Vietnam War
Part of the Cold War and the Indochina Wars
A Bell UH-1D helicopter piloted by Major Bruce P. Crandall climbs skyward after discharging a load of U.S. infantrymen on a search and destroy mission
Date 1 November 1955 (1955-11-01)[A 1] – 30 April 1975 (1975-04-30) (&1000000000000001900000019 years, &10000000000000180000000180 days) Location South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos Result North Vietnamese victory Withdrawal of American forces from Indochina Dissolution of the Republic of Vietnam Communist governments take power in South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Territorial changes Unification of North and South Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Belligerents
Anti-Communist forces: Republic of Vietnam  United States  Republic of Korea Australia  Philippines  New Zealand Thailand Khmer Republic Kingdom of Laos Supported by: Spain Republic of China[1]	Communist forces: Democratic Republic of Vietnam Viet Cong Khmer Rouge Pathet Lao Supported by: Democratic People's Republic of Korea People's Republic of China (to 1968) 22x20px Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Republic of Cuba
Commanders and leaders
Ngô Đình Diệm Nguyễn Văn Thiệu Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Cao Văn Viên Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon William Westmoreland Creighton Abrams ...and others	Hồ Chí Minh Lê Duẩn Võ Nguyên Giáp Hoàng Văn Thái Văn Tiến Dũng Trần Văn Trà Nguyễn Văn Linh Nguyễn Hữu Thọ ...and others
Strength
~1,830,000 (1968) Republic of Vietnam: 850,000 United States of America: 536,100 Free World Military Forces: 65,000[2][3] Republic of Korea: 50,000[4] Commonwealth of Australia: 7,672 Kingdom of Thailand, Philippines: 10,450 New Zealand: 552	461,000+ Democratic Republic of Vietnam: 287,465 (January 1968)[5] People's Republic of China: 170,000 (1969) Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: 3,000 Democratic People's Republic of Korea: 300–600
Casualties and losses
Republic of Vietnam 361,000[6]-2,000,000 civilian dead;[7] military dead: 220,357 (lowest est.)[8] – 316,000 dead (highest est.);[6] 1,170,000 wounded United States 58,220 dead;[A 2] 303,644 wounded[A 2] Republic of Korea 5,099 dead; 10,962 wounded; 4 missing Commonwealth of Australia 521 dead; 3,000 wounded New Zealand 37 dead; 187 wounded Kingdom of Thailand 1,351 dead[8] Kingdom of Laos 30,000 killed, wounded unknown[13] Total dead: 426,228 – 2,381,228 (2,000,000 South civilians) Total wounded: ~1,490,000+	North Vietnam & NLF 50,000[6]-2,000,000 civilian dead;[7] 1,176,000 military dead or missing;[8] 600,000+ wounded[14] People's Republic of China 1,446 dead; 4,200 wounded 22x20px Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 16 dead[15] Total dead: 1,227,452-3,177,462 (50,000–2,000,000 North civilians) Military dead: ~1,177,462 ) Total wounded: ~604,200+
Vietnamese civilian dead: 411,000[6] – 4,000,000[16] Cambodian civilian dead: 200,000 – 300,000*[17][18][19] Laotian civilian dead: ~20,000 – 200,000* Total civilian dead: – 631,000 – 4,500,000 Total dead: – 1,653,740 - 5,558,690 * indicates approximations, see Casualties below For more information see Vietnam War casualties

The Vietnam War^{[A 3]} was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955^{[A 1]} to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries.^[25] The Viet Cong (also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF), a lightly armed South Vietnamese communist-controlled common front, largely fought a guerrilla war against anti-communist forces in the region. The Vietnam People's Army (North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units into battle. 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. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment. The North Vietnamese government and Viet Cong viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state.^[26] American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962.^[27] U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned international borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. American involvement in the war peaked in 1968, at the time of the Tet Offensive. After this, U.S. ground forces were gradually withdrawn as part of a policy known as Vietnamization. Despite the Paris Peace Accords, signed by all parties in January 1973, fighting continued.

U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973 as a result of the Case–Church Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress.^[28] The capture of Saigon by the Vietnam People's Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities (see Vietnam War casualties). Estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from less than one million^[29] to more than five million.^[7][30] Some 200,000–300,000 Cambodians,^[17][18][19] 20,000–200,000 Laotians,^{[31][32][33][34][35][36]} and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict.^{[A 2]}

Names for the War[link]

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, and the Vietnam Conflict.

As there have been so many conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the name of their chief opponent to distinguish it from the others.^[37] Thus, in Vietnamese, the war is known as Chiến tranh Việt Nam (The Vietnam War), or as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ (Resistance War Against America), loosely translated as the American War.^[38]

The main military organizations involved in the war were, on one side, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the U.S. military, and, on the other side, the Vietnam People's Army (VPA) (also known as the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA), and the Viet Cong, or National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), a South Vietnamese communist guerrilla force.

Background to 1949[link]

France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893.^[39][40][41] The Treaty of Huế, concluded in 1884, formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the next seven decades. In spite of military resistance, most notably by the Can Vuong of Phan Dinh Phung, by 1888 the area of the current-day nations of Cambodia and Vietnam was made into the colony of French Indochina (Laos was added later).^[42] Various Vietnamese opposition movements to French rule existed during this period, such as the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang who staged the failed Yen Bai mutiny in 1930, but none were ultimately as successful as the Viet Minh common front, which was founded in 1941, controlled by the Indochinese Communist Party, and funded by the U.S. and the Chinese Nationalist Party in its fight against Japanese occupation.^{[43][A 4]}

During World War II, the French were defeated by the Germans in 1940. For French Indochina, this meant that the colonial authorities became Vichy French, allies of the German-Italian Axis powers. In turn this meant that the French collaborated with the Japanese forces after their invasion of French Indochina during 1940. The French continued to run affairs in the colony, but ultimate power resided in the hands of the Japanese.^[43]

The Viet Minh was founded as a league for independence from France, but also opposed Japanese occupation in 1945 for the same reason. The U.S. and Chinese Nationalist Party supported them in the fight against the Japanese.^[45] However, they did not have enough power to fight actual battles at first. Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh was suspected of being a communist and jailed for a year by the Chinese Nationalist Party.^[46]

Double occupation by France and Japan continued until the German forces were expelled from France and the French Indochina colonial authorities started holding secret talks with the Free French. Fearing that they could no longer trust the French authorities, the Japanese army interned them all on 9 March 1945 and assumed direct control themselves^[47] through their puppet state, the Empire of Vietnam, under Bảo Đại.

During 1944–1945, a deep famine struck northern Vietnam due to a combination of bad weather and French/Japanese exploitation. 1 million people died of starvation (out of a population of 10 million in the affected area).^[48] Exploiting the administrative gap^[49] that the internment of the French had created, the Viet Minh in March 1945 urged the population to ransack rice warehouses and refuse to pay their taxes.^[50] Between 75 and 100 warehouses were consequently raided.^[51] This rebellion against the effects of the famine and the authorities that were partially responsible for it bolstered the Viet Minh's popularity and they recruited many members during this period.^[49]

In August 1945, the Japanese had been defeated and surrendered unconditionally. In French Indochina this created a power vacuum, as the French were still interned and the Japanese forces stood down.^[51] The Viet Minh stepped into this vacuum and grasped power across Vietnam in the August Revolution,^[51] largely supported by the Vietnamese population.^[52] After their defeat in the war, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) gave weapons to the Vietnamese, and kept Vichy French officials and military officers imprisoned for a month after the surrender. The Việt Minh had recruited more than 600 Japanese soldiers and given them roles to train or command Vietnamese soldiers.^[53][54]

Ho Chi Minh declared the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam before a crowd of 500,000 in Hanoi on 2 September 1945.^[51] In an overture to the Americans, he began his speech by paraphrasing the United States Declaration of Independence: All men are created equal. The Creator has given us certain inviolable Rights: the right to Life, the right to be Free, and the right to achieve Happiness.^[51]

However, the major allied victors of World War II, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, all agreed the area belonged to the French.^[51] As the French did not have the ships, weapons, or soldiers to immediately retake Vietnam, the major powers came to an agreement that British troops would occupy the south while Nationalist Chinese forces would move in from the north.^[51] Nationalist Chinese troops entered the country to disarm Japanese troops north of the 16th parallel on 14 September 1945.^[55] When the British landed in the south, they rearmed the interned French forces as well as parts of the surrendered Japanese forces to aid them in retaking southern Vietnam, as they did not have enough troops to do this themselves.^[51]

Following the party line from Moscow, Ho Chi Minh initially attempted to negotiate with the French, who were slowly re-establishing their control across the country.^[56] In January 1946, the Viet Minh won elections across central and northern Vietnam.^[57] On 6 March 1946, Ho signed an agreement allowing French forces to replace Nationalist Chinese forces, in exchange for French recognition of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a "free" republic within the French Union, with the specifics of such recognition to be determined by future negotiation.^[58][59][60] The French landed in Hanoi by March 1946 and in November of that year they ousted the Viet Minh from the city.^[61] British forces departed on 26 March 1946, leaving Vietnam in the hands of the French.^[62] Soon thereafter, the Viet Minh began a guerrilla war against the French Union forces, beginning the First Indochina War.

The war spread to Laos and Cambodia, where Communists organized the Pathet Lao and the Khmer Serei, both of which were modeled on the Viet Minh.^[63] Globally, the Cold War began in earnest, which meant that the rapprochement that existed between the Western powers and the Soviet Union during World War II disintegrated. The Viet Minh fight was hampered by a lack of weapons; this situation changed by 1949 when the Chinese Communists had largely won the Chinese Civil War and were free to provide arms to their Vietnamese allies.^[63]

Exit of the French, 1950–1954[link]

In January 1950, the communist nations, led by the People's Republic of China (PRC), recognized the Viet Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam, based in Hanoi, as the government of Vietnam, while non-communist nations recognized the French-backed State of Vietnam in Saigon, led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, as the Vietnamese government the following month.^[64] 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 Kremlin.^[65]

French soldiers fight off a Viet Minh ambush in 1952.

PRC military advisors began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950.^[66] PRC weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla force into a regular army.^[67] 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.^[68] By 1954, the United States had supplied 300,000 small arms and spent US$1 billion in support of the French military effort, shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war.^[69]

There were also talks between the French and Americans in which the possible use of three tactical nuclear weapons was considered, though reports of how seriously this was considered and by whom are even now vague and contradictory.^[70][71] One version of the plan for the proposed Operation Vulture envisioned sending 60 B-29s from U.S. bases in the region, supported by as many as 150 fighters launched from U.S. Seventh Fleet carriers, to bomb Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap's positions. The plan included an option to use up to three atomic weapons on the Viet Minh positions. Admiral Arthur W. Radford, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave this nuclear option his backing. U.S. B-29s, B-36s, and B-47s could have executed a nuclear strike, as could carrier aircraft from the Seventh Fleet.^[72]

U.S. carriers sailed to the Gulf of Tonkin, and reconnaissance flights over Dien Bien Phu were conducted during the negotiations. According to U.S. Vice-President Richard Nixon, the plan involved the Joint Chiefs of Staff drawing up plans to use three small tactical nuclear weapons in support of the French.^[70] Nixon, a so-called "hawk" on Vietnam, suggested that the United States might have to "put American boys in".^[73] U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support, but London was opposed to such a venture.^[73] In the end, convinced that the political risks outweighed the possible benefits, Eisenhower decided against the intervention.^[74] As an experienced five-star general, Eisenhower was very wary of getting the United States involved in a land war in Asia.

The Viet Minh received crucial support from the Soviet Union and PRC. PRC support in the Border Campaign of 1950 allowed supplies to come from the PRC into Vietnam. Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained skeptical of French chances of success.^[75]

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu marked the end of French involvement in Indochina. Giap's Viet Minh forces handed the French a stunning military defeat, and on 7 May 1954, the French Union garrison surrendered. Of the 12,000 French prisoners taken by the Viet Minh, only 3,000 survived.^[76] At the Geneva Conference, the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Transition period[link]

The Geneva Conference, 1954

Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel, and under the terms of the Geneva Accords, civilians were to be given the opportunity 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.^[77] Around one million northerners, mainly minority Catholics, fled south, fearing persecution by the communists^[78] following an American propaganda campaign using slogans such as "The Virgin Mary is heading south",^[79] and aided by a U.S. funded $93 million relocation program, which included ferrying refugees with the Seventh Fleet.^[80] It is estimated that as many as two million more would have left had they not been stopped by the Viet Minh.^[81] The northern, mainly Catholic refugees were meant to give the later Ngô Đình Diệm regime a strong anti-communist constituency.^[82] Diem later went on to staff his administration's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics.

In addition to the Catholics flowing south, up to 130,000 "Revolutionary Regroupees" went to the north for "regroupment," expecting to return to the south within two years.^[83] The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 cadres in the south as a "politico-military substructure within the object of its irredentism."^[84] The last French soldiers were to leave Vietnam in April 1956.^[67] The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time.^[66] Around 52,000 Vietnamese civilians moved from south to north.^[85]

In the north, the Viet Minh ruled as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and engaged in a drastic land reform program in which more than 100,000 perceived "class enemies" were executed.^{[86][87][88][89]} In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners.^[90]

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. In June 1955, Diem announced that the scheduled 1956 elections would not be held, claiming South Vietnam had rejected the Geneva Accords from the beginning and was therefore not bound by them. "How can we expect 'free elections' to be held in the Communist North?" he asked. President Eisenhower echoed senior U.S. experts^[91] when he wrote that, in 1954, "80 per cent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh" over Emperor Bảo Đại.^[92][93]

From April to June 1955, Diem (against U.S. advice) eliminated any political opposition in the south by launching military operations against the Cao Dai religious sect, the Hoa Hao sect of Ba Cut, and the Binh Xuyen organized crime group (which was allied with members of the secret police and some military elements). As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diem increasingly sought to blame the communists.^[94]

In a referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam on 23 October 1955, Diem rigged the poll supervised by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu and was credited with 98.2 percent of the vote, including 133% in Saigon. His American advisers had recommended a more modest winning margin of "60 to 70 percent." Diem, however, viewed the election as a test of authority.^[95] Three days later, he declared South Vietnam to be an independent state known as the Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with himself as president.^[96]

The ROV was created largely because of the Eisenhower administration's desire for an anti-communist state in the region.^[94] 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.^[97] It was, and is still, commonly hypothesized that it applied to Vietnam. 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 into Vietnam."^[98]

Diem era, 1955–1963[link]

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam in Washington, 8 May 1957.

Rule[link]

A devout Roman Catholic, Diem was fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and socially conservative. Historian Luu Doan Huynh notes that "Diem represented narrow and extremist nationalism coupled with autocracy and nepotism."^[99] As he was a wealthy Catholic, many ordinary Vietnamese viewed Diem as part of the elite who had helped the French rule Vietnam; Diem had been interior minister in the colonial government. The majority of Vietnamese people were Buddhist, and were alarmed by actions such as Diem's dedication of the country to the Virgin Mary.

Beginning in the summer of 1955, Diem launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. He instituted the death penalty against any activity deemed communist in August 1956.^[100] The regime branded its opponents Viet Cong ("Vietnamese communist") to degrade their nationalist credentials. As a measure of the level of political repression, about 12,000 suspected opponents of Diem were killed between 1955 and 1957 and by the end of 1958 an estimated 40,000 political prisoners had been jailed.^[101]

In May 1957, Diem undertook a ten-day state visit to the United States. President Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Diem's honor in New York City. Although Diem was publicly praised, in private Secretary of State John Foster Dulles conceded that Diem had been selected because there were no better alternatives.^[102]

Future U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wrote that the new American patrons of the ROV were almost completely ignorant of Vietnamese culture. They knew little of the language or long history of the country.^[64] There was a tendency to assign American motives to Vietnamese actions, and Diem warned that it was an illusion to believe that blindly copying Western methods would solve Vietnamese problems.^[64]

Insurgency in the South, 1954–1960[link]

President Eisenhower noted that had the Geneva Accords been held, "possibly 80 percent of the population would have voted for Communist Ho Chi Minh" and the government quickly became more repressive and unpopular. The Diem government had largely failed in implementing a land reform program for the peasants of South Vietnam (90% of the population) which along with "Peace, security, freedom, [and] their standard of living" was the peasants' prime concern according to specialist Philippe Devillers. Among the changes the government altered the tenant structure to competitive bidding which led to more tenant insecurity. Only 10% of the tenants benefited from the program and were oftentimes northerners, refugees, or Catholics which created more animosity among the Vietnamese. In 1959 the program became inoperative and by 1960, only 2% of the landowners owned 45% of the land.^[24]

The South government used widespread repression, between 1954 and 1960 it captured 50,000 prisoners and had put them into "political reeducation camps" as part of the Denunciation of Communists Campaign. In 1959 British specialist PJ Honey was invited to examine the camps and concluded after interviewing rural Vietnamese that "the consensus of the opinion expressed by these peoples is that...the majority of the detainees are neither communists nor pro-communists."^[24]

According to the Pentagon Papers the prisons were "little more than concentration camps for potential foes of the government" and used torture regardless of whether they were communist or not. The Diem government had also abolished elections for village councils out of fear of large amounts of Viet Minh candidates winning and replaced administrative village autonomy with government officials.^[24]

This had an effect, between 1954 and 1957 there was large scale random dissidence in the countryside which the Diem government managed to successfully quell. In early 1957 South Vietnam had its first peace in over a decade. However, by mid-1957 through 1959 incidents of violence increased but the government "did not construe it as a campaign, considering the disorders too diffuse to warrant committing major GVN resources." By Early 1959 however, Diem had considered it a campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death and property confiscation.^[103] 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" activities separate from the other communists and anti-GVN activists.^[24]

In December 1960, the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formally created consisting of all anti-GVN activists and included non-communists. According to the Pentagon Papers, the NLF "placed heavy emphasis on the withdrawal of American advisors and influence, on land reform and liberalization of the GVN, on coalition government and the neutralization of Vietnam." Often the leaders of the organization were kept secret.^[24]

North Vietnam interference?[link]

Very little evidence points to organization or interference on the part of North Vietnam. As the Pentagon Papers point out, "No direct links have been established between Hanoi and perpetrators of rural violence." As Kahin and Lewis point out: