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Do not fill this in! {{redirect|Second Indochina War|the war between India and China|Nathu La and Cho La clashes}} {{Short description|Cold War conflict in Southeast Asia from 1955 to 1975}} {{Use American English|date=December 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} {{pp-extended|small=yes}} {{For-multi|a full history of wars in Vietnam|List of wars involving Vietnam|the documentary television series|The Vietnam War (TV series){{!}}''The Vietnam War'' (TV series)}} {{Very long|words=19,000|date=June 2023}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Vietnam War | partof = the [[Indochina Wars]] and the [[Cold War]] in [[Cold War in Asia|Asia]] | image = {{multiple image|border=infobox|perrow=2/2/2|total_width=300 | image1= U.S. Army UH-1H Hueys insert ARVN troops at Khâm Đức, Vietnam, 12 July 1970 (79431435).jpg | alt1= | image2=Pavnbattle.jpg | alt2= | image3=Hue Massacre Interment.jpg | alt3= | image4=Flame Thrower. Operation New Castle. - NARA - 532488.tif | alt4= | image5=A-4C Skyhawks of VA-146 fly past USS Kearsarge (CVS-33) in the South China Sea on 12 August 1964 (USN 1107965).jpg | alt5= | image6=Execution of Nguyen Van Lem.jpg | alt6=}}'''Clockwise from top left:''' {{flatlist| * American Huey helicopters insert South Vietnamese ARVN troops, 1970. * North Vietnamese soldiers in action {{circa|1966}}. * [[United States Marine Corps|American marines]] use a [[flamethrower]], 1967. * South Vietnamese general [[Nguyễn Ngọc Loan]] summarily executes Viet Cong officer [[Execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém|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<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=11|day1=1|year1=1955|month2=04|day2=30|year2=1975}}){{Refn|Due to the early presence of U.S. troops in Vietnam, the start date of the Vietnam War is a matter of debate. In 1998, after a high-level review by the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] (DoD) and through the efforts of [[Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr.|Richard B. Fitzgibbon's]] family, the start date of the Vietnam War according to the U.S. government was officially changed to 1 November 1955.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Name of Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial |publisher=[[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense (DoD)]] |url=http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=1902 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020044326/http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=1902 |archive-date=20 October 2013}}</ref> U.S. government reports currently cite 1 November 1955 as the commencement date of the "Vietnam Conflict", because this date marked when the U.S. [[Military Assistance Advisory Group]] (MAAG) in Indochina (deployed to Southeast Asia under President Truman) was reorganized into country-specific units and MAAG Vietnam was established.<ref name="Lawrence">{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=A.T. |title=Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-4517-2}}</ref>{{Rp|20}} Other start dates include when Hanoi authorized Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam to begin a low-level insurgency in December 1956,{{Sfn|Olson|Roberts|2008|p=67}} whereas some view 26 September 1959, when the first battle occurred between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese army, as the start date.<ref name="WarBegan">{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 1 |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1971 |location=Boston |at=Section 3, pp. 314–346 |chapter=Chapter 5, Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954–1960 |access-date=17 August 2008 |chapter-url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent14.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019184424/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent14.htm |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=dead |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}}</ref> |group="A"|name="start date"}}<ref name="mtholyoke.edu">{{Cite report |url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/paris.htm |title=The Paris Agreement on Vietnam: Twenty-five Years Later |date=April 1998 |publisher=The Nixon Center |location=Washington, DC |access-date=5 September 2012 |type=Conference Transcript |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College |archive-date=1 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901153020/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/paris.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> | place = {{flatlist| * [[South Vietnam]] * [[North Vietnam]] * [[Cambodia (1953–1970)|Cambodia]] * [[Kingdom of Laos|Laos]] * [[South China Sea]] * [[Gulf of Thailand]] (spillover conflict in [[China]], and [[Thailand]])}} | territory = Reunification of [[North Vietnam]] and [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|South Vietnam]] into the [[Vietnam|Socialist Republic of Vietnam]] in 1976 | result = [[North Vietnam]]ese victory | combatant2 = {{Plainlist}} * {{Flag|South Vietnam}} * {{Flagdeco|United States|1960}} [[Role of the United States in the Vietnam War|United States]] * {{Flagcountry|Third Republic of Korea}} * {{Flag|Australia}} * {{Flag|New Zealand}} * {{Flag|Kingdom of Laos|name=Laos}} * {{Flagdeco|Cambodia}} [[Cambodia (1953–1970)|Cambodia]] (1967–1970) * {{Nowrap|{{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}} [[Khmer Republic]] (1970–1975)}} * {{Flag|Thailand|1932}} * {{Flagcountry|Fourth Philippine Republic}} * {{Flag|Taiwan}} {{Endplainlist}} | combatant1 = {{Plainlist}} * {{Flag|North Vietnam}} * {{Flagdeco|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Viet Cong]] and [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|PRG]] * {{Flagdeco|Laos}} [[Pathet Lao]] * {{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} [[Khmer Rouge]] * {{Nowrap|{{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1973}} [[Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea|GRUNK]] (1970–1975)}} * {{Flag|China}} (1965–1969) * {{Flag|Soviet Union|1955}} * {{Flag|North Korea|1948}} {{Endplainlist}} | strength1 = '''≈860,000 (1967)''' {{Plainlist}} * {{Flagdeco|North Vietnam}} '''North Vietnam:'''<br />690,000 (1966, including [[People's Army of Vietnam|PAVN]] and Viet Cong){{Refn|group="A"|According to Hanoi's official history, the Viet Cong was a branch of the People's Army of Vietnam.<ref>{{Harvnb|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=182}}. "By the end of 1966 the total strength of our armed forces was 690,000 soldiers."</ref>}} * {{Flagdeco|Republic of South Vietnam}} '''Viet Cong:'''<br />{{Nowrap|~200,000 (estimated, 1968)}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Edward |title=The Vietnam Experience The North |last2=Lipsman |first2=Samuel |last3=Maitland |first3=Terence |publisher=Time Life Education |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-939526-21-5 |pages=45–49}}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|China|1949}} '''China:'''<br />170,000 (1968)<br />320,000 total<ref name="Toledo Blade 320,000 Chinese troops">{{Cite news |date=16 May 1989 |title=China admits 320,000 troops fought in Vietnam |work=Toledo Blade |agency=Reuters |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19890516&id=HkRPAAAAIBAJ&pg=3769,1925460 |access-date=24 December 2013}}</ref><ref name="Roy">{{Cite book |last=Roy |first=Denny |url=https://archive.org/details/chinasforeignrel0000royd/page/27 |title=China's Foreign Relations |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8476-9013-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinasforeignrel0000royd/page/27 27]}}</ref><ref name="Womack">{{Cite book |last=Womack |first=Brantly |title=China and Vietnam |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-61834-2 |page=[{{GBurl|id=GaZvX2BzeegC|p=176}} 179]|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} '''Khmer Rouge:'''<br />70,000 (1972)<ref name="Tucker">{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer C |title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-85109-960-3}}</ref>{{Rp|376}} * {{Flagdeco|Laos}} '''Pathet Lao:'''<br />48,000 (1970)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Area Handbook Series Laos |url=http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/laos/la_glos.html#Lao |access-date=1 November 2019}}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|Soviet Union}} '''Soviet Union:''' ~3,000<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Ballance |first=Edgar |title=Tracks of the bear: Soviet imprints in the seventies |publisher=Presidio |year=1982 |isbn=978-0-89141-133-8 |page=171}}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|North Korea|1948}} '''North Korea:''' 200<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pham Thi Thu Thuy |date=1 August 2013 |title=The colorful history of North Korea-Vietnam relations |work=[[NK News]] |url=https://www.nknews.org/2013/08/the-colorful-history-of-north-korea-vietnam-relations/ |access-date=3 October 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424055821/http://www.nknews.org/2013/08/the-colorful-history-of-north-korea-vietnam-relations/|archive-date=April 24, 2015}}</ref> {{Endplainlist}} | strength2 = '''≈1,420,000 (1968)''' {{Plainlist}} * {{Flagdeco|South Vietnam}} '''South Vietnam:'''<br />850,000 (1968)<br />1,500,000 (1974–1975)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Le Gro |first=William |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-29/CMH_Pub_90-29.pdf |title=Vietnam from ceasefire to capitulation |publisher=US Army Center of Military History |year=1985 |isbn=978-1-4102-2542-9 |page=28|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202012033/https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-29/CMH_Pub_90-29.pdf|archive-date=February 2, 2023}}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|United States|1960}} '''United States:'''<br />2,709,918 serving in Vietnam total<br />Peak: 543,000 (April 1969)<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|xlv}} * {{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}} '''Khmer Republic:'''<br />200,000 (1973){{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} * {{Flagdeco|Laos|1952}} '''Laos:'''<br />72,000 (Royal Army and [[Hmong people|Hmong]] militia)<ref>{{Cite web |title=The rise of Communism |url=http://www.footprinttravelguides.com/c/4999/the-rise-of-communism |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101117114707/http://footprinttravelguides.com/c/4999/the-rise-of-communism/ |archive-date=17 November 2010 |access-date=31 May 2018 |website=www.footprinttravelguides.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Hmong rebellion in Laos |url=http://members.ozemail.com.au/~yeulee/Topical/Hmong%20rebellion%20in%20Laos.html |access-date=11 April 2021 |website=Members.ozemail.com.au|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404230156/http://members.ozemail.com.au/~yeulee/Topical/Hmong%20rebellion%20in%20Laos.html|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|Third Republic of Korea}} '''South Korea:'''<br />48,000 per year (1965–1973, 320,000 total) * {{Flagdeco|Thailand|1939}} '''Thailand:''' 32,000 per year (1965–1973)<br />(in Vietnam<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vietnam War Allied Troop Levels 1960–73 |url=http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802134052/http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |archive-date=2 August 2016 |access-date=2 August 2016}}, accessed 7 November 2017</ref> and Laos){{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} * {{Flagdeco|Australia}} '''Australia:''' 50,190 total<br />(Peak: 8,300 combat troops)<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Doyle |first1=Jeff |last2=Grey |first2=Jeffrey |last3=Pierce |first3=Peter |date=2002 |title=Australia's Vietnam War – A Select Chronology of Australian Involvement in the Vietnam War |url=https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/14206/3/14206_Doyle_et_al_2002_Back_Pages.pdf |publisher=[[Texas A&M University Press]]|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110165929/https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/14206/3/14206_Doyle_et_al_2002_Back_Pages.pdf|archive-date=November 10, 2022}}</ref> * {{Flagdeco|New Zealand}} '''New Zealand:''' Peak: 552 in 1968<ref name=Blackburn>{{cite book|last=Blackburn|first=Robert M.|title=Mercenaries and Lyndon Johnson's "More Flage": The Hiring of Korean, Filipino, and Thai Soldiers in the Vietnam War|publisher=McFarland|year=1994|isbn=0-89950-931-2}}</ref>{{rp|158}} * {{Flagdeco|Fourth Philippine Republic}} '''Philippines:''' 2,061 * {{Flagdeco|Francoist Spain}} '''Spain:''' 100-130 total<br />(Peak: 30 medical troops and advisors)<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/09/inenglish/1333979983_253264.html | title=Spain's secret support for US in Vietnam| newspaper=El País| date=2012-04-09| last1=Marín| first1=Paloma}}</ref> {{Endplainlist}} | commander1 = {{Plainlist}} * {{Flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Ho Chi Minh|Hồ Chí Minh]] * {{Flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Lê Duẩn]] * {{Flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Võ Nguyên Giáp]] * {{Flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Phạm Văn Đồng]] * {{Flagdeco|South Vietnam|1975}} [[Trần Văn Trà]] * ''...{{Nbsp}}[[Leaders of the Vietnam War#Communist forces|and others]]'' {{Endplainlist}} | commander2 = {{Plainlist}} * {{Flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Ngô Đình Diệm]]{{Assassinated|Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem}} {{Refn|1955–1963| group="A"}} * {{Flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Văn Thiệu]] * {{Flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Cao Kỳ]] * {{Flagicon|US|1960}} [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]{{Refn|1963–1969| group="A"}} * {{Flagicon|US|1960}} [[Richard Nixon]] * {{Flagicon|US|1960}} [[Robert McNamara]] * {{Nowrap|{{Flagicon|US|1960}} [[William Westmoreland]]}}{{Refn|1964–1968| group="A"}} * {{Flagicon|US|1960}} [[Creighton Abrams]] * ''...{{Nbsp}}[[Leaders of the Vietnam War#Anti-communist forces|and others]]'' {{Endplainlist}} | casualties1 = {{Plainlist}} * {{Flagdeco|North Vietnam}}{{Flagdeco|Republic of South Vietnam}} '''North Vietnam & Viet Cong'''<br />30,000–182,000 civilian dead<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|176}}<ref name="Hirschman">{{Cite journal |last1=Hirschman |first1=Charles |last2=Preston |first2=Samuel |last3=Vu |first3=Manh Loi |date=December 1995 |title=Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/charles/new%20PUBS/A77.pdf |journal=[[Population and Development Review]] |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=783 |doi=10.2307/2137774 |jstor=2137774|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012055340/http://faculty.washington.edu/charles/new%20PUBS/A77.pdf|archive-date=October 12, 2013}}</ref><ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–453}}<ref name=bfvietnam>{{Cite web |title=Battlefield:Vietnam – Timeline |url=http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html |publisher=[[PBS]]|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604101618/http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html|archive-date=June 4, 2023}}</ref><br />849,018 military dead (per Vietnam; 1/3 non-combat deaths)<ref name="Moyar, Mark" /><ref name="Chuyen">{{Cite web |title=Chuyên đề 4 CÔNG TÁC TÌM KIẾM, QUY TẬP HÀI CỐT LIỆT SĨ TỪ NAY ĐẾN NĂM 2020 VÀ NHỮNG NĂM TIẾP THEO |url=http://datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/Qu%E1%BA%A3n%20l%C3%BD%20ch%E1%BB%89%20%C4%91%E1%BA%A1o/Chuy%C3%AAn%20%C4%91%E1%BB%81%204.doc |access-date=11 April 2021 |website=Datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404230151/http://datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/Qu%E1%BA%A3n%20l%C3%BD%20ch%E1%BB%89%20%C4%91%E1%BA%A1o/Chuy%C3%AAn%20%C4%91%E1%BB%81%204.doc|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="VNMOD">{{Cite web |title=Công tác tìm kiếm, quy tập hài cốt liệt sĩ từ nay đến năm 2020 và những năn tiếp theo |trans-title=The work of searching and collecting the remains of martyrs from now to 2020 and the next |url=http://chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/tinbai/309/Tap-huan-cong-tac-chinh-sach |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217065036/http://chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/tinbai/309/Tap-huan-cong-tac-chinh-sach |archive-date=17 December 2018 |access-date=11 June 2018 |publisher=[[Ministry of Defence (Vietnam)|Ministry of Defence]], Government of Vietnam |language=vi}}</ref><br />666,000–950,765 dead<br />(US estimated 1964–1974){{Refn|Upper figure initial estimate, later thought to be inflated by at least 30% (lower figure)<ref name=Hirschman/><ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–453}}|name=USclaim|group=A}}<ref name=Hirschman/><ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–451}}<br />232,000+ military missing (per Vietnam)<ref name="Moyar, Mark">Moyar, Mark. "Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968." Encounter Books, December 2022. Chapter 17 index: "Communists provided further corroboration of the proximity of their casualty figures to American figures in a postwar disclosure of total losses from 1960 to 1975. During that period, they stated, they lost 849,018 killed plus approximately 232,000 missing and 463,000 wounded. Casualties fluctuated considerably from year to year, but a degree of accuracy can be inferred from the fact that 500,000 was 59 percent of the 849,018 total and that 59 percent of the war's days had passed by the time of Fallaci's conversation with Giap. The killed in action figure comes from "Special Subject 4: The Work of Locating and Recovering the Remains of Martyrs From Now Until 2020 And Later Years," downloaded from the Vietnamese government website datafile on 1 December 2017. The above figures on missing and wounded were calculated using Hanoi's declared casualty ratios for the period of 1945 to 1979, during which time the Communists incurred 1.1 million killed, 300,000 missing, and 600,000 wounded. Ho Khang, ed, ''Lich Su Khang Chien Chong My, Cuu Nuoc 1954–1975, Tap VIII: Toan Thang'' (Hanoi: Nha Xuat Ban Chinh Tri Quoc Gia, 2008), 463."</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Joseph Babcock |date=29 April 2019 |title=Lost Souls: The Search for Vietnam's 300,000 or More MIAs |url=https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/lost-souls-search-vietnams-300000-or-more-mias |access-date=28 June 2021 |website=Pulitzer Centre|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110165934/https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/lost-souls-search-vietnams-300000-or-more-mias|archive-date=November 10, 2022}}</ref><br />600,000+ military wounded<ref name="Hastings">{{Cite book |last=Hastings |first=Max |title=Vietnam an epic tragedy, 1945–1975 |publisher=Harper Collins |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-06-240567-8}}</ref>{{Rp|739}} * '''{{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}}''' '''Khmer Rouge:''' Unknown * '''{{Flagicon|Laos}}''' '''Pathet Lao:''' Unknown * '''{{Flagu|China|1949}}:''' ~1,100 dead and 4,200 wounded<ref name=Womack/> * '''{{Flagu|Soviet Union}}:''' 16 dead<ref>{{Cite book |last1=James F. Dunnigan |title=Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War: Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know |last2=Albert A. Nofi |publisher=Macmillan |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-312-25282-3 |author-link2=Albert A. Nofi}}</ref> * '''{{Flagu|North Korea|1948}}:''' 14 dead<ref>{{Cite news |date=31 March 2000 |title=North Korea fought in Vietnam War |work=[[BBC News Online]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/696970.stm |access-date=18 October 2015|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312063506/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/696970.stm|archive-date=March 12, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/NKIDP_eDossier_2_North_Korean_Pilots_in_Vietnam_War.pdf|title=North Korean Pilots in the Skies over Vietnam|last=Pribbenow|first=Merle|publisher=[[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]]|date=November 2011|access-date=3 March 2023|page=1|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605173651/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/NKIDP_eDossier_2_North_Korean_Pilots_in_Vietnam_War.pdf|archive-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> '''Total military dead/missing:<br />≈1,100,000'''<br />'''Total military wounded:<br />≈604,200'''<br />(excluding [[GRUNK]]/[[Khmer Rouge]] and [[Pathet Lao]]) {{Endplainlist}} | casualties2 = {{Plainlist}} * '''{{Flagu|South Vietnam}}:'''<br />195,000–430,000 civilian dead<ref name=Hirschman/><ref name="Lewy">{{Cite book |last=Lewy |first=Guenter |title=America in Vietnam |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-19-987423-1 |author-link=Guenter Lewy}}</ref>{{Rp|450–453}}<ref name="Thayer">{{Cite book |last=Thayer |first=Thomas C. |title=War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam |publisher=Westview Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-8133-7132-0}}</ref>{{Rp|}}<br />Military dead: 313,000 (total)<ref name="Rummel">{{Citation |last=Rummel |first=R.J |title=Table 6.1A. Vietnam Democide : Estimates, Sources, and Calculations |url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF |work=Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War, University of Hawaii System |year=1997 |format=GIF|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313125242/http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF|archive-date=March 13, 2023}}</ref>{{Bulletedlist|254,256 combat deaths (between 1960 and 1974)<ref name="Clarke">{{Cite book |last=Clarke |first=Jeffrey J. |title=United States Army in Vietnam: Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965–1973 |publisher=Center of Military History, United States Army |year=1988 |quote=The Army of the Republic of Vietnam suffered 254,256 recorded combat deaths between 1960 and 1974, with the highest number of recorded deaths being in 1972, with 39,587 combat deaths}}</ref>{{Rp|275}}}}<br />1,170,000 military wounded<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}}<br />≈ 1,000,000 captured<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Fall of South Vietnam |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2005/R2208.pdf |access-date=11 April 2021 |website=Rand.org|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129192039/https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2005/R2208.pdf|archive-date=January 29, 2023}}</ref> * '''{{Flagu|United States|1960}}:'''<br />58,281 dead<ref name="2new">{{Cite press release |title=2021 NAME ADDITIONS AND STATUS CHANGES ON THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL |date=4 May 2021 |url=https://www.vvmf.org/News/2021-Name-Additions-and-Status-Changes-on-the-Vietnam-Veterans-Memorial/ |author=Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429132111/https://www.vvmf.org/News/2021-Name-Additions-and-Status-Changes-on-the-Vietnam-Veterans-Memorial/|archive-date=April 29, 2023}}</ref> (47,434 from combat)<ref>{{Citation |title=National Archives–Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualties |date=15 August 2016 |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#hostile |access-date=29 July 2020}}</ref><ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#hostile "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics: HOSTILE OR NON-HOSTILE DEATH INDICATOR."] U.S. National Archives. 29 April 2008. Accessed 13 July 2019.</ref><br />303,644 wounded (including 150,341 not requiring hospital care){{Refn|The figures of 58,220 and 303,644 for U.S. deaths and wounded come from the Department of Defense Statistical Information Analysis Division (SIAD), Defense Manpower Data Center, as well as from a Department of Veterans fact sheet dated May 2010; the total is 153,303 WIA excluding 150,341 persons not requiring hospital care<ref>{{Cite report |url=http://www1.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf |title=America's Wars |date=May 2010 |publisher=Department of Veterans Affairs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140124020810/http://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf |archive-date=24 January 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> the CRS ([[Congressional Research Service]]) Report for Congress, American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, dated 26 February 2010,<ref>{{Cite report |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf |title=American War and Military Operations: Casualties: Lists and Statistics |last1=Anne Leland |last2=Mari–Jana "M-J" Oboroceanu |date=26 February 2010 |publisher=Congressional Research Service|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514171012/https://sgp.fas.org/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf|archive-date=May 14, 2023}}</ref> and the book Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant.<ref name=Lawrence/>{{Rp|65,107,154,217}} Some other sources give different figures (e.g. the 2005/2006 documentary ''Heart of Darkness: The Vietnam War Chronicles 1945–1975'' cited elsewhere in this article gives a figure of 58,159 U.S. deaths,<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Darkness-Vietnam-Chronicles-1945-1975/dp/B000GDIBT8 |title=Heart of Darkness: The Vietnam War Chronicles 1945–1975 |type=Documentary |publisher=Koch Vision |time=321 minutes |format=Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Dolby, Vision Software |isbn=1-4172-2920-9 |people=Aaron Ulrich (editor); Edward FeuerHerd (producer and director) (2005, 2006)}}</ref> and the 2007 book ''Vietnam Sons'' gives a figure of 58,226)<ref name="Kueter">{{Cite book |last=Kueter |first=Dale |title=Vietnam Sons: For Some, the War Never Ended |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4259-6931-8}}</ref>|name=USd&w|group=A}} * '''{{Flagu|Laos|1952}}:''' 15,000 army dead<ref>T. Lomperis, From People's War to People's Rule (1996)</ref> * '''{{Flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}}''' '''Khmer Republic:''' Unknown * '''{{Flagdeco|Third Republic of Korea}}''' '''South Korea''': 5,099 dead; 10,962 wounded; 4 missing * '''{{Flagu|Australia}}:''' 521 dead; 3,129 wounded<ref>{{Cite web |title=Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962–72 |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/vietnam/statistics |access-date=29 June 2013 |publisher=Australian War Memorial|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214111653/https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/vietnam/statistics|archive-date=February 14, 2023}}</ref> * '''{{Flagu|Thailand|1939}}:''' 351 dead<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}} * '''{{Flagu|New Zealand}}:''' 37 dead<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 July 1965 |title=Overview of the war in Vietnam |url=http://vietnamwar.govt.nz/resources |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726010609/http://vietnamwar.govt.nz/resources |archive-date=26 July 2013 |access-date=29 June 2013 |publisher=New Zealand and the Vietnam War}}</ref> * '''{{Flagu|Republic of China}}:''' 25 dead<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 October 2013 |title=America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War |url=http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/10/02/the-international-vietnam-war-the-other-world-powers-that-fought-in-south-east-asia/ |access-date=10 June 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418045659/http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/10/02/the-international-vietnam-war-the-other-world-powers-that-fought-in-south-east-asia/|archive-date=April 18, 2023}}</ref><br />17 captured<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964 |title=Vietnam Reds Said to Hold 17 From Taiwan as Spies |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/13/archives/vietnam-reds-said-to-hold-17-from-taiwan-as-spies.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307170856/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/13/archives/vietnam-reds-said-to-hold-17-from-taiwan-as-spies.html|archive-date=March 7, 2023}}</ref> * '''{{Flagdeco|Fourth Philippine Republic}}''' '''Philippines:''' 9 dead;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Larsen |first=Stanley |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-5-1/CMH_Pub_90-5-1.pdf |title=Vietnam Studies Allied Participation in Vietnam |publisher=Department of the Army |year=1975 |isbn=978-1-5176-2724-9|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606061125/https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-5-1/CMH_Pub_90-5-1.pdf|archive-date=June 6, 2023}}</ref> 64 wounded<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 1970 |title=Asian Allies in Vietnam |url=http://175thengineers.homestead.com/Philcav.pdf |access-date=18 October 2015 |publisher=Embassy of South Vietnam|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521032045/http://175thengineers.homestead.com/Philcav.pdf|archive-date=May 21, 2023}}</ref> {{Endplainlist}} '''Total military dead:<br />333,620 (1960–1974) – 392,364 (total)'''<br />'''Total military wounded:<br />≈1,340,000+'''<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}}<br />(excluding [[Royal Cambodian Armed Forces|FARK and FANK]])<br />'''Total military captured:<br />≈1,000,000+''' | casualties3 = {{Plainlist}} * '''Vietnamese civilian dead''': 405,000–2,000,000<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–453}}<ref name="Shenon">{{Cite news |last=Shenon |first=Philip |date=23 April 1995 |title=20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/world/20-years-after-victory-vietnamese-communists-ponder-how-to-celebrate.html |access-date=24 February 2011 |quote=The Vietnamese government officially claimed a rough estimate of 2 million civilian deaths, but it did not divide these deaths between those of North and South Vietnam.|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527230912/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/world/20-years-after-victory-vietnamese-communists-ponder-how-to-celebrate.html|archive-date=May 27, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Obermeyer">{{Cite journal |last1=Obermeyer |first1=Ziad |last2=Murray |first2=Christopher J L |last3=Gakidou |first3=Emmanuela |date=23 April 2008 |title=Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |volume=336 |issue=7659 |pages=1482–1486 |doi=10.1136/bmj.a137 |pmc=2440905 |pmid=18566045 |quote=From 1955 to 2002, data from the surveys indicated an estimated 5.4 million violent war deaths{{Nbsp}}... 3.8 million in Vietnam}}</ref> * '''Vietnamese total dead''': 966,000<ref name=Hirschman/>–3,010,000<ref name=Obermeyer/> * '''Cambodian Civil War dead''': 275,000–310,000<ref name="Heuveline">{{Cite book |last=Heuveline |first=Patrick |title=Forced Migration and Mortality |publisher=[[National Academies Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-309-07334-9 |pages=102–104, 120, 124 |chapter=The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970–1979 |quote=As best as can now be estimated, over two million Cambodians died during the 1970s because of the political events of the decade, the vast majority of them during the mere four years of the 'Khmer Rouge' regime.{{Nbsp}}... Subsequent reevaluations of the demographic data situated the death toll for the [civil war] in the order of 300,000 or less.}}</ref><ref name="Banister">{{Cite book |last1=Banister |first1=Judith |url=https://archive.org/details/genocidedemocrac00kier |title=Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community |last2=Johnson |first2=E. Paige |publisher=Yale University Southeast Asia Studies |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-938692-49-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/genocidedemocrac00kier/page/97 97] |quote=An estimated 275,000 excess deaths. We have modeled the highest mortality that we can justify for the early 1970s. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Sliwinski">{{Cite book |last=Sliwinski |first=Marek |title=Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique |publisher=[[L'Harmattan]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-2-7384-3525-5 |pages=42–43, 48 |trans-title=The Khmer Rouge genocide: A demographic analysis}}</ref> * '''Laotian Civil War dead''': 20,000–62,000<ref name=Obermeyer/> * '''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]] {{Endplainlist}} | notes = {{flagicon image|Flag of FULRO.svg}} [[FULRO]] fought an [[FULRO insurgency|insurgency]] against both [[South Vietnam]] and [[North Vietnam]] with the [[Viet Cong]] and was supported by [[Cambodia]] for much of the war. | campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Indochina Wars}} {{Campaignbox Vietnam War}} {{Campaignbox Vietnam War massacres}} }} The '''Vietnam War''' (also known by [[#Names|other names]]) was a conflict in [[Vietnam]], [[Laos]], and [[Cambodia]] from 1 November 1955<ref group=A name="start date" /> to the [[fall of Saigon]] on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the [[Indochina Wars]] and was a major conflict of the Cold War. While the war was officially fought between [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]], the north was supported by the [[Soviet Union]], [[China]], and other [[communist]] states, while the south was [[United States in the Vietnam War|supported by the United States]] and other [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[Free World Military Forces|allies]], making the war a [[proxy war]] between the United States and the Soviet Union. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. military 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 officially becoming communist states by 1976. After the fall of [[French Indochina]] with the [[1954 Geneva Conference]] on 21 July, the country gained independence from France but was divided into two parts: the [[Viet Minh]] took control of North Vietnam, while the U.S. assumed financial and military support for South Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eckhardt |first=George |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Comm-Control/index.htm |title=Vietnam Studies Command and Control 1950–1969 |publisher=Department of the Army |year=1991 |page=6 |access-date=31 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019184830/https://history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Comm-Control/index.htm |archive-date=19 October 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="advisors" group="A">Prior to this, the [[Military Assistance Advisory Group|Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indochina]] (with an authorized strength of 128 men) was set up in September 1950 with a mission to oversee the use and distribution of U.S. military equipment by the French and their allies.</ref> The [[Viet Cong]] (VC), a South Vietnamese [[common front]] under the direction of the north, initiated a [[guerrilla warfare|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 [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] (ARVN) forces. North Vietnam [[North Vietnamese invasion of Laos|invaded Laos]] in 1958, establishing the [[Ho Chi Minh Trail]] to supply and reinforce the VC.<ref name="Ang">{{Cite book |last=Ang |first=Cheng Guan |title=The Vietnam War from the Other Side |publisher=RoutledgeCurzon |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7007-1615-9}}</ref>{{Rp|16}} By 1963, the north had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in the south.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|16}} U.S. involvement increased under President [[John F. Kennedy]], from just under a thousand [[Military Assistance Advisory Group|military advisors]] in 1959 to 23,000 by 1964.<ref name="AWL">{{Cite web |title=Vietnam War Allied Troop Levels 1960–73 |url=http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802134052/http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |archive-date=2 August 2016 |access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref><ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|131}} Following the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]] in August 1964, the U.S. Congress passed a [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution|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.<ref name=AWL/> U.S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on [[air supremacy|air superiority]] and overwhelming firepower to conduct [[search and destroy]] operations, involving ground forces, [[artillery]], and [[airstrike]]s. The U.S. also conducted a large-scale [[strategic bombing]] campaign against North Vietnam<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|371–374}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Li |first=Xiaobing |title=Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8131-7386-3 |page=85}}</ref> 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 tactical defeat for them, it was a strategic victory, as it caused U.S. domestic support for the war to fade.<ref name="Hastings" />{{Rp|481}} By the end of the year, the VC held little territory and were sidelined by the PAVN.{{Sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|pp=247–249}} 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 Cambodian coup d'état|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 [[Cambodian campaign|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 and artillery support, advisors, and [[materiel]] shipments. The [[Paris Peace Accords]] of January 1973 saw all U.S. forces withdrawn <ref name="Kolko">{{Cite book |last=Kolko |first=Gabriel |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofwarviet00kolk |title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-394-74761-3 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{Rp|457}} The accords were broken almost immediately, and fighting continued for two more years. [[Fall of Phnom Penh|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 on 2 July the following year. The war exacted an [[Vietnam War casualties|enormous human cost]]: estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 966,000 to 3 million. Some 275,000–310,000 [[Khmer people|Cambodians]], 20,000–62,000 [[Lao people|Laotians]], and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict.<ref name="USd&w" group="A" /> 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 and ended the genocide. In response, China [[Sino-Vietnamese War|invaded Vietnam]], with subsequent [[Sino-Vietnamese conflicts, 1979–1991|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 involvement,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kalb |first=Marvin |date=22 January 2013 |title=It's Called the Vietnam Syndrome, and It's Back |url=http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/01/22-obama-foreign-policy-kalb |access-date=12 June 2015 |publisher=Brookings Institution|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221224132036/https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2013/01/22/its-called-the-vietnam-syndrome-and-its-back/|archive-date=December 24, 2022}}</ref> which, together with the [[Watergate scandal]], contributed to the crisis of confidence that affected America throughout the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horne |first=Alistair |title=Kissinger's Year: 1973 |publisher=Phoenix Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7538-2700-0 |pages=370–371}}</ref> The U.S. Air Force destroyed more than 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam and 20–50% of the [[mangrove]] forests, by spraying over {{convert|20|e6USgal|e6L|round=5|abbr=off|sp=us}} of toxic herbicides ([[defoliant]]s), including [[Agent Orange]].<ref name=":02" />{{sfn|Kolko|1994|pp=144–145}}<ref name=":0" /> The war is one of the most commonly used examples of [[ecocide]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":6" /> ==Names== Various names have been applied to the War. These have shifted over time, although ''Vietnam War'' is the most commonly used title in [[English language|English]]. It has been variously called the ''Second Indochina War'' since the war spread to both [[Laos]] and [[Cambodia]],<ref name="Factasy">{{Cite web |last=Factasy |title=The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War |url=http://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html |access-date=29 June 2013 |publisher=PRLog|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425152621/https://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html|archive-date=April 25, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Factasy2">{{cite web |author=Factasy |title=The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War |url=http://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html |accessdate=29 June 2013 |publisher=PRLog}}</ref> the ''Vietnam Conflict'',<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 August 2016 |title=The National Archives – Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics |access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marlatt |first=Greta E. |title=Research Guides: Vietnam Conflict: Maps |url=https://libguides.nps.edu/vietnamwar/maps |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405200653/https://libguides.nps.edu/vietnamwar/maps |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |access-date=11 April 2021 |website=Libguides.nps.edu}}</ref> and ''Nam'' (colloquially '''Nam''). In [[Vietnam]] it is commonly known as ''Kháng chiến chống Mỹ'' ({{Literally|Resistance War against America}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meaker |first=Scott S.F. |title=Unforgettable Vietnam War: The American War in Vietnam – War in the Jungle |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-312-93158-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=Robert |date=January 27, 2018 |title=Grim reminders of a war in Vietnam, a generation later |url=https://www.concordmonitor.com/Grim-reminders-of-a-war-in-Vietnam-a-generation-later-15159686 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128005729/https://www.concordmonitor.com/Grim-reminders-of-a-war-in-Vietnam-a-generation-later-15159686 |archive-date=2018-01-28 |access-date=2019-02-28 |website=Concord Monitor |quote=It’s been more than for 40-plus years, the war that Americans simply call Vietnam but the Vietnamese refer to as their Resistance War Against America.}}</ref> The Vietnamese Government officially refers to it as the ''Resistance War against America to Save the Nation.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Edward |title=Vietnam War perspective: the unreconciled conflict |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/18/vietnam-war-perspective-unreconciled-conflict/962358001/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref> It is also sometimes called the ''American War''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues:: The American / Viet Nam War |url=http://www.asian-nation.org/vietnam-war.shtml |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527183201/https://www.asian-nation.org/vietnam-war.shtml |archive-date=May 27, 2023 |access-date=18 August 2008 |quote=The Viet Nam War is also called 'The American War' by the Vietnamese}}</ref> == Background == {{Main|French conquest of Vietnam|French Indochina}} Vietnam had been under French control as a part of [[French Indochina]] since the mid-19th century. Under French rule, Vietnamese nationalism was heavily suppressed, and as a result Vietnamese revolutionary groups often conducted their activities abroad, namely in France and China. One such nationalist, [[Nguyen Sinh Cung]], established the [[Indochinese Communist Party]] in 1930, a [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist–Leninist]] political organization which operated primarily in [[Hong Kong]] and the [[Soviet Union]]. The party aimed to overthrow French rule and establish an independent communist state in Vietnam.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Umair Mirza |url=http://archive.org/details/thevietnamwarthedefinitiveillustratedhistory_202002 |title=The Vietnam War The Definitive Illustrated History |date=2017-04-01}}</ref> === Japanese occupation of Indochina === {{Main|Japanese occupation of French Indochina|French Indochina in World War II|1940–1946 in French Indochina}} In September 1940, the [[Japanese Empire]] [[Japanese invasion of French Indochina|invaded]] French Indochina, following France's [[Battle of France|capitulation]] to [[Nazi Germany]] two months prior. French influence was suppressed by the Japanese, and in 1941 Cung, now known as [[Ho Chi Minh]], returned to Vietnam to establish the [[Viet Minh]], an anti-Japanese resistance movement that advocated for Vietnamese independence.<ref name=":3" /> Throughout the war, the Viet Minh received aid from the [[Allied Powers (World War II)|Allied Powers]], namely the United States, Soviet Union, and [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]. Beginning in 1944, the U.S. [[Office of Strategic Services]] (O.S.S.) began to provide the Viet Minh with weapons, ammunition, and training to fight the occupying Japanese and [[Vichy France|Vichy French]] forces.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-15 |title=The OSS in Vietnam, 1945: A War of Missed Opportunities by Dixee Bartholomew-Feis |url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/oss-vietnam-1945-dixee-bartholomew-feis |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] was an ardent supporter of Vietnamese resistance, and proposed that Vietnam's independence be granted following the end of the war.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hess |first=Gary R. |date=1972 |title=Franklin Roosevelt and Indochina |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1890195 |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=353–368 |doi=10.2307/1890195 |jstor=1890195 |issn=0021-8723}}</ref> Following Japan's [[Surrender of Japan|surrender]] on August 15, 1945, the Viet Minh launched a [[August Revolution|revolution]] in Indochina, overthrowing the Japanese-backed [[Empire of Vietnam]] and seizing weapons from the surrendering Japanese forces. On September 2, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the [[Declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam]], declaring Vietnam an independent nation.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part I.djvu/30 - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part_I.djvu/30 |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=en.wikisource.org |language=en}}</ref> However, on September 23, French forces overthrew the DRV and reinstated French rule in Vietnam.<ref name=":5" /> American support for the Viet Minh promptly ended, and O.S.S. forces left Vietnam as the French sought to reassert their control of the country. === First Indochina War === [[File:Bao Dai and Ho Chi Minh.jpg|thumb|[[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]]{{Main|First Indochina War|War in Vietnam (1945–1946)}} Tensions between the Viet Minh and French authorities had erupted into full-scale war by 1946, a conflict which soon became entwined into the larger [[Cold War]]. On March 12, 1947, U.S. president [[Harry S. Truman]] announced the [[Truman Doctrine]], an [[Anti-communism|anticommunist]] foreign policy which pledged U.S. support to nations resisting "attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Administration |first=United States National Archives and Records |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqDA6OGvhmUC&pg=PA194 |title=Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives |date=2006-07-04 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-530959-1 |language=en}}</ref> In January 1950, the [[communist state]]s of [[China]] and the Soviet Union recognized the Viet Minh's [[North Vietnam|Democratic Republic of Vietnam]], based in Hanoi, as the legitimate government of Vietnam. The following month, the [[capitalist state|capitalist countrie]]s of the United States and United Kingdom recognized the French-backed [[State of Vietnam]] in [[Saigon]], led by former Emperor Bảo Đại, as the legitimate Vietnamese government.<ref name="McNamara">{{Cite book |last1=McNamara |first1=Robert S. |url=https://archive.org/details/argumentwithoute00mcna |title=Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy |last2=Blight |first2=James G. |last3=Brigham |first3=Robert K. |last4=Biersteker |first4=Thomas J. |last5=Schandler |first5=Herbert |date=1999 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=978-1-891620-87-4 |location=New York |author-link=Robert McNamara |author-link4=Thomas J. Biersteker |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{Rp|377–379}}<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|88}} The outbreak of the [[Korean War]] in June 1950 convinced many [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] policymakers that the war in Indochina was another example of communist expansionism directed by the Soviet Union.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|33–35}} Military advisors from China began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|14}} Chinese weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla force into a regular army.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|26}}<ref name="HistoryPlace">{{Cite web |title=The History Place – Vietnam War 1945–1960 |url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html |access-date=11 June 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312070611/http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html|archive-date=March 12, 2023}}</ref> In September 1950, the United States enforced the Truman Doctrine by creating a [[Military Assistance Advisory Group|Military Assistance and Advisory Group]] (MAAG) to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.<ref name="Herring">{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George C. |title=America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 (4th ed.) |date=2001 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-253618-8}}</ref>{{Rp|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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|35}} ==== Battle of Dien Bien Phu ==== {{Main|Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Operation Vulture}} During the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] in 1954, U.S. [[Aircraft carrier|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 weapon]]s, although reports of how seriously this was considered and by whom are vague and contradictory.<ref name="Maclear">{{Cite book |last=Maclear |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/tenthousanddaywa00mich/page/57 |title=The Ten Thousand Day War: Vietnam 1945–1975 |date=1981 |publisher=Thames |isbn=978-0-312-79094-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tenthousanddaywa00mich/page/57 57]}}</ref><ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|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.<ref name=Maclear/> Nixon, a so-called "[[War Hawk|hawk]]" on Vietnam, suggested that the United States might have to "put American boys in".<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|76}} President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] made American participation contingent on British support, but the British were opposed.<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|76}} Eisenhower, wary of involving the United States in a land war in Asia, decided against military intervention.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|75–76}} Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained skeptical of France's chance of success.<ref name="Gravel">{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 1 |pages=391–404}}</ref> 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 (1954)|Geneva Conference]], the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview/doc2.html|title=The Final Declarations of the Geneva Conference July 21, 1954|work=The Wars for Viet Nam|publisher=[[Vassar College]]|access-date=20 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807062726/http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview/doc2.html|archive-date=7 August 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Geneva Accords {{!}} history of Indochina {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Geneva-Accords |access-date=28 October 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> ==Transition period== {{Main|Geneva Conference (1954)|Operation Passage to Freedom|Battle of Saigon (1955)||State of Vietnam referendum, 1955|Land reform in Vietnam|Land reform in North Vietnam|1954 in Vietnam}} [[File:Gen-commons.jpg|thumb|The [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]], 1954|left]] At the [[1954 Geneva Conference]], Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the [[17th parallel north|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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 January 2001 |title=China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar |access-date=20 May 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502013703/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar|archive-date=May 2, 2023}}</ref><ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|88–90}} However, the United States, represented at the conference by Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]], objected to the resolution; Dulles' objection was supported only by the representative of Bảo Đại.<ref name=":7" /> Roughly one million northerners, mainly minority Catholics, fled south, fearing persecution by the Communists.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|96}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Prados |first=John |date=January–February 2005 |title=The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954? |url=http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527190340/http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-date=27 May 2006 |access-date=11 May 2017 |publisher=The VVA Veteran}}</ref> This followed an American [[psychological warfare]] campaign, headed by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) under the command of CIA director [[Allen Dulles]], which exaggerated anti-Catholic sentiment among the Viet Minh and distributed propaganda material attributed to Viet Minh threatening an American attack on Hanoi with atomic bombs.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |title=The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War |date=2013 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-5352-8 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=LVb4-1l1gF4C|q=lansdale.+attache|p=194}} 195–196]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Patrick |first=Johnson, David |title=Selling "Operation Passage to Freedom": Dr. Thomas Dooley and the Religious Overtones of Early American Involvement in Vietnam |date=2009 |publisher=University of New Orleans |url=https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/950/ |language=en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174806/https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1931&context=td|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref><ref name =Hastings/>{{Rp|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murti |first=B.S.N. |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamdivided0000unse |title=Vietnam Divided |date=1964 |publisher=Asian Publishing House |url-access=registration}}</ref> The northern, mainly Catholic refugees gave the later [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] regime a strong anti-communist constituency.<ref name="Karnow">{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997}}</ref>{{Rp|238}} Diệm staffed his government's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics.{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} 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.<ref name=Kolko/>{{Rp|98}} The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 [[Cadre (politics)|cadres]] in the south as a base for future insurgency.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|104}} The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in April 1956.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|116}} The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|14}} [[File:903aafd6079a3ed1 landing.jpg|thumb|upright|Anti-Bảo Đại, pro-French representatives of the State of Vietnam national assembly, Saigon, 1955]] 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 when extrapolated results in an initial estimate 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.<ref name="Turner">{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |date=1975 |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3}}</ref>{{Rp|143}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gittinger |first=J. Price |date=1959 |title=Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam |journal=Far Eastern Survey |volume=28 |issue=8 |pages=113–126 |doi=10.2307/3024603 |jstor=3024603}}</ref><ref name="Courtois">{{Cite book |last1=Courtois |first1=Stephane |title=The Black Book of Communism |title-link=The Black Book of Communism |last2=Werth |first2=Nicolas |last3=Panne |first3=Jean-Louis |last4=Paczkowski |first4=Andrzej |last5=Bartosek |first5=Karel |last6=Margolin |first6=Jean-Louis |date=1997 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-07608-2 |display-authors=1}}</ref>{{Rp|569}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dommen |first=Arthur J. |title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans |date=2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-33854-9 |page=340}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vu |first=Tuong |date=25 May 2007 |title=Newly released documents on the land reform |url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420044800/http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html |archive-date=20 April 2011 |access-date=15 July 2016 |website=Vietnam Studies Group |quote=There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954–1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954–1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953–1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (7–9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however).}}<br />cf. {{Cite journal |last=Szalontai |first=Balazs |date=November 2005 |title=Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=395–426 |doi=10.1080/14682740500284630 |s2cid=153956945}}<br />cf. {{Cite book |last=Vu |first=Tuong |title=Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-139-48901-0 |page=103 |quote=Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China.{{Nbsp}}... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign{{Nbsp}}... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.}}</ref> In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|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]],<ref name="PP">{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 3 |date=1971 |publisher=Beacon Press}}</ref>{{Rp|134}} who proposed that Vietnam eventually be united by elections under the supervision of "local commissions".<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|119}} The United States countered with what became known as the "American Plan", with the support of South Vietnam and the United Kingdom.<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|140}} It provided for unification elections under the supervision of the United Nations, but was rejected by the Soviet delegation.<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|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".<ref name=PP/>{{Rp|570–571}} U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote in 1954: {{Blockquote|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.{{Sfn|Eisenhower|1963|p=[https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise/page/372 372]}}}} According to the ''Pentagon Papers'', which commented on Eisenhower's observation, Diệm would have been a more popular candidate than Bảo Đại against Hồ, stating that "It is almost certain that by 1956 the proportion which might have voted for Ho - in a free election against Diem - would have been much smaller than eighty percent."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-5.pdf |title=Evolution of the War. Origins of the Insurgency |page=6 |date=January 15, 1969|website=National Archives |access-date=October 8, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Woodruff|2005|p=6}} states: "The elections were not held. South Vietnam, which had not signed the Geneva Accords, did not believe the Communists in North Vietnam would allow a fair election. In January 1957, the International Control Commission (ICC), comprising observers from India, Poland, and Canada, agreed with this perception, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. With the French gone, a return to the traditional power struggle between north and south had begun again."</ref> [[File:Ba Cut Trial.jpg|thumb|[[Ba Cut]], commander of the [[Hòa Hảo]] religious movement, in Can Tho Military Court 1956]] 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 of Saigon (1955)|battle]] in Saigon. As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm increasingly sought to blame the communists.<ref name=Tucker/> In a [[1955 State of Vietnam referendum|referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam]] on 23 October 1955, Diệm [[electoral fraud|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.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|224}} Three days later, he declared South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with himself as president.<ref name=Hastings/> Likewise, Ho Chi Minh and other communist officials always won at least 99% of the vote in North Vietnamese "elections".<ref name=Turner/>{{Rp|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 [[Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower|Eisenhower administration]].<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|19}} [[John F. Kennedy]], then a [[United States Senate|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."<ref>{{Cite web |title=America's Stakes in Vietnam Speech to the American Friends of Vietnam, June 1956 |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626125802/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx |archive-date=26 June 2012 |access-date=26 June 2012 |publisher=JFK Library}}</ref> ==Diệm era, 1954–1963== {{Main|Ngô Đình Diệm|War in Vietnam (1954–1959)}} ===Rule=== [[File:Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington - ARC 542189.jpg|thumb|U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] and Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] greet President [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] of [[South Vietnam]] in Washington, 8 May 1957]] A devout [[Roman Catholic]], Diệm was fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and socially conservative. Historian Luu Doan Huynh notes that "Diệm represented narrow and extremist nationalism coupled with autocracy and [[nepotism]]."<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|200–201}} Most Vietnamese people were [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], and they were alarmed by Diệm's actions, like his dedication of the country to the [[Virgin Mary]]. Beginning in the summer of 1955, Diệm launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected 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.<ref name="WarBegan" /> The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 individuals were imprisoned and 2,148 were killed in the process.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |date=1975 |publisher=[[Hoover Institution]] Publications |isbn=978-0817964313 |pages=174–178}}</ref> According to [[Gabriel Kolko]], 40,000 [[political prisoner]]s had been jailed by the end of 1958.<ref name=Kolko/>{{Rp|89}} In October 1956, Diệm launched a [[Land reform in South Vietnam|land reform program]] limiting the size of rice farms per owner. More than 1.8m acres of farm land became available for purchase by landless people. By 1960, the land reform process had stalled because many of Diem's biggest supporters were large land owners.<ref name="Collision">{{Cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/collisionofcultu00doyl |title=The Vietnam Experience, a Collision of Cultures |last2=Weiss |first2=Stephen |date=1984 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=978-0939526123 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{Rp|14–16}} In May 1957, Diệm undertook a [[Ngô Đình Diệm presidential visit to the United States|ten-day state visit to the United States]]. President Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Diệm's honor in New York City. Although Diệm was publicly praised, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles privately conceded that Diệm had to be backed because they could find no better alternative.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|230}} ===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".<ref name="McNamera35">{{Cite book |last1=McNamera |first1=Robert S. |title=Argument Without End |last2=Blight |first2=James G. |last3=Brigham |first3=Robert K. |date=1999 |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=1-891620-22-3 |pages=35}}</ref> 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.<ref name="WarBegan" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Excerpts from Law 10/59, 6 May 1959 |url=http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc6.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723163835/http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc6.html |archive-date=23 July 2008}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|106}}<ref name="WarBegan" /> Violence between the insurgents and government forces increased drastically from 180 clashes in January 1960 to 545 clashes in September.<ref name="cmh">{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Francis John |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]] |year=1989 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=4 |id=CMH Pub 90-23 |access-date=14 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212151656/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm |archive-date=12 February 2014 |url-status=dead |orig-year=1973}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|106–107}} In December 1960, North Vietnam formally created the [[Viet Cong]] with the intent of uniting all anti-GVN insurgents, including non-communists. It was formed in [[Memot District|Memot, Cambodia]], and directed through COSVN.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|55–58}} According to the ''Pentagon Papers'', the Viet Cong "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." The identities of the leaders of the organization often were kept secret.<ref name="WarBegan" /> Support for the VC was driven by resentment of Diem's reversal of Viet Minh land reforms in the countryside. The Viet Minh had confiscated large private landholdings, reduced rents and debts, and leased communal lands, mostly to poorer peasants. Diem brought the landlords back to the villages. People who had been farming land for years had to return it to landlords and pay years of back rent. [[Marilyn B. Young]] wrote that "The divisions within villages reproduced those that had existed against the French: 75 percent support for the NLF, 20 percent trying to remain neutral and 5 percent firmly pro-government".<ref name="Young">{{Cite book |last=Young |first=Marilyn |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamwars194510000youn |title=The Vietnam Wars: 1945–1990 |date=1991 |publisher=Harper Perennial |isbn=978-0-06-092107-1 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{Rp|73}} ====North Vietnamese involvement==== {{See also|North Vietnamese invasion of Laos|Ho Chi Minh trail}} In March 1956, southern communist leader [[Lê Duẩn]] presented a plan to revive the insurgency entitled "The Road to the South" to the other members of the Politburo in Hanoi; however, as both China and the Soviets opposed confrontation at this time, Lê Duẩn's plan was rejected.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|58}} Despite this, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956.{{Sfn|Olson|Roberts |2008|p=67}} This decision was made at the 11th Plenary Session of the Lao Dong Central Committee. Communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958.{{Sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=68}} In May 1958, North Vietnamese forces seized the transportation hub at [[Tchepone]] in Southern Laos near the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam.<ref name="Prados-1999">{{Cite book |last=Prados |first=John |title=The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War |date=1999 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9780471254652}}</ref>{{RP|24}} The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959,<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|119–120}} and, in May, [[Group 559]] was established to maintain and upgrade the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]], at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos. On 28 July, North Vietnamese and [[Pathet Lao]] forces invaded Laos, fighting the Royal Lao Army all along the border. Group 559 was headquartered in Na Kai, [[Houaphan]] province in northeast Laos close to the border.<ref name="Morrocco-1985">{{Cite book |last=Morrocco |first=John |title=Rain of Fire: Air War, 1969–1973 |date=1985 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=9780939526147 |series=Volume 14 of Vietnam Experience}}</ref>{{RP|26}} About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation.{{Sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=xi}} The first arms delivery via the trail was completed in August 1959.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prados |first=John |title=Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land |date=2006 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-84603-020-8 |editor-last=Wiest |editor-first=Andrew |location=Oxford |pages=74–95 |chapter=The Road South: The Ho Chi Minh Trail |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/rollingthunderin00wies}}</ref> In April 1960, North Vietnam imposed universal military conscription for adult males. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963.<ref name=Ang/>{{Rp|76}} ==Kennedy's escalation, 1961–1963== {{Main|War in Vietnam (1959–1963)|Strategic Hamlet Program}} {{See also|Phạm Ngọc Thảo}} [[File:The President's News Conference, 23 March 1961.jpg|thumb|President Kennedy's news conference of 23 March 1961]] In the [[1960 U.S. presidential election]], Senator John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Although Eisenhower warned Kennedy about Laos and Vietnam, Europe and Latin America "loomed larger than Asia on his sights."<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|264}} In April 1961, Kennedy approved the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], which ended in failure. In June 1961, he bitterly disagreed with Soviet premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] when they [[Vienna summit|met in Vienna]] to discuss key U.S.–Soviet issues. Only 16 months later, the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] (16–28 October 1962) played out on television worldwide. It was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale [[nuclear war]], and the U.S. raised the readiness level of [[Strategic Air Command]] (SAC) forces to [[DEFCON]] 2. The Kennedy administration remained essentially committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. In 1961, the U.S. had 50,000 troops based in South Korea, and Kennedy faced four crisis situations: the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion that he had approved on 4 April,<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 May 2015 |title=It's Time to Stop Saying that JFK Inherited the Bay of Pigs Operation from Ike |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188 |publisher=History News Network|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207045947/https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188|archive-date=February 7, 2023}}</ref> settlement negotiations between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement in May ("Kennedy sidestepped Laos, whose rugged terrain was no battleground for American soldiers."),<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|265}} the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] in August, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. Kennedy believed that yet another failure to gain control and stop communist expansion would irreparably damage U.S. credibility. He was determined to "draw a line in the sand" and prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. He told James Reston of ''[[The New York Times]]'' immediately after his Vienna summit meeting with Khrushchev, "Now we have a problem making our power credible and Vietnam looks like the place."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040205004638/http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/goldzwig.htm The case of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam Presidential Studies Quarterly].</ref><ref>Mann, Robert. ''A Grand Delusion'', Basic Books, 2002.</ref> Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed that Diệm and his forces had to ultimately defeat the guerrillas on their own. He was against the deployment of American combat troops and observed that "to introduce U.S. forces in large numbers there today, while it might have an initially favorable military impact, would almost certainly lead to adverse political and, in the long run, adverse military consequences."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vietnam Task Force |url=http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-4.pdf |title=Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force |date=1969 |publisher=[[Office of the Secretary of Defense]] |location=Washington, DC |pages=1–2 |chapter=IV. B. Evolution of the War 4. Phased Withdrawal of U.S. Forces in Vietnam, 1962–64 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504231323/http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-4.pdf |archive-date=4 May 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The quality of the South Vietnamese military, however, remained poor. Poor leadership, corruption, and political promotions all played a part in weakening the ARVN. The frequency of guerrilla attacks rose as the insurgency gathered steam. While Hanoi's support for the Viet Cong played a role, South Vietnamese governmental incompetence was at the core of the crisis.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|369}} One major issue Kennedy raised was whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the United States. Although Kennedy stressed long-range missile parity with the Soviets, he was also interested in using [[special forces]] for [[counterinsurgency]] warfare in [[Third World]] countries threatened by communist insurgencies. Although they were originally intended for use behind front lines after a conventional Soviet invasion of Europe, Kennedy believed that the guerrilla tactics employed by special forces, such as the [[Special Forces (United States Army)|Green Berets]] would be effective in a "brush fire" war in Vietnam. [[File:President meets with Secretary of Defense. President Kennedy, Secretary McNamara. White House, Cabinet Room - NARA - 194244.jpg|thumb|President [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] meeting with Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara|McNamara]], circa 19 June 1962]] Kennedy advisors [[Maxwell D. Taylor|Maxwell Taylor]] and [[Walt Rostow]] [[Taylor-Rostow Report|recommended]] that U.S. troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stavins |first=Ralph L. |date=22 July 1971 |title=A Special Supplement: Kennedy's Private War |work=The New York Review of Books |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1971/07/22/a-special-supplement-kennedys-private-war/ |access-date=2 December 2017 |issn=0028-7504|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406045200/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1971/07/22/a-special-supplement-kennedys-private-war/|archive-date=April 6, 2023}}</ref> Kennedy rejected the idea but increased military assistance yet again. In April 1962, [[John Kenneth Galbraith]] warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force in the area and bleed as the French did."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Galbraith |first=John Kenneth |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 2 |date=1971 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |pages=669–671 |chapter=Memorandum to President Kennedy from John Kenneth Galbraith on Vietnam, 4 April 1962 |author-link=John Kenneth Galbraith}}</ref> Eisenhower put 900 advisors in Vietnam, and by November 1963, Kennedy had put 16,000 American military personnel in Vietnam.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|131}} The [[Strategic Hamlet Program]] was initiated in late 1961. This joint U.S.–South Vietnamese program attempted to resettle the rural population into fortified villages. It was implemented in early 1962 and involved some forced relocation and segregation of rural South Vietnamese into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from the Viet Cong. It was hoped these new communities would provide security for the peasants and strengthen the tie between them and the central government. However, by November 1963 the program had waned, and it officially ended in 1964.<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|1070}} On 23 July 1962, fourteen nations, including China, South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, and the United States, signed an [[International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos|agreement]] promising to respect the neutrality of Laos. ===Ousting 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.<ref name="Sheehan">{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Neil |title=A Bright Shining Lie – John Paul Vann and the American War in Vietnam |date=1989 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-679-72414-8|url=https://archive.org/details/brightshininglie0000shee_r0g3}}</ref>{{Rp|201–206}} 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{{Nbsp}}..."<ref>Live interview by [[John Bartlow Martin]]. ''Was Kennedy Planning to Pull out of Vietnam?'' New York City. John F. Kennedy Library, 1964, Tape V, Reel 1.</ref> Historian James Gibson summed up the situation: {{Blockquote|Strategic hamlets had failed{{Nbsp}}... 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gibson |first=James |date=1986 |title=The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam |page=[https://archive.org/details/perfectwartechno0000gibs/page/88 88] |publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Press |url=https://archive.org/details/perfectwartechno0000gibs |url-access=registration}}</ref>}} 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. [[File:Arvncapture.jpg|thumb|upright|ARVN forces capture a Viet Cong]] U.S. officials began discussing the possibility of a [[regime change]] during the middle of 1963. The [[United States Department of State]] wanted to encourage a coup, while the Defense Department favored Diệm. Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of Diệm's younger brother Nhu, who controlled the secret police and special forces, and was seen as the man behind the Buddhist repression and more generally the architect of the Ngô family's rule. This proposal was conveyed to the U.S. embassy in Saigon in [[Cable 243]]. The CIA contacted generals planning to remove Diệm and told them that the United States would not oppose such a move nor punish the generals by cutting off aid. President Diệm was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. When Kennedy was informed, Maxwell Taylor remembered that he "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face."<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|326}} Kennedy had not anticipated Diệm's murder. The U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.|Henry Cabot Lodge]], invited the coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. Ambassador Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war".<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|327}} Kennedy wrote Lodge a letter congratulating him for "a fine job".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume IV, Vietnam, August–December 1963 |chapter=304. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam—Washington, November 6, 1963—7:50 p.m. |chapter-url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d304 |via=Office of the Historian|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404230151/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d304|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> Following the coup, chaos ensued. Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased its support for the guerrillas. South Vietnam entered a period of extreme political instability, as one military government toppled another in quick succession. Increasingly, each new regime was viewed by the communists as a puppet of the Americans; whatever the failings of Diệm, his credentials as a nationalist (as Robert McNamara later reflected) had been impeccable.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|328}} U.S. military advisors were embedded at every level of the South Vietnamese armed forces. They were however criticized for ignoring the political nature of the insurgency.{{Sfn|Demma|1989}} The Kennedy administration sought to refocus U.S. efforts on pacification – which in this case was defined as countering the growing threat of insurgency<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 2015 |title=Counterinsurgency in Vietnam: Lessons for Today |url=https://www.afsa.org/counterinsurgency-vietnam-lessons-today |website=The Foreign Service Journal|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114858/https://afsa.org/counterinsurgency-vietnam-lessons-today|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pacification |url=http://www.vietnamgear.com/dictionary/pacification.aspx |website=Vietnam War Dictionary|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405065336/http://www.vietnamgear.com/dictionary.aspx?s=pacification|archive-date=April 5, 2023}}</ref> – and [[Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|"winning over the hearts and minds"]] of the population. The military leadership in Washington, however, was hostile to any role for U.S. advisors other than conventional troop training.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blaufarb |first=Douglas S. |title=The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance, 1950 to the Present |date=1977 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-02-903700-3 |page=119}}</ref> General [[Paul D. Harkins|Paul Harkins]], the [[COMUSMACV|commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam]], confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963.<ref name=Herring/>{{Rp|103}} The CIA was less optimistic, however, warning that "the Viet Cong by and large retain de facto control of much of the countryside and have steadily increased the overall intensity of the effort".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schandler |first=Herbert Y. |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha |title=America in Vietnam: The War That Couldn't Be Won |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-6697-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha/page/36 36] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Paramilitary officers from the CIA's [[Special Activities Division]] trained and led [[Hmong people|Hmong]] tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. The indigenous forces numbered in the tens of thousands and they conducted direct action missions, led by paramilitary officers, against the Communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese supporters.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Southworth |first1=Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/usspecialforcesg0000sout |title=U.S. Special Forces: A Guide to America's Special Operations Units: the World's Most Elite Fighting Force |last2=Tanner |first2=Stephen |date=2002 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81165-4 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The CIA also ran the [[Phoenix Program]] and participated in [[Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group]] (MAC-V SOG), which was originally named the Special Operations Group, but was changed for cover purposes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Warner |first=Roger |title=Shooting at the Moon The story of America's clandestine war in Laos |date=1996 |publisher=Steerforth Press |isbn=978-1-883642-36-5}}</ref> ==Gulf of Tonkin and Johnson's escalation, 1963–1969== {{Main|Joint warfare in South Vietnam, 1963–1969}} {{Further|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 President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] had not been heavily involved with policy toward Vietnam;<ref name="Karnow 1997 336_339">{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|pp=336–339}}. Johnson viewed many members that he inherited from Kennedy's cabinet with distrust because he had never penetrated their circle during Kennedy's presidency; to Johnson's mind, those like [[W. Averell Harriman]] and [[Dean Acheson]] spoke a different language.</ref>{{Refn|group="A"|Shortly after the assassination of Kennedy, when [[McGeorge Bundy]] called Johnson on the phone, Johnson responded: "Goddammit, Bundy. I've told you that when I want you I'll call you."<ref>{{Cite book |last=VanDeMark |first=Brian |title=Into the Quagmire |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |page=13}}</ref>}} however, upon becoming president, Johnson immediately focused on the war. On 24 November 1963, he said, "the battle against communism{{Nbsp}}… must be joined{{Nbsp}}… with strength and determination."<ref>{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|p=339}}. Before a small group, including Henry Cabot Lodge, the new president also said, "We should stop playing cops and robbers [a reference to Diệm's failed leadership] and get back to{{Nbsp}}... winning the war{{Nbsp}}... tell the generals in Saigon that Lyndon Johnson intends to stand by our word{{Nbsp}}... [to] win the contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy."</ref> Johnson knew he had inherited a rapidly deteriorating situation in South Vietnam,<ref name="Karnow 1997 339">{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|p=339}}: "At a place called Hoa Phu, for example, the strategic hamlet built during the previous summer now looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.{{Nbsp}}... Speaking through an interpreter, a local guard explained to me that a handful of Viet Cong agents had entered the hamlet one night and told the peasants to tear it down and return to their native villages. The peasants complied without question."</ref> but he adhered to the widely accepted domino theory argument for defending the South: Should they retreat or appease, either action would imperil other nations beyond the conflict.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Michael |title=The World Transformed – 1945 to the Present |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-937102-0 |location=New York |pages=169–171}}</ref> Findings from RAND's [[Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Project]] bolstered his confidence that an air war would weaken the Viet Cong. Some have argued that the policy of North Vietnam was not to topple other non-communist governments in South East Asia.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|48}} The military revolutionary council, meeting in lieu of a strong South Vietnamese leader, was made up of 12 members. This council was headed by General [[Dương Văn Minh]], whom [[Stanley Karnow]], a journalist on the ground, later recalled as "a model of lethargy".<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|340}} Lodge, frustrated by the end of the year, cabled home about Minh: "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?" Minh's regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General [[Nguyễn Khánh]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|341}} There was also persistent instability in the military, however, as several coups—not all successful—occurred in a short period of time. ===Gulf of Tonkin incident=== {{Main|Gulf of Tonkin incident}} {{Further|Credibility gap}} [[File:Bombing in Vietnam.jpg|thumb|upright|A U.S. [[Douglas B-66 Destroyer|B-66 Destroyer]] and four [[Republic F-105 Thunderchief|F-105 Thunderchiefs]] dropping bombs on [[North Vietnam]] during [[Operation Rolling Thunder]]]] 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.<ref name=Kolko/>{{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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|218–219}} Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kutler |first=Stanley I. |title=Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War |date=1996 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |isbn=978-0-13-276932-7 |page=249}}</ref> An undated [[National Security Agency|NSA]] publication declassified in 2005 revealed that there was no attack on 4 August.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shane |first=Scott |date=31 October 2005 |title=Vietnam Study, Casting Doubts, Remains Secret |work=The New York Times] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html |url-status=live |access-date=4 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211090222/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all |archive-date=11 December 2008}}</ref> The second "attack" led to [[Operation Pierce Arrow|retaliatory airstrikes]], and prompted Congress to approve the [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]] on 7 August 1964.<ref name="Moïse">{{Cite book |last=Moïse |first=Edwin E. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002 |title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War |date=1996 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{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".<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|227}} The [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] recommended a three-stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. Following an [[Attack on Camp Holloway|attack on a U.S. Army base in Pleiku]] on 7 February 1965,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simon |first=Dennis M. |date=August 2002 |title=The War in Vietnam, 1965–1968 |url=http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426064833/http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2.html |archive-date=26 April 2009 |access-date=7 May 2009}}</ref> a series of airstrikes was initiated, [[Operation Flaming Dart]], while Soviet Premier [[Alexei Kosygin]] was on a [[state visit]] to North Vietnam. [[Operation Rolling Thunder]] and [[Operation Arc Light]] expanded aerial bombardment and ground support operations.{{Sfn|Nalty|1998|pp=97, 261}} The bombing campaign, which ultimately lasted three years, was intended to force North Vietnam to cease its support for the Viet Cong by threatening to destroy North Vietnamese air defenses and industrial infrastructure. It was additionally aimed at bolstering the morale of the South Vietnamese.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tilford |first=Earl L. |url=https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/07/2001728434/-1/-1/0/B_0040_TILFORD_SETUP.PDF |title=Setup: What the Air Force did in Vietnam and Why |date=1991 |publisher=Air University Press |page=89|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404230151/https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/07/2001728434/-1/-1/0/B_0040_TILFORD_SETUP.PDF|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> Between March 1965 and November 1968, ''Rolling Thunder'' deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|468}} ===Bombing of Laos=== {{Main|Laotian Civil War}} Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam. Other aerial campaigns, such as [[Operation Barrel Roll]], targeted different parts of the Viet Cong and PAVN infrastructure. These included the Ho Chi Minh trail supply route, which ran through Laos and Cambodia. The ostensibly neutral Laos had become [[Laotian Civil War|the scene of a civil war]], pitting the [[Kingdom of Laos|Laotian government]] backed by the US against the Pathet Lao and its North Vietnamese allies. Massive aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and PAVN forces were carried out by the US to prevent the collapse of the Royal central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1 million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population.<ref name="KiernanTaylor">{{Cite journal |last1=Kiernan |first1=Ben |author-link=Ben Kiernan |last2=Owen |first2=Taylor |date=26 April 2015 |title=Making More Enemies than We Kill? Calculating U.S. Bomb Tonnages Dropped on Laos and Cambodia, and Weighing Their Implications |url=http://apjjf.org/2015/13/16/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=13 |issue=17 |id=4313 |access-date=18 September 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326111723/https://apjjf.org/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html|archive-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref> The objective of stopping North Vietnam and the Viet Cong was never reached. The [[Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force]] [[Curtis LeMay]], however, had long advocated saturation bombing in Vietnam and wrote of the communists that "we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age".<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|328}} ===The 1964 offensive=== [[File:DongXoaiHuey-65a.JPG|thumb|ARVN Forces and a US Advisor inspect a downed helicopter, [[Battle of Dong Xoai]], June 1965]] Following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Hanoi anticipated the arrival of US troops and began expanding the Viet Cong, as well as sending increasing numbers of North Vietnamese personnel southwards. At this phase they were outfitting the Viet Cong forces and standardizing their equipment with [[AK-47]] rifles and other supplies, as well as forming the [[9th Division (Vietnam)|9th Division]].<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|223}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=Vietnam War After Action Reports |publisher=BACM Research |page=[{{GBurl|id=Dch3m7u2K5YC|p=84}} 84] |language=en}}</ref> "From a strength of approximately 5,000 at the start of 1959 the Viet Cong's ranks grew to about 100,000 at the end of 1964{{Nbsp}}... Between 1961 and 1964 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men."{{Sfn|Demma|1989}} The numbers for U.S. troops deployed to Vietnam during the same period were much lower: 2,000 in 1961, rising rapidly to 16,500 in 1964.<ref name="Kahin">{{Cite book |last1=Kahin |first1=George |title=The United States in Vietnam: An analysis in depth of the history of America's involvement in Vietnam |last2=Lewis |first2=John W. |date=1967 |publisher=Delta Books}}</ref> During this phase, the use of captured equipment decreased, while greater numbers of ammunition and supplies were required to maintain regular units. Group 559 was tasked with expanding the Ho Chi Minh trail, in light of the near constant bombardment by US warplanes. The war had begun to shift into the final, conventional warfare phase of Hanoi's [[Viet Cong and PAVN strategy, organization and structure#The Protracted War conflict model|three-stage protracted warfare model]]. The Viet Cong was now tasked with destroying the ARVN and capturing and holding areas; however, the Viet Cong was not yet strong enough to assault major towns and cities. In December 1964, ARVN forces had suffered heavy losses at the [[Battle of Bình Giã]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moyar |first=Mark |title=Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86911-9 |page=[{{GBurl|id=phJrZ87RwuAC|p=339}} 339]}}</ref> in a battle that both sides viewed as a watershed. Previously, the VC had utilized hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. At Binh Gia, however, they had defeated a strong ARVN force in a conventional battle and remained in the field for four days.<ref name="McNeill">{{Cite book |last=McNeill |first=Ian |title=To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966 |date=1993 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-1-86373-282-6}}</ref>{{Rp|58}} Tellingly, South Vietnamese forces were again defeated in June 1965 at the [[Battle of Đồng Xoài]].<ref name=McNeill/>{{Rp|94}} ===American ground war=== {{See also|Buddhist Uprising}} [[File:Vietcongsuspect.jpg|thumb|A Marine from [[1st Battalion, 3rd Marines]], moves a suspected Viet Cong during a search and clear operation held by the battalion {{Convert|15|mi|km|0}} west of [[Da Nang Air Base]], 1965.]] On 8 March 1965, 3,500 [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marines]] were landed near [[Da Nang]], South Vietnam.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|246–247}} This marked the beginning of the American ground war. U.S. public opinion overwhelmingly supported the deployment.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 October 2002 |title=Generations Divide Over Military Action in Iraq |url=http://www.people-press.org/2002/10/17/generations-divide-over-military-action-in-iraq |publisher=Pew Research Center|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121005317/https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2002/10/17/generations-divide-over-military-action-in-iraq/|archive-date=21 November 2022}}</ref> The Marines' initial assignment was the defense of [[Da Nang Air Base]]. The first deployment of 3,500 in March 1965 was increased to nearly 200,000 by December.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|349–351}} The U.S. military had long been schooled in offensive warfare. Regardless of political policies, U.S. commanders were institutionally and psychologically unsuited to a defensive mission.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|349–351}} General [[William Westmoreland]] informed Admiral [[U. S. Grant Sharp Jr.]], commander of U.S. Pacific forces, that the situation was critical.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|349–351}} He said, "I am convinced that U.S. troops with their energy, mobility, and firepower can successfully take the fight to the NLF (Viet Cong)".<ref>United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 4, p. 7.</ref> With this recommendation, Westmoreland was advocating an aggressive departure from America's defensive posture and the sidelining of the South Vietnamese. By ignoring ARVN units, the U.S. commitment became open-ended.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|353}} Westmoreland outlined a three-point plan to win the war: * Phase 1. Commitment of U.S. (and other allies) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965. * Phase 2. U.S. and allied forces mount major offensive actions to seize the initiative to destroy guerrilla and organized enemy forces. This phase would end when the enemy had been worn down, thrown on the defensive, and driven back from major populated areas. * Phase 3. If the enemy persisted, a period of twelve to eighteen months following Phase 2 would be required for the final destruction of enemy forces remaining in remote base areas.<ref>United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 5, pp. 8–9.</ref> The plan was approved by Johnson and marked a profound departure from the previous administration's insistence that the government of South Vietnam was responsible for defeating the guerrillas. Westmoreland predicted victory by the end of 1967.<ref>United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 4, pp. 117–19. and vol. 5, pp. 8–12.</ref> Johnson did not, however, communicate this change in strategy to the media. Instead he emphasized continuity.<ref>''Public Papers of the Presidents, 1965.'' Washington, DC Government Printing Office, 1966, vol. 2, pp. 794–99.</ref> The change in U.S. policy depended on matching the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong in a contest of [[attrition warfare|attrition]] and [[morale]]. The opponents were locked in a cycle of [[Conflict escalation|escalation]].<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|353–354}} The idea that the government of South Vietnam could manage its own affairs was shelved.<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|353–354}} Westmoreland and McNamara furthermore touted the [[Body count#Vietnam War|body count]] system for gauging victory, a metric that would later prove to be flawed.<ref name=Mohr>{{Cite news |last=Mohr |first=Charles |date=16 May 1984 |title=McNamara on Record, Reluctantly, on Vietnam |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/us/mcnamara-on-record-reluctantly-on-vietnam.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185613/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/us/mcnamara-on-record-reluctantly-on-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> [[File:Vietnamese villagers suspected of being communists by the US Army - 1966.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Peasants suspected of being Viet Cong under detention of U.S. Army, 1966]] The American buildup transformed the South Vietnamese economy and had a profound effect on society. South Vietnam was inundated with manufactured goods. Stanley Karnow noted that "the main PX [Post Exchange], located in the Saigon suburb of [[Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City|Cholon]], was only slightly smaller than the New York [[Bloomingdale's]]{{Nbsp}}..."<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|453}} Washington encouraged its [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|SEATO]] allies to contribute troops. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|556}} all agreed to send troops. South Korea would later ask to join the [[Many Flags]] program in return for economic compensation. Major allies, however, notably the [[NATO]] countries of Canada and the United Kingdom, declined Washington's troop requests.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Church |first=Peter |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |date=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-82481-8 |page=193}}</ref> The U.S. and its allies mounted complex [[search and destroy]] operations, designed to find enemy forces, destroy them, and then withdraw, typically using war [[helicopters]]. In November 1965, the U.S. engaged in its first major battle with the PAVN, the [[Battle of Ia Drang]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Galloway |first=Joseph |date=18 October 2010 |title=Ia Drang – The Battle That Convinced Ho Chi Minh He Could Win |url=http://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win.htm |access-date=2 May 2016 |publisher=Historynet|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322083652/https://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win/?f|archive-date=March 22, 2023}}</ref> The operation was the first large scale helicopter air assault by the U.S., and first to employ [[Boeing B-52 Stratofortress]] strategic bombers in a tactical support role.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|284–285}} These tactics continued in 1966–1967 with operations such as [[Operation Masher|Masher]], [[Operation Thayer|Thayer]], [[Operation Attleboro|Attleboro]], [[Operation Cedar Falls|Cedar Falls]], and [[Operation Junction City|Junction City]]. However, the PAVN/VC insurgents remained elusive and demonstrated great tactical flexibility. By 1967, the war had generated large-scale internal refugees, numbering nearly 2.1 million in South Vietnam, with 125,000 people evacuated and rendered homeless during Operation Masher alone,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Geoffrey C. |title=The Vietnam War: An Intimate History |last2=Burns |first2=Ken |date=5 September 2017 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-5247-3310-0 |page=[{{GBurl|id=i4KyDQAAQBAJ|q=125}} 125] |language=en |quote=By the end of the year, more than 125,000 civilians in the province had lost their homes{{Nbsp}}...}}</ref> which was the largest search and destroy operation in the war up to that point.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}} Operation Masher would have negligible impact, however, as the PAVN/VC returned to the province just four months after the operation ended.<ref name="Ward">{{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Geoffrey C. |title=The Vietnam War: An Intimate History |last2=Burns |first2=Ken |date=2017 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-70025-4}}</ref>{{Rp|153–156}} Despite the continual conductance of major operations, which the Viet Cong and PAVN would typically evade, the war was characterized by smaller-unit contacts or engagements.<ref name="GS">{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 4 |at=Section 4, pp. 277–604 |chapter=Chapter 2, US Ground Strategy and Force Deployments, 1965–1968 |access-date=12 June 2018 |chapter-url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent9.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626210700/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent9.htm |archive-date=26 June 2019 |url-status=dead |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}}</ref> Up to the war's end, the Viet Cong and PAVN would initiate 90% of large firefights, of which 80% were clear and well-planned operations, and thus the PAVN/Viet Cong would retain strategic initiative despite overwhelming US force and fire-power deployment.<ref name=GS/> The PAVN and Viet Cong had furthermore developed strategies capable of countering U.S. military doctrines and tactics (see [[NLF and PAVN battle tactics]]). Meanwhile, the political situation in South Vietnam began to stabilize with the coming to power of prime minister Air Marshal [[Nguyễn Cao Kỳ]] and figurehead chief of state, General [[Nguyễn Văn Thiệu]], in mid-1965 at the head of a military junta. This ended a series of coups that had happened more than once a year. In 1967, Thieu became president with Ky as his deputy, after rigged elections. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. However, Thieu outmanoeuvred and sidelined Ky by filling the ranks with generals from his faction. Thieu was also accused of murdering Ky loyalists through contrived military accidents. Thieu, mistrustful and indecisive, remained president until 1975, having won a [[1971 South Vietnamese presidential election|one-candidate election in 1971]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|706}} [[File:NARA 111-CCV-529-CC38112 Ronald A. Payne checking tunnel entrance Operation Cedar Falls 1967.jpg|thumb|A US "[[tunnel rat]]" soldier prepares to enter a Viet Cong tunnel.]] The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor"<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|18}} in its dealings with the media. Military information officers sought to manage media coverage by emphasizing stories that portrayed progress in the war. Over time, this policy damaged the public trust in official pronouncements. As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called [[credibility gap]] developed.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|18}} Despite Johnson and Westmoreland publicly proclaiming victory and Westmoreland stating that the "end is coming into view",<ref>{{Cite news |title=TWE Remembers: General Westmoreland Says the "End Begins to Come Into View" in Vietnam |language=en |work=Council on Foreign Relations |url=https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-general-westmoreland-says-end-begins-come-view-vietnam |access-date=12 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605025020/https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-general-westmoreland-says-end-begins-come-view-vietnam|archive-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> internal reports in the ''[[Pentagon Papers]]'' indicate that Viet Cong forces retained strategic initiative and controlled their losses. Viet Cong attacks against static US positions accounted for 30% of all engagements, Viet Cong/PAVN ambushes and encirclements for 23%, American ambushes against Viet Cong/PAVN forces for 9%, and American forces attacking Viet Cong emplacements for only 5% of all engagements.<ref name=GS/> {| class="wikitable" |+Types of Engagements, From Department of Defence Study 1967<ref name=GS/> !TYPE OF ENGAGEMENTS IN COMBAT NARRATIVES !Percentage of Total Engagements !Notes |- |Hot Landing Zone. VC/PAVN Attacks U.S. Troops As They Deploy |12.5% | rowspan="3" |Planned VC/PAVN Attacks Are 66.2% Of All Engagements |- |Planned VC/PAVN Attack Against US Defensive Perimeter |30.4% |- |VC/PAVN Ambushes or Encircles A Moving US Unit |23.3% |- |Unplanned US Attacks On A VC/PAVN Defensive Perimeter, Engagement A Virtual Surprise To US Commanders |12.5% |Defensive Posts Being Well Concealed or VC/PAVN Alerted or Anticipated |- |Planned US Attack Against Known VC/PAVN Defensive Perimeter |5.4% | rowspan="2" |Planned US Attacks Against VC/PAVN Represent 14.3% Of All Engagements |- |U.S. Forces Ambushes Moving VC/PAVN Units |8.9% |- |Chance Engagement, Neither Side Planned |7.1% | |} ===Tet Offensive=== [[File:T4 Vietcong Tet Offensive.jpg|thumb|Viet Cong before departing to participate in the Tet Offensive around Saigon-Gia Dinh]] [[File:ARVN in action HD-SN-99-02062.JPEG|thumb|ARVN forces assault a stronghold in the [[Mekong Delta]].]] {{Main|Tet Offensive|United States news media and the Vietnam War}} In late 1967, the PAVN lured American forces into the hinterlands at [[Battle of Dak To|Đắk Tô]] and at the Marine [[Battle of Khe Sanh|Khe Sanh combat base]] in [[Quảng Trị Province]], where the U.S. fought a series of battles known as [[The Hill Fights]]. These actions were part of a diversionary strategy meant to draw U.S. forces towards the Central Highlands.