning of a dialogue with China. In this context, Nixon viewed
   Vietnam as simply another limited conflict forming part of the larger
   tapestry of superpower relations; however, he was still doggedly
   determined to preserve South Vietnam until such time as he could not be
   blamed for what he saw as its inevitable collapse (or a "decent
   interval," as it was known). To this end he and his National Security
   Advisor Henry Kissinger employed Chinese and Soviet foreign policy
   gambits to successfully defuse some of the anti-war opposition at home
   and secured movement at the negotiating table in Paris.

   China and the Soviet Union had been the principal backers of Hanoi's
   effort through large-scale military and financial aid. The two
   communist superpowers had competed with one another to prove their
   "fraternal socialist links" with the regime in Hanoi. The North
   Vietnamese had become adept at playing the two nations off against one
   another. Even with Nixon's rapprochement, their support of Hanoi would
   increase significantly in the years leading up to the U.S. departure in
   1973, enabling the North Vietnamese to mount a full-scale conventional
   offensives against the south, complete with tanks, heavy artillery, and
   the most modern surface-to-air missiles (SAMS).

The My Lai massacre

   The morality of U.S. participation in the conflict was a major
   political issue both in the U.S. and abroad. First, there was the
   question whether America should have interfered in what was generally
   considered to be a civil war. Second, was a proxy war, without a clear
   and decisive path to victory, worth the number of casualties that were
   being sustained by both combatants and civilians? Third, there was the
   question how the American military, which depended on the use of
   massive amounts of firepower (which tended to hold down casualties),
   could fight a war against an elusive enemy that was often
   indistinguishable from the civilian population. For example, the
   levelling of entire villages by airstrikes or artillery because of
   single shots fired by snipers was relatively common. Last, how could
   inexperienced U.S. troops (many of whom were unwilling conscripts) be
   reasonably expected to engage in such a guerrilla war without
   succumbing to stress and resorting to acts of wanton brutality.
   Fighting a mostly invisible enemy (who often utilized the civilian
   population as a shield) that did not obey the conventional rules of
   warfare, American troops suffered injury and death from impersonal
   booby traps and snipers. This could only lead to the kind of fear and
   hatred (elevated by racism) that would compromise morals.

   On 16 March 1968, three companies of Task Force Barker, part of the
   Americal Division, took part in a search and destroy operation near the
   village of My Lai, in Quang Nam Province. One of those three companies,
   Charlie Company, under the command of Lieutenant William Calley entered
   the hamlet of Son My and proceeded to round up, rape, torture, and
   murder as many of the inhabitants as could be found. Although not all
   of the members of the company participated, a significant number of
   them, led by Calley, did. He personally ordered the executions of
   hundreds of villagers in large groups ("a Nazi kind of thing" as one
   participant related it). The killings ended only when an American
   helicopter crew, headed by Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr.,
   discovered Calley's unit in the act and threatened to attack them with
   his craft's weapons unless they stopped. One of the soldiers on the
   scene was Ron Haeberle, a photographer for the Army newspaper, "Stars
   and Stripes" who took unobtrusive official black and white photos of
   the operation and colour shots of the massacre itself with his personal
   camera. Although the operation appeared suspicious to Calley's
   superiors, it was papered over and forgotten.
   Haeberle photo of Vietnamese civilians killed during the My Lai
   massacre
   Enlarge
   Haeberle photo of Vietnamese civilians killed during the My Lai
   massacre

   In 1969, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh exposed the My Lai
   massacre in print and the Haeberle photos splashed across the world
   media. The Pentagon went into overdrive and launched an investigation
   headed by General William Peers to look into the allegations. After a
   flurry of activity the Peers Commission issued its report. It declared
   that "an atmosphere of atrocity" surrounded the event, and concluded
   that not only had the massacre taken place, but that the crime had been
   covered up by the commander of the Americal Division and his executive
   officer. Perhaps 400 Vietnamese civilians, mostly old men, women, and
   children had been killed by Charlie company. Several men were charged
   in the killings, but only Calley was convicted. He was given a life
   sentence by a court-martial in 1970 but was later pardoned by President
   Nixon. Cover-ups may have happened in other cases, as detailed in the
   Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles concerning the Tiger Force of
   the 101st Airborne Division by the Toledo Blade in 2003.

