More than 3 million people (including more than 58,000 Americans) died in the Vietnam War, and more than half the victims were Vietnamese civilians.
Background of the Vietnam War
Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia at the eastern end of the Indochina peninsula. This region has been under French colonial rule since the 19th century.
During World War II, Japanese troops invaded Vietnam. To fight the Japanese invaders and the French colonial government, Ho Chi Minh's political leaders - inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism - formed the Viet Minh (League for Vietnamese Independence).
After the defeat in World War II, Japan withdrew its troops from Vietnam. This withdrawal caused the French-educated Emperor Bao Dai to rise to the top of power.
Seeing the opportunity to seize control, the Ho Viet Minh army immediately moved. As a concrete step they took over the northern city of Hanoi and declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) with Ho as president.
In an effort to regain control of the region, France supported Emperor Bao and established the Vietnamese state in July 1949, with the city of Saigon as its capital.
Both parties want the same thing: a united Vietnam. But both also embrace different ideological concepts.
Ho and his supporters want a nation that mimics the model of other communist countries. While Bao and his supporters want a Vietnam with close economic and cultural relations with the West.
The start of the Vietnam War
After Ho's communist forces took power in the north, armed conflict between the northern and southern armies aided by France continued until the decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 ended in victory for northern Viet Minh forces. France's defeat at the battle also marked the end of almost a century of French colonial rule in Indo-China.
The next agreement was signed in July 1954 at the Geneva conference separating Vietnam along the latitude known as the 17th Parallel (17 degrees north latitude), with Ho holding control in the North and Bao in the South. The agreement also requires national elections for reunification planned to be held in 1956.
However, in 1955, the highly anti-communist politician Ngo Dinh Diem removed Emperor Bao and became President of the Government of the Republic of South Vietnam.
With the Cold War expanding throughout the world, the United States issued a strict policy towards allies of the Soviet Union. In 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledged his strong support to Diem and South Vietnam.
With training and equipment from the American military and CIA, Diem security forces cracked down on Viet Minh sympathizers in the south. He called them Viet Cong (or Vietnamese Communists) and arrested around 100,000 people. Many of them were tortured and brutally executed.
In 1957, Viet Cong and other opponents of the repressive Diem regime began to fight and attack government officials and important figures in South Vietnam. Two years later they began to engage in gun battles with the South Vietnamese army.
In December 1960, many of Diem's enemies in South Vietnam - both communist and non-communist - formed the National Liberation Front (NLF) to organize resistance to the regime.
Although the NLF claims to be autonomous and that most of its members are not communists, many people in Washington consider the organization to be a puppet of Hanoi, North Vietnam.
Domino theory
A team sent by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to report on conditions in South Vietnam suggested gathering American military, economic and technical assistance to help Diem deal with the Viet Cong threat.
Based on the "domino theory," which states that if one Southeast Asian country fell into communism, many other countries would follow suit, Kennedy increasing US aid.
By 1962, the US military presence in South Vietnam had reached around 9,000 troops. This number increased rapidly compared to the 1950s which were only around 800 troops.
United States and Allied Aggression
In November 1963, the President of South Vietnam was coup by some of his own generals. The coup led to political instability in South Vietnam.
The political instability led South Vietnamese leaders to persuade Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to further enhance US military and economic support.
In August 1964, after the DRV torpedo ship attacked two US destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Johnson ordered revenge bombing with military targets in North Vietnam.
Congress immediately passed the Tonkin Bay Resolution, which gave Johnson greater war power. With the issuance of the resolution, US aircraft began regular bomb attacks, codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder, the following year.
In March 1965, Johnson made the decision - with strong support from the American public - to send US combat troops to the battlefield in Vietnam. In June, 82,000 combat troops were stationed in Vietnam and military leaders added another 175,000 at the end of 1965 to support struggling South Vietnamese troops.
The policy turned out to increase the concerns of politicians and the population of the United States, thus creating an anti-war movement.
But Johnson remained unmoved by the wave of protest. In addition to the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand are also committed to fighting in South Vietnam (albeit on a much smaller scale).
The battle is getting hotter
The South-US Vietnam war effort in the south was more focused mainly on the ground, largely under the command of General William Westmoreland, in coordination with General Nguyen Van Thieu's government in Saigon.
Westmoreland issued a command to kill as many enemy forces as possible rather than trying to secure territory. In 1966, large areas of South Vietnam had been designated a "war zone", where all innocent civilians had to be evacuated and only enemies remained.
Heavy bombing by B-52s or firing made these zones uninhabitable. Therefore refugees were placed in camps in designated safe areas near Saigon and other cities.
However, the massive attacks by South Vietnam and the US did not deter North Vietnamese troops. Even as the number of enemy troops continued to increase, the DRV and Viet Cong forces still refused to stop fighting. North Vietnamese troops were able to reoccupy the freed areas with the help of troops and supplies through the Ho Chi Minh route that passed through Cambodia and Laos. In addition, North Vietnam is also supported by China and the Soviet Union in strengthening air defenses.
Protests against the Vietnam War
In November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was close to 500,000 and US casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 injured. As the war continued, some soldiers began to doubt the government's decision to keep them in Vietnam, along with Washington's repeated claims that the war had been won.
