The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations. The conflict was the second of the Indochina wars and a proxy war of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and US. The Vietnam War was one of the postcolonial wars of national liberation, a theater in the Cold War, and a civil war, with civil warfare a defining feature from the outset. Direct US military involvement escalated from 1965 until US forces were withdrawn in 1973. The fighting spilled into the Laotian and Cambodian civil wars, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
After the defeat of the French Union in the First Indochina War that began in 1946, Vietnam gained independence in the 1954 Geneva Conference but was divided in two at the 17th parallel: the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, took control of North Vietnam, while Ngo Dinh Diem led South Vietnam, which the US assumed financial and military support for. The North Vietnamese supplied and eventually directed the Viet Cong (VC), a common front of southern dissidents which intensified a guerrilla war from 1957. In 1958, North Vietnam invaded Laos, establishing the Ho Chi Minh trail to supply the VC insurgency. By 1961, North Vietnam was covertly sending soldiers of its People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) to assist the southern insurgents. President John F. Kennedy increased US involvement in the early 1960s, including military advisors and aid to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). In 1963, Diem was killed in a US-backed ARVN military coup, which added to South Vietnam's growing instability.
Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, the US Congress passed a resolution that gave President Lyndon B. Johnson authority to increase military presence without declaring war. Johnson launched a bombing campaign of the north and deployed combat troops, dramatically increasing deployment to 184,000 by 1966, and 536,000 by 1969. US forces relied on air supremacy and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations in rural areas. Communist forces relied on guerrilla tactics, using the countryside and jungle as concealed base areas.
In 1968, the communists under Lê Duẩn launched the Tet Offensive, which was a tactical defeat but convinced many Americans the war could not be won. Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, began "Vietnamization" from 1969, which saw the conflict fought by an expanded ARVN while US forces withdrew. The 1970 Cambodian coup d'état resulted in a PAVN invasion and US–ARVN counter-invasion, escalating its civil war.
With its ranks degraded by widespread drug abuse and plummeting morale, US troops had mostly withdrawn from Vietnam by 1972. However, American forces provided crucial air support to ARVN against North Vietnam's massive Easter Offensive with the Linebacker Operations. Following the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, the last American forces left. The accords were subsequently violated by North Vietnam, and bloody fighting continued until the 1975 Spring Offensive. Weakened by years of corruption and the economic troubles of South Vietnam's Thiệu regime, Saigon fell to the PAVN, marking the war's end. North and South Vietnam were officially reunified in 1976.
The war exacted an enormous cost: estimates of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 970,000 to 3 million. Some 275,000–310,000 Cambodians, 20,000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 US service members died. The war was also marked by brutal atrocities, including large-scale massacres by both sides including Huế and Mỹ Lai, terrorism, indiscriminate bombings, rape, torture, and persecution of ethnic minorities.
Political repression and flawed economic policies following the war would precipitate the Vietnamese boat people and the larger Indochina refugee crisis, which saw millions leave Indochina, of which about 250,000 perished at sea. 20% of South Vietnam's jungle was sprayed with toxic herbicides, which led to significant health problems. The Khmer Rouge carried out the Cambodian genocide, and the Cambodian–Vietnamese War began in 1978. In response, China invaded Vietnam, with border conflicts lasting until 1991. Within the US, the war gave rise to Vietnam syndrome, an aversion to American overseas military involvement, which, with the Watergate scandal, contributed to the crisis of confidence that affected the United States throughout the 1970s.
Names
Various names have been applied and shifted over time, though the Vietnam War is the most commonly used in English. It has also been called the Second Indochina War, as it spread to Laos and Cambodia, the Vietnam Conflict, and colloquially 'Nam. South Vietnam used terms such as Kháng chiến chống Cộng sản (lit. 'Resistance War against Communists') and Cuộc chiến bảo vệ tự do (lit. 'Fight to Protect Freedom'). North Vietnam at the time, and official histories produced by the Government of Vietnam today, refer to it as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ, cứu nước (lit. 'Resistance War against America to save the nation'), or simply the Resistance War against America. Vietnamese both within the country and overseas occasionally refer to it as Chiến tranh Việt Nam, the Vietnam War.
Background
Vietnam had been under French control as part of French Indochina since the 1880s. Vietnamese independence movements, such as the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, faced suppression despite growing public support for diverse reformist and revolutionary nationalist causes. Nguyen Sinh Cung established the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1930; the Marxist–Leninist party aimed to overthrow French rule and establish a communist state.
Fractures between nationalists and communists emerged in the late 1920s, as the two groups differed in their visions for postcolonial Vietnam: republicanism for the revolutionary nationalists, and proletarian internationalism for the communists. The communists' radical push for centralized control led to a prolonged civil conflict marked by the suppression of rival nationalists, with the ICP largely responsible for initiating systemic Vietnamese-on-Vietnamese violence.
Japanese occupation of Indochina
In September 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina, following France's capitulation to Nazi Germany. By 1941, Japan had gained full military access across Indochina and established a dual colonial rule that preserved Vichy French administration while facilitating Japanese military operations. Cung, now known as Ho Chi Minh, returned from exile to establish the anti-Japanese Viet Minh movement. From 1945, the US Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) provided the Viet Minh with training and weapons to develop local intelligence networks against Japanese forces.
In March 1945, Japan, losing the war, overthrew the French government in Indochina, established the Empire of Vietnam, and maintained Emperor Bảo Đại as a figurehead. Nationalist sentiment, intensified during World War II, helped pave the way for the communist-led Viet Minh, themselves cloaked in nationalism. Following the surrender of Japan, they launched the August Revolution, overthrowing the Japanese-backed state and seizing weapons from the Japanese. On 2 September, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). At the same time, following Allied decisions, British forces were deployed to Indochina to oversee the Japanese surrender south of the 16th parallel, while Chinese Nationalist troops did so in the north. On September 23, the British supported a French coup that overthrew the DRV government in Saigon and reinstated French control. O.S.S. forces withdrew as the French sought to reassert control in southern Indochina.
First Indochina War
Beginning in August 1945, the Viet Minh sought to consolidate power by terrorizing and purging rival Vietnamese nationalist groups and Trotskyist activists. In 1946, the Franco-Chinese and Ho–Sainteny Agreements facilitated a coexistence between the DRV and French that strengthened the Viet Minh while undermining the nationalists. That summer, the Viet Minh colluded with French forces to eliminate nationalists, targeted for their ardent anti-colonialism.
With most of the nationalist partisans defeated, and negotiations broken down, tensions between the Viet Minh and French authorities erupted into full-scale war in December 1946, a conflict later drawn into the Cold War. Surviving nationalist partisans and politico-religious groups rallied behind the exiled Bảo Đại to reopen negotiations with France to establish the State of Vietnam in opposition to communist domination. By adhering to Marxist–Leninist principles, Vietnamese communists monopolized power through a series of radical campaigns.
Internationalization of war
The Chinese communist victory of 1949 transformed the nature of the Indochina War. In January 1950, the People's Republic of China became the first state to recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and persuaded the Soviet Union to do the same. In line with the anticommunist Truman Doctrine, the US and other Western Bloc countries recognized the French-associated State of Vietnam, based in Saigon, as the legitimate government. The civil war and colonial war in Indochina became internationalized and increasingly intertwined with the global Cold War.
The outbreak of the Korean War in June convinced Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina was another example of communist expansionism. Within the United States, the Red Scare and rise of McCarthyism fostered public opposition to communism. In April 1950, the Chinese leadership formed the Chinese Military Advisory Group (CMAG), marking the beginning of substantial Chinese support for the Viet Minh. Chinese weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla force into an army. In September 1950, the US created the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to screen French aid requests, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers. By 1954, the US had spent $1 billion in support of the French effort, shouldering 80% of the war costs.
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
In late 1953, the CMAG and the Viet Minh planned operations in northwestern Vietnam around Dien Bien Phu near the Laotian border. During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Viet Minh forces encircled the French, using heavy artillery and anti-aircraft batteries to bombard the garrison. France and the US discussed the use of tactical nuclear weapons, though how seriously this was considered is unclear.
In May 1954, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. At the Geneva Conference, they negotiated a ceasefire with the Viet Minh, and the independence of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam was affirmed, with Vietnam placed under a temporary North–South division.
Transition period
At the Geneva Conference, the French and the communists came to see the division of Vietnam into two halves as a necessary solution for reaching a negotiated settlement. The Soviets and Chinese pressured Ho Chi Minh to accept the 17th parallel demarcation line, arguing that he could win the election in a couple of years.
However, the United States, represented at the conference by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the State of Vietnam objected to the division of Vietnam as a solution. The US countered with the "American Plan", with the support of the State of Vietnam and the United Kingdom. It provided for unification elections under United Nations supervision, but was rejected by the Soviets. The US claimed to support the self-determination of the Vietnamese people and opposed any arrangement that would restrict it.
The 1954 Geneva Accords brought a flawed peace. Signed between the French and the Viet Minh, the accords ended the war between French and communist forces, but it did not resolve the conflict between the two internationally recognized Vietnamese regimes, which were temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel. Neither the US, nor the State of Vietnam, signed anything at the Geneva Conference. The Diệm government called for UN-supervised elections but rejected those proposed by the Viet Minh, believing they would not be free.
During 300 days, up to one million Northerners moved South, including at least 500,000 Catholics, approximately 200,000 Buddhists, and tens of thousands from ethnic minority communities. Allen Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, authorized a psychological campaign that exaggerated anti-Catholic sentiment among the Viet Minh and circulated materials falsely attributed to them, including claims of an American atomic attack on Hanoi. The CIA's efforts played a minimal role, as Catholic migrants were driven primarily by their own convictions and circumstances rather than external psychological operations.
Northern émigrés played a significant role in articulating anticommunist discourse in South Vietnam. Meanwhile, over 100,000 Viet Minh fighters moved North for "regroupment". The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 cadres in the South as a base for insurgency. The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in 1956, and China withdrew from North Vietnam.
Eisenhower speculated that up to 80% of voters would have supported Ho Chi Minh over Bảo Đại in a 1954 election, emphasizing Bảo Đại's shortcomings. The Pentagon Papers suggested that Diem would have fared better than Bảo Đại, with support for Ho very likely falling well below 80% by 1956. In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the International Control Commission (ICC) stated that fair elections were impossible, reporting that neither South nor North had honored the armistice agreement.
Between 1953 and 1956, the Northern government instituted agrarian reforms, including rent reduction and land reform, which resulted in political oppression. During land reform, North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, about 100,000 executions. As the campaign was mainly in the Red River Delta, 50,000 executions became accepted by scholars. However, documents from Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate executions were much lower, though likely greater than 14,000. In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" and restored much of the land to the original owners.
From April to June 1955, Diệm eliminated political opposition in the south by launching operations against religious groups: the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo of Ba Cụt. The campaign attacked the Bình Xuyên organized crime group, which was allied with members of the communist party secret police and had military elements. The group was defeated in April following a battle in Saigon. As broad opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm sought to blame the communists.
In a referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam in October 1955, Diệm rigged the poll supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu and was credited with 98%, including 133% in Saigon. His American advisors had recommended a more modest winning margin of 60–70%. Diệm, however, viewed the election as a test of authority. He declared South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with him as president. Likewise, Ho Chi Minh and other communists won 99% of the vote in North Vietnamese elections.
The domino theory, which argued that if a country fell to communism, surrounding countries would follow, was first proposed by the Eisenhower administration. John F. Kennedy, then a senator, said: "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."
Diệm era, 1954–63
Rule
By virtue of his staunch anticommunism and anticolonialism, Ngô Đình Diệm, an ardent nationalist and devout Catholic, rallied backing from people of varied regional and religious backgrounds, including many Đại Việt partisans and Hòa Hảo, Cao Đài, and Buddhist adherents. Diệm's achievement in transforming the weak South Vietnam into a centralized republic, however, did not guarantee lasting success. His authoritarian tendencies and suppression of alternative views provoked resentment and opposition to his government during the communist insurgency.
In July 1955, Ngô Đình Diệm launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign with the help of defectors from the Viet Minh; loosely defined and encompassing a wide range of measures under Trần Chánh Thành, one of its aims was to uncover and arrest communist cadres left behind in the South. Diệm instituted the death penalty in 1956 against activity deemed communist. The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 were imprisoned and 2,148 killed. 40,000 political prisoners were jailed by 1959. In October 1956, Diệm launched a land reform program limiting the size of rice farms per owner. 1.8m acres of farm land became available for purchase by landless people. By 1960, the process had stalled because many of Diem's biggest supporters were large landowners.
In May 1957, Diệm undertook a 10-day state visit to the US. Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Diệm's honor. But Secretary of State Dulles privately conceded Diệm had to be backed because they could find no better alternative.
Insurgency in the South, 1954–60
At least 50,000 Communist Party members and soldiers with hidden weapon caches were deliberately left in the South following the Geneva Accords in 1954. Between 1954 and 1957, the Diệm government succeeded in preventing large-scale unrest in the countryside. In April 1957, insurgents launched an assassination campaign, referred to as "extermination of traitors". 17 people were killed in the Châu Đốc massacre at a bar in July. By early 1959, Diệm had come to regard the violence as an organized campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death. There had been division among former Viet Minh, whose main goal was to hold elections promised in the Geneva Accords, leading to activities separate from the other communists and anti-GVN (Government of the Republic of Vietnam) activists. Douglas Pike estimated that insurgents carried out 2,000 abductions, and 1,700 assassinations of officials, village chiefs, hospital workers and teachers from 1957 to 1960. Violence between insurgents and government forces increased from 180 clashes in January 1960, to 545 in September.
In September 1960, COSVN, North Vietnam's southern headquarters, ordered a coordinated uprising in South Vietnam and a third of the population was soon living in areas of communist control. In December, North Vietnam formally created the Viet Cong (VC) with the intent of uniting all anti-GVN insurgents, including non-communists. It was formed in Memot, Cambodia, and directed through COSVN. The VC placed "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." Identities of the leaders were often kept secret.
North Vietnamese involvement
In March 1956, southern communist leader Lê Duẩn presented a plan to revive the insurgency entitled "The Road to the South", to the Politburo in Hanoi. However, as China and the Soviets opposed confrontation, his plan was rejected. Despite this, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive southern insurgency in December. Communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958. In May 1958, North Vietnamese forces seized the transportation hub at Tchepone in Southern Laos near the demilitarized zone, between North and South Vietnam.
The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South in January 1959, and, in May, Group 559 was established to upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, then a six-month mountain trek through Laos. On 28 July, North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces invaded Laos, fighting the Royal Lao Army along the border. About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation. The first arms delivery was completed in August 1959. At the Third Party Congress in September 1960, the leaders of the Workers' Party of Vietnam authorised the creation of the National Liberation Front while concealing their control over the organisation.
Kennedy's escalation, 1961–63
In the 1960 U.S. presidential election, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon. Although Eisenhower warned Kennedy about Laos and Vietnam, Europe and Latin America "loomed larger than Asia on his sights."
Kennedy remained committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. In 1961, the US had 50,000 troops based in South Korea, and Kennedy faced four crisis situations: the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion he had approved in April, settlement negotiations between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement in May, construction of the Berlin Wall in August, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. Kennedy believed another failure to stop communist expansion would irreparably damage US credibility. He was determined to "draw a line in the sand" and prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. He told The New York Times after the Vienna summit with Khrushchev, "Now we have a problem making our power credible and Vietnam looks like the place."
Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed Diệm and his forces had to defeat the guerrillas on their own. He was against the deployment of American combat troops and observed "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." The quality of the South Vietnamese military, however, remained poor. Poor leadership, corruption, and political promotions weakened the ARVN. The frequency of guerrilla attacks rose as the insurgency gathered steam. While Hanoi's support for the VC played a role, South Vietnamese governmental incompetence was at the core of the crisis.
Kennedy advisors Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow recommended US troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers. Kennedy rejected the idea but increased military assistance. In April 1962, John Kenneth Galbraith warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force...and bleed as the French did." Eisenhower put 900 advisors in Vietnam, and by November 1963, Kennedy had put 16,000.
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 forced relocation and segregation of rural South Vietnamese, into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from the VC. It was hoped these new communities would provide security for the peasants and strengthen the tie between them and central government. However, by November 1963 the program had waned, and it ended in 1964. In July 1962, 14 nations, including China, South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, and the US, signed the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos.
Ousting and assassination of Diệm
The inept performance of the ARVN was exemplified by failed actions such as the Battle of Ap Bac in January 1963, in which the VC won a battle against a much larger and better-equipped South Vietnamese force, many of whose officers seemed reluctant to engage. The ARVN lost 83 soldiers and 5 US helicopters, serving to ferry troops shot down by VC forces, while the VC lost only 18 soldiers. The ARVN forces were led by Diệm's most trusted general, Huỳnh Văn Cao. Cao was a Catholic, promoted due to religion and fidelity rather than skill, and his main role was to preserve his forces to stave off coups. Washington policymaker concluded 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 paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962, which he partly attributed to US encouragement. Robert F. Kennedy noted, "Diệm wouldn't make even the slightest concessions. He was difficult to reason with ..."
Diệm's alienation of allies who had previously supported his anticommunist efforts, including Buddhist leaders, American officials, and military generals, fueled the unfolding 1963 crisis. Discontent with Diệm's policies exploded in May 1963, following the Huế Phật Đản shootings of 9 Buddhists protesting the ban on displaying the Buddhist flag on Vesak. This resulted in mass protests—the Buddhist crisis—against policies perceived as favoring Catholics over Buddhists. Ngô Đình Thục, Diệm's elder brother and the Archbishop of Huế, held his anniversary celebrations shortly before Vesak; they were bankrolled by the government, and Catholic flags were prominently displayed. Diệm refused to make concessions to the Buddhists or take responsibility for the deaths. In August 1963, the ARVN Special Forces of Colonel Lê Quang Tung, loyal to Diệm's brother Ngô Đình Nhu, raided pagodas, causing destruction and hundreds of deaths. The Republic of Vietnam sought to harness religious nationalism by promoting spiritual values in opposition to communism's atheism; however, this approach inadvertently amplified religious consciousness that challenged the state's authority.
US officials began discussing regime change during 1963. The United States Department of State wanted to encourage a coup, while the Pentagon favored Diệm. Chief among the proposed changes was removal of Diệm's brother Nhu, who controlled the secret police and special forces, and was seen as being behind Buddhist repression and the Ngô family's rule. This proposal was conveyed to the US embassy in Saigon in Cable 243. The CIA contacted generals planning to remove Diệm, and told them the US would not oppose this, nor punish them by cutting off aid. Diệm was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. When Kennedy was informed, Maxwell Taylor remembered he "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face." Kennedy had not anticipated Diệm's murder. The U.S. ambassador, Henry Cabot Lodge, invited coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war". Kennedy wrote to Lodge congratulating him for "a fine job".
Following the coup, chaos ensued. Hanoi took advantage and increased its support for the VC. South Vietnam entered political instability, as one military government toppled another. Each new regime was viewed by the communists as a puppet of the Americans; whatever the failings of Diệm, his credentials as a nationalist had been impeccable. US advisors were embedded in the South Vietnamese armed forces. They were criticized for ignoring the political nature of the insurgency. The Kennedy administration sought to refocus US efforts on pacification – which in this case was defined as countering the insurgency – and "winning the hearts and minds" of the population. Military leadership in Washington, however, was hostile to any role for U.S. advisors other than troop training. General Paul Harkins, the commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963. The CIA was less optimistic, 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".
Paramilitary officers from the CIA's Special Activities Division trained and led Hmong tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. The indigenous forces were in the tens of thousands and conducted direct action missions, led by paramilitary officers, against the Communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese supporters. The CIA participated in the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MAC-V SOG).
Hanoi's road to escalation
Within the Politburo of the Workers' Party, since 1960, Lê Duẩn and Nguyễn Chí Thanh had opposed Khrushchev's policy of peaceful coexistence. In 1963, Hanoi formally rejected peaceful coexistence as a strategic principle. The opening of the Ho Chi Minh Sea Trail in late 1962, distinct from the land trail through Laos, together with significant increases in the size of the Viet Cong armed forces, gave communist military commanders the capacity to wage a much larger and deadlier campaign in the South. At the same time, the intensification of the Sino-Soviet split during 1963 enabled North Vietnamese leaders to obtain Chinese assurances of support for a more aggressive war approach. In April 1960, North Vietnam imposed military conscription for men. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the South between 1961 and 1963. Denouncing revisionist Soviet policies, Beijing increasingly endorsed Hanoi's war efforts in South Vietnam.