Background
Vietnam was a French colony before World War II, and was occupied by Japan during World War II.
Before and after the end of World War II in 1945, the Viet Minh-led Viet Minh Alliance (later known as the Vietnam ****, for short) was formed. "The Viet Minh-led Viet Minh League (later known as the Viet Minh ****, or simply Viet Minh ****) established the Viet Minh Democratic **** and State of Vietnam (known as North Vietnam) in Hanoi, North Vietnam. France supported Emperor Bao Dai to establish a state in Saigon in the south. In 1954, with military assistance from the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Vietnamese **** won a decisive victory over the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the French withdrew from North Vietnam. According to the resolution of the Geneva Conference (1954), North and South Vietnam were temporarily divided by the 17th parallel, with North Vietnam under the rule of Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam under the control of Emperor Bao Dai. 1955, Ngo Dinh Yen staged a coup d'état in Saigon and established the State of Vietnam*** (known as "South Vietnam").
The Geneva Conference (1954) stipulated that elections for the reunification of the country were to be held in July 1956, but these elections never took place. In the context of the Cold War, U.S. President Dwight David Eisenhower began to see Southeast Asia as a potentially critical battleground in the Cold War, and U.S. policymakers feared that a democratic election would bring ****animalist influences into the government of South Vietnam, and so Ngo Dinh Yen received U.S. support to impose a dictatorship in South Vietnam, which led to the North Vietnamese winning the war of public ****relationships Victory. North Vietnam realized large-scale agricultural reforms and distributed land to peasants, which caused people in the South to yearn for it. It has been suggested that it was for this reason that Eisenhower wrote in his memorandum that if national elections were held, ****productivism would win. (An alternative explanation, though, is that the ****productivists in the North were unlikely to allow free elections to be held in their half of Vietnam.) Finally, neither the U.S. nor the two Vietnams signed the election provisions of the agreement. Thus, it seems that divided Vietnam will become the norm, just like divided North Korea.
Step to war
In 1959, the Viet*** Central Committee decided to arm and unify Vietnam and sent a large number of military personnel to South Vietnam to organize armed insurrections.In 1960, the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed, which consisted of factions opposed to the Ngo Dinh Yen regime, and was de facto controlled by the Viet*** Central Committee. In the same year, the "Sino-Soviet War" broke out, and both the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, needing to establish themselves in the "international **** movement", actively supported the North Vietnamese attack on the South.
In June 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev met in Vienna. Khrushchev bullied the young U.S. president, trying to intimidate him into giving in to the Soviet Union on certain key disputes. Especially Berlin, where large numbers of skilled workers had fled to the West. Khrushchev's intimidation escalated, and in August, the Berlin Wall was built overnight, West Berlin was blockaded by East Germany, and in September, the Soviet Union resumed nuclear testing. The situation was so dire that Kennedy thought, "If the United States were to withdraw from Asia, it might upset the balance of power throughout the world (Schlesinger's words)." At this time the conflict in the Indochina Peninsula was the only hot war in the Cold War at the time. Kennedy and his advisors quickly decided that it was important to show American strength and determination to fight ****productivism in Vietnam. At the same time, it was felt that the conflict would be better served by following the Korean model and limiting itself to the use of conventional weapons through proxy parties as a way of mitigating the threat of direct nuclear war between the two superpowers.
By this time, the National Liberation Front (NLF) had taken control of most of the countryside in South Vietnam, and despite military assistance from the U.S., political despotism and corruption had led to the demoralization of the Ngo Dinh Yen government, which was incapable of stopping the NLF from expanding its power.In May 1961, in an effort to further assist the Ngo Dinh Yen government, Kennedy dispatched a Special Forces unit into South Vietnam, initiating the entry of U.S. combat troops into Vietnam the first of its kind in Vietnam. This event is also often considered to mark the beginning of the Vietnam War.
Gradual escalation
In 1965, U.S. troops napalmed a Viet*** guerrilla building south of Saigon. Corrupt and incompetent South Vietnamese government forces were losing ground to the National Liberation Front, commonly known as the "Vietcong". In an effort to stop North Vietnamese material and personnel support for the VCG, the South Vietnamese Navy attacked North Vietnamese naval bases along the coast. The U.S. Navy also sent ships to assist with electronic warfare support, and on August 2, 1964, a U.S. destroyer, the USS Maddox, was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The U.S. then retaliated by bombing a North Vietnamese naval base. This was the famous "Tokyo Bay Incident" ("Gulf of Tonkin Incident").
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was a major watershed in the Vietnam War. Both North Vietnam and the United States saw it as a deliberate attack by the other side and reacted forcefully. The Viet*** guerrillas conducted retaliatory attacks on a number of U.S. bases. The 325th North Vietnamese Division assembled into South Vietnamese territory, marking an open attack on South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese regular army (People's Army of Vietnam). The U.S. Congress passed the "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution," which authorized the President to respond to this provocation by all means, including force. This in effect gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to start a war without a declaration of war, and Johnson escalated the war considerably, landing 3,500 U.S. Marines at Da Nang on March 8, 1965, which was just a few months later. A few months later, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam had reached 220,000. Johnson also authorized Operation Thunderbolt ("Rolling Thunder"), a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam. However, all U.S. bombing operations and targets in North Vietnam were tightly controlled by Washington, and the selection of daily targets was planned by the Department of Defense and the White House, and could not be altered by front-line commanders to meet actual needs. The Department of Defense and the White House, fearful of harming Chinese or Soviet advisers on the ground, imposed restrictions on targeting and rules of engagement that often ran counter to U.S. tactical and strategic objectives. For example, U.S. forces could not attack North Vietnamese military airfields without authorization, and U.S. aircraft could not attack North Vietnamese air force fighters on the ground even if they were seen preparing to take off. Attacks on North Vietnamese transportation and vital installations were also mostly restricted to those that could be attacked. Operation Thunderbolt, which was designed to stop North Vietnamese infiltration into the South, proved to be a complete failure under such hand-tied command. Vu Won Kha, the commander of the North Vietnamese armed forces, continued to send his troops south at an alarming rate. Whole regiments of North Vietnamese regulars were dispersed into the Ho Chi Minh Trail and assembled in the south in the face of air attacks.
On Nov. 14, 1965, the first encounter between the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division and the 66th North Vietnamese Regiment erupted in the Duc Long River Valley, and after three days of heavy fighting, more than 1,200 North Vietnamese and about 200 U.S. troops were killed. The U.S. Army was victorious, but as in countless battles to come, tactical victories did not help to change the U.S. predicament. The North Vietnamese were prepared to take huge casualties and were convinced that an open-ended war of attrition would eventually force the Americans out of Vietnam. Westmoreland, the former commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, believed that more of the "Battle of the Drang Valley" would force the North Vietnamese to concede defeat, and launched a series of "search and destroy" operations against North Vietnamese forces. search and destroy" North Vietnamese forces. The North Vietnamese Army, in turn, pursued Vu Won Gia's strategy of attrition, attracting U.S. forces in well-prepared terrain, and withdrawing from the battlefield when casualties reached a certain level. Westmoreland continued to report U.S. victories at home, claiming that the North Vietnamese were being progressively weakened. In reality, U.S. forces in Vietnam had reached 500,000 by the end of 1967 in response to the seemingly endless North Vietnamese offensives, and Westmoreland demanded more.
Toward the end of January 1968, the North Vietnamese launched a Spring Festival offensive on an unprecedented scale. More than 80,000 North Vietnamese troops and Viet*** guerrillas launched an offensive against virtually every city, large and small, in South Vietnam, the scale and ferocity of which shocked Americans accustomed to Westmoreland's war reports: countless military installations and government buildings were destroyed; Hue, the old capital, where the fighting was most intense, was almost completely destroyed; and the U.S. base at Khe Sanh, which had been under siege for 76 days, had to be abandoned for use after the siege was lifted because the damage was so severe. The North Vietnamese lost more than 50,000 men during the offensive, but by May they had regained their offensive capabilities. The Lunar New Year offensive forced Johnson to admit defeat, and on March 31, 1968, Johnson gave a speech terminating Operation Thunderbolt, stating that U.S. troops would be phased out of Vietnam, and announcing that he was giving up his bid to be the next president.In June 1968, General Abrams took over command of U.S. forces in Vietnam from Westmoreland.
According to an invitation from the U.S. government, South Korea began sending combat units such as the Green Dragons, White Tigers, and Mighty Tigers in 1965, and in the nine-year period to 1973 more than 300,000 South Korean soldiers participated in the Vietnam War. Of these, 4,687 were killed in action and shot over 40,000 enemy soldiers. To pay for South Korea's military expenditures, the U.S. provided the South Korean government with about one billion dollars. Outside of the United States, South Korea (formerly known as South Korea) is the largest contributor of troops.
Anti-War Movement
The small anti-war movement began on college campuses in 1964, concurrent with unprecedented left-wing student activism. The demographically large Baby Boomer generation was also reaching the age when it was time to go to college. The growth of the anti-war movement was also due in part to widespread television news coverage, which gave college-age Americans access to more information about the war than previous generations.
By 1968, anti-war demonstrations had spread across the country, with bloodshed resulting from massive clashes between demonstrators and police in Chicago in August, and in May 1970, the first national student general strike in U.S. history broke out in protest of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, with more than 100,000 students flooding Washington, D.C., to protest.
Thousands of young American men chose to flee to Canada or Sweden to avoid the risk of conscription. At the time, only a small percentage of the total school-age male population actually needed to enlist; and in most states, where most school-age young men were not yet old enough to vote or to be allowed to drink alcohol, individual local Selective Service System offices ("MSS") did not have clear guidelines for exemptions from military service, and thus could be very lenient in deciding who needed to serve and who could be exempted. The charge of injustice led to the creation of the military service lottery system in 1970, in which a young male's birthday determined his relative risk of enlistment (September 14 was the birthday at the top of the military service list in 1970, the following year it was July 9). Young men were forced to risk their lives in the military without the right to vote and without being allowed to drink, a situation that succeeded in forcing lawmakers to lower the voting age nationwide and the drinking age in many states.
On Jan. 21, 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardoned most of those who had avoided military service in the Vietnam War.
"Vietnamization"
In 1969, Nixon became president of the United States and said he would pursue a policy of "Vietnamization," a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, with the first 25,000 troops withdrawn in June of that year. But while U.S.-Vietnamese negotiations were underway, the war continued; in March 1969, U.S. forces began secretly bombing North Vietnamese military bases in Cambodia; in May, the Battle of Hamburger Heights erupted; on March 18, 1970, Cambodia's pro-U.S. General Ronald Reynolds staged a coup d'état to overthrow Prince Sihanouk's regime; and in May, with Reynolds's acquiescence, U.S. forces invaded Cambodia and attacked the North Vietnamese military bases there. By 1971, more than 40,000 U.S. troops had died.
In March 1972, Vu Won Kha mobilized nearly all of North Vietnam's military forces for the Easter Offensive, which was even larger than the 1968 Lunar New Year offensive. Nixon ordered U.S. B-52 strategic bombers to conduct a full-scale bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The Easter Offensive ended in failure, with more than 100,000 casualties, and Vu Won Kha was removed from his post as commander of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), with Vinh Thanh Dung taking over. The failure of the Easter Offensive, the power of the U.S. B-52 strategic bombing, and pressure from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (PRC), which were eager to improve relations with the U.S., forced the North Vietnamese to return to the negotiating table. (Vietnam, the U.S., the South Vietnamese **** and Provisional Revolutionary Government, and the Saigon regime) formally signed the Agreement on the End of the War and the Restoration of Peace in Vietnam in Paris. Within the next two months, all U.S. troops were withdrawn from Vietnam.
End of the war
In 1975, South Vietnamese civilians boarded U.S. helicopters to evacuate U.S. troops withdrew from Vietnam, but the war between North and South Vietnam did not end, and 1974 continued to be a bloody year. Guerrilla warfare still raged, and the North Vietnamese regained control of much of the southern countryside.In January 1975, the North Vietnamese, recovering from the heavy losses of the Easter Offensive, launched a final, decisive offensive. Within a few months, the South Vietnamese government forces fell apart and the major cities fell one after another. In April, the North Vietnamese launched the Battle of Chun Loc and the Battle of Ho Chi Minh, aiming to capture Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by May 1, in case the South Vietnamese army was able to reorganize a new defense and counterattack.
In the early hours of April 29-April 30, 1975, the U.S. Army organized the largest helicopter evacuation ever, and a helicopter evacuation from the roof of a hotel became the symbol of the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. On the same day Saigon fell, the North Vietnamese captured the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and the South Vietnamese presidential palace, and the South Vietnamese regime collapsed. In the same year, the **** of Cambodia and Laos also seized power, and the Vietnam War ended in a total ****productivist victory.
On January 2, 1976 North and South Vietnam were reunited to form the new socialist **** and state of Vietnam, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. Hundreds of South Vietnamese supporters were executed and many more arrested. The Viet*** gained power and rule to this day.
Casualty statistics
North Vietnamese regulars and those thought to be Viet*** guerrillas: 1.1 million dead, 600,000 wounded, 330,000 missing.
U.S. troops: 58,000 dead, 304,000 wounded and more than 2,000 missing during the Vietnam War.
South Vietnamese government forces: 130,000 dead, 500,000 wounded.
South Korean troops: 4,500 dead.
Australian army: 500 dead, 2,400 wounded.
Thai army: 350 dead.
New Zealand Army: 83 dead.
Major events
1961: In May, the U.S. launches a "special war" in South Vietnam in a bid to "pacify the country" within 18 months.
1963: In November, President Ngo Dinh Yen of Vietnam was killed in a U.S.-orchestrated military coup. Soldiers Duong Van Minh and Nguyen Khanh come to power.
1964: In August, the U.S. creates the Gulf of Tonkin incident and begins bombing North Vietnam.
1965: In March, U.S. troops landed in Da Nang, escalating the Vietnam War into a "local war" dominated by the U.S. In June, Nguyen Van Thieu, a South Vietnamese soldier, came to power in a coup d'état and set up a wartime Cabinet, becoming chairman of the National Leadership Council.
1967: In April, South Vietnam's Constituent Assembly adopts a new constitution, and in September, Nguyen Van Thieu is elected president of Vietnam.
1968: In March, the U.S. government was forced to announce a "partial cessation" of the bombing of North Vietnam; in May, talks between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the U.S. began in Paris; in October, the U.S. "completely stopped" bombing North Vietnam. The "local war" is bankrupt.
1969: In January, the talks between the Democratic*** of Vietnam, the United States and the United States were expanded to quadrilateral talks, including the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the State of Vietnam. The United States began to implement the policy of "Vietnamization of the war" in South Vietnam. in June, the South Vietnam National Liberation Front and other organizations announced the establishment of the Provisional Government of the South Vietnam **** and Revolution headed by Hoang Tan Phat. in September, the President of the Democratic **** and State of Vietnam Ho Chi Minh passed away, and Son Duc Thang was elected President.
1973: On January 27, the United States was finally forced to sign the Agreement on the End of the War and the Restoration of Peace in Vietnam.On March 29, U.S. troops were completely withdrawn from South Vietnam.
Aid to Vietnam
In 1955, during his visit to the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China*** and Mongolia, Ho Chi Minh signed the first treaties providing financial assistance to Vietnam.
On April 4, 2005, Vietnam declassified documents related to various kinds of assistance provided to Vietnam by countries of the former socialist camp during the war. The documents showed that between 1955 and 1962, the Soviet Union provided financial assistance to North Vietnam totaling about 1.4 billion rubles and helped the country build 34 large industrial enterprises and a series of medical and higher education institutions, and rebuild 50 agricultural projects. During the Vietnam War, the countries of the socialist camp also supplied North Vietnam with large quantities of materials,*** about 2.4 million tons. Of these, the People's Republic of China*** and the State of China assisted about 1.6 million tons, the Soviet Union about 510,000 tons, and other countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, the German Democratic*** and State of China, North Korea, Cuba, etc.)*** assisted about 254,000 tons.
Impact and fallout
Vietnam
Vietnam paid a huge price for its independence. The 30-year war, including the French-Vietnamese War, resulted in the deaths of 5 million civilians. By the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the war had left Vietnam with a barren land and 880,000 orphans, 1 million widows, 200,000 disabled people, and 200,000* women. But this was not the end of the suffering, as Vietnam was plunged into war with Cambodia and then with China (the Sino-Vietnamese War). The prolonged war and isolation from the Western world led to economic collapse and inflation; more than 1.5 million Vietnamese refugees fled Vietnam in small boats in the late 1970s.
United States
The Vietnam War was the longest war in American history. More than a decade of the Vietnam War cost the United States at least two hundred and fifty billion dollars. Although the United States did not fail militarily, it demonstrated a major failure in U.S. Cold War strategy. The Vietnam War dramatically changed the dynamics of the Cold War. The United States from the strong side of the Cold War to the weak, in the face of the Soviet Union's aggressive attack, the United States more actively with the Chinese people **** and the country of cooperation. The Vietnam War exacerbated the racial and civil rights problems in the United States, leaving the country in a state of extreme division and inflicting great mental trauma on the American people.
Cambodia
Cambodia's pre-war Sihanouk government has struggled to maintain its fragile independence between the parties. Lon Nol's coup d'état and the U.S. invasion drew Cambodia completely into the war. The Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took advantage of the situation and gained power. Under Pol Pot's extreme leftist rule, Cambodia suffered a huge political and economic crisis, and more than one million civilians died during that period, including Vietnamese nationals. As the Pol Pot regime's policy of depopulation not only caused regional unrest, but also seriously threatened the internal security of the Vietnamese government, at the invitation of the exiled former Cambodian opposition, Vietnam sent troops to drive Pol Pot out of the city, and proceeded to install the regime of Han Son Nim, while the Khmer Rouge continued to wage guerrilla war against the new government in the countryside.
The People's Republic of China*** and the State of
China was North Vietnam's most prominent supporter and aid provider. For geopolitical reasons and also for ideological reasons, China gave Vietnam more than 20 billion yuan in aid, objectively increasing the burden on the Chinese economy. After reunification, Vietnam did not become a viable ally of China and turned to the Soviet Union out of fear that its national interests would be jeopardized by the extremist political forces of China and Cambodia. In 1979, because the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia upset the regional balance of power, China sent troops to Vietnam, leading to the Sino-Vietnamese War.