   Although My Lai generated a lot of civilian recriminations and bad
   publicity for the military, it was not alone. The Vietnam War Crimes
   Working Group Files made public in 1994 by the "Freedom of Information
   Act" reveal seven, albeit smaller, massacres previously unacknowledged
   by the Pentagon. It must also be stated that all of the allegations
   combined only add up to a fraction of the political murders carried out
   by the NLF and North Vietnamese Army during the conflict (see Hue
   Massacre).

The Pentagon Papers

   The credibility of the U.S. government again suffered in 1971 when The
   New York Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers serially
   published The Pentagon Papers (actually U.S.-Vietnam Relations,
   1945-1967). This top-secret historical study of the American commitment
   in Vietnam from the Franklin Roosevelt administration until 1967, had
   been contracted to the RAND corporation by Secretary of Defense Robert
   McNamara. The documents were leaked to the press by Daniel Ellsberg, a
   former State Department official who had worked on the study.

   The Pentagon Papers laid out, in stark black and white, the missteps
   taken by four administrations in their Vietnam policies. For example:
   they revealed the Johnson administrations obfuscations (if not outright
   lying) to Congress concerning the Gulf of Tonkin incidents that had led
   to direct U.S. intervention; they exposed the clandestine bombing of
   Laos that had begun in 1964; and they detailed the American
   government's complicity in the death of Ngo Dinh Diem. The study
   presented a continuously pessimistic view of the likelihood of victory
   and generated fierce criticism of U.S. policies.

   The importance of the actual content of the papers to U.S.
   policy-making was disputed, but the window that they provided into the
   flawed decision-making process at the highest levels of the U.S.
   government gave many food for thought. Their publication was a news
   event and the government's legal (Nixon lost out to the Supreme Court)
   and extra-legal efforts (the "Plumbers" break-in at the office of
   Ellsberg's psychiatrist, committed in order to gain material with which
   to discredit him, was one of the first steps on the road to Watergate)
   carried out to prevent their publication - mainly on national security
   grounds - then went on to generate yet more criticism and suspicion of
   the government by the American public.

Operation Menu and the Cambodian Incursion, 1969-1970

   By 1969 the policy of non-alignment and neutrality had worn thin for
   Prince Sihanouk. Due to pressures from the right in Cambodia, the
   prince began a shift from the pro-left position he had assumed in
   1965-1966. He began to make overtures for normalized relations with the
   U.S. and created a Government of National Salvation with the assistance
   of the pro-American General Lon Nol. Seeing a shift in the prince's
   position, President Nixon ordered the launching of a top-secret bombing
   campaign, targeted at the PAVN/NLF Base Areas and sanctuaries along
   Cambodia's eastern border. The massive B-52 strikes ( Operation Menu)
   deluged Cambodia for 14 months and delivered approximately 2,756,941
   tons of bombs, more than the total tonnage that the Allies dropped
   "during all of World War II, including the bombs that struck Hiroshima
   and Nagasaki." According to historians Ben Kiernan and Taylor Owen,
   "Cambodia may well be the most heavily bombed country in history."
   President Nixon explains the expansion of the war into Cambodia
   Enlarge
   President Nixon explains the expansion of the war into Cambodia

   On 18 March 1970, Sihanouk, who was out of the country on a state
   visit, was deposed by a vote of the National Assembly and replaced by
   Lon Nol. Cambodia's ports were immediately closed to North Vietnamese
   military supplies and the government demanded that the PAVN be removed
   from the border areas. Taking advantage of the situation, Nixon ordered
   a military incursion into Cambodia by U.S. and ARVN troops in order to
   both destroy PAVN/NLF sanctuaries bordering South Vietnam and to buy
   time for the U.S. withdrawal. During the Cambodian Incursion, U.S. and
   South Vietnamese forces discovered and removed or destroyed a huge
   logistical and intelligence haul in Cambodia.