Entering the final years of the war, US forces have experienced physical and psychological setbacks. This caused new problems in the As troops, because many of them were depressed.
Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 US military personnel were displaced and a strong anti-war movement among American troops gave birth to protests against the killings, and mass arrests carried out by US personnel stationed in Vietnam.
Bombarded by horrific images of war on their television sets, US residents turned against the government.
In October 1967, around 35,000 demonstrators staged massive protests outside the Pentagon. Opponents of the war argue that Vietnamese civilians are the main victims and the United States is seen as supporting the corrupt dictatorship in Saigon, South Vietnam.
On the other hand, North Vietnamese guerrillas are increasingly motivated to win the war following the weakening of the power of South Vietnam and the United States.
North Vietnamese Offensive Strategy
At the end of 1967, Hanoi's communist leadership attempted to make a major blow aimed at forcing the United States to retreat.
On January 31, 1968, around 70,000 DRV troops under General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive (named for the lunar new year), a series of coordinated attacks in more than 100 cities and cities in South Vietnam.
Although shocked, U.S. troops and South Vietnam continued to fight back quickly, and the communists could not take control of one of the city's targets for more than a day or two.
The Tet operation report shocked the US public, especially after appearing to say that Westmoreland had requested 200,000 additional troops.
On the other hand US public support for the war continued to decline. These conditions forced Johnson, who was at the end of his term of office, to stop the pace of bombing in much of North Vietnam and promised to dedicate the remainder of his term to seeking peace.
Johnson's new tactic, laid out in a March 1968 speech, received a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the US and North Vietnam opened in Paris in May.
Unfortunately after South Vietnam and the NLF entered into the talks, the talks were deadlocked.
Vietnamization
The new US President, Richard M. Nixon, is trying to undermine the anti-war movement by trying to attract the support of the majority of Americans who have been silent. He believed they would support the war effort.
In an effort to limit the volume of American victims, he announced a program called Vietnamization. The program was implemented to withdraw US troops, increase air strikes and artillery, as well as provide the South Vietnamese military training needed to effectively control ground warfare.
In addition to this Vietnamisation policy, Nixon continued peace talks in Paris, adding high-level secret talks conducted by Foreign Minister Henry Kissinger which began in the spring of 1968.
North Vietnam continues to demand the withdrawal of the US military as a whole as a condition of peace. The result was that peace talks had stopped.
My Lai Massacre
The following years saw more brutal mass killings, including a horrific admission that US troops massacred more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968.
After the My Lai Massacre, anti-war protests continued to develop as the conflict continued. In 1968 and 1969, hundreds of protest marches and meetings were held throughout the country.
On November 15, 1969, the largest anti-war demonstration in American history took place in Washington, D.C ... At that time more than 250,000 Americans gathered peacefully. They called for the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.
The anti-war movement, which is very strong on campuses, breaks US public opinion. For some young people, war symbolizes an uncontrolled form of authority. While for other Americans, opposing the government is considered unpatriotic and treasonous.
When the first US troops were withdrawn, those who remained remained increasingly angry and frustrated, compounded by problems of enthusiasm and leadership. Tens of thousands of soldiers received disrespectful releases for defection and around 500,000 Americans from 1965-73 were required to undergo "military service," many people fled to Canada to avoid military service.
Increased Strength of Protest Waves
In 1970, a joint US-South Vietnam operation invaded Cambodia. The attack aims to wipe out the DRV supply base there. South Vietnam then led their own invasion of Laos, but was repelled by North Vietnam.
The invasion of these countries, which violated international law, triggered a new wave of protests on campuses across America. One of them, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen opened fire and killed four students. At another protest 10 days later, two students at Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed by police.
At the end of June 1972, after a failed attack on South Vietnam, Hanoi finally agreed to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnam's representatives drafted a peace agreement in early fall, but leaders in Saigon refused.
In fact in December Nixon authorized a number of bombing attacks on targets in Hanoi and Haiphong. The attack was known as the Christmas Bombing, the attack invited international condemnation.
Vietnam War Ends
In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam completed a final peace agreement which simultaneously ended open hostilities between the two countries. However, the war between North and South Vietnam continued until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it to Ho Chi Minh City (Ho himself died in 1969).
More than two decades of violent conflict have caused great harm to the Vietnamese population. After years of war, around 2 million Vietnamese were killed, while another 3 million were injured and 12 million were refugees. The war destroyed the country's infrastructure and economy, and reconstruction was slow.
In 1976, Vietnam united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Despite this sporadic violence continues for the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring countries, China and Cambodia.
Only under the free market policy that was imposed in 1986, the Vietnamese economy began to improve, driven by oil export revenues and foreign capital inflows.
Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the US also began to be established in the 1990s.
In the United States, the effects of the Vietnam War lasted even after the last troops returned home in 1973. The country spent more than $ 120 billion on conflict in Vietnam from 1965-1973. This massive expenditure caused widespread inflation, exacerbated by the world oil crisis in 1973 and skyrocketing fuel prices.
Psychologically, the effect is even deeper. The war has broken down America's invincible myth and has divided the nation. Many veterans return to the negative reactions of the anti-war movement (which considers them to have killed innocent civilians) and their supporters (who see them losing the war).
In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was inaugurated in Washington, D.C. On it were the names of 58,200 American men and women killed or missing in the war.
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