Vietnam War

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For a full history of wars in Vietnam, see List of wars involving Vietnam. For the
documentary television series, see The Vietnam War (TV series).
Vietnam War
Part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War

Clockwise from top left:

American Huey helicopters insert South Vietnamese ARVN troops, 1970.North
Vietnamese soldiers in action c. 1966.American marines use a flamethrower,
1967.South Vietnamese general Nguyễn Ngọc Loan summarily executes Viet Cong officer
Nguyễn Văn Lém during the Tet Offensive.Two Douglas A-4C Skyhawk fly past the anti-
submarine aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge (CVS-33), 1964.Dead civilians from the
Massacre at Huế are buried.
Date 1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975
(19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks and 1 day)[A 2][17]
Location
South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, South China Sea, Gulf of Thailand
Result
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong/PRG victory

Withdrawal of U.S. coalition's forces from Vietnam in 1973 after the Paris Peace
Accords
Communist forces take power in South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
Start of the boat people and refugee crises
Start of the Cambodian genocide and the Third Indochina War
Territorial
changes Reunification of North Vietnam and South Vietnam into the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam in 1976

Belligerents
North Vietnam
Viet Cong and PRG
Pathet Lao
Khmer Rouge
GRUNK (1970–75)
China
Soviet Union
North Korea
Supported by:
South Vietnam
United States
South Korea
Australia
New Zealand
 Laos
Cambodia (1967–70)
Khmer Republic (1970–75)
Thailand
Philippines
Supported by:
Commanders and leaders
North Vietnam Hồ Chí Minh
North Vietnam Lê Duẩn
North Vietnam Võ Nguyên Giáp
North Vietnam Phạm Văn Đồng
Trần Văn Trà
... and others
South Vietnam Ngô Đình Diệm † [A 3]
South Vietnam Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
South Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ
United States Lyndon B. Johnson[A 4]
United States Richard Nixon
United States Robert McNamara
United States William Westmoreland[A 5]
United States Creighton Abrams
... and others
Strength
≈860,000 (1967)

North Vietnam:
690,000 (1966, including PAVN and Viet Cong).[A 6]
Viet Cong:
~200,000 (estimated, 1968)[19][20]
China:
170,000 (1968)
320,000 total[21][22][23]
Khmer Rouge:
70,000 (1972)[24]: 
376 
Pathet Lao:
48,000 (1970)[25]
Soviet Union: ~3,000[26]
North Korea: 200[27]
Albania 12[28]
≈1,420,000 (1968)

South Vietnam:
850,000 (1968)
1,500,000 (1974–1975)[29]
United States:
2,709,918 serving in Vietnam total
Peak: 543,000 (April 1969)[24]: xlv 
Khmer Republic:
200,000 (1973)[citation needed]
Laos:
72,000 (Royal Army and Hmong militia)[30][31]
South Korea:
48,000 per year (1965–1973, 320,000 total)
Thailand: 32,000 per year (1965–1973)
(in Vietnam[32] and Laos)[citation needed]
Australia: 50,190 total
(Peak: 8,300 combat troops)[33]
New Zealand: 3,500 total
(Peak: 552 combat troops)[20]
 Philippines: 2,061
Casualties and losses
North Vietnam & Viet Cong
30,000–182,000 civilian dead[24]: 
176 
[34][35]: 
450–453 
[36]
849,018 military dead (per Vietnam; 1/3 non-combat deaths)[37][38][39]
666,000–950,765 dead
(US estimated 1964–1974)[A 7][34][35]: 
450–451 
232,000–300,000+ military missing (per Vietnam)[37][40]
600,000+ military wounded[41]: 
739 
Khmer Rouge: Unknown
Laos Pathet Lao: Unknown
China: ~1,100 dead and 4,200 wounded[23]
Soviet Union: 16 dead[42]
North Korea: 14 dead[43][44]
Total military dead/missing:
≈1,100,000
Total military wounded:
≈604,200
(excluding GRUNK/Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao)

