Years of war in Vietnam with America. Causes of the US attack on Vietnam. Aftermath of the Vietnam War
"I just tremble for my country when I think that God is just" -
US President Thomas Jefferson
In the second half of the 19th century, Vietnam became a French colony. The growth of national consciousness after the First World War led to the creation in 1941 in China of the League for the Independence of Vietnam or Viet Minh - a military-political organization that united all opponents of French power.
The main positions were occupied by supporters of communist views under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. During the Second World War, he actively cooperated with the United States, which helped the Viet Minh with weapons and ammunition to fight the Japanese. After the surrender of Japan, Ho Chi Minh captured Hanoi and other major cities of the country, proclaiming the formation of an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, France did not agree with this and transferred an expeditionary force to Indochina, starting a colonial war in December 1946. The French army could not cope with the partisans alone, and since 1950 the United States came to their aid. The main reason for their intervention was the strategic importance of the region, guarding the Japanese islands and the Philippines from the southwest. The Americans considered that it would be easier to control these territories if they were under the rule of the French allies.
The war went on for the next four years and by 1954, after the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the situation became almost hopeless. The United States by this time already paid more than 80% of the costs of this war. Vice President Richard Nixon recommended tactical nuclear bombing. But in July 1954, the Geneva Agreement was concluded, according to which the territory of Vietnam was temporarily divided along the 17th parallel (where there was a demilitarized zone) into North Vietnam (under the control of the Viet Minh) and South Vietnam (under the rule of the French, who almost immediately granted her independence ).
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon fought for the White House in the United States. At that time, the fight against communism was considered good form, and therefore the winner was the applicant whose program to combat the "red threat" was more decisive. After the adoption of communism in China, the US government viewed any developments in Vietnam as part of communist expansion. This could not be allowed, and therefore, after the Geneva Accords, the United States decided to completely replace France in Vietnam. With American support, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed himself the first President of the Republic of Vietnam. His rule was tyranny in one of its worst forms. Only relatives were appointed to government positions, whom the people hated even more than the president himself. Those who opposed the regime were locked up in prisons, and freedom of speech was forbidden. It was hardly to the liking of America, but you can’t turn a blind eye to anything, for the sake of the only ally in Vietnam.
As one US diplomat said, "Ngo Dinh Diem is certainly a son of a bitch, but he is OUR son of a bitch!"
The appearance on the territory of South Vietnam of underground resistance groups, not even supported from the North, was only a matter of time. However, the United States saw only the intrigues of the Communists in everything. Further tightening of measures only led to the fact that in December 1960, all South Vietnamese underground groups united in the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, called the Viet Cong in the West. Now North Vietnam began to support the partisans. In response, the US stepped up its military aid to Diem. In December 1961, the first regular units of the US Armed Forces arrived in the country - two helicopter companies, designed to increase the mobility of government troops. American advisers trained South Vietnamese soldiers and planned combat operations. The John F. Kennedy administration wanted to demonstrate to Khrushchev its determination to destroy the "communist contagion" and its readiness to defend its allies. The conflict grew and soon became one of the most "hot" hotbeds of the Cold War between the two powers. For the US, the loss of South Vietnam meant the loss of Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, which posed a threat to Australia. When it became clear that Diem was not capable of effectively fighting the partisans, the American intelligence services, through the hands of South Vietnamese generals, organized a coup. On November 2, 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was killed along with his brother. Over the next two years, as a result of the struggle for power, another coup took place every few months, which allowed the partisans to expand the captured territories. At the same time, US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and many fans of the "conspiracy theory" see this as his desire to end the Vietnam War peacefully, which someone really did not like. This version is plausible, in light of the fact that the first document that Lyndon Johnson signed as new president was to send additional troops to Vietnam. Although on the eve of the presidential elections, he was nominated as a "candidate for the world", which influenced his landslide victory. The number of American soldiers in South Vietnam rose from 760 in 1959 to 23,300 in 1964.
On August 2, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin, two American destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, were attacked by North Vietnamese forces. A couple of days later, in the midst of confusion in the command of the Yankees, the destroyer Maddox announced a second shelling. And although the ship's crew soon denied the information, intelligence announced the interception of messages in which the North Vietnamese confessed to the attack. The US Congress, with 466 votes in favor and no votes against, passed the Tonkin Resolution, giving the President the right to respond to this attack by any means. This started the war. Lyndon Johnson ordered airstrikes against North Vietnamese naval installations (Operation Pierce Arrow). Surprisingly, the decision to invade Vietnam was made only by the civilian leadership: Congress, President, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The Pentagon reacted without enthusiasm to the decision to "settle the conflict" in Southeast Asia.
Colin Powell, then a young officer, said: "Our military was afraid to tell the civilian leadership that this method of war leads to a guaranteed loss."
The American analyst Michael Desh wrote: "The unconditional obedience of the military to civilian authorities leads, firstly, to the loss of their authority, and secondly, it unties the hands of official Washington for further, similar to the Vietnamese, adventures."
More recently, the United States released a statement by independent researcher Matthew Aid, who specializes in the National Security Agency (US special service of electronic intelligence and counterintelligence), that key intelligence about the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, which served as the reason for the US invasion of Vietnam, was falsified . The basis was a 2001 report by NSA staff historian Robert Heynock, declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (passed by Congress in 1966). The report shows that the NSA officers made an unintentional error in translating the information received as a result of radio interception. Senior officers, who almost immediately revealed the mistake, decided to hide it by correcting all the necessary documents so that they indicated the reality of the attack on the Americans. High-ranking officials repeatedly referred to these false data in their speeches.
Robert McNamara, stated: “I think it is wrong to think that Johnson wanted war. However, we believed that we had evidence that North Vietnam was going to escalate the conflict.
And this is not the latest falsification of intelligence by the leadership of the NSA. The war in Iraq was based on unconfirmed information on the "uranium dossier". However, many historians believe that even if there had been no incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, the United States would still have found a reason to start military operations. Lyndon Johnson believed that America must defend its honor, impose a new round of the arms race on our country, unite the nation, distract its citizens from internal problems.
When a new presidential election was held in the United States in 1969, Richard Nixon declared that the foreign policy of the United States would change dramatically. The US will no longer pretend to be the overseer and try to solve problems in all corners of the planet. He revealed a secret plan to end the battles in Vietnam. This was well received by the war-weary American public, and Nixon won the election. However, in reality, the secret plan consisted in the massive use of aviation and navy. In 1970 alone, American bombers dropped more bombs on Vietnam than in the past five years combined.
And here we should mention another side interested in the war - US corporations that manufacture ammunition. More than 14 million tons of explosives were detonated in the Vietnam War, which is several times more than during the Second World War in all theaters of operations. Bombs, including high-tonnage bombs and now banned fragment bombs, leveled entire villages to the ground, and the fire of napalm and phosphorus burned hectares of forest. Dioxin, which is the most toxic substance ever created by man, was sprayed over the territory of Vietnam in an amount of more than 400 kilograms. Chemists believe that 80 grams added to New York's water supply is enough to turn it into a dead city. This weapon has continued to kill for forty years, affecting the current generation of Vietnamese. The profits of US military corporations amounted to many billions of dollars. And they were not at all interested in a quick victory for the American army. After all, it is not by chance that the most developed state in the world, using the latest technologies, large masses of soldiers, winning all their battles, still could not win the war.
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said: “We are moving towards a fascism not of the Hitler type, but of a softer type of fascism that is expressed in the loss of civil liberties, when everything is run by corporations and the government is in the same bed with big business.”
In 1967, the International War Crimes Tribunal held two hearings on the conduct of the Vietnam War. It follows from their verdict that the United States bears full responsibility for the use of force and for the crime against peace in violation of the established provisions of international law.
“In front of the huts,” recalls a former US soldier, “old men stood or squatted in the dust at the doorstep. Their life was so simple, it was all in this village and the fields surrounding it. What do they think of strangers invading their village? How can they understand the constant movement of helicopters cutting through their blue sky; tanks and half-tracks, armed patrols paddling through their rice paddies where they cultivate the land?
US military Vietnam War
The "Vietnam War" or "Vietnam War" is Vietnam's Second Indochina War with the United States. It began around 1961 and ended on April 30, 1975. In Vietnam itself, this war is called the Liberation War, and sometimes the American War. The Vietnam War is often seen as the peak of the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and China on the one hand, and the US with some of its allies on the other. In America, the Vietnam War is considered its darkest spot. In the history of Vietnam, this war is perhaps the most heroic and tragic page.
The Vietnam War was both a civil war between various political forces in Vietnam and an armed struggle against the American occupation.
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Officially, the Vietnam War began in August 1964 and continued until 1975 (although direct American intervention ceased two years before the end of the armed clashes). This clash is the best illustration of the instability of relations between the USSR and the United States during the Cold War. Let us analyze the prerequisites, highlight the main events and outcomes of the military conflict that lasted eleven years.
Background of the conflict
The actual root cause of the conflict is the logical desire of the United States to surround the Soviet Union with those states that will be under its control; if not formally, then actually. At the time the clash began, South Korea and Pakistan were already “subdued” in this regard; then the leaders of the United States made an attempt to add North Vietnam to them.
The situation was conducive to active action: at that time, Vietnam was divided into North and South, and a civil war was raging in the country. The South side requested help from the United States. At the same time, the northern side, which was controlled by the Communist Party led by Ho Chi Minh, received the support of the USSR. It is worth noting that openly - officially - the Soviet Union did not enter the war. The Soviet document specialists who arrived in the country in 1965 were civilians; however, more on that later.
Course of events: the beginning of hostilities
On August 2, 1964, an attack was carried out on a US destroyer that was patrolling the territory of the Gulf of Tonkin: North Vietnamese torpedo boats entered the battle; a similar situation recurred on August 4, with the result that Lyndon Johnson, then President of the United States, ordered an air strike against naval installations. Whether the boat attacks were real or imaginary is a separate discussion topic that we will leave to professional historians. One way or another, on August 5, an air attack and shelling of the territory of northern Vietnam by ships of the 7th fleet began.
On August 6-7, the "Tonkin Resolution" was adopted, which made hostilities sanctioned. The United States of America, which openly entered into conflict, planned to isolate the North Vietnamese army from the DRV, Laos and Cambodia, creating conditions for its destruction. On February 7, 1965, Operation Flaming Spear was carried out, which was the first global action to destroy important objects of North Vietnam. The attack continued on March 2 - already as part of Operation Rolling Thunder.
Events developed rapidly: soon (in March) about three thousand American marines appeared in Da Nang. Three years later, the number of United States soldiers fighting in Vietnam had risen to 540,000; thousands of units of military equipment (for example, about 40% of the country's tactical aviation military aircraft were sent there). In the 166th, a conference of states that are part of SEATO (US allies) was held, as a result of which about 50 thousand Korean soldiers were introduced, about 14 thousand Australian soldiers, about 8 thousand from Australia and more than two thousand from the Philippines.
The Soviet Union also did not sit idly by: in addition to those sent as civilian specialists in military affairs, the DRV (northern Vietnam) received about 340 million rubles. Weapons, ammunition and other means necessary for the war were supplied.
Development of events
In 1965-1966, a large-scale military operation by South Vietnam took place: more than half a million soldiers tried to capture the cities of Pleiku and Kon Tum using chemical and biological weapons. However, the attack attempt was unsuccessful: the offensive was thwarted. In the period from 1966 to 1967, a second attempt was made on a large-scale offensive, but the active actions of the SA SE (attacks from the flanks and rear, night attacks, underground tunnels, the participation of partisan detachments) stopped this attack as well.
It is worth noting that at the moment more than a million people fought on the US-Saigon side. In 1968, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam moved from defense to offensive, as a result of which about 150 thousand enemy soldiers and more than 7 thousand units of military equipment (cars, helicopters, aircraft, ships) were destroyed.
Throughout the conflict, there were active air attacks from the United States; according to available statistics, more than seven million bombs were dropped during the war. However, such a policy did not lead to success, since the FER government carried out mass evacuations: soldiers and the population hid in the jungle and mountains. Also, thanks to the support of the Soviet Union, the northern side began to use supersonic fighters, modern missile systems and radio equipment, creating a serious air defense system; more than four thousand United States aircraft were destroyed as a result.
Final stage
In 1969, the RSE (Republic of South Vietnam) was created, and in 1969, due to the failure of the bulk of operations, US leaders gradually began to lose ground. By the end of 1970, over 200,000 American soldiers had been withdrawn from Vietnam. In 1973, the United States government decided to sign an agreement on the cessation of hostilities, after which it finally withdrew its troops from the country. Of course, we are talking only about the formal side: under the guise of civilians, thousands of military specialists remained in South Vietnam. According to available statistics, during the years of the war the United States lost about sixty thousand people killed, more than three hundred thousand wounded, as well as a colossal amount of military equipment (for example, more than 9 thousand aircraft and helicopters).
The hostilities continued for several more years. In 1973-1974, South Vietnam went on the offensive again: bombing and other military operations were carried out. The result was set only in 1975, when the Republic of South Vietnam carried out Operation Ho Chi Minh, during which the Saigon army was finally defeated. As a result, the DRV and the RSE were merged into one state - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Against the background of numerous US wars of the last decade, the war in Vietnam lost to Washington is gradually fading into the shadows. However, it is a vivid example of how national identity and patriotism can defeat any enemy, even armed with modern weapons.
The Vietnam War was the longest military confrontation in modern military history. The conflict lasted about 20 years: from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
The most characteristic picture of the Vietnam War
In 1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt officially announced his country's assistance to Ho Chi Minh and his Viet Minh movement. In the documents they were called "patriots", "nationalists", "freedom fighters" and "allies".
Roosevelt and Ho Chi Minh
[Wikipedia]
58,200 Americans died in the clashes and another 304,000 were injured. In total, approximately 2.5 million military personnel passed through Vietnam. Thus, every tenth was killed or injured. About two-thirds of the US military during the war were volunteers. The most bloody for the Americans was May 1968 - then 2415 people died.
Moments of War
The average age of a dead American soldier was 23 years 11 months. 11,465 dead were under the age of 20, and 5 died before reaching the age of 16! The oldest person to die in the war was a 62-year-old American.
War is for the young...
[http://www.warhistoryonline.com/]
Civilian casualties are unknown to date - it is believed that about 5 million died, more in the North than in the South. In addition, the losses of the civilian population of Cambodia and Laos are not taken into account anywhere - apparently, here they also number in the thousands.
Footage of war crimes
From 1957 to 1973, about 37,000 South Vietnamese were shot by Viet Cong guerrillas for collaborating with the Americans, most of whom were petty civil servants.
A typical picture of Vietnamese cities...
On average, an American soldier in Vietnam fought 240 days a year! For comparison, an American soldier during the Second World War in the Pacific fought an average of 40 days in 4 years.
Military operation in the jungle
As of January 2004, 1,875 American soldiers were considered missing in Vietnam. As of August 1995, there were 1,713,823 Vietnam War veterans in the United States. Only 0.5 percent of Vietnam War veterans ended up in prison after it ended, and their suicide rate was 1.7 percent above the average.
Downed American pilot
The United States used Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, banned for military use in Geneva in 1925. As a result, at least 400,000 Vietnamese died. The traditional explanation for this fact is that it is used exclusively against vegetation.
Spraying defoliants over the jungle.
[Wikipedia]
On March 16, 1968, American soldiers completely destroyed a Vietnamese village, killing 504 innocent men, women, and children. For this war crime, only one person was convicted, who three days later was "pardoned" by the personal decree of Richard Nixon.
Destroyed Vietnamese village
It became one of the most important events of the Cold War period. Its course and results largely predetermined the further development of events throughout Southeast Asia.
The armed struggle in Indochina lasted more than 14 years, from the end of 1960 to April 30, 1975. Direct US military intervention in the affairs of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam continued for more than eight years. Military operations also took place in a number of regions of Laos and Cambodia.
In March 1965, 3,500 marines were landed in Da Nang, and in February 1968, US troops in Vietnam already numbered 543,000 people and a large number of military equipment, which accounted for 30% of the combat strength of the US Army, 30% of army aviation helicopters, about 40% tactical aircraft, almost 13% of attack aircraft carriers and 66% of marines. After the conference in Honolulu in February 1966, the heads of the US allies in the SEATO bloc sent troops to South Vietnam: South Korea - 49 thousand people, Thailand - 13.5 thousand, Australia - 8 thousand, the Philippines - 2 thousand and New Zealand - 350 people.
The USSR and China took the side of North Vietnam, providing it with extensive economic, technical and military assistance. By 1965 alone, the DRV received 340 million rubles from the Soviet Union free of charge or in the form of loans. Weapons, ammunition and other materiel were supplied to the VNA. Soviet military specialists helped VNA soldiers to master military equipment.
In 1965-1666, the American-Saigon troops (over 650 thousand people) launched a major offensive with the aim of capturing the cities of Pleiku, Kontum, dissecting the forces of the NLF, pressing them to the borders of Laos and Cambodia and destroying them. At the same time, they widely used incendiary means, chemical and biological weapons. However, SE AO thwarted the enemy offensive by launching active operations in various regions of South Vietnam, including those adjacent to Saigon.
With the beginning of the dry season of 1966-1967, the American command launched a second major offensive. Parts of the SA SE, skillfully maneuvering, escaped from blows, suddenly attacked the enemy from the flanks and rear, making extensive use of night operations, underground tunnels, communications and shelters. Under the blows of the SA SE, the American-Saigon troops were forced to go on the defensive, although by the end of 1967 their total number already exceeded 1.3 million people. At the end of January 1968, the NLF armed forces themselves went on the general offensive. It involved 10 infantry divisions, several separate regiments, a large number of battalions and companies of regular troops, partisan detachments (up to 300 thousand people), as well as the local population - about one million fighters in total. Attacks were simultaneously made on 43 of the largest cities in South Vietnam, including Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), 30 of the most important air bases and airfields. As a result of the 45-day offensive, the enemy lost more than 150 thousand people, 2,200 aircraft and helicopters, 5,250 military vehicles, 233 ships were sunk and damaged.
In the same period, the American command launched a large-scale "air war" against the DRV. Up to 1,000 warplanes delivered massive strikes against DRV targets. In 1964-1973, over two million sorties were made over its territory, 7.7 million tons of bombs were dropped. But the bet on the "air war" failed. The government of the DRV carried out a mass evacuation of the population of cities into the jungle and shelters created in the mountains. The Armed Forces of the DRV, having mastered supersonic fighters, anti-aircraft missile systems, radio equipment received from the USSR, created a reliable air defense system of the country, which destroyed up to four thousand American aircraft by the end of 1972.
In June 1969, the People's Congress of South Vietnam proclaimed the formation of the Republic of South Vietnam (RSV). The SE Defense Army in February 1968 was transformed into the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NVSO SE).
Major defeats in South Vietnam and the failure of the "air war" forced the US government in May 1968 to begin negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Vietnamese problem and to agree to an end to the bombing and shelling of the territory of the Republic of South Vietnam.
Since the summer of 1969, the US administration has set a course for "Vietnamization", or "de-Americanization", of the war in South Vietnam. By the end of 1970, 210,000 American soldiers and officers were withdrawn from South Vietnam, and the size of the Saigon army was increased to 1.1 million people. The United States transferred almost all the heavy weapons of the withdrawn American troops to it.
In January 1973, the US government signed an agreement to end the Vietnam War (the Paris Agreement), which provided for the complete withdrawal of US troops and military personnel from South Vietnam, the dismantling of US military bases, and the mutual return of prisoners of war and detained foreign civilians.
Up to 2.6 million American soldiers and officers participated in the Vietnam War, equipped with a large amount of the most modern military equipment. US spending on the war reached $352 billion. During its course, the American army lost 60,000 people killed and over 300,000 wounded, about 9,000 aircraft and helicopters, and a large amount of other military equipment. After the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam, over 10,000 American military advisers remained in Saigon under the guise of "civilians". US military assistance to the Saigon regime in 1974-1975 amounted to more than four billion dollars.
In 1973-1974, the Saigon army intensified the fighting. Its troops regularly carried out a large number of so-called "pacification operations", the Air Force systematically bombarded areas in the zone of control of the government of the Republic of South Ossetia. At the end of March 1975, the command of the army of the Republic of Vietnam concentrated all remaining forces for the defense of Saigon. In April 1975, as a result of the lightning operation "Ho Chi Minh", North Vietnamese troops defeated the South Vietnamese army, which was left without allies, and captured all of South Vietnam.
The successful completion of the war in Vietnam made it possible in 1976 to unite the DRV and the RSE into a single state - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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The middle of the 20th century is characterized by a series of ongoing military conflicts. One of the most dramatic pages in world history was the Vietnam War - a long, costly and controversial one. The communist government of North Vietnam turned against South Vietnam and its main ally, the United States. between the US and the USSR intensified the confrontation. Over 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans) were killed during the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese civilians. Protests against the United States war divided Americans, even despite President Richard Nixon's decision to withdraw US troops in 1973. In 1975, North Vietnam ended the war by capturing South Vietnam, and a year later it was one country - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Causes of the Vietnam War
Vietnam is located in southeast Asia, on the Indochina peninsula. It has been a French colony since the 19th century. During the Japanese invaded Vietnam. To fight back both the occupation of Japan and dependence on France, the Vietnam Independence League, or Viet Minh, was formed under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, inspired by the communist line of China and the USSR.
In 1945, Japan, losing the war, withdrew its troops from Vietnam, leaving it under the control of Bao Dai, the French-educated emperor. Seeing an opportunity to seize power, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, capturing the northern city of Hanoi and renaming Vietnam the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), with Ho installed as president. France, withtrying to regain control of the region, supported Emperor Bao and reconquered the southern part of the country, establishing the state of Vietnam in July 1949 with the capital in the city of Saigon.
Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. But while Ho and his supporters wanted a state modeled on other communist countries, Bao and many others wanted Vietnam to have close economic and cultural ties to the West.
According to a Veterans Administration survey, about 500,000 of the 3 million military personnel who served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the rates of divorce, suicide, alcoholism, and drug addiction were significantly higher among veterans.
When did the Vietnam War start?
The Vietnam conflict and the active participation of the United States in it began in 1954, dragging on for several decades.
Communist Ho forces seized power in the north, and armed conflict between northerners and southerners continued until the decisive battle at Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 ended in victory for the northern Viet Minh forces. Thus ended nearly a century of French colonial rule in Indochina.
In July 1954, at the Geneva Conference, an agreement was signed on the division of Vietnam in half along the 17th parallel (17 degrees north latitude). Ho Chi Minh received power in the northern half, and Bao in the southern. The treaty also called for a nationwide election for reunification in 1956.
However, in 1955, the radical anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem became president of the Republic of Vietnam, often called South Vietnam at the time, deposing Bao.
Viet Cong
As the Cold War intensified around the world, the US tightened its policy towards any Soviet allies, and by 1955 President Eisenhower had firmly pledged support to Ziyem and South Vietnam.
Trained and equipped by the US military and the CIA, Ziem's security forces cracked down on their territory with sympathetic northerners, derisively calling them Viet Cong (or Vietnamese communists). About 100 thousand people were arrested, many of whom were brutally tortured and executed.
By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Ziem's oppressive regime began to attack government officials, and by 1959 they began to engage the South Vietnamese army in skirmishes.
In December 1960, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) was formed in South Vietnam to organize resistance to the regime. It included Ziem's opponents. Although the NLF claimed to be autonomous and most of its members were not communists, many in Washington considered the National Front to be Hanoi's puppet.
Domino theory
A team sent in 1961 to ascertain the situation in South Vietnam advised an increase in US military, technical, and economic assistance to help Ziyem counter the Viet Cong threat.
Guided by the "domino theory" (if one of the countries of Southeast Asia establishes a communist regime, all the rest will follow), Kennedy increased US aid, but did not undertake a large-scale military intervention.
By 1962, there were approximately 9,000 US troops in South Vietnam (less than 800 in the 1950s).
gulf of tonkin
In November 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem's own generals plotted to assassinate him and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu - Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas three weeks later.
The subsequent political instability in South Vietnam was so significant that Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara were forced to increase US support.
In August 1964, two US destroyers were attacked by DRV torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson ordered a retaliatory bombardment of military installations in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed a resolution on the Gulf of Tonkin, which gave Johnson wide combat opportunities. The following year, Operation Rolling Thunder was carried out: US aircraft bombed rice fields, villages, and many civilian targets.
In March 1965, Johnson decides - with the consent of the American public - to send US soldiers to Vietnam. By June, there were 82,000 combat detachments there, and by the end of 1965, the army leadership demanded another 175,000 to support the struggle of the South Vietnamese army.
Some presidential advisers were concerned about both the escalation and the military action, especially in the face of a growing anti-war movement, but still Johnson authorized the immediate dispatch of 100,000 troops at the end of July 1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand committed to fighting in South Vietnam alongside the US, albeit on a much smaller scale.
In counterbalance to the air attacks, General Westmoreland undertook ground military action by the American-South Vietnamese combined forces, coordinating them with the government of General Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon.
Westmoreland adopted a strategy of war of attrition, seeking to destroy as many enemy soldiers as possible rather than trying to keep the territories they had captured. By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam were declared "free fire zones": this meant that all civilians had to be evacuated from the territory, and any object located there was considered as enemy. Heavy bombing by B-52 aircraft made these areas uninhabitable as refugees were taken to camps in special safe areas near Saigon and other cities.
Although the size of the army of the South Vietnamese side was constantly increasing (although from time to time the authorities of the southern side exaggerated its number), the troops of the DRV and the Viet Cong refused to stop fighting. This was due to the fact that they had established the supply of people and supplies along the "Ho Chi Minh trail." Aid came from Cambodia and Laos. In addition, North Vietnam strengthened its air defense, accepting help from the PRC and the USSR.
Anti-war protests
By November 1967, the number of US troops in Vietnam was approaching 500 thousand, the losses of the American side were 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. As the war dragged on, distrust of the government grew among the soldiers. They resented the reasons why the war should continue, as well as Washington's repeated claims that the war had already been won.
The physical and psychological state of American soldiers, both volunteers and conscripts, was getting worse - the number of drug users suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was growing, mutinies and attacks by soldiers on officers and junior officers began.
Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 US military personnel left the country, and a powerful anti-war movement among the US military spawned violent protests, killings, and mass arrests of personnel stationed in both Vietnam and the United States.
In the United States itself, Americans, crushed by monstrous reports of the war on television, also protested against the war: in October 1967, about 35,000 demonstrators organized a mass protest in front of the Pentagon. Opponents of the war argued that the main casualties were civilians, not soldiers, and that the United States was supporting a corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.
Tet offensive
By the end of 1967, Hanoi's communist leadership was becoming increasingly impatient and eager to deliver a decisive blow of such force that the better-off United States would give up hope of success.
On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV soldiers, led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, launched the Tet Offensive (named after Tet, the Asian New Year), a coordinated series of brutal attacks on more than 100 cities in South Vietnam.
Taken by surprise, the southerners, however, managed to quickly strike back, and after a couple of days the northerners were blocked.
Reports of the Tet attack increased tensions among US citizens, especially after news reports suggested that Westmoreland had requested 200,000 more troops despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was inevitable. Johnson's approval rating was dropping, and this is in an election year. The President had to stop the bombing in most of North Vietnam (although it was still ongoing in its southern part). He promised to devote the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than re-election.
Johnson's new approach, outlined in a speech in March 1968, met with a positive response from Hanoi, and peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam opened in Paris in May. Although representatives of South Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) were later included in the negotiations, the dialogue soon stalled, and after a brutal 1968 election marred by violence, Republican Richard Nixon took the presidency. 
Vietnamization
Nixon sought to dampen the anti-war movement by appealing to the "silent majority" of Americans, who he believed were not heard but supported the war effort. In an effort to limit the volume of American casualties, he announced the "Vietnamization" program, the main goal of which was to withdraw US troops from Vietnam, and in return to increase the supply of military equipment to control airspace and improve the training of South Vietnamese soldiers, re-equipping their army with modern weapons for effective ground control. war.
In addition to this Vietnam policy, Nixon continued public peace talks with them in Paris. And in the spring of 1968, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger began more significant secret negotiations.
The North Vietnamese continued to insist on the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the US and the departure of the new president of South Vietnam, General Nguyen Van Thieu, a US protege, as a condition for peace, and as a result, peace negotiations stalled.
Massacre in My Lai Village
In the next few years, news of more bloody crimes began to surface, including the horrific news that US soldiers mercilessly tortured and massacred over 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968.
Since the My Lai Massacre, anti-war protests have continued to flare up and multiply. In 1968 and 1969, hundreds of demonstrations and meetings swept across the country.
On November 15, 1969, the largest peaceful anti-war demonstration in American history took place in Washington, D.C., with more than 250,000 Americans gathering to demand the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.
The anti-war movement, which was especially strong on college campuses, divided Americans. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of uncontrolled power, and they came to express their indignation at it. Other Americans saw opposition to the government as an act of unpatriotism and perceived it as treason.
When the withdrawal of US troops began, those American soldiers who remained became increasingly embittered, and the problem of morale and discipline of the army became more and more aggravated. Tens of thousands of soldiers deserted, and about 500,000 American men became "draft draftsmen" between 1965 and 1973, many of them moving to Canada to avoid being drafted. Nixon eliminated conscription in 1972 and replaced it with voluntary enlistment the following year.
In 1970, a joint grouping of troops from South Vietnam and the United States invaded Cambodia in order to destroy the supply bases of the DRV there. The South Vietnamese then invaded Laos, but were pushed back by the North Vietnamese.
The invasions, which violated international law, sparked a new wave of student protests on college campuses across America. During one, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, four students were killed by National Guardsmen. Ten days later, two students were killed by police at the University of Jackson, Mississippi.
However, after a failed offensive against South Vietnam, by the end of June 1972, Hanoi was finally ready to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnamese officials worked out a peace deal by early autumn, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December, Nixon authorized a series of bombing raids on Hanoi and Haiphong. This attack was internationally condemned, they were nicknamed "Christmas Bombings".
End of the Vietnam War
In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam reached a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two countries. However, the war between North and South Vietnam continued until April 30, 1975, when the DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh (Ho himself died in 1969).
More than two decades of bitter conflict had a devastating effect on the people of Vietnam: after years of war, 2 million Vietnamese were killed, 3 million were injured, and another 12 million became refugees. The war completely destroyed the country's infrastructure and economy, and recovery was slow.
In 1976, Vietnam was unified and became known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, although violence continued sporadically for the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under a free market policy put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, helped by oil export revenues and foreign capital inflows. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States resumed in the 1990s.
In the United States, the Vietnam War echoed long after the last troops returned home in 1973. During the war from 1965 to 1973, the country spent more than $120 billion; these huge expenditures led to inflation, exacerbated by the global oil crisis in 1973, and soaring fuel prices.
The psychological consequences were even worse. The war dispelled the myth of US invincibility and divided the nation. Many veterans faced backlash from both opponents of the war, who viewed them as murderers of innocent civilians, and its supporters, who blamed them for losing the war. All this against the background of physical damage: the consequences of exposure to the toxic herbicidal agent Orange, millions of gallons of which were dropped by American aircraft on the dense forests of Vietnam, turned out to be very difficult.
In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened in Washington, DC. It was inscribed with the names of 57,939 American men and women killed or missing in the course of the war; later more names were added, bringing the total number of war casualties to 58,200.
