Vietnam War
| War Tactics
all about tactics used in the war. |
Weapons and
traps
:what can I say weapons and traps and more.. |
Warfare
Guerilla and chem- ical warfare. |
Tunnels and
trails
Tunnels used in Nam to transtort food and supplises. |
History:
The Vietnam War started in
19Vietnam War
(1955-75), a unsuccessful effort by South Vietnam and the United States to
prevent the communists of North Vietnam from uniting South Vietnam with North
Vietnam under their leadership.
The French wanted to control in Indochina, however,
and would recognize Vietnam only as a free state within the French Union.
Fighting between the French and the Viet Minh broke out in 1946 and continued
until 1954, when the French were badly defeated in the Battle of Dien Bien
Phu. An international conference in Geneva in 1954 negotiated a cease-fire.
To separate the warring forces, the conferees decided that the French and
the Vietnamese fighting under French command would move south of the 17th
parallel and the Viet Minh would go north of the 17th parallel, which was
established as a military demarcation line surrounded by a demilitarized
zone (DMZ). Thousands of people accordingly moved north or south away from
their homes, and the French began their final departure from Vietnam. The
agreement left the communist-led Viet Minh in control of the northern half
of Vietnam, which came to be known as North Vietnam, while the noncommunist
southern half became South Vietnam. Ngo Dinh Diem became South Vietnam's
prime minister during the armistice negotiations.
Guerrilla warfare spread as Viet Minh soldiers who
were trained and armed in the North the Viet Cong to assassinate, ambush,
and sabotage. The Diem government asked more American military advisers and
mat�riel to build up the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and the police
force, but it could not halt the growing presence of the South Vietnamese
communist forces, or Viet Cong. U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent more
noncombat military personnel after the North Vietnamese unified the South
Vietnamese communist insurgents in an organization called the National Front
for the Liberation of Vietnam (NLF) in December 1960. By the end of 1962
the number of U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam had increased from
900 (in 1960) to 11,000, and Kennedy authorized them to fight if they were
fired upon.
United States Involment:
After escalating U.S. involvement in Vietnam
through the 1960's, President Richard M. Nixon announced in 1969 that the
U.S. would begin withdrawing its forces from the war ravaged country. With
stepped up American training, the South Vietnamese were encouraged to play
a larger role in their own defense. Despite the U.S. troop withdrawals,
opposition to the war increased. Antiwar protests and marches drew thousands
of people in Washington, D.C., and other cities throughout the country.
Television brought the war into America's living rooms. Scenes of the war's
horrors turned many people against continued U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
The last American ground forces left Vietnam in 1973. But the war did not
end until 1975 when South Vietnam surrendered to the North. As the North
Vietnamese army entered Saigon, people fled to the American embassy. Congress
provided emergency aid to evacuate Americans and some South Vietnamese from
the city.
Battle: On
Jan. 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a massive surprise
offensive during the Tet (lunar new year) Vietnamese festival. They attacked
36 major South Vietnamese cities and towns. The fighting at this time was
especially fierce in Saigon and in the city of Hue, which the NLF held for
several weeks. The NLF suffered heavy losses (33,000 killed) in the Tet
Offensive, and the ranks of the Viet Cong were so decimated by the fighting
that, from 1968 on, the majority of the insurgents in South Vietnam were
actually North Vietnamese soldiers who had infiltrated into the South. Although
the general uprising that the NLF had expected in support had not materialized,
the offensive had an important strategic effect, because it convinced a number
of Americans that, contrary to their government's claims, the insurgency
in South Vietnam could not be crushed and the war would continue for years
to come.
The End:
In December 1974
the North Vietnamese attacked Phuoc Binh, a provincial capital about 60 miles
(100 km) north of Saigon. Their capture of this city in early January 1975
convinced the North Vietnamese that a full-scale invasion of the South was
now practicable. Accordingly, in early March, North Vietnamese forces began
a large-scale offensive in the central highlands. When President Thieu ordered
a withdrawal of all ARVN forces not only from the central highlands but from
the northernmost two provinces of the country as well, general panic ensued,
and the South Vietnamese military machine began to come apart. The withdrawals
rapidly became routs as large ARVN units disintegrated into columns of refugees.
One by one the coastal cities were abandoned, and by early April the ARVN
had abandoned the northern half of their country to the North Vietnamese
forces. The troops of the ARVN began to melt away, and the remaining Americans
escaped by air- and sealifts with Vietnamese friends and coworkers. On April
21, President Thieu resigned and flew to Taiwan. On April 30 what remained
of the South Vietnamese government surrendered unconditionally, and North
Vietnamese tank columns occupied Saigon without a struggle. A military government
was instituted, and on July 2, 1976, the country was officially united as
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with its capital in Hanoi. Saigon was renamed
Ho Chi Minh City.
The effects of the long conflict were harsh for all
involved. More than 47,000 Americans were killed in action, nearly 11,000
died of other causes, and more than 303,000 were wounded in the war. Casualty
figures for the Vietnamese are far less certain. Estimates of the ARVN's
casualties range from 185,000 to 225,000 killed and 500,000 to 570,000 wounded.
The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong suffered about 900,000 troops killed and
an unknown, but huge, number of wounded. In addition, more than 1,000,000
North and South Vietnamese civilians were killed during the war. Parts of
the countryside were scarred by bombs and defoliation, and some cities and
towns were heavily damaged. By the war's end much of the population of South
Vietnam had become refugees seeking an escape from the fighting. Agriculture,
business, and industry had been disrupted. In the United States, Johnson's
economic program for a "Great Society" had been largely halted by the economic
and military demands of an unpopular war. The cost of the war has been estimated
to have totaled about $200 billion. With the communist victory in South Vietnam
and communist takeovers in neighbouring Cambodia and Laos, the new Vietnam
emerged as an important Southeast Asian power.
