Names
{{Further, 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''{{cite web , author=Factasy , url=http://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html , title=The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War , publisher=PRLog , access-date=29 June 2013 and the ''Vietnam Conflict''. 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 Vietnamese language, Vietnamese, the war is generally known as ''Kháng chiến chống Mỹ'' (Resistance War Against America). It is also called ''Chiến tranh Việt Nam'' (The Vietnam War).Background
{{See also, History of Vietnam, Tây Sơn wars, Cochinchina Campaign, Cần Vương, Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng, Yên Bái mutiny, Vietnam during World War II, War in Vietnam (1945–1946), 1940–1946 in the Vietnam War, 1947–1950 in the Vietnam War, First Indochina War, Operation Vulture, Operation Passage to Freedom, 1954 in the Vietnam War 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 theTransition period
{{Main, 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 VietnamDiệm era, 1954–1963
{{Main, Ngô Đình Diệm, War in Vietnam (1954–1959)Rule
Insurgency in the South, 1954–1960
{{Main, Viet Cong, War in Vietnam (1959–1963) Between 1954 and 1957, the Diệm government succeeded in preventing large-scale organized unrest in the countryside. In April 1957, insurgents launched an assassination campaign, referred to as "extermination of traitors".{{cite book , last1= McNamera , first1= Robert S., last2= Blight , first2= James G., last3= Brigham , first3= Robert K. , title= Argument Without End , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0sBl9BuPYYC , year=1999 , work=PublicAffairs , isbn=1-891620-22-3 , pages= 35 Seventeen people were killed in Châu Đốc massacre, an attack at a bar in Châu Đốc in July, and in September a district chief was killed with his family on a highway. By early 1959, however, Diệm had come to regard the (increasingly frequent) violence as an organized campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death and property confiscation. There had been some division among former Viet Minh whose main goal was to hold the elections promised in the Geneva Accords, leading to "wildcat strike, wildcat" activities separate from the other communists and anti-GVN activists. Douglas Pike estimated that insurgents carried out 2,000 abductions, and 1,700 assassinations of government officials, village chiefs, hospital workers and teachers from 1957 to 1960.{{rp, 106 Violence between the insurgents and government forces increased drastically from 180 clashes in January 1960 to 545 clashes in September.{{cite book , url = http://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm , title = History of Special Forces in Vietnam, 1961–1971 , publisher = United States Army Center of Military History , first = Francis John , last = Kelly , orig-year = 1973 , year = 1989 , location = Washington, D.C. , id =CMH Pub 90-23 , page = 4 In September 1960, Central Office for South Vietnam, COSVN, North Vietnam's southern headquarters, gave an order for a full scale coordinated uprising in South Vietnam against the government and 1/3 of the population was soon living in areas of communist control.{{rp, 106–107 In December 1960, North Vietnam formally created theNorth Vietnamese involvement
{{See also, North Vietnamese invasion of Laos, Ho Chi Minh trailKennedy's escalation, 1961–1963
{{Main, War in Vietnam (1959–1963), Strategic Hamlet Program {{See also, Phạm Ngọc ThảoOusting and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm
{{Main, Cable 243, Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm, Buddhist crisis, Krulak Mendenhall mission, McNamara Taylor mission, 1963 South Vietnamese coup, Reaction to the 1963 South Vietnamese coup {{See also, Role of the United States in the Vietnam War#John F. Kennedy (1961–1963), 1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt, 1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing, Huế Phật Đản shootings, Xá Lợi Pagoda raids The inept performance of the ARVN was exemplified by failed actions such as the Battle of Ap Bac, Battle of Ấp Bắc on 2 January 1963, in which a small band of Viet Cong won a battle against a much larger and better-equipped South Vietnamese force, many of whose officers seemed reluctant even to engage in combat.{{cite book, last=Sheehan, first=Neil, title=A Bright Shining Lie – John Paul Vann and the American War in Vietnam, publisher=Vintage, year=1989, isbn=978-0-679-72414-8{{rp, 201–6 During the battle the South Vietnamese had lost 83 soldiers and 5 US war helicopters serving to ferry ARVN troops that had been shot down by Vietcong forces, while the Vietcong forces had lost only 18 soldiers. The ARVN forces were led by Diệm's most trusted general, Huỳnh Văn Cao, commander of the IV Corps (South Vietnam), IV Corps. Cao was a Catholic who had been promoted due to religion and fidelity rather than skill, and his main job was to preserve his forces to stave off coup attempts; he had earlier vomited during a communist attack. Some policymakers in Washington began to conclude that Diệm was incapable of defeating the communists and might even make a deal with Ho Chi Minh. He seemed concerned only with fending off coups and had become more paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962, which he partly attributed to U.S. encouragement. As Robert F. Kennedy noted, "Diệm wouldn't make even the slightest concessions. He was difficult to reason with ..." Historian James Gibson (historian), James Gibson summed up the situation: {{quote, Strategic hamlets had failed ... The South Vietnamese regime was incapable of winning the peasantry because of its class base among landlords. Indeed, there was no longer a 'regime' in the sense of a relatively stable political alliance and functioning bureaucracy. Instead, civil government and military operations had virtually ceased. The National Liberation Front had made great progress and was close to declaring provisional revolutionary governments in large areas. Discontent with Diệm's policies exploded in May 1963 following the Huế Phật Đản shootings of nine unarmed Buddhists protesting against the ban on displaying the Buddhist flag on Vesak, the Buddha's birthday. This resulted in mass protests against discriminatory policies that gave privileges to the Catholic Church and its adherents over the Buddhist majority. Diệm's elder brother Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục, Ngô Đình Thục was the Archbishop of Huế and aggressively blurred the separation between church and state. Thuc's anniversary celebrations occurred shortly before Vesak had been bankrolled by the government, and Vatican flags were displayed prominently. There had also been reports of Catholic paramilitaries demolishing Buddhist pagodas throughout Diệm's rule. Diệm refused to make concessions to the Buddhist majority or take responsibility for the deaths. On 21 August 1963, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces, ARVN Special Forces of Colonel Lê Quang Tung, loyal to Diệm's younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, raided pagodas across Vietnam, causing widespread damage and destruction and leaving a death toll estimated to range into the hundreds.Johnson's escalation, 1963–1969
{{Main, Joint warfare in South Vietnam, 1963–1969 {{Further, Role of the United States in the Vietnam War#Americanization {{See also, January 1964 South Vietnamese coup, September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt, December 1964 South Vietnamese coup, 1965 South Vietnamese coup President Kennedy Assassination of John F. Kennedy, was assassinated on 22 November 1963. Vice PresidentGulf of Tonkin incident
{{Main, Gulf of Tonkin incident {{Further, Credibility gap On 2 August 1964, {{USS, Maddox, DD-731, 6, on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast, allegedly fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf of Tonkin.{{rp, 124 A second attack was reported two days later on {{USS, Turner Joy, DD-951, 6 and ''Maddox'' in the same area. The circumstances of the attacks were murky.{{rp, 218–9 Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish." An undated National Security Agency, NSA publication declassified in 2005 revealed that there was no attack on 4 August. The second "attack" led to Operation Pierce Arrow, retaliatory airstrikes, and prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August 1964.{{cite book, last=Moïse, first=Edwin E., title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War, publisher=University of North Carolina Press, year=1996, isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2, url-access=registration, url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002{{rp, 78 The resolution granted the president power "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression" and Johnson would rely on this as giving him authority to expand the war.{{rp, 221 In the same month, Johnson pledged that he was not "committing American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help protect their own land".{{rp, 227Bombing of Laos
{{Main, Laotian Civil WarThe 1964 Offensive
American ground war
{{see also, Buddhist UprisingTet Offensive
{{Main, Tet Offensive, United States news media and the Vietnam WarVietnamization, 1969–1972
Nuclear threats and diplomacy
U.S. president Richard Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969. His plan to build up the ARVN so that it could take over the defense of South Vietnam became known as "Vietnamization". As the PAVN/VC recovered from their 1968 losses and generally avoided contact, Creighton Abrams conducted operations aimed at disrupting logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN.{{rp, 517 On 27 October 1969, Nixon had ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons Operation Giant Lance, to race to the border of Soviet airspace to convince the Soviet Union, in accord with the madman theory, that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War. Nixon had also sought détente with the Soviet Union and Sino-American relations#Rapprochement, rapprochement with China, which decreased global tensions and led to nuclear arms reduction by both superpowers; however, the Soviets continued to supply the North Vietnamese with aid.Hanoi's war strategy
U.S. domestic controversies
The anti-war movement was gaining strength in the United States. Nixon appealed to the "silent majority" of Americans who he said supported the war without showing it in public. But revelations of the 1968 My Lai Massacre,{{rp, 518–21 in which a U.S. Army unit raped and killed civilians, and the 1969 "Green Beret Affair", where eight United States Army Special Forces, Special Forces soldiers, including the 5th Special Forces Group Commander, were arrested for the murder of a suspected double agent, provoked national and international outrage. In 1971, the ''Pentagon Papers'' were leaked to ''The New York Times''. The top-secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, commissioned by theCollapsing U.S. morale
{{Further, G.I. movement Following the Tet Offensive and the decreasing support among the U.S. public for the war, U.S. forces began a period of morale collapse, disillusionment and disobedience.{{Cite book, last=Stewart, first=Richard, title=American Military History, Volume II, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2003, year=2005, publisher=United States Army Center of Military History, url=https://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm, isbn=978-0-16-072541-8{{rp, 349–50{{Cite book, last=Daddis, first=Gregory A., title=Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam, publisher=Oxford University Press, year=2017, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3QzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT172, isbn=978-0-19-069110-3{{rp, 166–75 At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels.{{Cite journal, last=Heinl, Jr., first=Robert D., date=7 June 1971, title=The Collapse of the Armed Forces, url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf, journal=Armed Forces Journal Among the enlisted, only 2.5% chose infantry combat positions in 1969–1970. Reserve Officers' Training Corps, ROTC enrollment decreased from 191,749 in 1966 to 72,459 by 1971, and reached an all-time low of 33,220 in 1974, depriving U.S. forces of much-needed military leadership. Open refusal to engage in patrols or carry out orders and disobedience began to emerge during this period, with one notable case of an entire company refusing orders to engage or carry out operations. Unit cohesion began to dissipate and focused on minimising contact with Viet Cong and PAVN.{{rp} A practice known as "sand-bagging" started occurring, where units ordered to go on patrol would go into the country-side, find a site out of view from superiors and rest while radioing in false coordinates and unit reports.{{rp, 407–11 Drug usage increased rapidly among U.S. forces during this period, as 30% of U.S. troops regularly used marijuana,{{rp, 407 while a House subcommittee found 10–15% of U.S. troops in Vietnam regularly used high-grade heroin.{{rp, 526 From 1969 on, search-and-destroy operations became referred to as "search and evade" or "search and avoid" operations, falsifying battle reports while avoiding guerrilla fighters. A total of 900 fragging and suspected fragging incidents were investigated, most occurring between 1969 and 1971.{{Cite book, last=Stanton, first=Shelby L., title=The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963–1973, publisher=Random House Publishing Group, year=2007, isbn=978-0-307-41734-3, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaIc8X-Lc48C{{rp, 331{{rp, 407 In 1969, field-performance of the U.S. Forces was characterised by lowered morale, lack of motivation, and poor leadership.{{rp, 331 The significant decline in U.S. morale was demonstrated by the Battle of FSB Mary Ann in March 1971, in which a sapper attack inflicted serious losses on the U.S. defenders.{{rp, 357 William Westmoreland, no longer in command but tasked with investigation of the failure, cited a clear dereliction of duty, lax defensive postures and lack of officers in charge as its cause.{{rp, 357 On the collapse of U.S. morale, historian Shelby Stanton wrote: {{quote, In the last years of the Army's retreat, its remaining forces were relegated to static security. The American Army's decline was readily apparent in this final stage. Racial incidents, drug abuse, combat disobedience, and crime reflected growing idleness, resentment, and frustration... the fatal handicaps of faulty campaign strategy, incomplete wartime preparation, and the tardy, superficial attempts at Vietnamization. An entire American army was sacrificed on the battlefield of Vietnam.{{rp, 366–8ARVN taking the lead and U.S. ground-force withdrawal
Cambodia
Laos
{{Main, 3=Operation Commando Hunt, 4=Laotian Civil War, 6=Operation Lam Son 719Easter Offensive and Paris Peace Accords, 1972
Vietnamization was again tested by theU.S. exit and final campaigns, 1973–1975
In the lead-up to the ceasefire on 28 January, both sides attempted to maximize the land and population under their control in a campaign known as the War of the flags. Fighting continued after the ceasefire, this time without US participation, and continued throughout the year.{{rp, 508–13 North Vietnam was allowed to continue supplying troops in the South but only to the extent of replacing expended material. Later that year the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Kissinger and Thọ, but the North Vietnamese negotiator declined it saying that true peace did not yet exist. On 15 March 1973, Nixon implied the US would intervene again militarily if the North launched a full offensive, and Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger, James Schlesinger re-affirmed this position during his June 1973 confirmation hearings. Public and congressional reaction to Nixon's statement was unfavorable, prompting the U.S. Senate to pass the Case–Church Amendment to prohibit any intervention.{{rp, 670–2Campaign 275
{{See also, 1975 Spring Offensive, Battle of Ban Me Thuot, Hue–Da Nang Campaign On 10 March 1975, General Dung launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the Central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery. The target was Battle of Buon Me Thuot, Buôn Ma Thuột, in Đắk Lắk Province. If the town could be taken, the provincial capital of Pleiku and the road to the coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in 1976. The ARVN proved incapable of resisting the onslaught, and its forces collapsed on 11 March. Once again, Hanoi was surprised by the speed of their success. Dung now urged the Politburo to allow him to seize Pleiku immediately and then turn his attention to Kon Tum. He argued that with two months of good weather remaining until the onset of the monsoon, it would be irresponsible to not take advantage of the situation.{{rp} President Thiệu, a former general, was fearful that his forces would be cut off in the north by the attacking communists; Thieu ordered a retreat, which soon turned into a bloody rout. While the bulk of ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. ARVN general Phu abandoned Pleiku and Kon Tum and retreated toward the coast, in what became known as the "column of tears".{{rp, 693–4 On 20 March, Thieu reversed himself and ordered Huế, Vietnam's third-largest city, be held at all costs, and then changed his policy several times. As the PAVN launched their attack, panic set in, and ARVN resistance withered. On 22 March, the PAVN opened the siege of Huế. Civilians flooded the airport and the docks hoping for any mode of escape. As resistance in Huế collapsed, PAVN rockets rained down on Da Nang and its airport. By 28 March 35,000 PAVN troops were poised to attack the suburbs. By 30 March 100,000 leaderless ARVN troops surrendered as the PAVN marched victoriously through Da Nang. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces came to an end.{{rp, 699–700Final North Vietnamese offensive
{{details, topic=the final North Vietnamese offensive, Ho Chi Minh Campaign With the northern half of the country under their control, the Politburo ordered General Dung to launch the final offensive against Saigon. The operational plan for the Ho Chi Minh Campaign called for the capture of Saigon before 1 May. Hanoi wished to avoid the coming monsoon and prevent any redeployment of ARVN forces defending the capital. Northern forces, their morale boosted by their recent victories, rolled on, taking Nha Trang, Cam Ranh and Da Lat.{{rp, 702–4 On 7 April, three PAVN divisions attacked Battle of Xuân Lộc, Xuân Lộc, {{convert, 40, mi east of Saigon. For two bloody weeks, severe fighting raged as the ARVN defenders made a last stand to try to block the PAVN advance. On 21 April, however, the exhausted garrison was ordered to withdraw towards Saigon.{{rp, 704–7 An embittered and tearful president Thieu resigned on the same day, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam. In a scathing attack, he suggested that Kissinger had tricked him into signing the Paris peace agreement two years earlier, promising military aid that failed to materialize. Having transferred power toFall of Saigon
{{Main, Fall of Saigon, Operation Frequent Wind Chaos, unrest, and panic broke out as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U.S. and foreign nationals from various parts of the city and from the U.S. embassy compound. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin's belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached. Frequent Wind was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as PAVN tanks breached defenses near Saigon. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds.{{rp, 718–20 On 30 April 1975, PAVN troops entered the city of Saigon and quickly overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations. A tank from the 304th Division (Vietnam), 304th Division crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace at 11:30 am local time and the Viet Cong flag was raised above it. President Dương Văn Minh, who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, surrendered to Colonel Bùi Tín.{{rp, 720–1Opposition to U.S. involvement, 1964–1973
{{Main, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, Protests of 1968 {{See also, Russell Tribunal, Fulbright HearingsInvolvement of other countries
Pro-Hanoi
{{quote, 2,000 years of China–Vietnam relations, Chinese-Vietnamese enmity and hundreds of years of History of Sino-Russian relations, Chinese and Russian mutual suspicions were suspended when they united against us in Vietnam., Richard Holbrooke, 1985China
{{See also, China in the Vietnam WarSoviet Union
{{Hatnote, For further reading, see Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet UnionCzechoslovakia
The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was a member of the Warsaw Pact and sent significant aid to North Vietnam, both prior to and after the Prague Spring.{{Cite book, last1=Bischof, first1=Günter, last2=Karner, first2=Stefan, last3=Ruggenthaler, first3=Peter, title=The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, year=2010, publisher=Rowman & Littlefield, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZzEYyB8X8YC&pg=PA293, isbn=978-0-7391-4304-9{{rp, 293 The Czechoslovakian government created committees which sought to not only promote and establish peace, but also to promote victory for Viet Cong and PAVN forces.{{rp} Czech-made equipment and military aid would increase significantly following the Prague Spring.{{Cite book, last=Francev, first=Vladimir, title=Československé zbraně ve světě: V míru i za války, publisher=Grada Publishing, year=2015, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWQACgAAQBAJ&pg=PA166, isbn=978-80-247-5314-0, page=166, language=cs Czechoslovakia continued to send tens of thousands of Czech-made rifles as well as mortar and artillery throughout the war. In general, Czechoslovakia was aligned with European leftist movements,{{rp} and there were simultaneous protests demonstrating against the Soviet intervention in Prague and the US intervention in Vietnam. Cooperation with Czechoslovakia on the development of North Vietnamese air capabilities began as early as 1956.{{Cite book, last=Toperczer, first=István, title=MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units of the Vietnam War, publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing, year=2012, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10, isbn=978-1-78200-748-7, pages=10–18 Czechoslovak instructors and trainers instructed the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) in China and helped them develop a modernised air force, with the Czech-built Aero Ae-45 and Aero L-29 Delfín alongside Zlín Z 26 aircraft utilised significantly for training, and regarded as preferential to Soviet-built Yakovlev Yak-3 as training aircraft.North Korea
As a result of a decision of the Workers' Party of Korea, Korean Workers' Party in October 1966, in early 1967, North Korea (officially known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea) sent a Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force, Korean People's Army Air Force fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese 921st and 923rd Fighter Squadrons defending Hanoi. The North Koreans stayed through 1968, and 200 pilots were reported to have served. In addition, at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well.Cuba
Other Eastern Bloc countries
Pro-Saigon
{{See also, Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, Many Flags As South Vietnam was formally part of a military alliance with the US, Australia, New Zealand, France, the United Kingdom, UK, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, the alliance was invoked during the war. The UK, France and Pakistan declined to participate, and South Korea and Taiwan were non-treaty participants.South Korea
{{Main, South Korea in the Vietnam War On the anti-communist side, South Korea (a.k.a. the Republic of Korea, ROK) had the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam after the United States. In November 1961, PresidentThailand
{{Main, Thailand in the Vietnam WarAustralia and New Zealand
{{Main, Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War, New Zealand in the Vietnam WarPhilippines
Some 10,450 Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Armed Forces troops were dispatched to South Vietnam and primarily supported medical and other civilian pacification projects. These forces operated under the designation A or Philippine Civic Action Group-Vietnam. The naval base at U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, Subic Bay was used for the U.S. Seventh Fleet from 1964 until the end of the war in 1975. Subic Bay and Clark Air Base achieved maximum functionality during the war, as well as supporting an estimated 80,000 locals in allied tertiary businesses that ranged from shoe making to prostitution.Taiwan
{{Main, Republic of China in the Vietnam War Beginning in November 1967, Taiwan secretly operated a cargo transport detachment to assist the United States and South Vietnam. Taiwan also provided military training units for the South Vietnamese diving units, later known as the Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai (LDMN) or "Frogman unit" in English.{{rp, 3–4 Military commandos from Taiwan were captured by North Vietnamese forces three times trying to infiltrate North Vietnam.{{rp, 3–4Neutral and non-belligerent nations
Canada
{{Main, Canada and the Vietnam War Contributor to the three-nation monitoring-force, the International Control Commission (ICC/ICSC) [1954–1973] and, briefly, its successor: the International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS) [1973-1973]. Officially, Canada did not have state-sanctioned combat involvement in the Vietnam War, and diplomatically, it was "non-belligerent", though the sympathies of the state and many of its citizens were well-understood by both sides. The ''Vietnam War'' entry in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' asserts that Canada's record on the truce commissions was a pro-Saigon partisan one. Under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Immigration and Citizenship Canada notably accepted approximately 40,000 Vietnam War resisters in Canada, American draft evaders and Desertion, military deserters as Immigration to Canada, legal immigrants despite U.S. pressure. At the same time, approximately 20,000 Canadians crossed the Canada–United States border, U.S.-Canada border to illegally enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces for service in Vietnam, of which 134 died.United Kingdom
The Johnson administration was anxious to secure a military commitment from Britain, which the United States was closely allied with through NATO and the Special Relationship. The United States had previously cancelled its planned air intervention at the end of the First Indochina War because of doubts from British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. McNamara and Bundy joked that they would give a billion dollars for one British brigade. After the 1964 United Kingdom general election, 1964 general election Johnson began lobbying the new Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson for a small British Armed Forces deployment. However, the war was deeply unpopular in Britain and Wilson rebuffed Johnson's requests. The denial of military assistance slightly strained U.S.-U.K. relations in the 1960s.Poland
Contributor to the three-nation monitoring-force, the International Control Commission (ICC/ICSC) [1954–1973] and its successor: the International Commission for Control and Supervision (ICCS) [1973–1975]. The Polish People's Republic had played a substantive role in brokering and serving as an intermediary for peace-talks between Hanoi and Saigon, as part of a delegation under the International Control Commission established under the Geneva Accords. Recent evidence has emerged that Poland played an early role in attempting to broker talks between Ngô Đình Nhu and the Diem regime and Hanoi in 1963 in an effort to prevent the expansion of the war, given that Polish representatives were the only communist nation present in Saigon and had acted as a broker and representative for Hanoi.Spain
President Johnson had asked the Spanish ''Caudillo de Espana, Caudillo'' Francisco Franco to contribute a military contingent to the war effort. After lengthy debate between his ministers, Franco took the advice of veteran General Agustín Muñoz Grandes. Franco was even more cautious in committing himself to the US cause and finally decided to send a medical team of around thirty people, and under strict secrecy. The first group of medical soldiers, including four doctors, seven nurses and one officer in charge of military supplies, arrived in Vietnam in 1966 and worked at Truong Cong Dinh hospital in the Gò Công, Gò Công district. From 1966 to 1971 three other groups, totalling nearly 100 Spaniards, worked at the hospital.{{cite web, url=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/09/inenglish/1333979983_253264.html, title=Spain's secret support for US in Vietnam, publisher=El Pais, date=9 April 2012, access-date=30 April 2020, last1=Marín, first1=PalomaBrazil
Brazil, under a U.S.-backed Brazilian military government, military regime, officially supported the United States' position in South Vietnam and contributed a medical team and supplies to the country. It was the only Latin American country with a presence in the region.{{cite book, last=Weil, first=Thomas E., title=Area Handbook for Brazil, year=1975, page=293United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO)
{{Main, United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races, FULRO insurgency against Vietnam The ethnic minority peoples of South Vietnam, like the Degar, Montagnards (Degar) in the Central Highlands, the Hindu and Muslim Cham people, Cham, and the Buddhist Khmer Krom, were actively recruited in the war. There was an active strategy of recruitment and favorable treatment of Montagnard tribes for the Viet Cong, as they were pivotal for control of infiltration routes. Some groups had split off and formed the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (French: ''Front Uni de Lutte des Races Opprimées'', acronym: FULRO) to fight for autonomy or independence. FULRO fought against both the South Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, later proceeding to fight against the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam after the fall of South Vietnam. During the war, the South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem began a program to settle ethnic Vietnamese Kinh on Montagnard lands in the Central Highlands region. This provoked a backlash from the Montagnards, some joining the Viet Cong as a result. The Cambodians under both the pro-China King Sihanouk and the pro-American Lon Nol supported their fellow co-ethnic Khmer Krom in South Vietnam, following an anti-ethnic Vietnamese policy. Following Vietnamization many Montagnard groups and fighters were incorporated into the Vietnamese Rangers as border sentries.War crimes
{{Main, List of war crimes#1955–1975: Vietnam War, Vietnam War casualties {{See also, List of massacres in Vietnam A large number of war crimes took place during the Vietnam War. War crimes were committed by both sides during the conflict and included rape, massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, Viet Cong and PAVN strategy, organization and structure#VC/NVA use of terror, terrorism, the widespread use of torture, and the murder of prisoners of war. Additional common crimes included theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by military necessity.South Vietnamese, Korean and American{{anchor, War crimes committed by US forces
{{See also, United States war crimes, Winter Soldier Investigation, Vietnam War Crimes Working Group, Tiger ForceNorth Vietnamese and Viet Cong
{{Main, Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam use of terror in the Vietnam War {{See also, Cambodian Civil War#War CrimesWomen
{{See also, Women in the Vietnam War, Timeline of American women in war and the U.S. military from 1945 to 1999#1965American nurses
American women served on active duty performing a variety of jobs. Early in 1963, the Army Nurse Corps (United States), Army Nurse Corps (ANC) launched Operation Nightingale, an intensive effort to recruit nurses to serve in Vietnam.{{cite book, last=Norman, first=Elizabeth M., title=Women at War: the Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam, journal=New Jersey Nurse, publisher=University of Pennsylvania, year=1990 , volume=22, issue=2, page=15, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esg7mGs6nQMC, isbn=978-0-8122-1317-1, jstor=j.ctt3fhsqj, pmid=1570214{{rp, 7 First Lieutenant Sharon Lane was the only female military nurse to be killed by enemy gunfire during the war, on 8 June 1969.{{rp, 57 One civilian doctor, Eleanor Ardel Vietti, who was captured by Viet Cong on 30 May 1962, in Buôn Ma Thuột, remains the only American woman unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.{{Cite news , title=The last missing woman from the Vietnam War , url=https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-last-missing-woman-from-the-Vietnam-War-2043691.php , last=Fisher, first=Binnie, date=28 October 2001, work=Houston Chronicle , access-date=4 January 2018 Although a small number of women were assigned to combat zones, they were never allowed directly in the field of battle. Unlike the men, the women who served in the military were solely volunteers. They faced a plethora of challenges, one of which was the relatively small number of female soldiers. Living in a male-dominated environment created tensions between the sexes. By 1973, approximately 7,500 women had served in Vietnam in the Southeast Asian theater. American women serving in Vietnam were subject to societal stereotypes. To address this problem, the ANC released advertisements portraying women in the ANC as "proper, professional and well protected." This effort to highlight the positive aspects of a nursing career reflected the feminism of the 1960s–1970s in the United States. Although female military nurses lived in a heavily male environment, very few cases of sexual harassment were ever reported.{{rp, 71Vietnamese soldiers
Journalists
Women also played a prominent role as front-line reporters in the conflict, directly reporting on the conflict as it occurred. A number of women volunteered on the North Vietnamese side as embedded journalists, including author Lê Minh Khuê embedded with PAVN forces, on the Ho Chi Minh trail as well as on combat fronts. A number of prominent Western journalists were also involved in covering the war, with Dickey Chapelle being among the first as well as the first American female reporter killed in a war. The French-speaking Australian journalist Kate Webb was captured along with a photographer and others by the Viet Cong in Cambodia and travelled into Laos with them; they were released back into Cambodia after 23 days of captivity. Webb would be the first Western journalist to be captured and released, as well as cover the perspective of the Viet Cong in her memoir ''On The Other Side.'' Another French-speaking journalist, Catherine Leroy, was briefly captured and released by North Vietnamese forces during the Battle of Huế, capturing some famous photos from the battles that would appear on the cover of ''Life Magazine''.{{rp, 245Political Activists
Women took on the role of building support for the war efforts as well. The Vietnam Women's Union, known as the Anti-Imperialism Women's Union at the time, worked to show their support of the Communist regime and to bring women together in opposition to the American involvement through their political involvement and mobilization of women.Black servicemen
{{See also, Civil rights movement, Military history of African Americans#Vietnam WarWeapons
{{Main, Weapons of the Vietnam WarRadio communications
Extent of U.S. bombings
{{See also, Operation Rolling Thunder, Operation Menu, Operation Freedom Deal, CIA activities in LaosAftermath
Events in Southeast Asia
{{Further, Mayaguez incident, Indochina refugee crisis On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Despite speculation that the victorious North Vietnamese would, in President Nixon's words, "massacre the civilians there [South Vietnam] by the millions," there is a widespread consensus that no mass executions took place.{{refn, group="A", A study by Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson estimated that 65,000 South Vietnamese were executed for political reasons between 1975 and 1983, based on a survey of 615 Vietnamese refugees who claimed to have personally witnessed 47 executions. However, "their methodology was reviewed and criticized as invalid by authors Gareth Porter and James Roberts." 16 of the 47 names used to extrapolate this "bloodbath" were duplicates; this extremely high duplication rate (34%) strongly suggests Desbarats and Jackson were drawing from a small number of total executions. Rather than arguing that this duplication rate proves there were very few executions in post-war Vietnam, Porter and Roberts suggest it is an artifact of the self-selected nature of the participants in the Desbarats-Jackson study, as the authors followed subjects's recommendations on other refugees to interview. Nevertheless, there exist unverified reports of mass executions. However, in the years following the war, a vast number of South Vietnamese were sent to Re-education camp (Vietnam), re-education camps where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor. According to Amnesty International Report 1979, this figure varied considerably depend on different observers: "[...] included such figures as "50,000 to 80,000" (''Le Monde'', 19 April 1978), "150,000" (Reuters from Bien Hoa, 2 November 1977), "150,000 to 200,000" (''Washington Post'', 20 December 1978), and "300,000" (Agence France Presse from Hanoi, 12 February 1978)." Such variations may be because "Some estimates may include not only detainees but also people sent from the cities to the countryside." According to a native observer, 443,360 people had to register for a period in re-education camps in Saigon alone, and while some of them were released after a few days, others stayed there for more than a decade. Between 1975 and 1980, more than 1 million northerners migrated south to regions formerly in the Republic of Vietnam, while, as part of the New Economic Zones program, around 750,000 to over 1 million southerners were moved mostly to uninhabited mountainous forested areas.{{cite book, last=Desbarats, first=Jacqueline, title=Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation, website=Indochina report ; no. 11, publisher=Executive Publications, Singapore 1987{{cite news, title=Hanoi Rebuts Refugees on 'Economic Zones', first=William, last=Chapman , url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/, date=17 August 1979, newspaper=The Washington Post, access-date=30 June 2021, quote=Effect on the United States
Views on the war
In the post-war era, Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. As General Maxwell Taylor, one of the principal architects of the war, noted: {{quote, First, we didn't know ourselves. We thought that we were going into another Korean War, but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn't know our South Vietnamese allies… And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we'd better keep out of this kind of dirty business. It's very dangerous.{{rp, 23 President Ronald Reagan coined the term "Vietnam Syndrome" to describe the reluctance of the American public and politicians to support further military interventions abroad after Vietnam. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, 62 percent of Americans believed it was an unjust war. US public polling in 1978 revealed that nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral." Nearly a decade later, the number fell to 66%. In the past three decades, surveys have consistently shown that only around 35% of Americans believe that the war was fundamentally wrong and immoral.{{rp, 10 When surveyed in 2000, one third of Americans believed that the war was a noble cause.{{rp, 10 Failure of the war is often placed at different institutions and levels. Some have suggested that the failure of the war was due to political failures of U.S. leadership. The official history of the United States Army noted that "military tactics, tactics have often seemed to exist apart from larger issues, strategies, and objectives. Yet in Vietnam the Army experienced tactical success and strategic failure... success rests not only on military progress but on correctly analysing the nature of the particular conflict, understanding the enemy's strategy, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of allies. A new humility and a new sophistication may form the best parts of a complex heritage left to the Army by the long, bitter war in Vietnam."{{sfn, Demma, 1989Cost of the war
{, class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 35%;" , +United States expenditures in South Vietnam (SVN) (1953–1974) Direct costs only. Some estimates are higher. , - ! U.S. military costs , , U.S. military aid to SVN , , U.S. economic aid to SVN , , Total , , Total (2015 dollars) , - , $111 billion , , $16.138 billion , , $7.315 billion , , $134.53 billion , , $1.020 trillion Between 1953 and 1975, the United States was estimated to have spent $168 billion on the war (equivalent to ${{Inflation, US, 0.168, 1964, r=2 trillion in {{Inflation/year, US). This resulted in a large federal United States public debt, budget deficit. Other figures point to $138.9 billion from 1965 to 1974 (not inflation-adjusted), 10 times all education spending in the US and 50 times more than housing and community development spending within that time period.{{cite web, url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1213988#H2_1, title=CQ Almanac Online Edition, website=library.cqpress.com, access-date=14 June 2018 General record-keeping was reported to have been sloppy for government spending during the war. It was stated that war-spending could have paid off every mortgage in the US at that time, with money leftover. More than 3 million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5 million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam. James E. Westheider wrote that "At the height of American involvement in 1968, for example, 543,000 American military personnel were stationed in Vietnam, but only 80,000 were considered combat troops."{{sfn, Westheider, 2007, p=78 Conscription in the United States had been controlled by the president since World War II, but ended in 1973. As of 2013, the U.S. government is paying Vietnam veterans and their families or survivors more than $22 billion a year in war-related claims.Impact on the U.S. military
{{See also, Vietnam War resisters in Canada, Vietnam War resisters in SwedenEffects of U.S. chemical defoliation
Casualties
{{Main page, Vietnam War casualties {{See also, Vietnam War body count controversy {, class="wikitable sortable floatright" style="text-align:right;" , + Military deaths in Vietnam War {{nowrap , (1955–1975) , - ! Year , , U.S.{{cite web , url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#category, title=Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics, Electronic Records Reference Report, at=DCAS Vietnam Conflict Extract File record counts by CASUALTY CATEGORY (as of April 29, 2008), publisher=U.S. National Archives, date=30 April 2019, access-date=2 August 2021 (generated from the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files (as of April 29, 2008)), , South Vietnam , - , 1956–1959 , , 4 , , n.a. , - , 1960 , , 5 , , 2,223 , - , 1961 , , 16 , , 4,004 , - , 1962 , , 53 , , 4,457 , - , 1963 , , 122 , , 5,665 , - , 1964 , , 216 , , 7,457 , - , 1965 , , 1,928 , , 11,242 , - , 1966 , , 6,350 , , 11,953 , - , 1967 , , 11,363 , , 12,716 , - , 1968 , , 16,899 , , 27,915 , - , 1969 , , 11,780 , , 21,833 , - , 1970 , , 6,173 , , 23,346 , - , 1971 , , 2,414 , , 22,738 , - , 1972 , , 759 , , 39,587 , - , 1973 , , 68 , , 27,901 , - , 1974 , , 1 , , 31,219 , - , 1975 , , 62 , , n.a. , - , After 1975 , , 7 , , n.a. , - class="sortbottom" ! Total , , 58,220 , , >254,256{{rp, 275 Estimates of the number of casualties vary, with one source suggesting up to 3.8 million violent war deaths in Vietnam for the period 1955 to 2002. A detailed demographic study calculated 791,000–1,141,000 war-related deaths during the war for all of Vietnam, for both military and civilians. Between 195,000 and 430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war.{{rp, 450–3{{rp} Extrapolating from a 1969 US intelligence report, Guenter Lewy estimated 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war.{{rp, 450–3 Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder range from 30,000{{rp, 176,617 to 182,000. A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated 1.4 million South Vietnamese civilians casualties during the war, including 415,000 deaths.{{rp, 12 The military forces of South Vietnam suffered an estimated 254,256 killed between 1960 and 1974 and additional deaths from 1954 to 1959 and in 1975.{{rp, 275 Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties. The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 PAVN/VC forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Defense Department officials believed that these body count figures need to be deflated by 30 percent. Guenter Lewy asserts that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of PAVN/VC military forces was probably closer to 444,000.{{rp, 450–3