Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was the longest military battle in the history of the United States. It lasted from 1959 to April 30,1975. The Vietnam War was also referred to as the Second Indochina War. It was fought between the communist North Vietnam and the US supported South Vietnam. Over 1.4 million military personnel and an estimated 2 million civilians were killed in the war. The war ended with the defeat of South Vietnam. Ultimately Vietnam was unified.

Background to the war

In the 19th Century Vietnam became a colony of the French. During World War II the Japanese defeated the French and occupied Vietnam. Later the French tried to re-impose their colonial rule but failed. From 1946 until 1954, the Vietnamese Army (Viet Minh) struggled for their independence from France during the First Indochina War. The Geneva accords of 1954 partitioned the country into two and promised to hold democratic elections and reunite the country.

North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union and China. The US supported South Vietnam. US intervention was influenced by the Domino theory. They thought if Vietnam became communist, communism would spread to the rest of South East Asia.

Weapons used in the Vietnam War

The different armies operating in the Vietnam War used a wide variety of weapons. M1 Carbine, anti-personnel explosives, the K-50(a PPSh variant), "home-made" versions of the RPG-2, T-54 tanks, artillery, MIG fighter planes and surface-to-air missiles were deployed. In 1961 and 62 the US authorized the use of chemicals to destroy vegetation in South Vietnam. Between 1961 and 1967 the US Air Force sprayed 12 million US gallons of concentrated herbicides (mainly Agent Orange a lethal chemical) over 6 million acres of foliage and trees, affecting an estimated 13% of South Vietnam's land. It is reported that up to half a million children were born with dioxin (Agent Orange) related deformities, and that the birth defects in South Vietnam were fourfold those in the North.

The Geneva Agreement

In 1954, the Viet Minh forces took over North Vietnam according to the Geneva Accord. Nearly one million North Vietnamese fled to South Vietnam. North Vietnam's capital was Hanoi. South Vietnam's capital was Saigon. The leader of North Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh. Ngo Dinh Diemhe was the president of South Vietnam. He refused to hold elections. The United States refused to sign the Geneva agreement. Diem was a Christian and an avowed anti-communist. He launched an attack on some Buddhist sects. Most Vietnamese followed the Buddhist religion. The attack led to his unpopularity. In 1955 he launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign. Communists and other anti-government elements were imprisoned, arrested, tortured, or executed.

Diem’s brutal repression and incompetent adminstration angered large parts of the South Vietnamese population. In December 1956, Ho Chi Minh called on the Viet Minh cadres still in South Vietnam to begin a low level insurgency. They started terrorist attacks and kidnappings. Finally, in January 1959, under pressure from southern cadres who were being targeted by Diem's secret police, Hanoi authorized an "armed struggle". The southern Viet Minh began operations against the South Vietnamese military in a major way. In response, Diem enacted tougher, new anti-communist laws. On December 12 1960, North Vietnam created the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam(NLF).

The Coup

Diem was overthrown in a coup and executed on November 2,1963. Chaos ensued following the coup. Taking advantage of the situation, Hanoi increased its support for the guerrillas. Between 1963 and 1967, South Vietnam entered a period of instability as no government lasted. for long. The NLF scored some important military victories. In 1965 the US, decided to send troops to South Vietnam to secure the country and started to bomb North Vietnam. However, in 1968, the NLF launched a massive and surprise "Tet offensive" attacking almost all major cities in South Vietnam over the Vietnamese New Year. In the months following the "Tet Offensive", an American unit massacred civilian villagers, suspected to be sheltering Viet Cong(NLF guerillas), in the village of My Lai causing worldwide condemnation. In 1969, Ho Chí Minh died. Even though the Tet Offensive was a disastrous military defeat for the Viet Cong, it led many Americans to think that the war was not winnable.

"Vietnamization"

The serving US president Richard Nixon proposed "Vietnamization" of the war, with South Vietnamese troops taking charge of the fighting, yet still receiving American aid and, if required, air and naval support. This new strategy started to show some effects. In 1970, South Vietnamese troops successfully conducted raids against North Vietnamese bases in Cambodia. Vietnamization was tested by the Easter Offensive of 1972, a massive conventional invasion of South Vietnam. The VPA(Vietnams People’s Army) a part of the North Korean army and NLF quickly overran the northern provinces and in coordination with other forces attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. U.S. troop withdrawals continued. But American airpower came to the rescue with "Operation Linebacker" and the invasion was halted. However, it was apparent that without American airpower South Vietnam could not survive. The last remaining American ground troops were withdrawn by August.

The Paris Agreement

The Paris Peace Accord, agreed between North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger was reluctantly signed in January 1973 by President Thieu of South Vietnam. This produced a ceasefire and allowed for the exchange of prisoners of war. On December 13, 1974, North Vietnam attacked the South violating the Paris peace treaty. By 1975 the South Vietnamese Army faced a, highly motivated, well-organized and well-funded North Vietnam. Much of the North's material and financial support came from the communist countries(mainly the Soviet Union and China). Within South Vietnam, there was chaos. Their abandonment by the American military had weakened an economy dependent on U.S. financial support and the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops. In early 1975, the North Vietnamese military launched a massive attack against the Central Highland province of Buon Me Thuot. The South Vietnamese troops previously anticipated attack against the neighboring province of Pleiku, and were caught off guard. President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered the moving of all troops from the Central Highland to the coastal areas, as with ever reducing American aid, South Vietnamese forces could not afford to spread too thin. However, whole South Vietnamese Second Corp got stuck on narrow mountain roads, flooded with thousands of civilian refugees, and was frequently ambushed .

End Of the War

Although many South Vietnamese units were ready to defend Saigon, the serving president Duong Van Minh ordered a surrender on April 30 1975. This spared Saigon from destruction. Hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese fled the country by all means: ships, fishing boats, barges, airplanes, helicopters, etc. Most were picked up by the U.S Seventh fleet in the South China Sea or landed in Thailand.

Aftermath

North and South Vietnam were unifed into a single country. The Vietnamese Communists did not commit a "blood bath" or effected radical changes. The social order in South Vietnam was preserved. Most technocrats or low ranking government workers retained their jobs. Some North Vietnamese soldiers and cadres began to realize that they had been indoctrinated into thinking that the South Vietnamese people were very poor and exploited by the imperialists and foreign capitalists. Contradictory to what they were taught, they saw an abundance of food and consumer goods, fashionable clothes, plenty of books and music; things that were scarce in the North. From the mid-1980s, Vietnam has enjoyed substantial economic growth and some reduction in political repression.

By Prabhakar Pillai Published: 5/22/2008