   The incursion also sparked large-scale demonstrations on and closures
   of American college campuses. The expansion of the conflict into
   Cambodia was seen as a direct escalation of the conflict, nullifying
   Nixon's promises of de-escalating the war. During the ensuing protests,
   four students were shot and killed and a score were wounded by Ohio
   National Guardsmen during a demonstration at Kent State University. Two
   other students were killed at Jackson State University in Mississippi.
   In an effort to lessen opposition to the U.S. commitment, Nixon
   announced on 12 October that the U.S. would withdraw 40,000 more troops
   from Vietnam before Christmas.

   There were two tragic and unintended effects of the Cambodian
   incursion: First, it pushed the PAVN deeper into Cambodia, which
   destabilized the country. Second, it forced the North Vietnamese to
   openly support its despised allies, the Khmer Rouge and allowed them to
   extend their power. During the incursion, South Vietnamese troops had
   gone on a rampage, in sharp contrast to the exemplary behaviour that
   had been displayed by the communists, further increasing support for
   their cause. Sihanouk remained in China, where he established and
   headed a government in exile, throwing his personal support behind the
   Khmer Rouge, the North Vietnamese, and the Pathet Lao.

Lam Son 719

   In 1971 the U.S. authorized the ARVN to carry out an offensive
   operation aimed at cutting the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southeastern Laos.
   Besides attacking the PAVN logistical system (which would buy time for
   the U.S. withdrawal) the incursion would be a significant test
   Vietnamization. Backed by U.S. air and artillery support (American
   troops were forbidden to enter Laos), the ARVN moved across the border
   along Route 9, utilizing the abandoned Marine outpost of Khe Sanh as a
   jumping-off point. At first, the incursion went well, but unlike the
   Cambodian operation of 1970, the PAVN decided to stand and fight,
   finally mustering around 60,000 men on the battlefield.

   The North Vietnamese first struck the flanks of the ARVN column,
   smashed its outposts, and then moved in on the main ARVN force. Unlike
   previous encounters during the conflict, the PAVN fielded armoured
   formations, heavy artillery, and large amounts of the latest
   anti-aircraft artillery. After two months of savage fighting, the ARVN
   retreated back across the border, closely pursued by the North
   Vietnamese. One half of the invasion forces was killed or captured
   during the operation. Worse than that, Vietnamization was seen as an
   obvious failure.

   On 18 August, Australia and New Zealand decided to withdraw their
   troops from the conflict. The total number of U.S. forces in South
   Vietnam dropped to 196,700 on 29 October 1971, the lowest level since
   January 1966. On 12 November 1971, Nixon set a 1 February 1972 deadline
   to remove another 45,000 troops.

The Easter Offensive

   The Nguyen Hue Offensive, 1972
   Enlarge
   The Nguyen Hue Offensive, 1972

   Vietnamization received another severe test in the spring of 1972 when
   the North Vietnamese launched a massive conventional offensive across
   the DMZ. Beginning 30 March, the Easter Offensive (known as the Nguyen
   Hue Offensive to the North Vietnamese) quickly overran the three
   northernmost provinces of South Vietnam, including the provincial
   capital of Quang Tri City. PAVN forces then drove south toward Hue.

   Early in April the PAVN opened two additional operations. The first, a
   three-division thrust supported by tanks and heavy artillery, came out
   of Cambodia on 5 April. The PAVN seized Loc Ninh and advanced toward
   the provincial capital of An Loc in Binh Long Province. The second,
   launched from the tri-border region into the Central Highlands, seized
   a complex of ARVN outposts near Dak To and then advanced toward Kontum,
   threatening to split South Vietnam in two.

   The U.S. countered with a buildup of American airpower to support ARVN
   defensive operations and to conduct Operation Linebacker, the first
   bombing of North Vietnam since the bombing halt of 1968. The PAVN
   attacks against Hue, An Loc, and Kontum were contained and the ARVN
   launched a counteroffensive in May to retake the lost northern
   provinces. On 10 September, the South Vietnamese flag once again flew
   over the Citadel of Quang Tri City, but the ARVN offensive then ran out
   of steam, conceding the rest of the occupied territory to the North
   Vietnamese. South Vietnam had countered the heaviest attack since Tet,
   but it was very evident that it was totally dependent on U.S. airpower
   for its survival. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of American troops, who now
   numbered less than 100,000 at the beginning of the year, was continued
   as scheduled. By June only six infantry battalions remained. On 12
   August, the last American ground combat troops left the country.