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 June 2006 |title=Interview with NVA General Tran Van Tra {{!}} HistoryNet |url=http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-nva-general-tran-van-tra.htm |access-date=1 June 2018 |website=www.historynet.com |language=en-US|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152943/https://www.historynet.com/interview-with-nva-general-tran-van-tra/?f|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> Preparations were underway for the ''General Offensive, General Uprising'', known as Tet Mau Than, or the [[Tet Offensive]], with the intention of [[Văn Tiến Dũng]] for forces to launch "direct attacks on the American and puppet nerve centers—Saigon, [[Huế]], Danang, all the cities, towns and main bases{{Nbsp}}..."<ref name="Wilson">{{Cite news |date=20 October 2014 |title=The Urban Movement and the Planning and Execution of the Tet Offensive |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-urban-movement-and-the-planning-and-execution-the-tet-offensive |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152950/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-urban-movement-and-the-planning-and-execution-the-tet-offensive|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> Le Duan sought to placate critics of the ongoing stalemate by planning a decisive victory.<ref name="Nguyen">{{Cite book |last=Nguyen |first=Lien-Hang T. |title=Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam |date=2012 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-2835-6}}</ref>{{Rp|90–94}} He reasoned that this could be achieved through sparking a general uprising within the towns and cities,<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|148}} along with mass defections among ARVN units, who were on holiday leave during the truce period.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wiest |first=Andrew |date=1 March 2018 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Tet Offensive Was Not About Americans |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/tet-offensive-americans-vietnam.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416233243/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/tet-offensive-americans-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> The Tet Offensive began on 30 January 1968, as over 100 cities were attacked by over 85,000 VC/PAVN troops, including assaults on key military installations, headquarters, and government buildings and offices, including the [[United States Embassy, Saigon|U.S. Embassy in Saigon]].<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|363–365}} U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were initially shocked by the scale, intensity and deliberative planning of the urban offensive, as infiltration of personnel and weapons into the cities was accomplished covertly;<ref name=Wilson/> the offensive constituted an [[intelligence failure]] on the scale of [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|556}} Most cities were recaptured within weeks, except the former imperial capital of Huế in which PAVN/Viet Cong troops captured most of the city and citadel except the headquarters of the [[1st Division (South Vietnam)|1st Division]] and held on in the fighting for 26 days.<ref name="Bowden">{{Cite book |last=Bowden |first=Mark |title=Hue 1968 A turning point of the American war in Vietnam |date=2017 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press}}</ref>{{Rp|495}} During that time, they had [[Massacre at Huế|executed approximately 2,800 unarmed Huế]] civilians and foreigners they considered to be enemy's spies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hosmer |first=Stephen T. |title=Viet Cong Repression and its Implications for the Future |date=1970 |publisher=Rand Corporation |pages=72–8}}</ref><ref name=Bowden/>{{Rp|495}} In the following [[Battle of Huế]] American forces employed massive firepower that left 80 percent of the city in ruins.<ref name=Kolko/>{{Rp|308–309}} Further north, at Quảng Trị City, the [[Republic of Vietnam Airborne Division|ARVN Airborne Division]], the 1st Division and a regiment of the US [[1st Cavalry Division (United States)|1st Cavalry Division]] had managed to hold out and overcome an assault intended to capture the city.<ref name="Villard">{{Cite book |last=Villard |first=Erik B. |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/vietnam/tet_battles/tet.pdf |title=The 1968 Tet Offensive Battles of Quang Tri City and Hue |date=2008 |publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History |isbn=978-1-5142-8522-0|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605173341/https://history.army.mil/html/books/vietnam/tet_battles/tet.pdf|archive-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref>{{Rp|}}<ref name="Ankony">{{Cite book |last=Ankony |first=Robert C. |title=Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-7618-3281-2}}</ref>{{Rp|104}} In Saigon, Viet Cong/PAVN fighters had captured areas in and around the city, attacking key installations and the neighborhood of Cholon before US and ARVN forces dislodged them after three weeks.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|479}} During one battle, [[Peter Arnett]] reported an infantry commander saying of the [[Battle of Bến Tre]] (laid to rubble by U.S. attacks) that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keyes |first=Ralph |url=https://archive.org/details/quoteverifierwho00keye |title=The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When |date=2006 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-34004-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |date=8 February 1968 |title=Survivors Hunt Dead of Bentre, Turned to Rubble in Allied Raids |work=The New York Times |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D1FFA3F541B7B93CAA91789D85F4C8685F9|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409014500/https://www.nytimes.com/1968/02/08/archives/survivors-hunt-dead-of-bentre-turned-to-rubble-in-allied-raids.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> [[File:Cholon after Tet Offensive operations 1968.jpg|thumb|The ruins of a section of Saigon, in the Cholon neighborhood, following fierce fighting between ARVN forces and Viet Cong Main Force battalions]] During the first month of the offensive, 1,100 Americans and other allied troops, 2,100 ARVN and 14,000 civilians were killed.<ref name="Trieu">{{Cite journal |last=Triều |first=Họ Trung |date=5 June 2017 |title=Lực lượng chính trị và đấu tranh chính trị ở thị xã Nha Trang trong cuộc Tổng tiến công và nổi dậy Tết Mậu Thân 1968 |journal=Hue University Journal of Science: Social Sciences and Humanities |volume=126 |issue=6 |doi=10.26459/hujos-ssh.v126i6.3770 |doi-broken-date=31 January 2024 |issn=2588-1213}}</ref> By the end of the first offensive, after two months, nearly 5,000 ARVN and over 4,000 U.S. forces had been killed and 45,820 wounded.<ref name=Trieu/> The U.S. claimed 17,000 of the PAVN and Viet Cong had been killed and 15,000 wounded.<ref name=Ankony/>{{Rp|104}}<ref name=Villard/>{{Rp|82}} A month later a second offensive known as the [[May Offensive]] was launched; although less widespread, it demonstrated the Viet Cong were still capable of carrying out orchestrated nationwide offensives.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|488–489}} Two months later a third offensive was launched, the [[Phase III Offensive]]. The PAVN's own official records of their losses across all three offensives was 45,267 killed and 111,179 total casualties.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Tết Mậu Thân 1968 qua những số liệu |language=vi-VN |url=http://www.nhandan.com.vn/chinhtri/item/7976502-.html |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407184326/https://nhandan.vn/tet-mau-than-1968-qua-nhung-so-lieu-post484868.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eyraud |first=Henri |date=March 1987 |title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience. By Kolko Gabriel. [New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. 628 pp.] |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=109 |page=135 |doi=10.1017/s0305741000017653 |issn=0305-7410 |s2cid=154919829}}</ref> By then it had become the bloodiest year of the war up to that point. The failure to spark a general uprising and the lack of defections among the ARVN units meant both war goals of Hanoi had fallen flat at enormous costs.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|148–149}} By the end of 1968, the VC insurgents held almost no territory in South Vietnam, and their recruitment dropped by over 80%, signifying a drastic reduction in guerrilla operations, necessitating increased use of PAVN regular soldiers from the north.{{Sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|pp=247–249}} Prior to Tet, in November 1967, Westmoreland had spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson administration to bolster flagging public support.<ref name="Witz">{{Cite book |last=Witz |title=The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War |date=1994 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8209-0 |pages=1–2}}</ref> In a speech before the [[National Press Club (United States)|National Press Club]] he said a point in the war had been reached "where the end comes into view."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berman |first=Larry |title=Lyndon Johnson's War |date=1991 |publisher=W.W. Norton |page=116}}</ref> Thus, the public was shocked and confused when Westmoreland's predictions were trumped by the Tet Offensive.<ref name=Witz/> Public approval of his overall performance dropped from 48 percent to 36 percent, and endorsement for the war effort fell from 40 percent to 26 percent."<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|546}} The American public and media began to turn against Johnson as the three offensives contradicted claims of progress made by the Johnson administration and the military.<ref name=Witz/> At one point in 1968, Westmoreland considered the use of [[nuclear weapon]]s in Vietnam in a contingency plan codenamed [[Fracture Jaw]], which was abandoned when it became known to the White House.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sanger |first=David E. |date=6 October 2018 |title=U.S. General Considered Nuclear Response in Vietnam War, Cables Show |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/world/asia/vietnam-war-nuclear-weapons.html |access-date=8 October 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314213812/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/world/asia/vietnam-war-nuclear-weapons.html|archive-date=March 14, 2023}}</ref> Westmoreland requested 200,000 additional troops, which was leaked to the media, and the subsequent fallout combined with intelligence failures caused him to be removed from command in March 1968, succeeded by his deputy [[Creighton Abrams]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sorley |first=Lewis |title=A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam |date=1999 |publisher=Harvest |isbn=0-15-601309-6 |pages=11–6}}</ref> On 10 May 1968, [[Paris Peace Accords|peace talks]] began between the United States and North Vietnam in Paris. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. At the same time, Hanoi realized it could not achieve a "total victory" and employed a strategy known as "talking while fighting, fighting while talking", in which military offensives would occur concurrently with negotiations.<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 April 2012 |title=North Vietnam's "Talk-Fight" Strategy and the 1968 Peace Negotiations with the United States |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/north-vietnams-talk-fight-strategy-and-the-1968-peace-negotiations-the-united-states |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174807/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/north-vietnams-talk-fight-strategy-and-the-1968-peace-negotiations-the-united-states|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> Johnson declined to run for re-election as his approval rating slumped from 48 to 36 percent.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|486}} His escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps, cost 30,000 American lives by that point and was regarded to have destroyed his presidency.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|486}} Refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was also seen as Johnson's admission that the war was lost.<ref name="Command Magazine Issue 18, page 15">''Command Magazine'' Issue 18, p. 15.</ref> As Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara noted, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead."<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|367}} Vietnam was a major political issue during the [[1968 United States presidential election|United States presidential election in 1968]]. The election was won by Republican party candidate Richard Nixon who claimed to have a secret plan to end the war.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|515}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johns |first=Andrew |title=Vietnam's Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War |date=2010 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-7369-6 |pages=198 |language=en}}</ref> ==Vietnamization, 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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Sagan |first1=Scott Douglas |last2=Suri |first2=Jeremi |date=16 June 2003 |title=The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling, and Safety in October 1969 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/43692 |journal=International Security |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=150–183 |doi=10.1162/016228803321951126 |issn=1531-4804 |s2cid=57564244}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Michael |title=Nixon's Nuclear Ploy |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm |access-date=8 February 2018 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114836/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972 |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm |access-date=4 July 2021 |website=Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume I |publisher=U.S. Department of State|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513100856/https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm|archive-date=May 13, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Van Ness |first=Peter |date=December 1986 |title=Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and the American Accommodation with China: A Review Article |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=231–245 |jstor=25797906}}</ref> ===Hanoi's war strategy=== [[File:Vietnampropaganda.png|thumb|upright|Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of [[Viet Cong]] and [[North Vietnam]]ese to the side of the [[Republic of Vietnam]]]] In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died at age 79.<ref>{{Cite news |date=4 September 1969 |title=Ho Chi Minh Dies of Heart Attack in Hanoi |page=1 |work=The Times}}</ref> The failure of the 1968 Tet Offensive in sparking a popular uprising in the south caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the [[Võ Nguyên Giáp|Giáp]]-[[Trường Chinh|Chinh]] "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the Lê Duẩn-[[Hoàng Văn Thái]] "Southern-First" faction.<ref name="Currey">{{Cite book |last=Currey |first=Cecil B. |title=Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap |date=2005 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-57488-742-6 |page=[{{GBurl|id=jm-jh1_D0I4C|p=272}} 272]}}</ref>{{Rp|272–274}} An unconventional victory was sidelined in favor of a strategy built on conventional victory through conquest.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|196–205}} Large-scale offensives were rolled back in favor of [[Low intensity conflict|small-unit]] and [[Sapper#PAVN and Viet Cong|sapper]] attacks as well as targeting the pacification and Vietnamization strategy.<ref name=Currey/> In the two-year period following Tet, the PAVN had begun its transformation from a fine [[Light infantry|light-infantry]], limited mobility force into a [[Maneuver warfare|high-mobile]] and mechanized [[combined arms]] force.<ref name=Currey/>{{Rp|189}} By 1970, over 70% of communist troops in the south were northerners, and southern-dominated VC units no longer existed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |title=Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present |date=February 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=447}}</ref> ===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]],<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|518–521}} 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<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Jeff |url=https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei |title=A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War |date=1992 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-07037-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei/page/60 60–2] |url-access=registration}}</ref> of a suspected double agent,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bob Seals |date=2007 |title=The "Green Beret Affair": A Brief Introduction |url=http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509150017/http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|archive-date=May 9, 2008}}</ref> 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 the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], detailed a long series of public deceptions on the part of the U.S. government. The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled that its publication was legal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=[[USA.gov]] |date=February 1997 |title=The Pentagon Papers Case |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |url-status=dead |journal=eJournal USA |volume=2 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112095748/http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |archive-date=12 January 2008 |access-date=27 April 2010}}</ref> ===Collapsing 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.<ref name="Stewart">{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=Richard |url=https://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm |title=American Military History, Volume II, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2003 |date=2005 |publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]] |isbn=978-0-16-072541-8}}</ref>{{Rp|349–350}}<ref name="Daddis">{{Cite book |last=Daddis |first=Gregory A. |title=Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-069110-3 |page=[{{GBurl|id=a3QzDwAAQBAJ|pg=PT172}} 172]}}</ref>{{Rp|166–175}} At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels.<ref name="Heinl">{{Cite journal |last=Heinl |first=Robert D. Jr. |date=7 June 1971 |title=The Collapse of the Armed Forces |url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf |journal=Armed Forces Journal}}</ref> Among the enlisted, only 2.5% chose infantry combat positions in 1969–1970.<ref name=Heinl/> [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps|ROTC]] enrollment decreased from 191,749 in 1966 to 72,459 by 1971,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sevy |first=Grace |title=The American Experience in Vietnam: A Reader |date=1991 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2390-5 |page=[{{GBurl|id=dZg3emyCL6EC|p=172}} 172]}}</ref> and reached an all-time low of 33,220 in 1974,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Richard Halloran |date=12 August 1984 |title=R.O.T.C. Booming as Memories of Vietnam Fade |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html |access-date=14 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415124225/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html|archive-date=April 15, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 March 1971 |title=General Won't Punish G.I.'s for Refusing Orders |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html |access-date=13 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409031624/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> Unit cohesion began to dissipate and focused on minimizing contact with Viet Cong and PAVN.<ref name=Daddis/>{{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.<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|407–411}} Drug usage increased rapidly among U.S. forces during this period, as 30% of U.S. troops regularly used marijuana,<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|407}} while a House subcommittee found 10–15% of U.S. troops in Vietnam regularly used high-grade heroin.<ref name=Heinl/><ref name=Hastings/>{{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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robert |first=Graham |date=1984 |title=Vietnam: An Infantryman's View of Our Failure |url=https://web.viu.ca/davies/H323Vietnam/Vietnam.InfantryView.failure.pdf |journal=Military Affairs |volume=48 |issue=3 (Jul. 1984) |pages=133–139 |doi=10.2307/1987487 |jstor=1987487|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605173405/https://web.viu.ca/davies/H323Vietnam/Vietnam.InfantryView.failure.pdf|archive-date=June 5, 2023}}</ref> A total of 900 fragging and suspected [[fragging]] incidents were investigated, most occurring between 1969 and 1971.<ref name="Stanton">{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963–1973 |date=2007 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-41734-3}}</ref>{{Rp|331}}<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|407}} In 1969, field-performance of the U.S. Forces was characterized by lowered morale, lack of motivation, and poor leadership.<ref name=Stanton/>{{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.<ref name=Stanton/>{{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.<ref name=Stanton/>{{Rp|357}} On the collapse of U.S. morale, historian Shelby Stanton wrote: {{Blockquote|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{{Nbsp}}... 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.<ref name=Stanton/>{{Rp|366–368}}}} ===ARVN taking the lead and U.S. ground-force withdrawal=== [[File:ARVN and US Special Forces.jpg|thumb|ARVN and US Special Forces, September 1968]] Beginning in 1970, American troops were withdrawn from border areas where most of the fighting took place and instead redeployed along the coast and interior. US casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969 casualties after being relegated to less active combat.<ref name="upi1970">{{Cite web |title=Vietnamization: 1970 Year in Review |url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2/#title |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831125343/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2 |archive-date=31 August 2011 |website=UPI.com}}</ref> While U.S. forces were redeployed, the ARVN took over combat operations throughout the country, with casualties double US casualties in 1969, and more than triple US ones in 1970.<ref name="Wiest">{{Cite book |last=Wiest |first=Andrew |title=Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN |date=2007 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9451-7 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=r3dez4JhXUQC|p=124}} 124]–140}}</ref> In the post-Tet environment, membership in the [[South Vietnamese Regional Force]] and [[South Vietnamese Popular Force|Popular Force]] militias grew, and they were now more capable of providing village security, which the Americans had not accomplished under Westmoreland.<ref name=Wiest/> In 1970, Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing the number of Americans to 265,500.<ref name=upi1970/> By 1970, Viet Cong forces were no longer southern-majority, as nearly 70% of units were northerners.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Gareth |title=Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-8014-2168-6 |page=26|publisher=Cornell University Press }}</ref> Between 1969 and 1971 the Viet Cong and some PAVN units had reverted to [[small unit tactics]] typical of 1967 and prior instead of nationwide grand offensives.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|}} In 1971, Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers and U.S. troop count was further reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972. The United States also reduced support troops, and in March 1971 the [[5th Special Forces Group (United States)|5th Special Forces Group]], the first American unit deployed to South Vietnam, withdrew to [[Fort Bragg]], [[North Carolina]].<ref name="StantonVOB">{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=Vietnam order of battle |date=2003 |publisher=Stackpole Books |isbn=978-0-8117-0071-9}}</ref>{{Rp|240}}{{Refn|On 8 March 1965 the first American combat troops, the [[3rd Marine Division (United States)#Vietnam War|Third Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division]], began landing in Vietnam to protect the [[Da Nang Air Base]].{{Sfn|Willbanks|2009|p=110}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Facts about the Vietnam Veterans memorial collection |url=http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528032742/http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |archive-date=28 May 2010 |access-date=26 April 2010 |publisher=[[National Park Service]]}}</ref>|group="A"}} ===Cambodia=== {{Main|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|5=Cambodian Civil War}} [[File:Vietconginterrogation.jpg|thumb|upright|An alleged Viet Cong captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.]] Prince [[Norodom Sihanouk]] had proclaimed Cambodia neutral since 1955,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sihanouk |first=Prince Norodom |title=Cambodia Neutral: The Dictates of Necessity |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=1958 |pages=582–583}}</ref> but permitted the PAVN/Viet Cong to use the port of [[Sihanoukville Autonomous Port|Sihanoukville]] and the [[Sihanouk Trail]]. In March 1969 Nixon launched a massive secret bombing campaign, called [[Operation Menu]], against communist sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Only five high-ranking congressional officials were informed of Operation Menu.{{Refn|group="A"|They were: Senators [[John C. Stennis]] (MS) and [[Richard B. Russell]] Jr. (GA) and Representatives [[Lucius Mendel Rivers]] (SC), [[Gerald R. Ford]] (MI) and [[Leslie C. Arends]] (IL). Arends and Ford were leaders of the Republican minority and the other three were Democrats on either the Armed Services or Appropriations committees.}} In March 1970, Prince [[Cambodian coup of 1970|Sihanouk was deposed]] by his [[pro-American]] prime minister [[Lon Nol]], who demanded that North Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia or face military action.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sutsakhan |first=S. |url=https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |title=The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse |date=1987 |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |page=42 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060055/https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Lon Nol began rounding up Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia into internment camps and massacring them, provoking harsh reactions from both the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese governments.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lipsman |first1=Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 |title=The Vietnam Experience Fighting for time |last2=Doyle |first2=Edward |date=1983 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-939526-07-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 145]}}</ref> In April–May 1970, North Vietnam invaded Cambodia at the request of the [[Khmer Rouge]] following negotiations with deputy leader [[Nuon Chea]]. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: "Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Susan E. Cook |url=https://gsp.yale.edu/genocide-cambodia-and-rwanda-0 |title=Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda |date=2004 |publisher=Yale University |series=Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series |page=54|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409052610/https://gsp.yale.edu/genocide-cambodia-and-rwanda-0|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> U.S. and ARVN forces launched the [[Cambodian Campaign]] in May to attack PAVN and Viet Cong bases. A counter-offensive in 1971 as part of [[Operation Chenla II]] by the PAVN would recapture most of the border areas and decimate most of Lon Nol's forces. The U.S. incursion into Cambodia sparked [[Protests against the Vietnam War|nationwide U.S. protests]] as Nixon had promised to deescalate the American involvement. [[Kent State shootings|Four students were killed by National Guardsmen]] in May 1970 during a protest at [[Kent State University]] in [[Ohio]], which provoked further public outrage in the United States. The reaction to the incident by the Nixon administration was seen as callous and indifferent, reinvigorating the declining anti-war movement.<ref name=Daddis/>{{Rp|128–129}} The U.S. Air Force continued to heavily bomb Cambodia in support of the Cambodian government as part of [[Operation Freedom Deal]]. ===Laos=== {{Main|3=Operation Commando Hunt|4=Laotian Civil War|6=Operation Lam Son 719}} Building up on the success of ARVN units in Cambodia, and further testing the Vietnamization program, the ARVN were tasked to launch [[Operation Lam Son 719]] in February 1971, the first major ground operation aimed directly at attacking the Ho Chi Minh trail by attacking the major crossroad of Tchepone. This offensive would also be the first time the PAVN would field-test its combined arms force.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|}} The first few days were considered a success but the momentum had slowed after fierce resistance. Thiệu had halted the general advance, leaving armored divisions able to surround them.{{Sfn|Willbanks|2014|p=89}} Thieu had ordered [[air assault]] troops to capture Tchepone and withdraw, despite facing four-times larger numbers. During the withdrawal the PAVN counterattack had forced a panicked rout. Half of the ARVN troops involved were either captured or killed, half of the ARVN/US support helicopters were downed by anti-aircraft fire and the operation was considered a fiasco, demonstrating operational deficiencies still present within the ARVN.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|644–645}} Nixon and Thieu had sought to use this event to show-case victory simply by capturing Tchepone, and it was spun off as an "operational success".{{Sfn|Willbanks|2014|p=118}}<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|576–582}} ===Easter Offensive and Paris Peace Accords, 1972=== [[File:СВС у обломков сбитого Б-52 в окрестностях Ханоя 23.12.1972 (1).jpg|thumb|Soviet advisers inspecting the debris of a B-52 downed in the vicinity of Hanoi]] Vietnamization was again tested by the [[Easter Offensive]] of 1972, a massive conventional PAVN invasion of South Vietnam. The PAVN quickly overran the northern provinces and in coordination with other forces attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. U.S. troop withdrawals continued, but American airpower responded, beginning [[Operation Linebacker]], and the offensive was halted.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|606–637}} The war was central to the [[1972 United States presidential election|1972 U.S. presidential election]] as Nixon's opponent, [[George McGovern]], campaigned on immediate withdrawal. Nixon's National Security Advisor, [[Henry Kissinger]], had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's [[Lê Đức Thọ]] and in October 1972 reached an agreement. President Thieu demanded changes to the peace accord upon its discovery, and when North Vietnam went public with the agreement's details, the Nixon administration claimed they were attempting to embarrass the president. The negotiations became deadlocked when Hanoi demanded new changes. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered [[Operation Linebacker II]], a massive bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong 18–29 December 1972.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|649–663}} Nixon pressured Thieu to accept the terms of the agreement or else face retaliatory military action from the U.S.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beschloss |first=Michael |title=Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times |date=2018 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-307-40960-7 |location=New York |page=579}}</ref> On 15 January 1973, all U.S. combat activities were suspended. Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister [[Nguyễn Thị Bình]] and a reluctant President Thiệu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January 1973.<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|508–513}} This officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, created a ceasefire between North Vietnam/PRG and South Vietnam, guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam under the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for elections or a political settlement between the PRG and South Vietnam, allowed 200,000 communist troops to remain in the south, and agreed to a POW exchange. There was a sixty-day period for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces. "This article", noted Peter Church, "proved{{Nbsp}}... to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Church |first=Peter |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |date=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-82181-7 |pages=193–194}}</ref> All U.S. forces personnel were completely withdrawn by March 1973.<ref name=Herring/>{{Rp|260}} ==U.S. exit and final campaigns, 1973–1975== [[File:Hanoi-taxi-march1973.jpg|thumb|American POWs recently released from North Vietnamese prison camps, 1973|alt=]] 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.<ref name=Ward/>{{Rp|508–513}} 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.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|670–672}} PAVN/VC leaders expected the ceasefire terms would favor their side, but Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Viet Cong. The PAVN/VC responded with a new strategy hammered out in a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of [[Trần Văn Trà]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|672–674}} With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–1976 dry season. Tra calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|672–674}} The PAVN/VC resumed offensive operations when the dry season began in 1973, and by January 1974 had recaptured territory it lost during the previous dry season. [[File:Victory Central Highlands.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial commemorating the 1974 Buon Me Thuot campaign, depicting a [[Degar|Montagnard]] of the [[Central Highlands, Vietnam|Central Highlands]], a NVA soldier and a [[T-54/T-55|T-54 tank]]]] Within South Vietnam, the departure of the US military and the global recession that followed the [[1973 oil crisis]] hurt an economy that was partly dependent on U.S. financial support and troop presence. After two clashes that left 55 ARVN soldiers dead, President Thieu announced on 4 January 1974, that the war had restarted and that the Paris Peace Accords were no longer in effect. There were over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period.<ref>{{Cite web |title=This Day in History 1974: Thieu announces war has resumed |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thieu-announces-war-has-resumed |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120114757/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thieu-announces-war-has-resumed |archive-date=20 January 2013 |access-date=17 October 2009 |publisher=History.com}}</ref><ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|683}} [[Gerald Ford]] took over as U.S. president on 9 August 1974 after the [[resignation of President Nixon]], and Congress cut financial aid to South Vietnam from $1 billion a year to $700 million. Congress also voted in further restrictions on funding to be phased in through 1975 and to culminate in a total cutoff in 1976.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|686}} The success of the 1973–1974 dry season offensive inspired Trà to return to Hanoi in October 1974 and plead for a larger offensive the next dry season. This time, Trà could travel on a drivable highway with regular fueling stops, a vast change from the days when the Ho Chi Minh trail was a dangerous mountain trek.<ref name="Karnow" />{{Rp|676}} Giáp, the North Vietnamese defense minister, was reluctant to approve of Trà's plan since a larger offensive might provoke U.S. reaction and interfere with the big push planned for 1976. Trà appealed to Giáp's superior, first secretary Lê Duẩn, who approved the operation. Trà's plan called for a limited offensive from Cambodia into [[Phước Long Province]]. The strike was designed to solve local logistical problems, gauge the reaction of South Vietnamese forces, and determine whether the U.S. would return.<ref name="Hastings" />{{Rp|685–690}} On 13 December 1974, North Vietnamese forces [[Battle of Phuoc Long|attacked Phước Long]]. Phuoc Binh, the provincial capital, fell on 6 January 1975. Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun.<ref name="Ford asks for additional aid">{{Cite news |title=Ford asks for additional aid |work=history.com |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-asks-for-additional-aid |url-status=dead |access-date=11 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811232207/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-asks-for-additional-aid |archive-date=11 August 2018}}</ref> Congress refused.<ref name="Ford asks for additional aid" /> The fall of Phuoc Binh and the lack of an American response left the South Vietnamese elite demoralized. The speed of this success led the Politburo to reassess its strategy. It decided that operations in the Central Highlands would be turned over to General Văn Tiến Dũng and that [[Pleiku]] should be seized, if possible. Before he left for the South, Dũng was addressed by Lê Duẩn: "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage as great as we have now."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dougan |first1=Clark |title=The Vietnam Experience The Fall of the South |last2=Fulgham |first2=David |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-939526-16-1 |page=22}}</ref> At the start of 1975, the South Vietnamese had three times as much artillery and twice the number of tanks and armored cars as the PAVN. They also had 1,400 aircraft and a two-to-one numerical superiority in combat troops over the PAVN/VC.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} However, heightened oil prices meant that many of these assets could not be adequately leveraged. Moreover, the rushed nature of Vietnamization, intended to cover the US retreat, resulted in a lack of spare parts, ground-crew, and maintenance personnel, which rendered most of the equipment inoperable.<ref name=Stewart/>{{Rp|362–366}} ===Campaign 275=== {{See also|1975 Spring Offensive|Battle of Ban Me Thuot|Hue–Da Nang Campaign}} [[File:PAVN Captures Hue, Vietnam.jpg|thumb|The capture of Hue, March 1975]] 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.<ref name=Tucker/>{{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".<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|693–694}} 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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|699–700}} ===Final North Vietnamese offensive=== {{Further|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]].<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|702–704}} 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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|704–707}} 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 to [[Trần Văn Hương]] on 21 April, he left for [[Taiwan]] on 25 April.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|714}} After having appealed unsuccessfully to Congress for $722 million in emergency aid for South Vietnam, President Ford had given a televised speech on 23 April, declaring an end to the Vietnam War and all U.S. aid.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Finney |first=John W. |date=12 April 1975 |title=Congress Resists U.S. Aid In Evacuating Vietnamese |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/12/archives/congress-resists-us-aid-in-evacuating-vietnamese-congress-resists.html |access-date=4 July 2021 |website=The New York Times|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409033130/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/12/archives/congress-resists-us-aid-in-evacuating-vietnamese-congress-resists.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Transcript of speech by President Gerald R. Ford - April 23, 1975 |url=https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A75293 |access-date=4 July 2021 |publisher=Tulane University|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409183152/https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane:75293|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> By the end of April, the ARVN had collapsed on all fronts except in the [[Mekong Delta]]. Thousands of refugees streamed southward, ahead of the main communist onslaught. On 27 April, 100,000 PAVN troops encircled Saigon. The city was defended by about 30,000 ARVN troops. To hasten a collapse and foment panic, the PAVN shelled [[Tan Son Nhut Airport]] and forced its closure. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians found that they had no way out.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|716}} ===Fall of Saigon=== {{Main|Fall of Saigon|Operation Frequent Wind}} [[File:NVA pose for picture in Presidential Palace at end of Vietnam war.jpg|thumb|upright|Victorious PAVN troops at the Presidential Palace, Saigon]] 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.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|718–720}} On 30 April 1975, PAVN troops entered the city of Saigon and quickly overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations.<ref name="mtholyoke.edu" /> Two tanks from the 203rd Tank Brigade of the [[2nd Corps (Vietnam)|2nd Corps]] crashed through the gates of the [[Independence Palace]] and the Viet Cong flag was raised above it at 11:30 am local time.<ref>{{Citation |last=Thai Binh Department of Information and Communications |title=Soldier from Thai Binh who put flag on the roof of Independence Palace |date=30 July 2020 |url=https://thaibinh.gov.vn/english130nam/dat-va-nguoi-thai-binh/soldier-from-thai-binh-who-put-flag-on-the-roof-of-independe.html |work=Thai Binh Provincial Portal |publication-place=Thai Binh |access-date=15 January 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174812/https://thaibinh.gov.vn/english130nam/dat-va-nguoi-thai-binh/soldier-from-thai-binh-who-put-flag-on-the-roof-of-independe.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> President Dương Văn Minh, who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, surrendered to Lieutenant colonel Bùi Văn Tùng, the political commissar of the 203rd Tank Brigade.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 April 2020 |title=Reunion of the Veterans organization of Tank Amour force in the South Vietnam |url=https://independencepalace.gov.vn/news/a-reunion-of-the-veterans-organization-of-tank-amour-force-in-the-south-vietnam-was-held-at-independence-palace-historical-site/ |access-date=14 January 2022 |website=[[Independence Palace|Dinh Độc Lập]] official website|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404035108/https://independencepalace.gov.vn/news/a-reunion-of-the-veterans-organization-of-tank-amour-force-in-the-south-vietnam-was-held-at-independence-palace-historical-site/|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Leong, Ernest |title=Vietnam Tries to Create New Image 30 Years After End of War |date=31 October 2009 |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2005-04-27-voa67/397223.html |work=Voice of America |access-date=14 January 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404085333/https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2005-04-27-voa67/397223.html|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Terzani">{{Cite book |last=Terzani |first=Tiziano |title=Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon |publisher=Angus & Robertson (U.K.) Ltd |year=1976 |isbn=0207957126 |pages=92–96}}</ref>{{Rp|95–96}} Minh was then escorted to [[Radio Saigon]] to announce the surrender declaration (spontaneously written by Tung).<ref name="Bui Tin">{{Cite book |last=Bui |first=Tin |url={{GBurl|id=2NUl_nVpW-gC}} |title=Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel |date=1999 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824822330 |pages=84–86}}</ref>{{Rp|85}} The statement was on air at 2:30 pm.<ref name=Terzani/> ==Opposition to U.S. involvement== {{Main|Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|Protests of 1968}} {{See also|Russell Tribunal|Fulbright Hearings|Chicago Seven}} [[File:vietnamdem.jpg|thumb|The [[March on the Pentagon]], 21 October 1967, an anti-war demonstration organized by the [[National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]]]] During the course of the Vietnam War a large segment of the American population came to be opposed to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. In January 1967, only 32% of Americans thought the U.S. had made a mistake in sending troops to Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite news |date=28 January 2018 |title=CBS News Poll: U.S. involvement in Vietnam |work=CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-u-s-involvement-in-vietnam/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201070627/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-u-s-involvement-in-vietnam/|archive-date=February 1, 2023}}</ref> Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam.<ref>Lunch, W. & Sperlich, P. (1979). The Western Political Quarterly. 32(1). pp. 21–44</ref><ref name="Hagopian">{{Cite book |last=Hagopain |first=Patrick |title=The Vietnam War in American Memory |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55849-693-4 |pages=13–4}}</ref> Early opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam drew its inspiration from the Geneva Conference of 1954. American support of Diệm in refusing elections was seen as thwarting the democracy America claimed to support. John F. Kennedy, while senator, opposed involvement in Vietnam.<ref name=Kahin/> Nonetheless, it is possible to specify certain groups who led the anti-war movement at its peak in the late 1960s and the reasons why. Many young people protested because they were the ones being [[Conscription in the United States|drafted]], while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]]. Some advocates within the peace movement advocated a [[unilateral]] withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite groups opposed to U.S. anti-communism and [[American imperialism|imperialism]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zimmer |first=Louis B. |title=The Vietnam War Debate |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7391-3769-7 |pages=54–5}}</ref> and for those involved with the [[New Left]], such as the [[Catholic Worker Movement]]. Others, such as [[Stephen Spiro]], opposed the war based on the theory of [[Just War]]. Some wanted to show solidarity with the people of Vietnam, such as [[Norman Morrison]] emulating the [[self-immolation]] of [[Thích Quảng Đức]]. High-profile opposition to the Vietnam War increasingly turned to mass protests in an effort to shift U.S. public opinion. Riots broke out at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] during protests against the war.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|514}} After news reports of American military abuses, such as the 1968 My Lai Massacre, brought new attention and support to the anti-war movement, some veterans joined [[Vietnam Veterans Against the War]]. On 15 October 1969, the [[Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam|Vietnam Moratorium]] attracted millions of Americans.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20230330072002/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/15/newsid_2533000/2533131.stm 1969: Millions march in US Vietnam Moratorium]. BBC On This Day.</ref> The fatal shooting of four students at Kent State University in 1970 led to nationwide university protests.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bob Fink |url=http://www.greenwych.ca/vietnam.htm |title=Vietnam – A View from the Walls: a History of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement |publisher=Greenwich Publishing |access-date=18 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130111005135/http://www.greenwych.ca/vietnam.htm |archive-date=11 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Anti-war protests declined after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and the [[Conscription in the United States#End of conscription|end of the draft]] in January 1973, and the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in the months following. ==Involvement of other countries== {{main|International participation in the Vietnam War}} ===Pro-Hanoi=== ====China==== {{See also|China in the Vietnam War}}The People's Republic of China provided significant support for North Vietnam when the U.S. started to intervene, included through financial aid and the deployment of hundreds of thousands of military personnel in support roles. China said that its military and economic aid to North Vietnam and the Viet Cong totaled $20 billion (approx. $160 billion adjusted for inflation in 2022) during the Vietnam War;<ref name="Womack" />{{Rp|}} included in that aid were donations of 5 million tons of food to North Vietnam (equivalent to North Vietnamese food production in a single year), accounting for 10–15% of the North Vietnamese food supply by the 1970s.<ref name="Womack" />{{Rp|}} In the summer of 1962, [[Mao Zedong]] agreed to supply Hanoi with 90,000 rifles and guns free of charge, and starting in 1965, China began sending [[Anti-aircraft warfare|anti-aircraft]] units and engineering battalions to North Vietnam to repair the damage caused by American bombing. In particular, they helped man anti-aircraft batteries, rebuild roads and railroads, transport supplies, and perform other engineering works. This freed North Vietnamese army units for combat in the South. China sent 320,000 troops and annual arms shipments worth $180 million.<ref name="Qiang">{{Cite book |last=Qiang |first=Zhai |title=China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8078-4842-5}}</ref>{{Rp|135}} The Chinese military claims to have caused 38% of American air losses in the war.<ref name=Womack/>{{Rp|}} The PRC also began financing the Khmer Rouge as a counterweight to North Vietnam at this time. China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, and continued to aid them for years afterward.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bezlova, Antoaneta |date=21 February 2009 |title=China haunted by Khmer Rouge links |work=Asia Times |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223174332/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html |archive-date=23 February 2009}}</ref> ====Soviet Union==== {{Hatnote|For further reading, see [[Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union]]}} {{split section|Soviet Union and the Vietnam War|date=May 2023}} [[File:Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon talks in 1973.png|thumb|[[Leonid Brezhnev]] (left) was the Soviet Union's [[Leaders of the Soviet Union|leader]] during the Vietnam War.]] [[File:Учителя и ученики. Фото, сделанное весной 1965 г. в зенитно-ракетном учебном центре во Вьетнаме.jpg|thumb|Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam]] The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made [[surface-to-air missile]]s at U.S. aircraft in 1965.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Russians Acknowledge a Combat Role in Vietnam|date=14 April 1989|page=13|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/world/russians-acknowledge-a-combat-role-in-vietnam.html#:~:text=Soviet%20soldiers%20sent%20to%20the,Soviet%20Army%20newspaper%20reported%20today|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114837/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/world/russians-acknowledge-a-combat-role-in-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> Over a dozen Soviet soldiers died in this conflict. Following the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in 1991, [[Russia|Russian Federation]] officials acknowledged that the USSR had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam during the war.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Soviet Involvement in the Vietnam War |publisher=historicaltextarchive.com |agency=Associated Press |url=http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222024941/http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180|archive-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref> According to Russian sources, between 1953 and 1991, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included: 2,000 tanks; 1,700 [[Armoured personnel carrier|APCs]]; 7,000 artillery guns; over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns; 158 surface-to-air missile launchers; and 120 helicopters. In total, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $450 million.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sarin |first1=Oleg |url=https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari |title=Alien Wars: The Soviet Union's Aggressions Against the World, 1919 to 1989 |last2=Dvoretsky |first2=Lev |publisher=Presidio Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89141-421-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari/page/93 93–4] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Hastings" />{{Rp|364–371}} From July 1965 to the end of 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by some 6,500 officers and generals, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and sergeants of the [[Soviet Armed Forces]], amounting to roughly 11,000 military personnel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Soviet rocketeer: After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly |url=http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117082418/http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |archive-date=17 January 2013 |access-date=26 May 2010 |publisher=rus.ruvr |language=ru}}</ref> The [[KGB]] had also helped develop the [[signals intelligence]] capabilities of the North Vietnamese, through an operation known as Vostok (named after the [[Vostok 1]]).<ref name="MP">{{Cite web |last=Pribbenow |first=Merle |date=December 2014 |title=The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship during the Vietnam War: Cooperation and Conflict |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060039/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref> ===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, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, the alliance was invoked during the war. The UK, France and Pakistan declined to participate, and South Korea, Taiwan, and Spain were non-treaty participants. ==United 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kaminsky |first1=Arnold P. |title=Nationalism and Imperialism in South and Southeast Asia: Essays Presented to Damodar R.SarDesai |last2=Long |first2=Roger D. |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-351-99742-3}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Solis |first=Gary D. |title=The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-139-48711-5 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=6FKf0ocxEPAC|p=301}} 301]–303}}</ref> ===South Vietnamese, Korean and American{{Anchor|War crimes committed by US forces}}=== {{See also|United States war crimes#Vietnam War|Winter Soldier Investigation|Vietnam War Crimes Working Group|Tiger Force}} [[File:My Lai massacre.jpg|thumb|Victims of the [[My Lai massacre]]]] In 1968, the [[Vietnam War Crimes Working Group]] (VWCWG) was established by the [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] [[task force]] set up in the wake of the My Lai Massacre, to attempt to ascertain the veracity of emerging claims of [[war crimes by U.S. armed forces]] in Vietnam, during the Vietnam War period. Of the war crimes reported to military authorities, sworn statements by witnesses and status reports indicated that 320 incidents had a factual basis.<ref name="TurseNelson">{{Cite web |last1=Nick Turse |last2=Deborah Nelson |date=6 August 2006 |title=Civilian Killings Went Unpunished |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,7018171,full.story |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215021044/http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,7018171,full.story |archive-date=15 December 2012 |access-date=14 September 2013 |website=[[Los Angeles Times|latimes.com]]}}</ref> The substantiated cases included 7 massacres between 1967 and 1971 in which at least 137 civilians were killed; seventy eight further attacks targeting non-combatants resulting in at least 57 deaths, 56 wounded and 15 sexually assaulted; and 141 cases of U.S. soldiers torturing civilian detainees or prisoners of war with fists, sticks, bats, water or electric shock. [[Journalism]] in the ensuing years has documented other overlooked and uninvestigated war crimes involving every army division that was active in Vietnam,<ref name=TurseNelson/> including the atrocities committed by [[Tiger Force]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sallah |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/tigerforcetruest00sall |title=Tiger Force: a true story of men and war |publisher=Little, Brown |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-316-15997-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tigerforcetruest00sall/page/306 306] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Rummel estimated that American forces committed around 5,500 [[Democide|democidal]] killings between 1960 and 1972, from a range of between 4,000 and 10,000 killed.<ref name=Rummel/>{{Rp|}} U.S. forces established numerous [[free-fire zone]]s as a tactic to prevent Viet Cong fighters from sheltering in South Vietnamese villages.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Free Fire Zone – The Vietnam War |language=en-US |work=The Vietnam War |url=https://thevietnamwar.info/free-fire-zone/ |access-date=20 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205052554/https://thevietnamwar.info/free-fire-zone/|archive-date=February 5, 2023}}</ref> Such practice, which involved the assumption that any individual appearing in the designated zones was an enemy combatant that could be freely targeted by weapons, is regarded by journalist Lewis M. Simons as "a severe violation of the laws of war".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lewis M. Simons |title=Free Fire Zones |url=http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/free-fire-zones/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019162449/http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/free-fire-zones/ |archive-date=19 October 2016 |access-date=5 October 2016 |publisher=Crimes of War}}</ref> [[Nick Turse]], in his 2013 book, ''Kill Anything that Moves'', argues that a relentless drive toward higher [[body count]]s, a widespread use of free-fire zones, rules of engagement where civilians who ran from soldiers or helicopters could be viewed as Viet Cong and a widespread disdain for Vietnamese civilians led to massive civilian casualties and endemic war crimes inflicted by U.S. troops.<ref name="Turse">{{Cite book |last=Turse |first=Nick |title=Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam |publisher=Metropolitan Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8050-8691-1}}</ref>{{Rp|251}} One example cited by Turse is [[Operation Speedy Express]], an operation by the 9th Infantry Division, which was described by [[John Paul Vann]] as, in effect, "many Mỹ Lais".<ref name=Turse/>{{Rp|251}} A report by ''Newsweek'' magazine suggested that at least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during six months of the operation, and there were approximately 748 recovered weapons and an official US military body count of 10,889 enemy combatants killed.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kevin Buckley |date=19 June 1972 |title=Pacification's Deadly Price |url=http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/buckley.html |magazine=Newsweek |pages=42–43}}</ref> [[File:The_Terror_of_War.jpg|thumb|"The Terror of War" by [[Nick Ut]], which won the 1973 [[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography]], showing [[Phan Thi Kim Phuc|a nine-year-old girl]] running down a road after being severely burned by napalm.]] R.J. Rummel estimated that 39,000 were killed by South Vietnam during the Diem-era in democide from a range of between 16,000 and 167,000 people; for 1964 to 1975, Rummel estimated 50,000 people were killed in democide, from a range of between 42,000 and 128,000. Thus, the total for 1954 to 1975 is 81,000, from a range of between 57,000 and 284,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam.<ref name="Rummel" />{{Rp|}} [[Benjamin Valentino]] estimates 110,000–310,000 deaths as a "possible case" of "counter-guerrilla mass killings" by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the war.<ref name="Valentino">{{Cite book |last=Valentino |first=Benjamin |title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8014-7273-2 |page=84}}</ref> The Phoenix Program, coordinated by the CIA and involving US and South Vietnamese security forces, was aimed at destroying the political infrastructure of the Viet Cong. The program killed 26,369 to 41,000 people, with an unknown number being innocent civilians.<ref name="Ward" />{{Rp|341–343}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Otterman |first=Michael |title=American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond |publisher=[[Melbourne University Publishing]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-522-85333-9 |page=[{{GBurl|id=wiVqrgS68NoC|p=62}} 62]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |author-link=Seymour Hersh |date=15 December 2003 |title=Moving Targets |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/12/15/031215fa_fact?currentPage=all |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=20 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McCoy |first=Alfred |title=A question of torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror |publisher=Macmillan |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8050-8041-4 |page=[{{GBurl|id=FVwUYSBwtKcC|p=68}} 68]}}</ref> Torture and ill-treatment were frequently applied by the South Vietnamese to POWs as well as civilian prisoners.<ref name="Greiner">{{Cite book |last=Greiner |first=Bernd |title=War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-09-953259-0}}</ref>{{Rp|77}} During their visit to the [[Con Dao Prison|Con Son Prison]] in 1970, U.S. congressmen [[Augustus F. Hawkins]] and [[William Anderson (naval officer)|William R. Anderson]] witnessed detainees either confined in minute "tiger cages" or chained to their cells, and provided with poor-quality food. A group of American doctors inspecting the prison in the same year found many inmates suffering symptoms resulting from forced immobility and torture.<ref name=Greiner/>{{Rp|77}} During their visits to transit detention facilities under American administration in 1968 and 1969, the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|International Red Cross]] recorded many cases of torture and inhumane treatment before the captives were handed over to South Vietnamese authorities.<ref name=Greiner/>{{Rp|78}} Torture was conducted by the South Vietnamese government in collusion with the CIA.<ref>{{Cite news |date=15 December 2014 |title=Torture: What the Vietcong Learned and the CIA Didn't |language=en |work=Newsweek |url=http://www.newsweek.com/cia-torture-report-vietcong-vietnam-war-292041 |access-date=20 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409031604/https://www.newsweek.com/cia-torture-report-vietcong-vietnam-war-292041|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Man in the Snow White Cell |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no1/article06.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613112835/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no1/article06.html |archive-date=13 June 2007 |access-date=20 June 2018 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency}}</ref> South Korean forces were also accused of war crimes. One documented event was the [[Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre]] where the [[2nd Marine Division (South Korea)|2nd Marine Brigade]] reportedly killed between 69 and 79 civilians on 12 February 1968 in Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất village, [[Điện Bàn District]], [[Quảng Nam Province]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Go Gyeong-tae |date=15 November 2000 |script-title=ko:잠자던 진실, 30년만에 깨어나다 "한국군은 베트남에서 무엇을 했는가"{{Nbsp}}... 미국 국립문서보관소 비밀해제 보고서·사진 최초공개 |language=ko |work=[[Hankyoreh]] |url=http://h21.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2000/021003000200011150334040.html |access-date=8 September 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407205452/https://h21.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2000/021003000200011150334040.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> South Korean forces are also accused of perpetrating other massacres, namely: [[Bình Hòa massacre]], [[Binh Tai Massacre]] and [[Hà My massacre]]. ===North 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 Crimes}} [[File:Hue Massacre Interment.jpg|thumb|Interment of victims of the [[Huế Massacre]]]] Ami Pedahzur has written that "the overall volume and lethality of Viet Cong terrorism rivals or exceeds all but a handful of terrorist campaigns waged over the last third of the twentieth century", based on the definition of terrorists as a non-state actor, and examining targeted killings and civilian deaths which are estimated at over 18,000 from 1966 to 1969.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pedahzur |first=Ami |title=Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism: The Globalization of Martyrdom |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-77029-3 |page=116|url={{GBurl|id=LIGTAgAAQBAJ}}}}</ref> The US Department of Defense estimates the VC/PAVN had conducted 36,000 murders and almost 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972, {{Circa|1973}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lanning |first1=Michael |title=Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces |last2=Cragg |first2=Dan |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-60344-059-2 |pages=186–188|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/2746}}</ref> Benjamin Valentino attributes 45,000–80,000 "terrorist mass killings" to the Viet Cong during the war.<ref name=Valentino/> Statistics for 1968–1972 suggest that "about 80 percent of the terrorist victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres."<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|273}} Viet Cong tactics included the frequent mortaring of civilians in refugee camps, and the placing of mines on highways frequented by villagers taking their goods to urban markets. Some mines were set only to go off after heavy vehicle passage, causing extensive slaughter aboard packed civilian buses.<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|270–279}} Notable Viet Cong atrocities include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Huế<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |title=Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-062730-0 |page=444 |author-link=Ben Kiernan}}</ref> during the Tet Offensive and the killing of 252 civilians during the [[Đắk Sơn massacre]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pike |first=Douglas |url=https://archive.org/details/pavnpeoplesarmyo00pike |title=PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam |publisher=Presidio Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89141-243-4 |url-access=registration}}</ref> 155,000 refugees fleeing the final North Vietnamese Spring Offensive were reported to have been killed or abducted on the road to [[Tuy Hòa]] in 1975.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wiesner |first=Louis |title=Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954–1975 |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-313-26306-4 |pages=318–319}}</ref> According to Rummel, PAVN and Viet Cong troops killed 164,000 civilians in democide between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam, from a range of between 106,000 and 227,000 (50,000 of which were reportedly killed by shelling and mortar on ARVN forces during the retreat to Tuy Hoa).<ref name=Rummel/>{{Rp|}} North Vietnam was also known for its abusive treatment of American POWs, most notably in [[Hỏa Lò Prison]] (aka the ''Hanoi Hilton''), where [[Forced confession|torture was employed to extract confessions]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|655}} ==Women== {{See also|Women in the Vietnam War|Timeline of American women in war and the U.S. military from 1945 to 1999#1965}} ===American nurses=== [[File:Second Lieutenant Kathleen M. Sullivan treats a Vietnamese child during Operation MED CAP, a U.S. Air Force civic... - NARA - 542331.jpg|thumb|A nurse treats a Vietnamese child, 1967]] 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.<ref name="Norman">{{Cite journal |last=Norman |first=Elizabeth M. |title=Women at War: the Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam |series=Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving |journal= New Jersey Nurse |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-8122-1317-1 |volume=22 |page=15 |jstor=j.ctt3fhsqj |pmid=1570214 |issue=2}}</ref>{{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.<ref name="Norman" />{{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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vietti, Eleanor Ardel |url=http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/v/v600.htm |access-date=4 January 2018 |website=POW Network|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206161639/https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/v/v600.htm|archive-date=February 6, 2023}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Fisher |first=Binnie |date=28 October 2001 |title=The last missing woman from the Vietnam War |work=Houston Chronicle |url=https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-last-missing-woman-from-the-Vietnam-War-2043691.php |access-date=4 January 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114837/https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-last-missing-woman-from-the-Vietnam-War-2043691.php|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lloyd |first=Alice B. |date=29 May 2017 |title=Fact Check: Why Are So Few Women's Names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall? |work=Weekly Standard |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/fact-check-why-are-so-few-womens-names-on-the-vietnam-memorial-wall/article/2008250 |access-date=4 January 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220607104216/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/fact-check-why-are-so-few-womens-names-on-the-vietnam-memorial-wall|archive-date=June 7, 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Holm|1992|p=206}}.</ref> 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.<ref name=Norman/>{{Rp|71}} ===Vietnamese soldiers=== Unlike the American women who went to Vietnam, both South and North Vietnamese women were enlisted and served in combat zones. Women were enlisted in both the PAVN and the Viet Cong, many joining due to the promises of female equality and a greater social role within society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Jordan |date=October 2015 |title=Taking on a Superpower: A Salute to the Women of Vietnam |url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?