South Vietnam:
195,000–430,000 civilian dead[34][35]: 
450–453 
[45]
Military dead: 254,256 (between 1960 and 1974)[46]: 275 
–313,000 (total)[47]
1,170,000 military wounded[24]
≈ 1,000,000 captured[48]
United States:
58,281 dead[49] (47,434 from combat)[50][51]
303,644 wounded (including 150,341 not requiring hospital care)[A 8]
Laos: 15,000 army dead[56]
Khmer Republic: Unknown
South Korea: 5,099 dead; 10,962 wounded; 4 missing
Australia: 521 dead; 3,129 wounded[57]
Thailand: 351 dead[24]
New Zealand: 37 dead[58]
Republic of China: 25 dead[59]
17 captured[60]
Philippines: 9 dead;[61] 64 wounded[62]
Total military dead:
333,620 (1960–1974) – 392,364 (total)
Total military wounded:
≈1,340,000+[24]
(excluding FARK and FANK)
Total military captured:
≈1,000,000+
Vietnamese civilian dead: 405,000–2,000,000[35]: 450–453 [63][64]
Vietnamese total dead: 966,000[34]–3,010,000[64]
Cambodian Civil War dead: 275,000–310,000[65][66][67]
Laotian Civil War dead: 20,000–62,000[64]
Non-Indochinese military dead: 65,494
Total dead: 1,326,494–3,447,494
For more information see Vietnam War casualties and Aircraft losses of the Vietnam
War
vte
Indochina Wars
vte
Military engagements during the Vietnam War
vte
Mass killings during the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia from 1 November 1955[A 2] to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.[17] It
was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North
Vietnam and South Vietnam. The north was supported by the Soviet Union, China,[21]
and other communist states, while the south was supported by the United States and
other anti-communist allies.[68][69] The war is widely considered to be a Cold War-
era proxy war.[70] It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending
in 1973. The conflict also spilled over into neighboring states, exacerbating the
Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries
becoming communist states by 1975.

After the French military withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 – following their
defeat in the First Indochina War – the Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam,
and the U.S. assumed financial and military support for the South Vietnamese state.
[71][A 9] The Viet Cong (VC), a South Vietnamese common front under the direction
of the north, initiated a guerrilla war in the south. The People's Army of Vietnam
(PAVN), also known as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), engaged in more conventional
warfare with U.S. and South Vietnamese forces (ARVN). North Vietnam invaded Laos in
1958, establishing the Ho Chi Minh Trail to supply and reinforce the VC.[72]: 16  By
1963, the north had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in the south.[72]: 
16  U.S.
involvement increased under President John F. Kennedy, from just under a thousand
military advisors in 1959 to 23,000 by 1964.[73][41]: 
131 

Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, the U.S. Congress passed a
resolution that gave President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to increase U.S.
military presence in Vietnam, without a formal declaration of war. Johnson ordered
the deployment of combat units for the first time, and dramatically increased the
number of American troops to 184,000.[73] U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied
on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy
operations, involving ground forces, artillery, and airstrikes. The U.S. also
conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam,[41]:  371–
374 
[74] and continued significantly building up its forces, despite little
progress being made. In 1968, North Vietnamese forces launched the Tet Offensive;
though it was a military defeat for them, it became a political victory, as it
caused U.S. domestic support for the war to fade.[41]: 481  By the end of the year,
the VC held little territory and were sidelined by the PAVN.[75] In 1969, North
Vietnam declared the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South
Vietnam. Operations crossed national borders, and the U.S. bombed North Vietnamese
supply routes in Laos and Cambodia. The 1970 deposing of the Cambodian monarch,
Norodom Sihanouk, resulted in a PAVN invasion of the country (at the request of the
Khmer Rouge), and then a U.S.-ARVN counter-invasion, escalating the Cambodian Civil
War. After the election of Richard Nixon in 1969, a policy of "Vietnamization"
began, which saw the conflict fought by an expanded ARVN, while U.S. forces
withdrew in the face of increasing domestic opposition. U.S. ground forces had
largely withdrawn by early 1972, and their operations were limited to air support,
artillery support, advisors, and materiel shipments. The Paris Peace Accords of
January 1973 saw all U.S. forces withdrawn;[76]: 
457  accords were broken almost
immediately, and fighting continued for two more years. Phnom Penh fell to the
Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975, while the 1975 spring offensive saw the Fall of
Saigon to the PAVN on 30 April, marking the end of the war; North and South Vietnam
were reunified the following year.

The war exacted an enormous human cost: estimates of the number of Vietnamese
soldiers and civilians killed range from 966,000[34] to 3 million.[64] Some
275,000–310,000 Cambodians,[65][66][67] 20,000–62,000 Laotians,[64] and 58,220 U.S.
service members also died in the conflict.[A 8] The end of the Vietnam War would
precipitate the Vietnamese boat people and the larger Indochina refugee crisis,
which saw millions of refugees leave Indochina, an estimated 250,000 of whom
perished at sea. Once in power, the Khmer Rouge carried out the Cambodian genocide,
while conflict between them and the unified Vietnam would eventually escalate into
the Cambodian–Vietnamese War, which toppled the Khmer Rouge government in 1979. In
response, China invaded Vietnam, with subsequent border conflicts lasting until
1991. Within the United States, the war gave rise to what was referred to as
Vietnam Syndrome, a public aversion to American overseas military involvements,[77]
which, together with the Watergate scandal contributed to the crisis of confidence
that affected America throughout the 1970s.[78]

Names
Further information: Terminology of the Vietnam War
Various names have been applied to the conflict. "Vietnam War" is the most commonly
used name in English. It has also been called the "Second Indochina War"[79] and
the "Vietnam conflict".[80][81][82]

Given that there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this particular conflict
is known by its primary protagonists' names to distinguish it from others. In
Vietnam, the war is generally known as the "Resistance war against the United
States" (Kháng chiến chống Mỹ).[83] It is also sometimes called the "American War".
[84]

Background
Main articles: First Indochina War, 1940–1946 in French Indochina, and 1947–1950 in
French Indochina
Further information: French Indochina in World War II and War in Vietnam (1945–
1946)
See also: History of Vietnam, Tây Sơn wars, Cochinchina Campaign, Cần Vương, Việt
Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, Yên Bái mutiny, and Operation Vulture
The primary military organizations involved in the war were the United States Armed
Forces and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, pitted against the People's Army of
Vietnam (PAVN) (commonly called the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, in English-
language sources) and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF,
more commonly known as the Viet Cong (VC) in English language sources), a South
Vietnamese communist guerrilla force.[24]: 
xli 

Indochina had been a French colony from the late 19th century to the mid-20th
century. When the Japanese invaded during World War II, the Viet Minh, a Communist-
led common front under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, opposed them with support
from the US, the Soviet Union and China. They received some Japanese arms when
Japan surrendered. On V-J Day, 2 September, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed in Hanoi the
establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The DRV ruled as the
only civil government in all of Vietnam for 20 days, after the abdication of
Emperor Bảo Đại, who had governed under the Japanese rule. On 23 September 1945,
French forces overthrew the local DRV government, and declared French authority
restored.[85] The French gradually retook control of Indochina. Following
unsuccessful negotiations, the Viet Minh initiated an insurgency against French
rule. Hostilities escalated into the First Indochina War (beginning in December
1946).

Bảo Đại (right) as the "supreme advisor" to the government of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam led by president Hồ Chí Minh (left), 1 June 1946
By the 1950s, the conflict had become entwined with the Cold War. In January 1950,
China and the Soviet Union recognized the Viet Minh's Democratic Republic of
Vietnam, based in Hanoi, as the legitimate government of Vietnam. The following
month the United States and Great Britain recognized the French-backed State of
Vietnam in Saigon, led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, as the legitimate Vietnamese
government.[86]: 
377–379 
[41]: 
88  The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950
convinced many Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina was an example of
communist expansionism directed by the Soviet Union.[41]: 33–35 
Military advisors from China began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950.[72]: 14 
PRC weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla
force into a regular army.[41]: 
26 
[87] In September 1950, the United States created
a Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) to screen French requests for aid,
advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.[88]: 
18  By 1954, the United
States had spent $1 billion in support of the French military effort, shouldering
80 percent of the cost of the war.[41]: 
35 

During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (1954), U.S. carriers sailed to the Gulf of
Tonkin and the U.S. conducted reconnaissance flights. France and the United States
also discussed the use of three tactical nuclear weapons, although reports of how
seriously this was considered and by whom are vague and contradictory.[89][41]: 
75 
According to then-Vice President Richard Nixon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up
plans to use small tactical nuclear weapons to support the French.[89] Nixon, a so-
called "hawk" on Vietnam, suggested that the United States might have to "put
American boys in".[24]: 
76  President Dwight D. Eisenhower made American
participation contingent on British support, but the British were opposed.[24]: 
76 
Eisenhower, wary of involving the United States in a land war in Asia, decided
against military intervention.[41]: 75–76  Throughout the conflict, U.S.
intelligence estimates remained skeptical of France's chance of success.[90]

On 7 May 1954, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. The defeat marked
the end of French military involvement in Indochina. At the Geneva Conference, the
French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was
granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.[91][citation needed]

Transition period
Main articles: Geneva Conference (1954); Operation Passage to Freedom; Battle of
Saigon (1955); Ba Cụt; State of Vietnam referendum, 1955; Land reform in Vietnam;
Land reform in North Vietnam; and 1954 in Vietnam

The Geneva Conference, 1954

At the 1954 Geneva Conference, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th
parallel. Ho Chi Minh had wished to continue the war in the south, but was
restrained by his Chinese allies who convinced him that he could win control by
electoral means.[92][41]: 87–88  Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, civilians
were allowed to move freely between the two provisional states for a 300-day
period. Elections throughout the country were to be held in 1956 to establish a
unified government.[41]: 
88–90  Around one million northerners, mainly minority
Catholics, fled south, fearing persecution by the Communists.[41]:  96 
[93] This
followed an American psychological warfare campaign, designed by Edward Lansdale
for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which exaggerated anti-Catholic
sentiment among the Viet Minh and which falsely claimed the US was about to drop
atomic bombs on Hanoi.[94][95][41]:  96–97  The exodus was coordinated by a U.S.-
funded $93 million relocation program, which included the use of the Seventh Fleet
to ferry refugees.[96] The northern, mainly Catholic refugees gave the later Ngô
Đình Diệm regime a strong anti-communist constituency.[97]:  238  Diệm staffed his
government's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics.

Anti-Bảo Đại, pro-French representatives of the State of Vietnam national assembly,

Saigon, 1955
In addition to the Catholics flowing south, over 130,000 "Revolutionary Regroupees"
went to the north for "regroupment", expecting to return to the south within two
years.[76]: 
98  The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 cadres in the south as a
base for future insurgency.[41]:  104  The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in
April 1956.[41]: 116  The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around
the same time.[72]: 14 
Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian
reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in
significant political oppression. During the land reform, testimony from North
Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village
residents, which extrapolated resulted in an initial estimation of nearly 100,000
executions nationwide. Because the campaign was concentrated mainly in the Red
River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50,000 executions became widely accepted by
scholars at the time.[98]: 
143 
[99][100]: 
569 
[101] However, declassified documents
from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate that the number of executions
was much lower than reported at the time, although likely greater than 13,500.[102]
In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and
restored a large amount of the land to the original owners.[41]: 
99–100 

The south, meanwhile, constituted the State of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as Emperor and
Ngô Đình Diệm (appointed in July 1954) as his prime minister. Neither the United
States government nor Ngô Đình Diệm's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954
Geneva Conference. With respect to the question of reunification, the non-communist
Vietnamese delegation objected strenuously to any division of Vietnam, but lost out
when the French accepted the proposal of Viet Minh delegate Phạm Văn Đồng,[103]: 
134  who proposed that Vietnam eventually be united by elections under the
supervision of "local commissions".[103]:  119  The United States countered with what
became known as the "American Plan", with the support of South Vietnam and the
United Kingdom.[103]:  140  It provided for unification elections under the
supervision of the United Nations, but was rejected by the Soviet delegation.
[103]: 140  The United States said, "With respect to the statement made by the
representative of the State of Vietnam, the United States reiterates its
traditional position that peoples are entitled to determine their own future and
that it will not join in any arrangement which would hinder this".[103]:  570–571 
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote in 1954:

I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese

affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the
fighting, possibly eighty percent of the population would have voted for the
Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bảo Đại. Indeed,
the lack of leadership and drive on the part of Bảo Đại was a factor in the feeling
prevalent among Vietnamese that they had nothing to fight for.[104]

In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the
International Control Commission (ICC) stated that fair, unbiased elections were
not possible, with the ICC reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had
honored the armistice agreement.[105]

Ba Cut in Can Tho Military Court 1956, commander of religious movement the Hòa Hảo,
which had fought against the Việt Minh, Vietnamese National Army and Cao Dai
movement throughout the first war
From April to June 1955, Diệm eliminated any political opposition in the south by
launching military operations against two religious groups: the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo
of Ba Cụt. The campaign also focused on the Bình Xuyên organized crime group, which
was allied with members of the communist party secret police and had some military
elements. The group was ultimately defeated in April following a battle in Saigon.
As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm increasingly sought to
blame the communists.[24]

In a referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam on 23 October 1955, Diệm

rigged the poll supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu and was credited with 98.2
percent of the vote, including 133% in Saigon. His American advisors had
recommended a more "modest" winning margin of "60 to 70 percent." Diệm, however,
viewed the election as a test of authority.[97]: 
224  Three days later, he declared
South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV),
with himself as president.[41] Likewise, Ho Chi Minh and other communist officials
always won at least 99% of the vote in North Vietnamese "elections".[98]: 
193–194, 
202–203, 
215–217 

The domino theory, which argued that if one country fell to communism, then all of
the surrounding countries would follow, was first proposed as policy by the
Eisenhower administration.[86]: 
19  John F. Kennedy, then a U.S. senator, said in a
speech to the American Friends of Vietnam: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the
Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be
threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed