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In the early 1900s, nationalist movements began in
Vietnam and the most prominent movement was led
by Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. He founded a
militant organization called the Viet Minh -
In 1945 when Japan surrendered, Minh's forces took control of Hanoi and declared Vietnam independent.
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The Geneva Accords of 1954
declared a cease-fire and divided
Vietnam officially into North
Vietnam (under Minh and
communist forces) and South
Vietnam (under a French-backed
emperor). Dividing like was at the 17th parallel. The Geneva Accords stipulated that
the divide was temporary and that
Vietnam was to be reunified under
free elections to be held in 1956. -
France refused to recognize
Minh’s declaration and returned to
Vietnam driving Minh’s forces into
N. Vietnam. Minh asked the U.S. for help, but
due to the Cold War the U.S. aided
France instead. Fighting between France and
Vietnam lasted until 1954 when
France suffered a humiliating
defeat at Dien Bien Phu and sought
a peace settlement. -
The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on December 19, 1946, and lasted until July 20, 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Việt Minh opponents in the south dated from September 1945.
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Within a year of the Geneva
Accords the US followed through
with their domino theory policy
and began to offer support to the
anti-communist politician Ngo
Dinh Diem. With US assistance, Diem took
control of the S. Vietnam
government in 1955 and declared
the Republic of Vietnam and
cancelled the elections that were
scheduled for 1956 -
Diem’s regime proved corrupt, oppressive, and
extremely unpopular. Nonetheless, the US continued to prop it up, in
fear of the increasing communist resistance
activity in S. Vietnam. The resistance against Diem was organized by the Ho Chi
Minh-backed National Liberation Front (Viet
Cong) a guerrilla army. -
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In 1964 North Vietnamese forces
allegedly attacked US Navy ships in
the Gulf of Tonkin. This led to the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolutions which gave Johnson
an authorization without a formal
declaration of war by Congress, for
the use of conventional military
forces in Vietnam. (so the
President could do whatever
necessary) LBJ began to send US troops to
Vietnam. -
Operation Rolling Thunder was a bombing
campaign in 1965 and the conflict escalated. By the end of 1966 there were nearly 400,000 US
troops in Vietnam. -
In 1968 the N. Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong
launched a massive campaign called the Tet
Offensive attacking nearly thirty US targets and
dozens of other cities in S. Vietnam all at once. Although the US pushed back the offensive and
won a tactical victory the American media
coverage characterized the conflict as a defeat. Morale hit an all-time low for the troops and in
1968 there was the My Lai Massacre in which
frustrated US soldiers killed hundreds of
unarmed Vietnamese civilians. -
Back in the US there was a large antiwar movement
especially that gained momentum as student
protesters, countercultural hippies, and many
mainstream Americans opposed the war The draft began in 1969. Protests against the war and the military draft grew
increasingly violent, resulting in police brutality
outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968
as well as the death of four students at Kent States
University in 1970 when the Ohio National Guard shot at protestors. -
There were some secret negotiations between a
US emissary and N. Vietnamese representative Le
Duc Tho in 1972 Nixon engaged in diplomatic maneuvering with
China and USSR and stepped up bombing of N.
Vietnam to pressure the N. Vietnamese into a
settlement. This cease-fire was finally signed in Jan. 1973 The last US troops left in March 1973 -
US continued to fund the S. Vietnamese army but funding
quickly dwindled. Meanwhile, President Nixon was entangled in the
Watergate scandal which ultimately led to his
resignation in Aug. 1974. North Vietnam stepped up their attacks on the South
and finally launched an all-out offensive in the spring
of 1975. in April 1975 the S. Vietnam capital of Saigon fell to the
North, who reunited the country under the Communist
rule as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. -
Nixon promoted a policy of Vietnamization of the
war, promising to withdraw US troops gradually
and hand over management of the war effort to
the S. Vietnamese. Although Nixon made good on his promise, he
also illegally expanded the geographic scope of
the war effort by authorizing the bombing of Viet
Cong sites in Cambodia and Laos. The revelation of these illegal actions caused an enormous
scandal in the US and forced Nixon to push for a
peace settlement. -
58,000 US soldiers died and thousands were
wounded. Cost the US millions Americans began to distrust and question the
government We did not win. The Wars Power Act-said the President could not
send troops anywhere without Congressional
approval. (The picture below is a U.S. Troop who was killed as an effect of the war.)
