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US "Occupation"
U.S. military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. By 1969 more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. -
French Rule Ended, Vietnam Divided
Geneva Accords after French rule in July 1954, establishing the 17th parallel as a temporary demarcation line separating the military forces of the French and the Viet Minh. North of the line:North Vietnam, which had waged a successful eight-year struggle against the French–under the full control of the Vietnamese Communist Party, led by Ho Chi Minh. In the South the French transferred most of their authority to the State of Vietnam– under the authority of the former Vietnamese emperor, Bao Dai. -
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MUN HISTORICAL COMMITTEE EVENTS
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North Vietnam Defeats the French
Origins: from broader Indochina wars (1940s and ’50s) when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh in the North, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France. The French Indochina War broke out in 1946 and went on for eight years, with France’s war effort was supplied by the United States. With their shattering defeat by the Viet Minh at the Battle of DienBienPhu in May 1954, the French came to the end of their rule in Indochina -
After the Geneva Accords: Planned Election
Within 300 days of the signing of the accords, a demilitarized zone, or DMZ, was to be created by mutual withdrawal of forces north and south of the 17th parallel, and the transfer of any civilians who wished to leave either side was to be completed. Nationwide elections to decide the future of Vietnam, North and South, were to be held in 1956. -
South Vietnam losing Power
By mid 1960 it was apparent that the South Vietnamese army and security forces could not cope with the new threat. During the last half of 1959, VC-initiated ambushes and attacks on posts averaged well over 100 a month. In the next year 2,500 government functionaries and other real and imagined enemies of the Viet Cong were assassinated. It took some time for the new situation to be recognized in Saigon and Washington. -
NGO DIN DIEM
Operatives of the US CIA bought off or intimidated Diem’s domestic opposition, and helped him to keep his economy afloat and resettle 900,000 refugees who had fled the communist North.By late 1955 Diem had consolidated his power in the South, defeating the remaining sect forces; arresting communist operatives prepared for the anticipated elections.Opposed to the elections, Diem called for a referendum only in the South.In October 1955 he declared himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. -
Diem Fails to Rule South Vietnam
South-ambitious programs of social and economic reform had been allowed to languish while many local officials and police engaged in extortion, bribery, and theft of government property. That many of these officials were, like Diem himself, northerners. Diem’s unexpected offensive against communist political organizers and propagandists in the countryside in 1955 had resulted in the arrest of thousands and in the temporary disorganization of the communists’ infrastructure. -
North Vietnam Rises to Power
By 1957, however, the communists, now called the Viet Cong (VC), had begun a program of terrorism and assassination against government officials and functionaries. The Viet Cong’s ranks were soon swelled by many noncommunist Vietnamese who had been alienated by the corruption and intimidation of local officials. -
NEW WAR: North vs South
Beginning in the spring of 1959, armed bands of Viet Cong were occasionally engaging units of the South Vietnamese army in regular firefights. By that time the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, meeting in Hanoi, had endorsed a resolution calling for the use of armed force to overthrow the Diem government. Southerners specially trained in the North as insurgents were infiltrated back into the South along with arms and equipment. A new war had begun. -
Formation of the National Liberation Front (NLF),
At the end of 1960 the communists in the South announced the formation of the National Liberation Front (NLF), which was designed to serve as the political arm of the Viet Cong and also as a broad-based organization for all those who desired an end to the Diem regime. The Front’s regular army, usually referred to as the “main force” by the Americans, was much smaller than Diem’s army, but it was only one component of the Viet Cong’s so-called People’s Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF). -
US Withdraws Combat Units
the Soviet Union and China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support, political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North. -
Effects of the Vietnam War
Vietnam emerged from the war as a potent military power within Southeast Asia, but its agriculture, business, and industry were disrupted, large parts of its countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation and laced with land mines, and its cities and towns were heavily damaged. A mass exodus in 1975 of people loyal to the South Vietnamese cause was followed by another wave in 1978 of “boat people,” refugees fleeing the economic restructuring imposed by the communist regime. -
Reconciliation
The United States had its military demoralized; its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in what had been its longest and most controversial war. The two countries finally resumed formal diplomatic relations in 1995.