The 1972 Election and Operation Linebacker II

   During the run-up to the 1972 presidential election, the war was again
   a major issue. An antiwar Democrat, George McGovern, ran against
   President Nixon. The president ended Operation Linebacker on 22 October
   after an agreement had been reached between the U.S. and North
   Vietnamese negotiators. The head of the U.S. negotiating team, Henry
   Kissinger, declared that "peace is at hand" shortly before election
   day, dealing a death blow to McGovern's already doomed campaign.
   Kissinger had not, however, counted on the intransigence of South
   Vietnamese President Thieu, who refused to accept the agreement and
   demanded some 90 changes. These the North Vietnamese refused to accept,
   and Nixon was not inclined to put too much pressure on Thieu just
   before the election, even though his victory was all but assured. The
   mood between the U.S. and DRV further turned sour when Hanoi went
   public with the details of the agreement. The Nixon Administration
   claimed that North Vietnamese negotiators had used the pronouncement as
   an opportunity to embarrass the president and to weaken the United
   States. White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler on 30 November told the
   press that there would be no more public announcements concerning U.S.
   troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that force levels were
   then down to 27,000.

   Due to Thieu's unhappiness with the agreement, primarily the
   stipulation that North Vietnamese troops could remain "in place" on
   South Vietnamese soil, the negotiations in Paris stalled as the North
   Vietnamese refused to accept Thieu's changes, and retaliated with
   amendments of their own. To reassure Thieu of American resolve, Nixon
   ordered a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam using B-52s
   and tactical aircraft in Operation Linebacker II, which began on 18
   December with large raids against both Hanoi and Haiphong. Nixon
   justified his actions by blaming the impasse in negotiations on the
   North Vietnamese, causing one commentator to describe his actions as
   "War by tantrum." Although this heavy bombing campaign caused protests,
   both domestically and internationally, and despite significant aircraft
   losses over North Vietnam, Nixon continued the operation until 29
   December. Nixon also exerted pressure on Thieu to accept the new terms
   of the agreement.

Return to Paris

   On 15 January 1973, citing progress in peace negotiations, Nixon
   announced the suspension of all offensive actions against North
   Vietnam, to be followed by a unilateral withdrawal of all U.S. troops.
   The Paris Peace Accords on 'Ending the War and Restoring Peace in
   Vietnam' were signed on 27 January, officially ending direct U.S.
   involvement in the Vietnam War.
   Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger (third and fourth from the left
   respectively)
   Enlarge
   Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger (third and fourth from the left
   respectively)

   The agreement called for the withdrawal of all U.S. personnel and an
   exchange of prisoners of war. Within South Vietnam, a cease-fire was
   declared (to be overseen by a multi-national, 1,160-man International
   Control Commission force) and both ARVN and PAVN/NLF forces would
   remain in control of the areas they then occupied, effectively
   partitioning South Vietnam. Both sides pledged to work toward a
   compromise political solution, possibly resulting in a coalition
   government. In order to maximize the area under their control both
   sides in South Vietnam almost immediately engaged in land-grabbing
   military operations, which turned into flashpoints. The signing of the
   Accords was the main motivation for the awarding of the 1973 Nobel
   Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger and to leading North Vietnamese
   negotiator Le Duc Tho. A separate cease-fire had been installed in Laos
   in February. Five days before the signing of the agreement in Paris,
   Lyndon Johnson, under whose leadership America had entered the
   conflict, died.

   The first U.S. prisoners of war were released by North Vietnam on 11
   February, and all U.S. military personnel were ordered to leave South
   Vietnam by 29 March. As an inducement for Thieu's government to sign
   the agreement, Nixon had promised that the U.S. would provide financial
   and limited military support (in the form of air strikes) so that the
   south could continue to defend itself. But Nixon was fighting for his
   political life in the growing Watergate Scandal and facing an
   increasingly hostile Congress that held the power of the purse. The
   president was able to exert little influence on a hostile public long
   sick of the Vietnam War.

   Thus, Nixon was unable to fulfill his promises to Thieu. Economic aid
   continued (after being cut nearly in half), but most of it was siphoned
   off by corrupt officials in the South Vietnamese government, and little
   actually went to the military effort. At the same time, aid to North
   Vietnam from the Soviet Union increased. With the U.S. no longer
   heavily involved, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union no longer saw the
   war as significant to their relations. The balance of power shifted
   decisively in North Vietnam's favour, and the north subsequently
   launched a major military offensive against the south.

South Vietnam Stands Alone, 1974–1975

Total U.S. Withdrawal

   In December 1974, the Democratic majority in 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, threatened 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 vetoed
   the Foreign Assistance Act, but his veto was overridden by Congress.

   By 1975, the South Vietnamese Army stood alone against the
   well-organized, highly determined, and foreign-funded North Vietnamese.
   Within South Vietnam, there was increasing chaos. The withdrawal of the
   American military had compromised an economy that had thrived largely
   due to U.S. financial support and the presence of large numbers of U.S.
   troops. Along with the rest of the non-oil exporting world, South
   Vietnam suffered economically from the oil price shocks caused by the
   Arab oil embargo and a subsequent global economic downturn.

   Between the signing of the Paris Accord and late 1974 both antagonists
   had been satisfied with minor land-grabbing operations. The North
   Vietnamese, however, were growing impatient with the Thieu regime,
   which remained intransigent as to the called-for national
   reunification. Hanoi also remained wary that the U.S. would, once
   again, support its former ally if larger operations were undertaken.

   By late 1974, the Politburo in Hanoi gave its permission for a limited
   VPA offensive out of Cambodia into Phuoc Long Province that would solve
   a local logistical problem, determine how Saigon forces would react,
   and determine if the U.S. would indeed return to the fray. In December
   and January the offensive took place, Phuoc Long Province fell to the
   VPA, and the 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 so great as we have now."

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 at Pleiku and the route to the
   coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in 1976. The ARVN proved
   no match for 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. There would be two months of good campaigning
   weather until the onset of the monsoon, so why not take advantage of
   the situation?

   President Thieu, fearful that the bulk of his forces would be cut off
   in the northern provinces and Central Highlands, decided to redeploy
   those troops southward in what he declared to be a "lighten the top and
   keep the bottom" strategy. But the withdrawal of the northern forces
   soon turned into a bloody retreat as the VPA suddenly attacked from the
   north. While ARVN forces tried to redeploy, splintered elements in the
   Central Highlands fought desperately against the North Vietnamese. ARVN
   General Phu abandoned the cities of Pleiku and Kontum and retreated
   toward the coast in what became known as the "column of tears". As the
   ARVN retreated, civilian refugees mixed in with them. Due to
   already-destroyed roads and bridges, Phu's column slowed down as the
   North Vietnamese closed in. As the exodus staggered down the mountains
   to the coast, it was shelled incessantly by the VPA and, by 1 April it
   ceased to exist.

   On 20 March, Thieu reversed himself and ordered that Hue, Vietnam's
   third-largest city, be held at all costs. But as the North Vietnamese
   attacked, panic ensued and ARVN resistance collapsed. On 22 March, the
   VPA opened a siege against Hue. Civilians jammed into the airport and
   docks hoping for escape. Some even swam into the ocean to reach boats
   and barges. The ARVN were routed along with the civilians, and some
   South Vietnamese soldiers shot civilians just to make room for a
   passageway for their retreat. On 31 March, after a three-day fight, 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 in 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 collapsed.

Final North Vietnamese offensive

   With the northern half of the country under their control, the
   Politburo ordered General Van to seize the opportunity for a final
   offensive against Saigon. The operational plan for the Ho Chi Minh
   Campaign called for capturing Saigon before 1 May, thereby beating the
   onset of the monsoon and preventing the redeployment and regroupment of
   ARVN forces to defend 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, where 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 desperately to save
   South Vietnam from conquest. By 21 April, however, the exhausted
   garrison had surrendered. A bitter and tearful President Thiệu resigned
   his office on the same day, declaring that the Americans had betrayed
   South Vietnam. He left for Taiwan on 25 April, leaving control of his
   doomed nation to General Duong Van Minh. By that time, North Vietnamese
   tanks had reached Bien Hoa and turned towards Saigon, clashing with
   occasional isolated ARVN units along the way.

   By the end of April, the weakened South Vietnamese military had
   collapsed on all fronts. On the 27th, 100,000 North Vietnamese troops
   encircled Saigon, which was defended by only about 30,000 ARVN troops.
   In order to increase panic and disorder in the city, the VPA began
   shelling the airport and eventually forced its closure. With the air
   exit closed, large numbers of civilians who might otherwise have fled
   the city 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

   Chaos, unrest, and panic ensued as hysterical South Vietnamese
   officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon before it was too
   late. 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 was still possible. The evacuations began in an atmosphere
   of desperation as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for the limited
   number of seats available on the departing helicopters. Martin pleaded
   with the U.S. government to send $700 million in emergency aid to South
   Vietnam in order to bolster the Saigon regime's ability to fight and
   mobilize fresh military units, but it was to no avail.

   In the U.S., South Vietnam was now perceived as doomed. President Ford
   had given a televised speech on 23 April declaring the end of both the
   Vietnam War and of all U.S. aid to the Saigon regime. The helicopter
   evacuations continued day and night as North Vietnamese tanks breached
   the 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 poured over the embassy perimeter and swarmed
   onto its grounds.

   On that day, VPA troops overcame all resistance, quickly capturing the
   U.S. embassy, the South Vietnamese government army garrison, the police
   headquarters, radio station, presidential palace, and other vital
   facilities. The presidential palace was captured and the NLF flag waved
   victoriously 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 to surrender. Minh then issued his last
   command, ordering all South Vietnamese troops to lay down their arms.

Aftermath

   The last official American military action in Southeast Asia occurred
   on 15 May 1975, when 18 Marine and airmen were killed during a rescue
   operation known as the Mayagüez incident involving a skirmish with the
   Khmer Rouge on an island off the Cambodian coast. The names of those
   men are listed on the last panel of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

   By 12 April, the Khmer Rouge had entered the Cambodian capital ao Phnom
   Penh. Only hours before their arrival, the U.S. had launched Operation
   Eagle Pull, an evacuation similar to Frequent Wind. U.S. Ambassador
   John G. Dean boarded a Marine helicopter and left the city. The
   communist victory plunged the nation into darkness as the cities and
   towns were forcibly evacuated, their inhabitants herded into the
   countryside to begin the construction of a Maoist paradise in
   Democratic Kampuchea.

   Both of the Vietnams were united 2 July 1976 to form the new Socialist
   Republic of Vietnam and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City in honour
   of the former president of North Vietnam. Thousands of supporters of
   the South Vietnamese government were rounded up and sent to
   "re-education" camps. The new regime considered these supporters to be
   American collaborators and traitors.

   North Vietnam followed up its southern victory by first making Laos a
   virtual puppet state. Socialist fraternalism did not last long. The
   Khmer Rouge, who had historical territorial ambitions in Vietnam, began
   a series of border incursions that finally led to a Vietnamese
   invasion. The VPA onslaught overthrew Pol Pot's murderous regime and a
   pro-Vietnamese government was installed (see Third Indochina War. The
   U.S. did not recognise the new government of Cambodia, and, along with
   the United Nations, continued to consider the Khmer Rouge (perpetrators
   of the greatest genocide since the Second world War) as their ally. In
   1979 the Chinese, furious with the Vietnamese for eliminating their
   Khmer Rouge allies, launched an invasion of Vietnam's northern
   provinces. After fighting to a stalemate, the Chinese withdrew.

Lists

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

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