&article=1340&context=kaleidoscope |journal=Kaleidoscope |volume=3 |issue=1}}</ref><ref name="BBC2016">{{Cite news |date=6 December 2016 |title=The women who fought for their country |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-37986986 |access-date=19 June 2018}}</ref> Some women also served for the PAVN and Viet Cong intelligence services. The deputy military commander of the Viet Cong, was a female general, [[Nguyễn Thị Định]]. All-female units were present throughout the entirety of the war, ranging from front-line combat troops to anti-aircraft, scout and reconnaissance units.<ref name="Herman">{{Cite news |last=Herman |first=Elizabeth D. |date=6 June 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Women Who Fought for Hanoi |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/vietnam-war-women-soldiers.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416233246/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/vietnam-war-women-soldiers.html|archive-date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> Female combat squads were present in the Cu Chi theater.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nguyen |first=Hai T. |date=17 January 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} As the Earth Shook, They Stood Firm |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/as-the-earth-shook-they-stood-firm.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416233245/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/as-the-earth-shook-they-stood-firm.html|archive-date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> They also fought in the Battle of Hue.<ref name=Bowden/>{{Rp|388–391}} In addition, large numbers of women served in North Vietnam, manning anti-aircraft batteries, providing village security and serving in logistics on the Ho Chi Minh trail.<ref name=Herman/><ref name=BBC2016/> Other women were embedded with troops on the front-lines, serving as doctors and medical personnel. [[Đặng Thùy Trâm]] became renowned after her diary was published following her death. The Foreign Minister for the Viet Cong and later the PRG was also a woman, Nguyễn Thị Bình. [[File:WAFC-ARVN Pharmacist.jpg|thumb|Master-Sergeant and pharmacist Do Thi Trinh, part of the WAFC, supplying medication to ARVN dependents]] In South Vietnam, many women voluntarily served in the ARVN's Women's Armed Force Corps (WAFC) and various other Women's corps in the military. Some, like in the WAFC, served in combat with other soldiers. Others served as nurses and doctors in the battlefield and in military hospitals, or served in South Vietnam or America's intelligence agencies. During Diệm's presidency, his sister-in-law [[Madame Nhu]] was the commander of the WAFC.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shapiro |first=T. Rees |date=27 April 2011 |title=Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu, who exerted political power in Vietnam, dies at 87 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mme-ngo-dinh-nhu-who-exerted-political-power-in-vietnam-dies-at-87/2011/04/26/AFpwwF2E_story.html |access-date=4 February 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224025629/http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mme-ngo-dinh-nhu-who-exerted-political-power-in-vietnam-dies-at-87/2011/04/26/AFpwwF2E_story.html|archive-date=December 24, 2011}}</ref> Many women joined provincial and voluntary village-level militia in the [[People's Self-Defense Force]] especially during the ARVN expansions later in the war. During the war, more than one million rural people migrated or fled the fighting in the South Vietnamese countryside to the cities, especially Saigon. Among the internal refugees were many young women who became the ubiquitous "bar girls" of wartime South Vietnam, "hawking her wares—be that cigarettes, liquor, or herself" to American and allied soldiers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gustafsson, Mai Lan |year=2011 |title=Freedom. Money. Fun. Love': The Warlore of Vietnamese Bargirls |journal=Oral History Review |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=308–330 |doi=10.1093/ohr/ohr097 |pmid=22175096 |s2cid=7718015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Richard A. |title=Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam's Hearts and Minds |publisher=Westview Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8133-3459-2 |page=40}}</ref> American bases were ringed by bars and brothels.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barry |first=Kathleen |url=https://archive.org/details/prostitutionofse00barrrich |title=The Prostitution of Sexuality |publisher=NYU Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8147-1277-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/prostitutionofse00barrrich/page/133 133] |url-access=registration}}</ref> 8,040 Vietnamese women came to the United States as war brides between 1964 and 1975.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Trinh Võ |first1=Linda |url=https://archive.org/details/asianamericanwom00lind |title=Asian American women: the Frontiers reader |last2=Sciachitano |first2=Marian |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8032-9627-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/asianamericanwom00lind/page/144 144] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Many mixed-blood [[Amerasian]] children were left behind when their American fathers returned to the United States after their tour of duty in South Vietnam; 26,000 of them were permitted to immigrate to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lamb, David |date=June 2009 |title=Children of the Vietnam War |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/children-of-the-vietnam-war-131207347/ |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524145514/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/children-of-the-vietnam-war-131207347/|archive-date=May 24, 2023}}</ref> ===Journalists=== Women also played a prominent role as front-line reporters in the conflict, directly reporting on the conflict as it occurred.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Becker |first=Elizabeth |date=17 November 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Women Who Covered Vietnam |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/opinion/women-journalists-vietnam.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152947/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/opinion/women-journalists-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> A number of women volunteered on the North Vietnamese side as embedded journalists, including author [[Lê Minh Khuê]] embedded with PAVN forces,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Stars, The Earth, The River {{!}} Northwestern University Press |url=http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/stars-earth-river |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618025620/http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/stars-earth-river |archive-date=18 June 2018 |access-date=1 June 2018 |website=www.nupress.northwestern.edu |language=en}}</ref> on the Ho Chi Minh trail as well as on combat fronts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lamb |first=David |date=10 January 2003 |title=Vietnam's Women of War |language=en-US |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/10/world/fg-vietnam10 |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0458-3035|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125194236/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-10-fg-vietnam10-story.html|archive-date=November 25, 2022}}</ref> 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 traveled into Laos with them; they were released back into Cambodia after 23 days of captivity.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Kate Webb – Captured in Cambodia |language=en |work=UPI |url=https://www.upi.com/Kate-Webb-Captured-in-Cambodia/53871034760165/ |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211072126/https://www.upi.com/Kate-Webb-Captured-in-Cambodia/53871034760165/|archive-date=February 11, 2018}}</ref> 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''.<ref name=Bowden/>{{Rp|245}} ==Black servicemen== {{Main|Military history of African Americans in the Vietnam War}} {{See also|Civil rights movement|Military history of African Americans}} [[File:Haeberlewounded.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|A wounded [[African Americans|African-American]] soldier being carried away, 1968]] The experience of American military personnel of African ancestry during the Vietnam War had received significant attention. For example, the website "African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War" compiles examples of such coverage,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fully Integrated |url=http://www.aavw.org/served/homepage_wetoo_integrated.html |access-date=11 May 2017 |website=African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War (aavw.org)}}</ref> as does the print and broadcast work of journalist [[Wallace Terry]] whose book ''Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans'' (1984), includes observations about the impact of the war on the black community in general and on black servicemen specifically. Points he makes on the latter topic include: the higher proportion of combat casualties in Vietnam among African American servicemen than among American soldiers of other races, the shift toward and different attitudes of black military volunteers and black conscripts, the discrimination encountered by black servicemen "on the battlefield in decorations, promotion and duty assignments" as well as their having to endure "the racial insults, cross-burnings and Confederate flags of their white comrades"—and the experiences faced by black soldiers stateside, during the war and after America's withdrawal.{{Sfn|Terry|1984|loc=Epigraph, pp. xv–xvii}} Civil rights leaders protested the disproportionate casualties and the overrepresentation in hazardous duty and combat roles experienced by African American servicemen, prompting reforms that were implemented beginning in 1967–68. As a result, by the war's completion in 1975, black casualties had declined to 12.5% of US combat deaths, approximately equal to percentage of draft-eligible black men, though still slightly higher than the 10% who served in the military.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Appy |first=Christian |title=Working-class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8078-6011-3}}</ref> ==Weapons== {{Main|Weapons of the Vietnam War}} [[File:HoChiMinhTrail003.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Guerrillas assemble shells and rockets delivered along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.]] During the early stages of the war, the Viet Cong mainly sustained itself with captured arms; these were often of American manufacture or were crude, makeshift weapons used alongside [[shotgun]]s made of galvanized pipes. Most arms were captured from poorly defended ARVN militia outposts. In 1967, all Viet Cong battalions were reequipped with arms of Soviet design such as the AK-47 assault rifle, carbines and the [[RPG-2]] anti-tank weapon.<ref name=Sheehan/>{{Rp|}} Their weapons were principally of Chinese<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150213214134/http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/chinesesupport.aspx Chinese Support for North Vietnam during the Vietnam War: The Decisive Edge], Bob Seals, Military History Online, 23 September 2008</ref> or Soviet manufacture.<ref>Albert Parray, ''Military Review'', [http://calldp.leavenworth.army.mil/eng_mr/txts/VOL47/00000006/art2.pdf "Soviet aid to Vietnam"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428210157/http://calldp.leavenworth.army.mil/eng_mr/txts/VOL47/00000006/art2.pdf |date=28 April 2011}}, June 1967</ref> In the period up to the conventional phase in 1970, the Viet Cong and PAVN were primarily limited to 81 mm mortars, recoilless rifles, and small arms and had significantly lighter equipment and firepower in comparison with the US arsenal. They relied on ambushes, superior stealth, planning, marksmanship, and small-unit tactics to face the disproportionate US technological advantage.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Robert |title=Indochina and Vietnam: The Thirty-five Year War, 1940–1975 |last2=Wainstock |first2=Dennis D. |publisher=Enigma Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-936274-66-6 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=jexmAgAAQBAJ|pg=PT101}} 101]–102 |language=en}}</ref> After the Tet Offensive, many PAVN units incorporated [[light tank]]s such as the [[Type 62]], [[Type 59 tank]]., [[BTR-60]], [[D-74 122 mm field gun|Type 60 artillery]], [[Amphibious vehicle|amphibious tanks]] (such as the [[PT-76]]) and integrated into new war doctrines as a mobile combined-arms force.<ref name=":9" /> The PAVN started receiving experimental Soviet weapons against ARVN forces, including [[Man-portable air-defense system|MANPADS]] [[9K32 Strela-2]] and [[anti-tank missile]]s, [[9M14 Malyutka]]. By 1975, they had fully transformed from the strategy of mobile light-infantry and using the people's war concept used against the United States.<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |date=12 June 2006 |title=North Vietnam's Master Plan {{!}} HistoryNet |url=http://www.historynet.com/north-vietnams-master-plan.htm |access-date=1 June 2018 |website=www.historynet.com |language=en-US|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409052605/https://www.historynet.com/north-vietnams-master-plan/?f|archive-date= April 9, 2023}}</ref> The US service rifle was initially the [[M14 rifle|M14]]. The M14 was a powerful, accurate rifle, but it was heavy, hard-recoiling, and especially unwieldy in jungle fighting, as it was unsuited for the combat conditions, often suffering from feed failure. It was gradually replaced by the [[M16 rifle]], designed by [[Eugene Stoner]], between 1964 and 1970. When first deployed, the M16 also suffered from a propensity to jam in combat, leaving the soldier defenseless and potentially killing him.<ref>{{Cite news |last=C.H. Chivers |date=2 November 2009 |title=How Reliable is the M16 Rifle? |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/how-reliable-is-the-m-16-rifle/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409001432/https://archive.nytimes.com/atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/how-reliable-is-the-m-16-rifle/|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> According to a congressional report, the jamming was not related to operator error or to an inherent flaw in the rifle, but instead due to a change in the gunpowder to be used in the rifle's cartridges, which led to rapid powder fouling of the action and failures to extract or feed cartridges. This decision, made after "inadequate testing", proved that "the safety of soldiers was a secondary consideration."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maraniss |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/theymarchedintos00mara |title=They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7432-6255-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/theymarchedintos00mara/page/410 410] |url-access=registration}}</ref> The issue was solved in early 1968 with the issuance of the M16A1, featuring a chrome-plated bore, which reduced fouling, and the introduction of a cleaner-burning powder.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|408–411}} Incorporating features from the German [[FG-42]] and [[MG-42]], the U.S. replaced their earlier [[M1919 Browning]] in most roles with the [[M60 machine gun]], including on helicopters where it was used for [[suppressive fire]]. While its issues were not as severe as they were in the M14 or M16, the M60 still could fail to fire at crucial times – spent casings could get stuck inside of the chamber, meaning the barrel would have to be replaced before it could fire again.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dockery |first=Kevin |title=The M60 Machine Gun |date=2012 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |page=58}}</ref> [[File:UH-1D helicopters in Vietnam 1966.jpg|thumb|[[Bell UH-1 Iroquois|UH-1D]] helicopters airlift members of a U.S. infantry regiment, 1966]] The [[Lockheed AC-130|AC-130 "Spectre"]] Gunship and the [[UH-1]] "Huey" gunship were used frequently by the U.S. during the war. The AC-130 was a heavily armed [[attack aircraft|ground-attack aircraft]] variant of the [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules|C-130 Hercules]] transport plane, while the Huey is a military helicopter powered by a single, [[turboshaft]] engine; approximately 7,000 UH-1 aircraft saw service in Vietnam. The U.S. heavily armored, 90 mm [[M48 Patton|M48A3 Patton tank]] saw extensive action during the Vietnam War, and over 600 were deployed with U.S. Forces. US ground forces also had access to B-52 and F-4 Phantom II and other aircraft to launch [[napalm]], [[White phosphorus munitions|white phosphorus]], [[tear gas]], [[chemical weapon]]s, [[precision-guided munition]] and [[cluster bomb]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Biggs |first=David |date=25 November 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} Vietnam: The Chemical War |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/vietnam-the-chemical-war.html?mtrref=www.google.ca&assetType=opinion |access-date=20 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416211026/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/vietnam-the-chemical-war.html?mtrref=www.google.ca&assetType=opinion|archive-date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> ===Radio communications=== [[File:North Vietnamese SA-2.jpg|thumb|North Vietnamese SAM crew in front of SA-2 launcher. The Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with considerable anti-air defense around installations.]] The Vietnam War was the first conflict where U.S. forces had [[secure voice]] communication equipment available at the tactical level. The National Security Agency ran a crash program to provide U.S. forces with a family of security equipment, codenamed [[NESTOR (encryption)|NESTOR]], fielding 17,000 units initially; eventually 30,000 units were produced. However, limitations of the units, including poor voice quality, reduced range, annoying time delays and logistical support issues, led to only one unit in ten being used.<ref name="NSA">{{Cite web |year=1981 |title=A History of U.S. Communications Security; the David G. Boak Lectures |url=https://www.governmentattic.org/18docs/Hist_US_COMSEC_Boak_NSA_1973u.pdf |publisher=National Security Agency |page=43 |volume=2|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326032806/https://www.governmentattic.org/18docs/Hist_US_COMSEC_Boak_NSA_1973u.pdf|archive-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref> While many in the U.S. military believed that the Viet Cong and PAVN would not be able to exploit insecure communications, interrogation of captured communication intelligence units showed they could understand the jargon and codes used in real time and were often able to warn their side of impending U.S. actions.<ref name=NSA/>{{Rp|4,10}} ===Extent of U.S. bombings=== {{See also|Operation Rolling Thunder|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|CIA activities in Laos}} The U.S. dropped over 7 million tons of bombs on Indochina during the war, more than triple the 2.1 million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of [[World War II]] and more than ten times the amount dropped by the U.S. during the Korean War. 500 thousand tons were dropped on Cambodia, 1 million tons were dropped on North Vietnam, and 4 million tons were dropped on South Vietnam. On a per capita basis, the 2 million tons dropped on Laos make it the most heavily bombed country in history; ''The New York Times'' noted this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos."<ref name=KiernanTaylor/> Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was a strong advocate of the [[Convention on Cluster Munitions]] to ban the weapons, and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 2011 |title=Disarmament |url=http://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(httpPages)/B3F3E37A2838630FC125772E0050F4F7?OpenDocument |access-date=20 September 2013 |website=The United Nations Office at Geneva |publisher=United Nations}}</ref> Former U.S. Air Force official Earl Tilford has recounted "repeated bombing runs of a lake in central Cambodia. The B-52s literally dropped their payloads in the lake." The Air Force ran many missions of this kind to secure additional funding during budget negotiations, so the tonnage expended does not directly correlate with the resulting damage.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greenberg |first=Jon |date=11 September 2014 |title=Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War |url=http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/sep/11/henry-kissinger/kissinger-drones-have-killed-more-civilians-bombin/ |access-date=18 September 2016 |website=[[Politifact.com]]}}</ref> ==Aftermath== ===In Southeast Asia=== ==== In Vietnam ==== {{Further|Re-education camp (Vietnam)|Mayaguez incident}} [[File:B52 CRASH WRECKAGE AT HUU TIEP LAKE HA NOI FEB 2012 (6887035292).jpg|thumb|upright|B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, [[Hanoi]]. Downed during [[Operation Linebacker II]], its remains have been turned into a war monument.]] On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robbers |first=Gerhard |title=Encyclopedia of world constitutions |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8160-6078-8 |page=[{{GBurl|id=M3A-xgf1yM4C|p=1021}} 1021]}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elliot |first=Duong Van Mai |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=499, 512–513 |chapter=The End of the War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9o8fAo2R6wC&pg=PA499}}</ref>{{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." Sixteen 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' recommendations on other refugees to interview.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elliot |first=Duong Van Mai |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=512–513 |chapter=The End of the War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9o8fAo2R6wC&pg=PA512 }}<br />cf. {{Cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Gareth |last2=Roberts |first2=James |date=Summer 1988 |title=Creating a Bloodbath by Statistical Manipulation: A Review of ''A Methodology for Estimating Political Executions in Vietnam, 1975–1983'', Jacqueline Desbarats; Karl D. Jackson. |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=303–310 |doi=10.2307/2759306 |jstor=2759306}}</ref> Nevertheless, there exist unverified reports of mass executions.<ref>''see'' Nguyen Cong Hoan' testimony in {{Cite report |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002939991 |title=Human Rights in Vietnam: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations: House of Representatives, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session |date=26 July 1977 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=149, 153}};<br />''see also'' {{Cite journal |last1=Desbarats |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Jackson |first2=Karl D. |date=September 1985 |title=Vietnam 1975–1982: The Cruel Peace |journal=The Washington Quarterly |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=169–182 |doi=10.1080/01636608509477343 |pmid=11618274}}</ref>}} 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Sagan |first1=Ginetta |last2=Denney |first2=Stephen |date=October–November 1982 |title=Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death |url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982 |access-date=1 September 2016 |website=The Indochina Newsletter}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nghia |first=M. Vo |title=The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam |publisher=McFarland |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7864-1714-8}}</ref> According to Amnesty International Report 1979, this figure varied considerably depend on different observers: "...{{Nbsp}}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" (''The Washington Post'', 20 December 1978), and "300,000" (Agence France Presse from Hanoi, 12 February 1978)."<ref>{{Cite web |year=1979 |title=Amnesty International Report, 1979 |url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/POL100011979ENGLISH.PDF |access-date=26 March 2018 |publisher=Amnesty International |page=116|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323142937/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/001/1979/en/|archive-date=March 23, 2023}}</ref> 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.<ref>''Huy, Đức. Bên Thắng Cuộc. OsinBook.''</ref> 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.<ref name="Desbarats">{{Cite book |last=Desbarats |first=Jacqueline |title=Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation |series=Indochina report ; no. 11 |publisher=Executive Publications |location=Singapore |date=1987}}</ref><ref name="Chapman">{{Cite news |last=Chapman |first=William |date=17 August 1979 |title=Hanoi Rebuts Refugees on 'Economic Zones' |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/ |access-date=30 June 2021|archive-date=June 14, 2023|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20230614164256/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/}}</ref> [[File:35 Vietnamese boat people 2.JPEG|thumb|upright|Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984]] [[Gabriel García Márquez]], a [[Nobel Prize]] winning writer, described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" after the war, when he visited in 1980: {{Blockquote|The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. Ten percent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City was suffering from serious venereal diseases when the war ended, and there were 4 million illiterates throughout the South.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=Read Gabriel García Márquez's Moving Vietnam Piece |magazine=Rolling Stone |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-vietnam-wars-19800529 |access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>}} The U.S. used its [[United Nations Security Council veto power|security council veto]] to block Vietnam's recognition by the United Nations three times, an obstacle to the country receiving international aid.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 September 1977 |title=Vietnam Is Admitted to the U.N. As 32d General Assembly Opens |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html |access-date=27 April 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409052642/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> ==== Laos and Cambodia ==== By 1975, the North Vietnamese had lost influence over the Khmer Rouge.<ref name=Hastings/>{{Rp|708}} [[Phnom Penh]], the capital of Cambodia, fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge would eventually [[Cambodian genocide|kill 1–3 million Cambodians]] out of a population of around 8 million, in one of the [[List of genocides by death toll|bloodiest genocides in history]].<ref name=Heuveline/>{{Rp|}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sharp |first=Bruce |date=1 April 2005 |title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia |url=http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm |access-date=15 July 2016 |quote=The range based on the figures above extends from a minimum of 1.747 million, to a maximum of 2.495 million.}}</ref><ref>The [[Documentation Center of Cambodia]] has mapped some 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution; execution is believed to account for roughly 60% of the full death toll. See: {{Cite book |last1=Seybolt |first1=Taylor B. |title=Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict |last2=Aronson |first2=Jay D. |last3=Fischoff |first3=Baruch |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-997731-4 |page=238}}</ref><ref>[[Ben Kiernan]] cites a range of 1.671 to 1.871 million excess deaths under the Khmer Rouge. See {{Cite journal |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Kiernan |date=December 2003 |title=The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975–79, and East Timor, 1975–80 |journal=Critical Asian Studies |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=585–597 |doi=10.1080/1467271032000147041 |s2cid=143971159}}</ref> The relationship between Vietnam and [[Democratic Kampuchea]] (Cambodia) escalated right after the end of the war. In response to the Khmer Rouge taking over [[Phu Quoc]] on 17 April and [[Tho Chu]] on 4 May 1975 and the belief that they were responsible for the disappearance of 500 Vietnamese natives on Tho Chu, Vietnam launched a counterattack to take back these islands.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrell |first=Epsey Cooke |title=The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the law of the sea: an analysis of Vietnamese behavior within the emerging international oceans regime |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |year=1998 |isbn=90-411-0473-9}}</ref> After several failed attempts to negotiate by both sides, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea in 1978 and ousted the Khmer Rouge, who were being supported by China, in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. In response, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as the Sino-Vietnamese War. From 1978 to 1979, some 450,000 ethnic [[Hoa people|Chinese]] left Vietnam by boat as refugees or were deported. The Pathet Lao overthrew the monarchy of Laos in December 1975, establishing the [[Lao People's Democratic Republic]] under the leadership of a member of the royal family, [[Souphanouvong]]. The change in regime was "quite peaceful, a sort of Asiatic '[[velvet revolution]]'"—although 30,000 former officials were sent to reeducation camps, often enduring harsh conditions for several years. The conflict between Hmong rebels and the Pathet Lao [[Insurgency in Laos|continued]] in isolated pockets.<ref name=Courtois/>{{Rp|575–576}} ==== Unexploded ordnance ==== [[Unexploded ordnance]], mostly from U.S. bombing, continues to detonate and kill people today and has rendered much land hazardous and impossible to cultivate. According to the Vietnamese government, ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the war officially ended.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 December 2012 |title=Vietnam War Bomb Explodes Killing Four Children |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/03/vietname-war-bomb-explodes_n_2229727.html |website=The Huffington Post}}</ref><ref>[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vietnam-war-shell-explodes-kills-two-fishermen/story-fn3dxix6-1226046291270 Vietnam war shell explodes, kills two fishermen] The Australian (28 April 2011)</ref> In Laos, 80 million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. According to the government of Laos, unexploded ordnance has killed or injured over 20,000 Laotians since the end of the war and currently 50 people are killed or maimed every year.<ref name="Wright">{{Cite news |last=Wright |first=Rebecca |date=6 September 2016 |title='My friends were afraid of me': What 80 million unexploded US bombs did to Laos |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/05/asia/united-states-laos-secret-war/ |access-date=18 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lao PDR - Casualties and Victim Assistance |url=http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/lao-pdr/casualties-and-victim-assistance.aspx |access-date=17 July 2022 |website=Landmine and Clustering Munition Monitor}}</ref> It is estimated that the explosives still remaining buried in the ground will not be removed entirely for the next few centuries.<ref name="Nguyen" />{{Rp|317}} ==== Refugee crisis ==== {{Main|Indochina refugee crisis|Vietnamese boat people}} Over 3 million people left Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the [[Indochina refugee crisis]] after 1975. Most Asian countries were unwilling to accept these refugees, many of whom fled by boat and were known as [[boat people]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Stephen Castles |last2=Mark J. Miller |date=10 July 2009 |title=Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region |url=http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-asia-pacific-region |publisher=Migration Polict Institute}}</ref> Between 1975 and 1998, an estimated 1.2 million [[refugee]]s from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries resettled in the United States, while Canada, Australia, and France resettled over 500,000. China accepted 250,000 people.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=William |title=Terms of refuge: the Indochinese exodus & the international response |publisher=Zed Books |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85649-610-0 |page=[{{GBurl|id=_rjiOXMRd4sC|p=127}} 127]}}</ref> Of all the countries of Indochina, Laos experienced the largest refugee flight in proportional terms, as 300,000 people out of a total population of 3 million crossed the border into Thailand. Included among their ranks were "about 90 percent" of Laos's "intellectuals, technicians, and officials."<ref name=Courtois/>{{Rp|575}} An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 [[Vietnamese boat people]] died at sea, according to the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nghia |first=M. Vo |title=The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975–1992 |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-2345-3}}</ref> ===In the United States=== {{Main|United States in the Vietnam War}} [[File:Marine da nang.jpg|thumb|upright|A young [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, [[Da Nang]], 3 August 1965]] Failure of U.S. goals in 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lippman |first=Thomas W. |date=9 April 1995 |title=McNamara Writes Vietnam Mea Culpa |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |access-date=28 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228230351/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |archive-date=28 December 2019 |quote=As recounted by McNamara{{Nbsp}}... the war could and should have been avoided and should have been halted at several key junctures, one as early as 1963. According to McNamara, he and other senior advisers to President Lyndon B. Johnson failed to head it off through ignorance, inattention, flawed thinking, political expediency and lack of courage.}}</ref> Others point to a failure of U.S. military doctrine. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated that "the achievement of a military victory by U.S. forces in Vietnam was indeed a dangerous illusion."<ref name=McNamara/>{{Rp|368}} The inability to bring Hanoi to the bargaining table by bombing also illustrated another U.S. miscalculation, and demonstrated the limitations of U.S. military abilities in achieving political goals.<ref name=Karnow/>{{Rp|17}} As [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|Army Chief of Staff]] [[Harold Keith Johnson]] noted, "if anything came out of Vietnam, it was that air power couldn't do the job."<ref name="Buzzano">{{Cite web |last=Buzzanco |first=Bob |date=17 April 2000 |title=25 Years After End of Vietnam War, Myths Keep Us from Coming to Terms with Vietnam |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605195117/http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |archive-date=5 June 2008 |access-date=11 June 2008 |website=[[The Baltimore Sun]]}}</ref> General William Westmoreland admitted that the bombing had been ineffective, saying he doubted "that the North Vietnamese would have relented."<ref name=Buzzano/> U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to President Gerald Ford that "in terms of military tactics … our armed forces are not suited to this kind of war. Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail."{{Sfn|Kissinger|1975}} Hanoi had persistently sought unification of the country since the Geneva Accords, and the effects of U.S. bombings had negligible impact on the goals of the North Vietnamese government.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|1–10}} The effects of U.S. bombing campaigns had mobilized the people throughout North Vietnam and mobilized international support for North Vietnam due to the perception of a super-power attempting to bomb a significantly smaller, agrarian society into submission.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{Rp|48–52}} In the post-war era, Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. 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. U.S. public polling in 1978 revealed that nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral."<ref name="Hagopian" />{{Rp|10}} The [[Vietnam War POW/MIA issue]], concerning the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as [[missing in action]], persisted for many years after the war's conclusion. The costs of the war loom large in American popular consciousness; a 1990 poll showed that the public incorrectly believed that more Americans died in Vietnam than in World War II.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 May 2001 |title=Victory in Europe 56 Years Ago |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/1552/Victory-Europe-Years-Ago.aspx |publisher=Gallup News Service}}</ref> ====Financial cost==== {| class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 35%;" |+United States expenditures in South Vietnam (SVN) (1953–1974) Direct costs only. Some estimates are higher.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dacy |first=Douglas |url=https://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/108054.pdf |title=Foreign aid, war, and economic development: South Vietnam 1955–1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-30327-9 |page=242}}</ref> |- ! 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}}).<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 January 2014 |title=How Much Did The Vietnam War Cost? |language=en-US |work=The Vietnam War |url=https://thevietnamwar.info/how-much-vietnam-war-cost/ |access-date=17 May 2018}}</ref> 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.<ref name="CQ">{{Cite web |title=CQ Almanac Online Edition |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1213988#H2_1 |access-date=14 June 2018 |website=library.cqpress.com}}</ref> General record-keeping was reported to have been sloppy for government spending during the war.<ref name=CQ/> It was stated that war-spending could have paid off every mortgage in the US at that time, with money leftover.<ref name=CQ/> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 March 2013 |title=US still making payments to relatives of Civil War veterans, analysis finds |work=Fox News |agency=[[Associated Press]] |url=http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/20/us-still-paying-for-costs-civil-war-analysis-finds/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Jim Lobe |date=30 March 2013 |title=Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Cost U.S. 4–6 Trillion Dollars: Report |agency=[[Inter Press Service]] |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/iraq-afghanistan-wars-will-cost-u-s-4-6-trillion-dollars-report/}}</ref> ====Impact on the U.S. military==== {{See also|Vietnam War resisters in Canada|Vietnam War resisters in Sweden}} [[File:OperationHueCity1967wounded.jpg|thumb|left|A marine gets his wounds treated during operations in Huế City, in 1968]] More than 3 million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5 million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node/7 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=29 May 2011 |archive-date=8 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508201447/http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node%2F7 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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 existed since World War II, but ended in January 1973.<ref name=bbmdst>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rjoTAAAAIBAJ&pg=6104%2C3785258 |newspaper=The Bulletin |location=Bend, Oregon |agency=UPI |title=Military draft system stopped |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=mdebld>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_6ojAAAAIBAJ&pg=5837%2C1959488 |newspaper=The Times-News |location=Hendersonville, North Carolina |agency=Associated Press |title=Military draft ended by Laird |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1 }}</ref> By the war's end, 58,220 American soldiers had been killed,<ref name="USd&w" group="A" /> more than 150,000 had been wounded, and at least 21,000 had been permanently disabled.<ref name="DigitalHistory">{{Cite web |title=The War's Costs |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505035502/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513 |archive-date=5 May 2008 |access-date=3 November 2019 |publisher=Digital History}}</ref> The average age of the U.S. troops killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years.<ref>Combat Area Casualty File, November 1993. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The Wall), Center for Electronic Records, National Archives, Washington, DC</ref> According to Dale Kueter, "Of those killed in combat, 86.3 percent were white, 12.5 percent were black and the remainder from other races."<ref name="Kueter" /> Approximately 830,000 Vietnam veterans suffered some degree of [[posttraumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD).<ref name="DigitalHistory" /> Vietnam veterans suffered from PTSD in unprecedented numbers, as many as 15.2% of Vietnam veterans, because the U.S. military had routinely provided heavy psychoactive drugs, including amphetamines, to American servicemen, which left them unable to process adequately their traumas at the time.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=8 April 2016 |title=The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier: During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Military Plied Its Servicemen with Speed, Steroids, and Painkillers to Help Them Handle Extended Combat |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/ |magazine=The Atlantic|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520145751/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/|archive-date=May 20, 2023}}</ref> Drug use, racial tensions, and the growing incidence of fragging—attempting to kill unpopular officers and non-commissioned officers with grenades or other weapons—created severe problems for the U.S. military and impacted its capability of undertaking combat operations. Between 1969 and 1971 the U.S. Army recorded more than 900 attacks by troops on their own officers and NCOs with 99 killed.<ref name="Lepre">{{Cite book |last=Lepre |first=George |title=Fragging: Why U.S. Soldiers Assaulted their Officers in Vietnam |publisher=Texas Tech University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-89672-715-1}}</ref>{{Rp|44–47}} An estimated 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft,<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 November 2005 |title=War Resisters Remain in Canada with No Regrets |work=ABC News |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339 |access-date=26 February 2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312063551/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339|archive-date=March 12, 2023}}</ref> and approximately 50,000 American servicemen deserted.<ref>{{Cite web |date=28 June 2005 |title=Vietnam War Resisters in Canada Open Arms to U.S. Military Deserters |url=http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812205654/http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |archive-date=12 August 2014 |access-date=12 August 2014 |publisher=Pacific News Service}}</ref> In January 1977, United States president [[Jimmy Carter]] granted a full and unconditional pardon to all Vietnam-era [[Draft evasion in the Vietnam War|draft evaders]] with [[Proclamation 4483]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 January 1977 |title=Proclamation 4483: Granting Pardon for Violations of the Selective Service Act, August 4, 1964 To March 38, 1973 |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/carter_proclamation.htm |access-date=11 June 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185642/https://www.justice.gov/pardon/proclamation-4483-granting-pardon-violations-selective-service-act|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> The Vietnam War called into question the U.S. Army doctrine. Marine Corps general [[Victor H. Krulak]] heavily criticized Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives{{Nbsp}}... with small likelihood of a successful outcome."<ref name=Buzzano/> In addition, doubts surfaced about the ability of the military to train foreign forces. Furthermore, throughout the war there was found to be considerable flaws and dishonesty by officers and commanders due to promotions being tied to the body count system touted by Westmoreland and McNamara.<ref name=Mohr/> And behind the scenes Secretary of Defense McNamara wrote in a memo to President Johnson his doubts about the war: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Scheer |first=Robert |date=8 July 2009 |title=McNamara's Evil Lives On |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/ |magazine=The Nation |issn=0027-8378 |access-date=28 February 2020|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185636/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}</ref> ===Effects of U.S. chemical defoliation=== {{See|Environmental impact of the Vietnam War}}[[File:Defoliation agent spraying.jpg|thumb|left|U.S. helicopter spraying chemical [[defoliant]]s in the [[Mekong Delta]], South Vietnam, 1969]] One of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. military effort in Southeast Asia was the widespread use of chemical [[defoliant]]s between 1961 and 1971. 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides (like [[Agent Orange]]) were sprayed on 6 million acres of forests and crops by the U.S. Air Force.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Westing |first=Arthur H. |url={{GBurl|id=4SfwtAEACAAJ}} |title=Herbicides in War: The Long-term Ecological and Human Consequences |date=1984 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |pages=5ff}}</ref> They were used to [[Wikt:defoliate|defoliate]] large parts of the countryside to prevent the Viet Cong from being able to hide weaponry and encampments under the foliage, and to deprive them of food. Defoliation was also used to clear sensitive areas, including base perimeters and possible ambush sites along roads and canals. More than 20% of South Vietnam's forests and 3.2% of its cultivated land was sprayed at least once. 90% of herbicide use was directed at forest defoliation.<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|263}} The chemicals used continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain.<ref>{{Harvnb|Palmer|2007}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2007}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Lynne |last=Peeples |date=10 July 2013 |title=Veterans Sick From Agent Orange-Poisoned Planes Still Seek Justice |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/agent-orange-vietnam-veterans_n_3572598.html |access-date=4 September 2013}}</ref> Official US military records have listed figures including the destruction of 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam and 20-36% (with other figures reporting 20-50%) of the [[mangrove]] forests.<ref name=":02">{{cite book |last=Fox |first=Diane N. |url=http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/dnfox/pdf/chemical_politics.pdf |chapter=Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Warfare: Agent Orange |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727144516/http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/dnfox/pdf/chemical_politics.pdf|archive-date=2010-07-27 |title=Synthetic Planet: Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Life |editor-last=Monica |editor-first=Casper |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge Press}}</ref> The environmental destruction caused by this defoliation has been described by Swedish Prime Minister [[Olof Palme]], lawyers, historians and other academics as an [[ecocide]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Zierler |first=David |title=The invention of ecocide: agent orange, Vietnam, and the scientists who changed the way we think about the environment |date=2011 |publisher=Univ. of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-3827-9 |location=Athens, Georgia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-18 |title=How Imperative Is It To Consider Ecocide As An International Crime? |url=https://www.ijllr.com/post/how-imperative-is-it-to-consider-ecocide-as-an-international-crime |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=IJLLR}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Falk |first=Richard A. |date=1973 |title=Environmental Warfare and Ecocide — Facts, Appraisal, and Proposals |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44480206 |journal=Bulletin of Peace Proposals |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=80–96 |doi=10.1177/096701067300400105 |jstor=44480206 |s2cid=144885326 |issn=0007-5035}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=17 February 2022 |last=Cassandra |first=Bianca |title=Industrial disasters from Bhopal to present day: why the proposal to make 'ecocide' an international offence is persuasive |url=https://theleaflet.in/industrial-disasters-from-bhopal-to-present-day-why-the-proposal-to-make-ecocide-an-international-offence-is-persuasive/ |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=The Leaflet |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |first=Giovanni |last=Chiarini |date=1 April 2022 |title=Ecocide: From the Vietnam War to International Criminal Jurisdiction? Procedural Issues In-Between Environmental Science, Climate Change, and Law |ssrn=4072727 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072727 |journal=Cork Online Law Review}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-07 |title='Ecocide' movement pushes for a new international crime: Environmental destruction |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ecocide-movement-pushes-new-international-crime-environmental-destruction-n1263142 |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=NBC News}}</ref> Agent Orange and other similar chemical substances used by the U.S. have also caused a considerable number of deaths and injuries in the intervening years, including among the US Air Force crews that handled them. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to chemical sprays while in South Vietnam continued to experience pain in the eyes and skin as well as gastrointestinal upsets. In one study, ninety-two percent of participants suffered incessant fatigue; others reported [[monstrous birth]]s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Rose |first1=Hilary A. |last2=Rose |first2=Stephen P. |year=1972 |title=Chemical Spraying as Reported by Refugees from South Vietnam |url=https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.177.4050.710 |magazine=Science |volume=177 |issue=4050 |pages=710–712 |doi=10.1126/science.177.4050.710}}</ref> Meta-analyses of the most current studies on the association between Agent Orange and birth defects have found a statistically significant correlation such that having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange at any point in their life will increase one's likelihood of either possessing or acting as a genetic carrier of birth defects.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ngo Anh |first1=D. |first2=Richard |last2=Taylor |first3=Christine L. |last3=Roberts |first4=Tuan V. |last4=Nguyen |date=13 February 2006 |title=Association between Agent Orange and Birth Defects: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=1220–1230 |doi=10.1093/ije/dyl038 |pmid=16543362 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Although a variety of birth defects have been observed, the most common deformity appears to be [[spina bifida]]. [[Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins|Chloro-dioxins]], which are inevitably formed as a byproduct of Agent Orange synthesis, are highly [[Teratology|teratogenic]], and there is substantial evidence that the birth defects carry on for three generations or more.<ref>{{Cite web |first1=Charles |last1=Ornstein |first2=Hannah |last2=Fresques |first3=Mike |last3=Hixenbaugh |date=16 December 2016 |title=The Children of Agent Orange |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/the-children-of-agent-orange |access-date=23 February 2018 |website=ProPublica}}</ref> In 2012, the United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical on part of [[Danang International Airport]], marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 August 2012 |title=U.S. starts its first Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-usa-agentorange-idUSBRE87803K20120809}}</ref> [[File:A vietnamese Professor is pictured with a group of handicapped children.jpg|thumb|Handicapped children in Vietnam, most of them victims of [[Agent Orange]], 2004]] Vietnamese victims affected by Agent Orange attempted a class action lawsuit against [[Dow Chemical]] and other U.S. chemical manufacturers, but the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York|District Court]] dismissed their case.<ref>{{Harvnb|Roberts|2005|p=380}}<br />In his 234-page judgment, the judge observed: "Despite the fact that Congress and the President were fully advised of a substantial belief that the herbicide spraying in Vietnam was a violation of international law, they acted on their view that it was not a violation at the time."</ref> They appealed, but the dismissal was cemented in February 2008 by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Crook|2008}}.</ref> {{As of|2006}}, the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of [[dioxin]] poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam, dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Anthony |last=Faiola |date=13 November 2006 |title=In Vietnam, Old Foes Take Aim at War's Toxic Legacy |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html |access-date=8 September 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711142514/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html|archive-date=July 11, 2007}}</ref> The U.S. Veterans Administration has listed [[prostate cancer]], [[lung cancer|respiratory cancers]], [[multiple myeloma]], [[Diabetes mellitus type 2]], [[B-cell lymphomas]], [[soft-tissue sarcoma]], [[chloracne]], [[porphyria cutanea tarda]], [[peripheral neuropathy]] as, "presumptive diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administration |first=US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health |title=VA.gov {{!}} Veterans Affairs |url=https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/index.asp |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=www.publichealth.va.gov |language=en}}</ref> Spina bifida is currently the sole birth defect in children of veterans that is recognized as being caused by exposure to Agent Orange.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange |url=http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509191150/http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |archive-date=9 May 2010 |access-date=4 September 2013 |publisher=[[United States Department of Veterans Affairs]]}}</ref> == Casualties == {{Main|Casualties of the Vietnam War}} {{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.<ref name="USarchives">{{Cite web |date=30 April 2019 |title=Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics, Electronic Records Reference Report |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#category |access-date=2 August 2021 |publisher=U.S. National Archives |at=DCAS Vietnam Conflict Extract File record counts by CASUALTY CATEGORY (as of April 29, 2008)}} (generated from the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files (as of 29 April 2008))</ref>|| 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<ref name=Clarke/>{{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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=23 April 2008 |title=fifty years of violent war deaths: data analysis from the world health survey program: BMJ |url=http://www.bmj.com/content/336/7659/1482 |access-date=5 January 2013}} From 1955 to 2002, data from the surveys indicated an estimated 5.4 million violent war deaths{{Nbsp}}... 3.8 million in Vietnam.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-16 |title=Vietnam War {{!}} Facts, Summary, Years, Timeline, Casualties, Combatants, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-28 |title=Vietnam War: Causes, Facts & Impact |url=https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lind |first=Michael |year=1999 |title=Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lind-vietnam.html |access-date=17 January 2014 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307092630/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lind-vietnam.html |archive-date=March 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Vietnam War |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/628478/Vietnam-War |access-date=5 March 2008 |quote=Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in its longest and most controversial war}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=Herbert |title=Allies of the Republic of Vietnam |url=http://www.psywarrior.com/AlliesRepublicVietnam.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307112918/http://www.psywarrior.com/AlliesRepublicVietnam.html |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |access-date=1 May 2019}}</ref><ref name="Toledo Blade 320,000 Chinese troops" /> 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.<ref name=Hirschman/> Between 195,000 and 430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–453}}<ref name=Thayer/>{{Rp|}} Extrapolating from a 1969 US intelligence report, Guenter Lewy estimated 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–453}} Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder range from 30,000<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|176,617}} to 182,000.<ref name=bfvietnam/> A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated 1.4 million South Vietnamese civilians casualties during the war, including 415,000 deaths.<ref name="Turse" />{{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.<ref name=Clarke/>{{Rp|275}} Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties.<ref name=Gravel/><ref name="Obermeyer" /><ref name="Hirschman" /><ref name="Heuveline" /><ref name="Banister" /><ref name="Sliwinski" /> [[File:Lighting incense at the Dong Loc Junction memorial.jpg|left|thumb|Cemetery for ten unmarried girls who volunteered for logistical activities, who died in a B-52 raid at [[Đồng Lộc Junction]], a strategic junction along the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]]]] The official US Department of Defense figure for PAVN/VC killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974 was 950,765. 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.<ref name=Lewy/>{{Rp|450–453}} According to figures released by the Vietnamese government there were 849,018 confirmed military deaths on the PAVN/VC side during the war.<ref name=Chuyen/><ref name=VNMOD/> The Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 1955 to 1975. This figure includes battle deaths of Vietnamese soldiers in the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, in which the PAVN was a major participant. Non-combat deaths account for 30 to 40% of these figures.<ref name=Chuyen/> However, the figures do not include deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers.<ref name=Shenon/> These do not include the estimated 300,000–500,000 PAVN/VC missing in action. Official figures from the Vietnamese government estimate 1.1 million dead and 300,000 missing from 1945 to 1979, with approximately 849,000 dead and 232,000 missing from 1960 to 1975.<ref name="Moyar, Mark"/> US reports of "enemy KIA", referred to as body count were thought to have been subject to "falsification and glorification", and a true estimate of PAVN/VC combat deaths may be difficult to assess, as US victories were assessed by having a "greater kill ratio".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kempster |first=Norman |date=31 January 1991 |title=In This War, Body Count Is Ruled Out: Casualties: Gen. Schwarzkopf makes it clear he's not repeating a blunder made in Vietnam. |language=en-US |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://articles.latimes.com/1991-01-31/news/mn-442_1_body-count |access-date=3 June 2018 |issn=0458-3035}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aman |first=Mohammed M. |date=April 1993 |title=General H. Norman Schwarzkopf: The Autobiography: It Doesn't Take a Hero; H. Norman Schwarzkopf with Peter Petre |journal=Digest of Middle East Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=90–94 |doi=10.1111/j.1949-3606.1993.tb00951.x |issn=1060-4367}}</ref> It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel on the Viet Cong side as many persons were part-time guerrillas or impressed laborers who did not wear uniforms{{Sfn|Willbanks|2008|p=32}}<ref>[[Rand Corporation]] [http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a032189.pdf "Some Impressions of Viet Cong Vulnerabilities, an Interim Report"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216061330/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a032189.pdf |date=16 February 2017}} 1965</ref> and civilians killed were sometimes written off as enemy killed because high enemy casualties was directly tied to promotions and commendation.<ref name=Currey/>{{Rp|649–650}}<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kelman |first1=H.C |url=https://archive.org/details/crimesofobedienc0000unse/page/1 |chapter=The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience |last2=Hamilton |first2=V. |title=Crimes of Obedience: Towards a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-300-04813-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/crimesofobedienc0000unse/page/1 1–12]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Declassification of the BDM Study, "The Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam" |url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a096431.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190412100450/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a096431.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |publisher=Defense Technical Center |pages=225–234}}</ref> Between 275,000<ref name=Banister/> and 310,000<ref name=Sliwinski/> Cambodians were estimated to have died during the war including between 50,000 and 150,000 combatants and civilians from US bombings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |url=https://archive.org/details/howpolpotcametop00kier_0 |title=How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-300-10262-8 |page=xxiii |author-link=Ben Kiernan |url-access=registration}}</ref> 20,000–62,000 Laotians also died,<ref name=Obermeyer/> and 58,281 U.S. military personnel were killed,<ref name=2new/> of which 1,584 are still listed as missing as of March 2021.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 March 2021 |title=Vietnam-era unaccounted for statistical report |url=https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Statistics%20as%20of%20March%201.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114839/https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Statistics%20as%20of%20March%201.pdf|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref> == Legacy == ===In popular culture=== {{Main|List of Vietnam War films}} {{More citations needed|section|date=January 2020}} [[File:Thuong Tiec.jpg|thumb|Stone plaque with photo of the "Thương tiếc" ''(Mourning Soldier)'' statue, originally, installed at the [[Bình An Cemetery|Republic of Vietnam National Military Cemetery]]. The original statue was demolished in April 1975.]] The Vietnam War has been featured extensively in television, film, video games, music and literature in the participant countries. In Vietnam, one notable film set during Operation Linebacker II was the film ''[[Girl from Hanoi]]'' (1974) depicting war-time life in Hanoi. Another notable work was the diary of Đặng Thùy Trâm, a North Vietnamese doctor who enlisted in the Southern battlefield, and was killed at the age of 27 by U.S. forces near [[Quảng Ngãi]]. Her diaries were later published in Vietnam as ''Đặng Thùy Trâm's Diary'' (''Last Night I Dreamed of Peace''), where it became a bestseller and was later made into a film ''[[Don't Burn]]'' (''Đừng đốt''). In Vietnam, the diary has often been compared to ''[[The Diary of a Young Girl|The Diary of Anne Frank]]'', and both are used in literary education.<ref>{{Cite news |date=10 December 2014 |title=Amsterdam Mayor visits Hanoi-Amsterdam High School |work=VOV Online Newspaper |url=http://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov |url-status=dead |access-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428231359/https://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov |archive-date=28 April 2019}}</ref> One of the first major films based on the Vietnam War was [[John Wayne]]'s pro-war ''[[The Green Berets (film)|The Green Berets]]'' (1968). Further cinematic representations were released during the 1970s and 1980s, some of the most noteworthy examples being [[Michael Cimino]]'s ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' (1978), [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (1979), [[Oliver Stone]]'s ''[[Platoon (film)|Platoon]]'' (1986) – based on his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' (1987). Other Vietnam War films include ''[[Hamburger Hill]]'' (1987), ''[[Good Morning, Vietnam]]'' (1987), ''[[Casualties of War]]'' (1989), ''[[Born on the Fourth of July (film)|Born on the Fourth of July]]'' (1989), ''[[The Siege of Firebase Gloria]]'' (1989), ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' (1994), ''[[We Were Soldiers]]'' (2002), and ''[[Rescue Dawn]]'' (2007).<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}} The war also influenced a generation of musicians and songwriters in Vietnam, the United States, and throughout the world, both pro/anti-war and pro/anti-communist, with the [[Vietnam War Song Project]] having identified 5,000+ songs about or referencing the conflict.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brummer |first=Justin |title=The Vietnam War: A History in Song |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/vietnam-war-history-song |access-date=6 August 2021 |website=History Today}}</ref> The band [[Country Joe and the Fish]] recorded ''[[The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag]]'' in 1965, and it became one of the most influential anti-Vietnam protest anthems.<ref name=Tucker/>{{Rp|}} ====Myths==== <!-- Redirect target of [[Mythology of the Vietnam War]] and [[Vietnam War myths]] --> {{See also|The Myth of the Spat-on Vietnam Veteran|Vietnam stab-in-the-back myth}} Myths play a central role in the [[historiography]] of the Vietnam War, and have become a part of the [[culture of the United States]]. Much like the general historiography of the war, discussion of myth has focused on U.S. experiences, but changing myths of war have also played a role in Vietnamese and Australian historiography. Recent scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",<ref name="Milam">{{Cite book |last=Milam |first=Ron |title=Not A Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8078-3712-2}}</ref>{{Rp|373}} attacking the previous orthodox and revisionist schools of American historiography of the Vietnam War. This scholarship challenges myths about American society and soldiery in the Vietnam War.<ref name="Milam" />{{Rp|373}} Kuzmarov in ''The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs'' challenges the popular and Hollywood narrative that US soldiers were heavy drug users,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuzmarov |first=Jeremy |title=The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs |publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55849-705-4 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=qDbtvEIxWigC|dq=nixon+%22tide+of+drug+abuse%22|p=3}} 3–4]}}</ref> in particular the notion that the My Lai massacre was caused by drug use.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|373}} According to Kuzmarov, Richard Nixon is primarily responsible for creating the drug myth.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|374}} Michael Allen in ''Until The Last Man Comes Home'' also accuses Nixon of myth making, by exploiting the plight of the [[League of Wives of American Prisoners in Vietnam]] and the [[National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia]] to allow the government to appear caring as the war was increasingly considered lost.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|376}} Allen's analysis ties the position of potential missing or prisoner Americans into post-war politics and recent presidential elections, including the [[Swift Vets and POWs for Truth|Swift boat]] controversy in US electoral politics.<ref name=Milam/>{{Rp|376–377}} ===Commemoration=== On 25 May 2012, President [[Barack Obama]] issued a [[Presidential proclamation|proclamation]] of the [[s:Proclamation 8829|commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Office of the Press Secretary |author-link=White House Office of the Press Secretary |date=25 May 2017 |title=Presidential Proclamation Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War |language=en |work=[[whitehouse.gov]] |publisher=[[White House]] |location=[[Washington, DC]] |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/25/presidential-proclamation-commemoration-50th-anniversary-vietnam-war |access-date=13 November 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409031608/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/25/presidential-proclamation-commemoration-50th-anniversary-vietnam-war|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=25 May 2012 |title=Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War |work=[[Federal Register]] |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |location=[[Washington, DC]] |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/06/01/2012-13514/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war |access-date=11 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114040944/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/06/01/2012-13514/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war |archive-date=14 November 2017}} [https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-06-01/pdf/2012-13514.pdf Alt URL]</ref> On 10 November 2017, President [[Donald Trump]] issued an additional [[s:Proclamation 9674|proclamation commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Dwyer |first=Devin |date=10 November 2017 |title=Trump marks Veterans Day with commemoration in Vietnam |work=[[ABC News]] |publisher=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] |location=[[New York City]] |url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/trump-marks-veterans-day-commemoration-vietnam/story?id=51057690 |access-date=13 November 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410051710/https://abcnews.go.com/International/trump-marks-veterans-day-commemoration-vietnam/story?id=51057690|archive-date=April 10, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=10 November 2017 |title=Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War |work=[[Federal Register]] |publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]] |location=[[Washington, DC]] |url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/17/2017-25164/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war |access-date=20 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117170703/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/17/2017-25164/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war |archive-date=17 November 2017}} ([https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-11-17/pdf/2017-25164.pdf Alt URL])</ref> ==See also== {{Portal|Vietnam|United States|1950s|1960s|1970s}} * [[History of Cambodia]] * [[History of Laos]] * [[History of Vietnam]] * [[List of conflicts in Asia]] * [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War]] * [[U.S. news media and the Vietnam War]] * [[Third Indochina War]] * [[Sino-Vietnamese War]] * [[The Vietnam War (TV series)|''The Vietnam War'' (TV series)]] * [[Soviet–Afghan War]] ==Annotations== {{Reflist|group="A"}} == References == {{Anchor|Notes}} The references for this article are grouped in three sections. * [[#Citations|Citations]]: references for the in-line, numbered superscript references contained within the article. * [[#Main sources|Main sources]]: the main works used to build the content of the article, but not referenced as in-line citations. * [[#Additional sources|Additional sources]]: additional works used to build the article === Citations === {{Reflist}} === Works cited === {{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} * {{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=John F. |title=Communist Nations' Military Assistance |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-429-72473-2}} * {{Cite journal |last=Crook |first=John R. |year=2008 |title=Court of Appeals Affirms Dismissal of Agent Orange Litigation |journal=[[American Journal of International Law]] |volume=102 |pages=662–664 |doi=10.2307/20456664 |jstor=20456664 |number=3 |s2cid=140810853}} * {{Cite book |last=Demma |first=Vincent H. |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/amh-toc.htm |title=American Military History |publisher=[[US Army Center of Military History]] |year=1989 |location=Washington, DC |pages=619–694 |chapter=The U.S. Army in Vietnam |access-date=13 September 2013 |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/AMH-28.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120024852/https://history.army.mil/books/AMH/amh-toc.htm |archive-date=20 January 2020 |url-status=dead}} * {{Cite book |last=Eisenhower |first=Dwight D. |url=https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise |title=Mandate for Change |publisher=Doubleday & Company |year=1963 |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Holm |first=Jeanne |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninmilitary00jean |title=Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution |publisher=[[Presidio Press]] |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-89141-450-6 |location=Novato, CA |author-link=Jeanne M. 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May 12, 1975 |last=Kissinger |access-date=11 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509064916/http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/vietnam/750512a.htm |archive-date=9 May 2008 |url-status=dead |type=memo |year=1975}} * {{Cite book |title=Dictionary of the Vietnam War |publisher=Webster's New World |year=1999 |editor-last=Leepson |editor-first=Marc |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Military History Institute of Vietnam |title=Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975 |publisher=University of Kansas Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-7006-1175-4 |translator-last=Merle Pribbenow|jstor=j.ctt1dgn5kb|url={{GBurl|id=_WluAAAAMAAJ}}}} * {{Cite book |last=Nalty |first=Bernard |title=The Vietnam War |publisher=Barnes and Noble |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7607-1697-7 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last1=Olson |first1=James S. |title=Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam 1945–1995 |last2=Roberts |first2=Randy |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4051-8222-5 |edition=5th |location=Malden, MA}} * {{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=Michael G. |year=2007 |title=The Case of Agent Orange |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=29 |pages=172–195 |doi=10.1355/cs29-1h |jstor=25798819 |number=1}} * {{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Anthea |year=2005 |title=The Agent Orange Case: Vietnam Ass'n for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin v. Dow Chemical Co |journal=[[American Society of International Law|ASIL Proceedings]] |volume=99 |pages=380–385 |jstor=25660031 |number=1}} * {{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Richard |year=2007 |title=Agent Orange's Bitter Harvest |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=315 |issue=5809 |pages=176–179 |doi=10.1126/science.315.5809.176 |jstor=20035179 |pmid=17218503 |s2cid=161597245}} * {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodsoralhistor00terr |title=Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans |publisher=Random House |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-394-53028-4 |editor-last=Terry |editor-first=Wallace |editor-link=Wallace Terry |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Truong |first=Như Tảng |url=https://archive.org/details/vietcongmemoir00trng |title=A Vietcong memoir |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-15-193636-6 |author-link=Trương Như Tảng}} * {{Cite book |last=Westheider |first=James E. |title=The Vietnam War |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33755-0 |location=Westport, CN}} * {{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |title=The Tet Offensive: A Concise History |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-231-12841-4}} * {{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |title=Vietnam War almanac |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8160-7102-9}} * {{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/28613 |title=A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-62349-117-8}} * {{Cite book |last=Woodruff |first=Mark |title=Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of The Viet Cong and The North Vietnamese |publisher=[[Presidio Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-89141-866-5 |location=Arlington, VA}} {{Refend}} ===Main sources=== {{Refbegin|40em|indent=yes}} * Central Intelligence Agency. "[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/laos/ Laos]". ''[[The World Factbook]]''. * {{Cite web |title=Cora Weiss Collection |url=http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=227219&sid=1880539 |department=Special Collections – Lloyd Sealy Library: Manuscript Collections |publisher=[[John Jay College of Criminal Justice]]}} Materials related to war resistance and peace activism movements during the Vietnam War. * ''Foreign Relations of the United States'' ** {{Cite book |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01 |title=Volume I, Vietnam 1964 |others=General Editor: John P. Glennon |year=1992 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |isbn=0-16-032358-4 |editor-last=Keefer |editor-first=Edward C. |editor-last2=Sampson |editor-first2=Charles S. |via=Office of the Historian}} ** {{Cite book |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02 |title=Volume II, Vietnam January–June 1965 |others=General Editor: Glenn W. LaFantasie |year=1996 |isbn=0-16-045126-4 |editor-last=Humphrey |editor-first=David C. |editor-last2=Landa |editor-first2=Ronald D. |editor-last3=Smith |editor-first3=Louis J. |via=Office of the Historian}} ** {{Cite book |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v03 |title=Volume III, Vietnam June–December 1965 |others=General Editor: Glenn W. LaFantasie |year=1996 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |isbn=0-16-045129-9 |editor-last=Humphrey |editor-first=David C. |editor-last2=Keefer |editor-first2=Edward C. |editor-last3=Smith |editor-first3=Louis J. |via=Office of the Historian}} ** {{Cite book |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v04 |title=Volume IV, Vietnam 1966 |others=General Editor: David S. Patterson |year=1998 |isbn=0-16-048812-5 |editor-last=Humphrey |editor-first=David C. |via=Office of the Historian}} * {{Cite book |last=Ho |first=Chi Minh |title=Selected Works |date=1960–1962 |chapter=Vietnam Declaration of Independence}} * {{Cite book |last1=LeMay |first1=Curtis E. |title=Mission with LeMay |last2=Kantor |first2=MacKinlay |year=1965}} Autobiography of controversial former Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. * {{Cite book |last=O'Connell |first=Kim A. |title=Primary Source Accounts of the Vietnam War |publisher=MyReportLinks.com |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-59845-001-9 |location=Berkeley Heights, NJ}} * {{Cite book |last=McCain |first=John |title=Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir |title-link=Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir |year=1999 |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=0-06-095786-7}} * {{Cite book |last=Marshall |first=Kathryn |title=In the Combat Zone: An Oral History of American Women in Vietnam, 1966–1975 |year=1987 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=0-316-54707-7}} * {{Cite book |last=Myers |first=Thomas |title=Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam |year=1988 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-505351-6}} * {{Cite book |title=Pentagon Papers |title-link=Pentagon Papers |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1971 |edition=Gravel |location=Boston}} 5 volumes.<br />{{Cite book |title=Volume 1 |pages=1–52 |chapter=Chapter I, Background to the Crisis, 1940–50 |access-date=9 September 2006 |chapter-url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818075800/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html |archive-date=18 August 2018 |url-status=dead |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}} Combination of narrative and secret documents compiled by Pentagon. * ''Public Papers of the Presidents, 1965'' (1966). Official documents of U.S. presidents. * {{Cite book |last=Schlesinger |first=Arthur M. Jr. |title=Robert Kennedy and His Times |year=1978}} A first-hand account of the Kennedy administration by one of his principal advisors. * {{Cite journal |last=Sinhanouk |first=Prince Norodom |year=1958 |title=Cambodia Neutral: The Dictates of Necessity |journal=Foreign Affairs}} Describes the geopolitical situation of Cambodia. * ''United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense''. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1971, 12 volumes. * {{Cite AV media |title=Vietnam: A Television History |date=1983 |publisher=PBS |series=American Experience |title-link=Vietnam: A Television History}} {{Refend}} ===Additional sources=== {{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} * {{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=David L. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780231114929 |title=Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-231-11492-9 |location=New York}} * Angio, Joe. ''Nixon a Presidency Revealed'' (2007) [[The History Channel]] television documentary * {{Cite book |last=Appy |first=Christian G. |title=Vietnam: The Definitive Oral History, Told from All Sides |publisher=Ebury Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-09-191011-2 |location=London |author-link=Christian G. Appy}} * {{Cite book |last=Asselin |first=Pierre |title=Vietnam's American War: A New History |year=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/vietnams-american-war/034EEB484F83DC3976982F33AB5B8C51 |isbn=9781009229302}} * Baker, Kevin. "Stabbed in the Back! The past and future of a right-wing myth", ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'' (June 2006) {{Cite web |title=Stabbed in the back! The past and future of a right-wing myth (Harper's Magazine) |url=http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0081080 |access-date=11 June 2008}} * {{Cite book |last=Berman |first=Larry |url=https://archive.org/details/lyndonjohnsonswa00berm |title=Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-393-02636-8 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Blaufarb |first=Douglas S. |title=The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance, 1950 to the Present |publisher=[[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]] |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-02-903700-3 |location=New York}} * Blaufarb Douglas S. ''The Counterinsurgency Era'' (1977). A history of the Kennedy Administration's involvement in South Vietnam. * Brigham, Robert K. ''Battlefield Vietnam: A Brief History''. A PBS interactive website. * {{Cite book |last=Brocheux |first=Pierre |url=https://archive.org/details/hochiminhbiograp00broc/page/198 |title=Ho Chi Minh: a biography |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-85062-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hochiminhbiograp00broc/page/198 198]}} * {{Cite magazine |last=Buckley |first=Kevin |date=19 June 1972 |title=Pacification's Deadly Price |url=http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/buckley.html |magazine=[[Newsweek]] |access-date=5 August 2008}} * {{Cite book |last=Carney |first=Timothy |title=Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-691-07807-6 |editor-last=Karl D. Jackson |location=Princeton, NJ |pages=13–35 |chapter=The Unexpected Victory}} * {{Cite book |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |year=2006 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-470-82181-7 |editor-last=Church |editor-first=Peter}} * {{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Chester L. |url=https://archive.org/details/lostcrusadeameri00coop |title=The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam |year=1970 |publisher=Dodd, Mead |isbn=978-0-396-06241-7 |url-access=registration}} a Washington insider's memoir of events. * {{Cite book |last=Courtwright |first=David T. |title=Sky as Frontier: Adventure, Aviation, and Empire |publisher=[[Texas A&M University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-58544-384-0 |location=College Station}} * {{Cite book |last=Crump |first=Laurien |title=The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969 |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-315-73254-1 |location=Oxon}} * {{Cite book |last=Dennis |first=Peter |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History |publisher=Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-551784-2 |edition=2nd |location=Melbourne |display-authors=etal}} * {{Cite web |last=DoD |date=6 November 1998 |title=Name of Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial |url=http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=1902 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020044326/http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=1902 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |publisher=[[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense (DoD)]]}} * {{Cite book |last=Dror |first=Olga |title=Making Two Vietnams: War and Youth Identities, 1965–1975 |year=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/making-two-vietnams/BE086D9C1DA355B33EDBABC1C628701A |isbn=9781108556163}} * {{Cite book |last=Duiker |first=William J. |title=The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-89158-794-1}} * {{Cite book |last=Duncanson |first=Dennis J. |title=Government and Revolution in Vietnam |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1968 |oclc=411221}} * {{Cite book |last=Etcheson |first=Craig |title=After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide |publisher=Praeger |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-275-98513-4 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Fall |first=Bernard B. |title=The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis |publisher=[[Praeger Publishing|Praeger]] |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-9991417-9-3 |edition=2nd |location=New York |author-link=Bernard B. Fall}} * {{Cite book |last=Fincher |first=Ernest Barksdale |title=The Vietnam War |year=1980}} * {{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Harold P. |title=CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962–1968 |year=1998 |oclc=39333058}} * {{Cite book |title=Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons: The Vietnam War |publisher=Greenhaven Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7377-2531-5 |editor-last=Gerdes |editor-first=Louise I.}} * {{Cite book |last1=Gettleman |first1=Marvin E. |title=Vietnam and America: A Documented History |last2=Franklin |first2=Jane |last3=Young |first3=Marilyn |year=1995}} * {{Cite book |last=Greiner |first=Bernd |title=War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-09-953259-0 |location=London}} * {{Cite book |last=Healy |first=Gene |title=The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power |publisher=Cato Institute |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-933995-19-9}} * {{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George C. |title=America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-07-253618-8 |edition=4th |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=The Vietnam Syndrome}} * {{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Michael P. |title=Where We Were in Vietnam |publisher=Hellgate Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-55571-625-7 |location=Oregon}} * {{Cite book |last=Khong |first=Yuen Foong |url=https://archive.org/details/analogiesatwarko00khon |title=Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-691-07846-5 |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |title=The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-300-14434-5 |edition=3rd |location=New Haven, CN |author-link=Ben Kiernan}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Kiernan |first1=Ben |last2=Owen |first2=Taylor |author-mask=3 |title=Bombs over Cambodia |url=http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf |journal=[[The Walrus]] |issue=October 2006 |pages=62–69}} * {{Cite book |last=Kolko |first=Gabriel |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofwarviet00kolk |title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-394-74761-3 |location=New York |author-link=Gabriel Kolko |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Kort |first=Michael G. |author-link=Michael Kort |title=The Vietnam War Reexamined |year=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/vietnam-war-reexamined/038E514896A0745CBF02F4A1CE848939 |isbn=9781107110199}} * {{Cite book |title=Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-13-276932-7 |editor-last=Kutler |editor-first=Stanley I. |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=A.T. |title=Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-4517-2 |location=Jefferson, NC}} * {{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Mark Atwood |title=The Vietnam War: A Concise International History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-531465-6}} * {{Cite book |last=Lewy |first=Guenter |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam00lewy |title=America in Vietnam |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-19-502732-7 |location=New York |author-link=Guenter Lewy}} * {{Cite book |last=Logevall |first=Fredrik |title=The Origins of the Vietnam War |publisher=Longman |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-582-31918-9 |location=Harlow |author-link=Fredrik Logevall}} * {{Cite book |last=Logevall |first=Fredrik |title=The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume II: Crises and Détente |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-521-83720-0 |editor-last=Melvyn P. Leffler |location=Cambridge |pages=281–304 |chapter=The Indochina wars and the Cold War, 1945–1975 |author-mask=3 |editor-last2=Odd Arne Westad}} * {{Cite book |last1=McGibbon |first1=Ian |title=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History |last2=ed |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-558376-2 |location=Auckland}} * {{Cite book |last=McMahon |first=Robert J. |title=Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays |year=1995}} * {{Cite book |last=McNeill |first=Ian |title=To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966 |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-1-86373-282-6 |location=St Leonards}} * {{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Edward |title=Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam |year=2013 |publisher=Harvard University Press |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674072985 |isbn=9780674072985 }} * {{Cite book |last=Milne |first=David |title=America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War |publisher=Hill & Wang |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-374-10386-6 |location=New York}} * {{Cite book |last=Moïse |first=Edwin E. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002 |title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2 |location=Chapel Hill, N C|author-link=Edwin E. Moise}} * {{Cite book |last=Moïse |first=Edwin E. |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000mois |title=Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8108-4183-3 |location=Lanham, MD |author-mask=3 |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Moss |first=George D. |title=Vietnam |year=2002 |edition=4th}} textbook. * {{Cite book |last=Moyar |first=Mark |title=Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-86911-9 |location=New York |author-link=Mark Moyar}} * {{Cite book |last=Neale |first=Jonathan |title=The American War: Vietnam, 1960–1975 |publisher=Bookmarks |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-898876-67-0 |location=London}} * {{Cite book |last=Neel |first=Spurgeon |title=Medical Support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1965–1970 |publisher=Department of the Army |year=1991 |author-link=Spurgeon Neel}} official medical history * {{Cite book |last=Nelson |first=Deborah |url=https://archive.org/details/warbehindmevietn00nels_0 |title=The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth about U.S. War Crimes |publisher=Basic Books |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-465-00527-7 |location=Philadelphia, PA}} * {{Cite book |last=Nguyen |first=Duy Lap |title=The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam |date=2020 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-4396-9}} * {{Cite book |last=Oberdorfer |first=Don |title=Tet! The Turning Point in the Vietnam War |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8018-6703-3 |location=Baltimore, MD |author-link=Don Oberdorfer |orig-year=1971}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Obermeyer |first1=Ziad |last2=Murray |first2=Christopher J.L. |last3=Gakidou |first3=Emmanuela |year=2008 |title=Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme |journal=[[BMJ]] |volume=336 |issue=7659 |pages=1482–1486 |doi=10.1136/bmj.a137 |pmc=2440905 |pmid=18566045}} * {{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Bruce Jr. |title=The Twenty-Five Year War |year=1984}} Narrative military history by a senior U.S. general. * {{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Dave R. |url=https://archive.org/details/summonsoftrumpet00palm |title=Summons of Trumpet: U.S.–Vietnam in Perspective |publisher=[[Presidio Press]] |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-89141-550-3 |location=Novato, CA |author-link=Dave Richard Palmer |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Robbins |first=Mary Susannah |title=Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7425-5914-1 |location=Lanham, MD}} * {{Cite book |last=Roberts III |first=Mervyn Edwin |title=The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968 |year=2018}} * {{Cite book |last=Schandler |first=Herbert Y. |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha |title=America in Vietnam: The War That Couldn't Be Won |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7425-6697-2 |location=Lanham, MD |url-access=registration}} * Schell, Jonathan. ''The Time of Illusion'' (1976). * Schulzinger, Robert D. ''A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941–1975'' (1997). * {{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Neil |title=A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam |title-link=A Bright Shining Lie |publisher=Vintage |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-679-72414-8 |location=New York |author-link=Neil Sheehan}} * Sorley, Lewis, ''A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam'' (1999), based upon still classified tape-recorded meetings of top level US commanders in Vietnam, {{ISBN|0-15-601309-6}} * Spector, Ronald. ''After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam'' (1992), very broad coverage of 1968. * {{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=Vietnam order of battle |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8117-0071-9 |edition=}} * {{Cite book |last=Stuart-Fox |first=Martin |title=A History of Laos |title-link=History of Laos |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-521-59235-2 |location=Cambridge |author-link=Martin Stuart-Fox}} * Summers, Harry G. [{{GBurl|id=-Z4l-ZySVWwC}} ''On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War''], Presidio press (1982), {{ISBN|0-89141-563-7}} (225 pages) * {{Cite book |last=Thayer |first=Thomas C. |title=War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-8133-7132-0 |location=Boulder, CO}} * Tucker, Spencer. ed. ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (1998) 3 vol. reference set; also one-volume abridgement (2001). * {{Cite book |last=Thayer |first=Thomas C. |title=Vietnam |publisher=[[UCL Press]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-85728-921-3 |location=London |author-mask=3}} * {{Cite book |last=Tran |first=Nu-Anh |title=Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam |year=2022 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/disunion-anticommunist-nationalism-and-the-making-of-the-republic-of-vietnam/ |isbn=9780824887865 }} * {{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-85109-960-3 |orig-year=1998}} * {{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3 |location=Stanford, CA}} * {{Cite book |last=Turse |first=Nick |title=Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam |publisher=Metropolitan Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8050-8691-1 |location=New York |author-link=Nick Turse}} * {{Cite book |last=Young |first=Marilyn B. |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamwars194510000youn |title=The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990 |publisher=[[HarperPerennial]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-06-092107-1 |location=New York |author-link=Marilyn B. Young |url-access=registration}} * Xiaoming, Zhang. "China's 1979 War With Vietnam: A Reassessment", ''China Quarterly.'' Issue no. 184, (December 2005) {{Cite journal |last=Zhang |first=Xiaoming |year=2005 |title=CJO – Abstract – China's 1979 War with Vietnam: A Reassessment |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=184 |pages=851 |doi=10.1017/S0305741005000536 |s2cid=154831743}} {{Refend}} ===Historiography=== {{Refbegin}} * {{Cite book |last=Appy|first=Christian G. |title=Vietnam : The Definitive Oral History told from All Sides |date=2006|publisher=Ebury |isbn=978-0-0919-1011-2|location=London|oclc=1302551584|url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamdefinitiv0000appy}} * {{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Simon |date=September 2009 |title=Scholarly Battles over the Vietnam War |journal=Historical Journal |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=813–829 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X09990185 |s2cid=161303298}} * Olson, James Stuart, ed. ''The Vietnam War: Handbook of the literature and research'' (Greenwood, 1993) [{{GBurl|id=vmluAAAAMAAJ}} excerpt]. * {{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Edward |last2=Vu |first2=Tuong |date=2009 |title=The Vietnam War as a Vietnamese War: Agency and Society in the Study of the Second Indochina War |journal=Journal of Vietnamese Studies |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=1–16 |doi=10.1525/vs.2009.4.3.1 }} * {{cite book |last=Kort |first=Michael G. |title=The Vietnam War Reexamined |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1107110199 |chapter=The Vietnam War in History |pages=6–36 |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/vietnam-war-reexamined/vietnam-war-in-history/8FB0A214DB45CE266D2390721852B9F1 }} {{Refend}} ==Further reading== * {{Cite book |last=Berry |first=Jan |title=Demilitarized Zones – Veterans after Vietnam |publisher=East River Anthology |year=1976 |isbn=0-917238-01-X |location=Perkasie, PA |author-link=W.D. Ehrhart}} * {{Cite book |last=Nau |first=Terry L. |title=Reluctant Soldier{{Nbsp}}... Proud Veteran: How a cynical Vietnam vet learned to take pride in his service to the USA |date=2013 |publisher=Amazon Distribution GmbH |isbn=978-1-4827-6149-8 |location=Leipzig |oclc=870660174}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Conboy |first1=Ken |last2=Morrison |first2=James |name-list-style=amp |date=November–December 1999 |title=Plausible Deniability: US-Taiwanese Covert Insertions into North Vietnam |journal=Air Enthusiast |issue=84 |pages=29–34 |issn=0143-5450}} * {{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=William |title=Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962–1968 |year=1987}} * {{Cite book |last=Hammond |first=William |title=Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1968–1973 |year=1995 |author-mask=3}} (Full-scale history of the war by U.S. Army; much broader than title suggests.) * [[Elizabeth Kolbert|Kolbert, Elizabeth]] (12 October 2020). "This Close: The day the Cuban missile crisis almost went nuclear" (a review of [[Martin J. Sherwin]]'s ''Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis'', New York, Knopf, 2020). [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/the-day-nuclear-war-almost-broke-out "The Day Nuclear War Almost Broke Out"] [online version]. ''[[The New Yorker]]''. * {{Cite book |title=The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History |publisher=[[DK (publisher)|DK]] |year=2017 |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548930/the-vietnam-war-by-dk/}} * McHale, Shawn F. ''The First Vietnam War: Violence, Sovereignty, and the Fracture of the South, 1945-1956'' (2021) [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57208 online book review] * {{Cite book |editor-last1=Miller |editor-first1=Edward |editor-last2=Nguyen |editor-first2=Lien-Hang T. |title=The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume I: Origins |year=2024 |volume=1 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-10508-9 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-vietnam-war/5B899728B82298D6254C7F3132A10F3E }} * {{Cite book |editor-last1=Preston |editor-first1=Andrew |editor-last2=Nguyen |editor-first2=Lien-Hang T. |title=The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume II: Escalation and Stalemate |year=2024 |volume=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-10510-2 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-vietnam-war/9347C5260835EC52FD23AB282E0618A8 }} * {{Cite book |editor-last1=Asselin |editor-first1=Pierre |editor-last2=Nguyen |editor-first2=Lien-Hang T. |title=The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War, Volume III: Endings and Aftermaths |year=2024 |volume=3 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-10512-6 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-vietnam-war/06DE99823BE372B88F1AEA8F0285A273 }} ==External links== {{Sister project links|d=Q8740|n=no|species=no|voy=no|s=no|b=Modern History/Vietnam War}} * [https://watch.opb.org/video/history-detectives-vietnam-diarys-homecoming/ A Vietnam Diary's Homecoming] Video produced by the [[PBS]] Series [[History Detectives]] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20230130034322/http://www.americanhistoryprojects.com/downloads/vietnam.htm Detailed bibliography of Vietnam War] * [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy–Vietnam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813005227/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm |date=13 August 2012}} primary sources on U.S. involvement * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510024439/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552505 Fallout of the War] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160115205405/https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20230527121849/http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Glossary/Sixties_Term_Gloss_K_P.html Glossary of Military Terms & Slang from the Vietnam War] * [http://content.library.ccsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/VHP&CISOPTR=5558&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 Impressions of Vietnam and descriptions of the daily life of a soldier from the oral history of Elliott Gardner, U.S. Army] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430050258/http://content.library.ccsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2FVHP&CISOPTR=5558&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 |date=30 April 2011}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20121024150216/http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/manuscripts/collections/ms044.dot Stephen H. Warner Southeast Asia Photograph Collection at Gettysburg College] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110501134722/http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=vietnam Timeline US – Vietnam (1947–2001)] in Open-Content project * [https://web.archive.org/web/20230405190739/http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/vietnam/short.history/chap_28.txt The U.S. Army in Vietnam] the official history of the United States Army * [https://web.archive.org/web/20230604154359/https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war The Vietnam War] at The History Channel * [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127045516/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/ UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: Anti-Vietnam War Protests] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403230616/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/ Vietnam war timeline] comprehensive timeline of the Vietnam War * [https://web.archive.org/web/20230605064225/https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/ Virtual Vietnam Archive] – Texas Tech University * [https://web.archive.org/web/20230331213719/https://mashable.com/archive/another-vietnam-photography 1965–1975 Another Vietnam; Unseen images of the war from the winning side] – [[Mashable]] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20221112035456/https://openarchives.umb.edu/digital/collection/p15774coll8/search/searchterm/Vietnam%20War/field/subjec/mode/exact/conn/and/order/date Archival collections about the Vietnam War], University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, [[University of Massachusetts Boston]] {{Vietnam War|state=expanded}} {{Vietnam War graphical timeline}} {{Vietnam in the 20th century}} {{Cold War}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:Vietnam War| ]] [[Category:1950s conflicts]] [[Category:1960s conflicts]] [[Category:1970s conflicts]] [[Category:Cambodian Civil War]] [[Category:Civil wars in Vietnam]] [[Category:Cold War conflicts]] [[Category:History of Vietnam]] [[Category:Imperialism]] [[Category:Indochina Wars|#2]] [[Category:Laotian Civil War]] [[Category:Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower]] [[Category:Presidency of John F. Kennedy]] [[Category:Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson]] [[Category:Presidency of Richard Nixon]] [[Category:Presidency of Gerald Ford]] [[Category:Proxy wars]] [[Category:Revolution-based civil wars]] [[Category:United States Army in the Vietnam War|*]] [[Category:United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War|*]] [[Category:Wars involving Australia]] [[Category:Wars involving Cambodia]] [[Category:Wars involving Laos]] [[Category:Wars involving New Zealand]] [[Category:Wars involving North Korea]] [[Category:Wars involving South Korea]] [[Category:Wars involving Thailand]] [[Category:Wars involving the People's Republic of China]] [[Category:Wars involving the Philippines]] [[Category:Wars involving the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Wars involving the United States]] [[Category:Wars involving South Vietnam]] [[Category:Wars involving Vietnam]] [[Category:Articles containing video clips]] [[Category:1955 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1956 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1957 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1958 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1959 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1960 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1961 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1962 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1963 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1964 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1965 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1966 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1967 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1968 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1969 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1970 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1971 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1972 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1973 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1974 in Vietnam]] [[Category:1975 in Vietnam]] Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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