Against the background of numerous US wars of the last decade, the war in Vietnam, which was lost for Washington, is gradually receding into the shadows. However, she is a shining example of how national identity and patriotism can defeat any enemy, even armed with modern weapons.
The Vietnam War was the longest military conflict in modern military history. The conflict lasted about 20 years: from November 1, 1955 until 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 Vietnam Minh movement. The documents referred to them as "patriots", "nationalists", "freedom fighters" and "allies".
Roosevelt and Ho Chi Minh
[Wikipedia]
58,200 Americans died in the fighting and another 304,000 were wounded. In total, approximately 2.5 million military personnel passed through Vietnam. Thus, every tenth person was killed or injured. About two-thirds of the American military during the war were volunteers. The bloodiest year for Americans was May 1968, when 2,415 people died.
Moments of war
The average age of a dead American soldier was 23 years 11 months. 11,465 of the dead were under 20 years of age, and 5 died before reaching 16 years of age! The oldest person killed in the war was a 62-year-old American.
War is a matter for the young...
[http://www.warhistoryonline.com/]
Civilian casualties to date are unknown—about 5 million are believed to have died, with 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, they also number in the thousands here.
Footage of war crimes
From 1957 to 1973, about 37 thousand South Vietnamese were shot by Viet Cong guerrillas for collaborating with the Americans, most of whom were minor government employees.
A typical picture of Vietnamese cities...
On average, an American soldier fought 240 days a year in Vietnam! For comparison, an American soldier fought in the Pacific during World War II on average 40 days over 4 years.
Military operation in the jungle
As of January 2004, 1,875 American soldiers were reported missing in action 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 were incarcerated after the war ended, and their suicide rate was 1.7 percent higher than average.
Downed American pilot
During the Vietnam War, the United States used the chemical Agent Orange, which was banned for military use in Geneva in 1925. As a result, at least 400 thousand Vietnamese died. The traditional explanation for this fact is its use 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. Only one person was convicted of this war crime, and three days later he was “pardoned” by a personal decree of Richard Nixon.
Destroyed Vietnamese village
The Vietnam War or Vietnam War is the largest military conflict of the second half of the twentieth century, between North and South Vietnam, in which the USSR, USA, China and a number of other states also participated. The Vietnam War began in 1957 and ended only in 1975.
Causes and background of the Vietnam War
After World War II in 1954, the territory of Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel. North Vietnam was under the control of the Viet Minh, and South Vietnam was ruled by the French administration.
After the communists won in China, the United States began to intervene in the affairs of Vietnam, helping the southern part. The United States regarded China as a threat and, in their opinion, it would soon turn its attention to Vietnam, and this cannot be allowed.
In 1956, Vietnam was supposed to unite into one state. But South Vietnam refused to come under communist rule and abandoned the treaty, declaring itself a republic.
Start of the war
North Vietnam saw no other way to unify the state except by conquering South Vietnam. The Vietnam War began with systematic terror against South Vietnamese officials. In 1960, the Viet Cong organization or NLF was created, which included all the groups fighting against South Vietnam.
The success of the Viet Cong worried the United States, and they deployed the first regular units of their army in 1961. But so far the US Army is not yet involved in military clashes. American military personnel and officers only train the South Vietnamese army and help draw up attack plans.
The first major clash occurred in 1963. Then the North Vietnamese partisans defeated the South Vietnamese army at the Battle of Ap Bac. This defeat undermined the position of Diem, the ruler of South Vietnam, which soon led to a coup, and Diem was killed. Meanwhile, North Vietnam strengthened its positions and also transferred its partisan detachments to the territory of South Vietnam, by 1964 their number was at least 8 thousand fighters.
The number of American military personnel grew rapidly; if in 1959 their number was no more than 800 fighters, then in 1964 their number increased to 25 thousand.
Full-scale intervention by the American army
In February 1965, Vietnamese partisans attacked military installations of the American army. US President Lyndon Johnson announced that the US would soon be ready to strike back at North Vietnam. American aircraft begin bombing Vietnamese territory - Operation Burning Spear.
In March 1965, the bombing began again - Operation Rolling Thunder. This bombing was the largest since World War II. The number of American military personnel from 1964 to 1965 increased from 24 thousand to 180 thousand. In the next three years, the number of American military personnel increased to approximately 500 thousand.
The American army first entered combat in August 1965. The operation was called Operation Starlight, where the American army gained victory by killing about 600 Viet Cong fighters.
The US military began to resort to a "search and destroy" strategy. Its goal is to detect North Vietnamese partisan units and their subsequent destruction.
The North Vietnamese army and guerrillas began to penetrate into South Vietnam, and the American army tried to stop them in the mountainous regions. In 1967, partisans became especially active in the mountainous regions, and the US Marines were forced to join the battle. At the Battle of Dakto, the United States managed to hold off the enemy, but the Marines also suffered heavy losses.
North Vietnam's Tet Offensive
Until 1967, the US military had significant success in the war against North Vietnam. And then the government of North Vietnam begins to develop a plan for a full-scale invasion of South Vietnam with the goal of turning the tide of the war. The United States knew that North Vietnam was preparing for an offensive, but they did not even suspect its scale.
The offensive begins on an unexpected date - the Vietnamese New Year, Tet Day. These days there should be no military operations, but in 1968 this agreement was violated.
On January 30-31, the North Vietnamese army launched massive attacks throughout South Vietnam, including large cities. In most directions the attack was successfully repulsed, but the city of Hue was still lost.
The advance of the North Vietnamese army was stopped only in March. The American and South Vietnamese army then launch a counterattack where they want to retake the city of Hue. The Battle of Hue is considered the bloodiest in the history of the Vietnam War. The US and South Vietnamese armies lost large numbers of fighters, but the Viet Cong's losses were catastrophic, and its military potential was seriously undermined.
After the Tet Offensive, a note of protest rang out among the US population, as many began to believe that the war in Vietnam could not be won, the forces of North Vietnam were still not exhausted and there was no longer any point in losing American soldiers. Everyone was concerned that North Vietnam could carry out a military operation of this magnitude.
The final stages of the Vietnam War
After Richard Nixon assumed the presidency of the United States in 1968, he announced that the number of American soldiers in Vietnam would decrease. But aid to South Vietnam will not stop. Instead of using its own army, the United States will intensively train the South Vietnamese army, as well as supply it with supplies and equipment.
In 1971, the South Vietnamese army launched the military operation Lam Son 719, the goal of which was to stop the supply of weapons to North Vietnam. The operation ended in failure. The American military already in 1971 stopped combat operations searching for Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam.
In 1972, the Vietnamese army attempted another full-scale offensive. It was called the "Easter Offensive". The North Vietnamese army was reinforced with several hundred tanks. The South Vietnamese army managed to stop the offensive only thanks to American aircraft. Despite the fact that the offensive was stopped, South Vietnam lost significant territory.
At the end of 1972, the United States began large-scale bombing of North Vietnam - the largest in the entire history of the Vietnam War. The huge losses forced the North Vietnamese government to begin negotiations with the United States.
In January 1973, a peace agreement was signed between North Vietnam and the United States and the American military began to rapidly leave Vietnam. In May of that year, the entire American army returned to the United States.
Despite the fact that the United States withdrew its army, the North Vietnamese position was disastrous. The forces of South Vietnam numbered about 1 million soldiers, while its opponents had no more than 200-300 thousand fighters. However, the combat effectiveness of the South Vietnamese army fell due to the absence of the American military, in addition, a deep economic crisis began, and South Vietnam began to lose its territories to North Vietnam.
North Vietnamese forces carried out several attacks on South Vietnamese territory, wanting to test the US response. Seeing that the Americans will no longer take part in the war, the government is plotting another full-scale attack on
South Vietnam.
In May, an offensive began, which a few months later ended in the complete victory of North Vietnam. The South Vietnamese army was unable to adequately respond to the offensive and was completely defeated.
Consequences of the Vietnam War
Both sides suffered colossal casualties. The United States lost almost 60 thousand military personnel killed, and the number of wounded reached 300 thousand. South Vietnam lost about 300 thousand killed, and about 1 million soldiers were wounded, and this does not count the civilian population. The death toll of North Vietnam reached 1 million, in addition to which about 2 million civilians died.
The Vietnamese economy has suffered such catastrophic losses that it is impossible to even give an exact figure. Many cities and villages were simply razed to the ground.
North Vietnam completely conquered South Vietnam and united the entire country under a single communist flag.
The US population negatively assessed military intervention in the fighting in Vietnam. This sparked the birth of a hippie movement, who chanted that they did not want this to happen again.
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 areas 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 thousand people and a large amount of military equipment, accounting 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 the Marine Corps. After the conference in Honolulu in February 1966, the heads of the US allied countries in the SEATO bloc sent troops to South Vietnam: South Korea - 49 thousand people, Thailand - 13.5 thousand, Australia - 8 thousand, 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, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had received 340 million rubles free of charge or in the form of loans from the Soviet Union alone. Weapons, ammunition and other materiel were supplied to the VNA. Soviet military specialists helped VNA soldiers master military equipment.
In 1965-1666, American-Saigon troops (over 650 thousand people) launched a major offensive with the goal of capturing the cities of Pleiku and Kontum, cutting up the NLF forces, pressing them to the borders of Laos and Cambodia and destroying them. At the same time, they widely used incendiary agents, chemical and biological weapons. However, JSC SE thwarted the enemy's offensive by launching active operations in various areas 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. Units of the SE JSC, skillfully maneuvering, avoided attacks and suddenly attacked the enemy from the flanks and rear, making extensive use of night operations, underground tunnels, communication passages and shelters. Under the attacks of the SE JSC, 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 armed forces of the NLF themselves launched a 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 - in total about one million fighters. 43 of the largest cities in South Vietnam, including Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), and 30 most important air bases and airfields were attacked simultaneously. 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, and 233 ships were sunk and damaged.
During the same period, the American command launched a large-scale “air war” against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Up to one thousand combat aircraft carried out massive attacks on DRV targets. In 1964-1973, over two million aircraft sorties were flown over its territory, and 7.7 million tons of bombs were dropped. But the bet on an “air war” failed. The government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam carried out a massive evacuation of the population of cities to the jungle and shelters created in the mountains. The DRV Armed Forces, having mastered supersonic fighters, anti-aircraft missile systems, and radio equipment received from the USSR, created a reliable air defense system for 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). In February 1968, the SE Defense Army was transformed into the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam (PVLS 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 Vietnam problem and agree to stop bombing and shelling of the territory of the South Vietnam.
Since the summer of 1969, the US administration has set a course for the “Vietnamization” or “de-Americanization” of the war in South Vietnam. By the end of 1970, 210 thousand 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 to it almost all the heavy weapons of the withdrawn American troops.
In January 1973, the US government signed an agreement to end the war in Vietnam (Paris Agreement), which provided for the complete withdrawal of US and allied troops and military personnel from South Vietnam, the dismantling of US military bases, and the mutual return of prisoners of war and held foreign civilians.
Up to 2.6 million American soldiers and officers, equipped with a large amount of the most modern military equipment, participated in the Vietnam War. US spending on the war reached $352 billion. During its course, the American army lost 60 thousand people killed and over 300 thousand wounded, about 9 thousand planes and helicopters, and a large amount of other military equipment. After the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam, over 10 thousand 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 its fighting. Its troops regularly carried out a large number of so-called “pacification operations”; the Air Force systematically bombed areas in the zone of control of the South East government. 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-fast 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 Democratic Republic of Vietnam and South Vietnam into a single state - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
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VIETNAM WAR
an armed conflict on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, which began in the late 1950s as a guerrilla civil war in South Vietnam and escalated after 1965 into an international conflict involving the United States and North Vietnam.
Background. In the spring of 1954, a meeting was convened in Geneva to discuss the conditions for ending the war in Indochina (1946-1954), which was attended, on the one hand, by representatives of the national liberation forces and communists of Vietnam, and on the other, by the French colonial government and its supporters. The meeting opened on May 7, the day the French military base at Dien Bien Phu fell. The meeting was attended by representatives of France, Great Britain, the USA, the USSR, China, Cambodia, Laos, as well as the Vietnamese government of Bao Dai, supported by the French, and the government of the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence League) led by Ho Chi Minh. On July 21, a ceasefire agreement was reached, which provided for the withdrawal of French troops from Indochina. The main points of the agreement on Vietnam provided for: 1) the temporary division of the country into two parts approximately along the 17th parallel and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between them; 2) a ban on the build-up of weapons in both parts of the country; 3) creation of an international control commission consisting of representatives of India, Poland and Canada; 4) holding general elections to the parliament of a united Vietnam on July 20, 1956. The United States and Bao Dai's government refused to sign the agreement, but the American side assured that it would not resort to force to disrupt it. Bao Dai claimed that the Western powers had betrayed his interests, but it was clear that, under pressure from the USSR and China, the Viet Minh had made far greater concessions than could have been expected from them, given their military victory. After the French left, the Ho Chi Minh government quickly consolidated its power in North Vietnam. In South Vietnam, the French were replaced by the United States, which viewed South Vietnam as the main link in the security system in the region. The American domino doctrine assumed that if South Vietnam became communist, then all neighboring states of Southeast Asia would fall under communist control. After this, the prime minister held a referendum, removed Bao Dai from power and proclaimed himself head of state. However, starting from the late 1950s, economic stagnation began to increase in the country, repression, corruption, and discrimination against Buddhists and southerners intensified. Nevertheless, the United States continued to provide full support to the Ngo Dinh Diem government.
Rural insurgency. In 1956, Ngo Dinh Diem, with the tacit support of the United States, refused to hold a national referendum on the issue of reunification of the country. Convinced that the peaceful unification of the country had no prospects, Vietnamese nationalist and communist forces launched an insurgency in the rural areas of South Vietnam. The political leadership of the movement was carried out from North Vietnam, and practically the rebels were led by former members of the Viet Minh, who remained in South Vietnam after the division of the country and went underground. After the start of the uprising, it was joined by southerners who fled to the north after 1954 and underwent political and military training there. Well-versed in local conditions, knowledgeable of people and even linguistic dialects, the rebels tried to enlist the support of the peasants by promising them land (Ngo Dinh Diem's limited land reform did not have the desired effect) and appealing to their national feelings. In December 1960, as it became apparent that Ngo Dinh Diem's regime was gradually losing control of the countryside, North Vietnam announced the unification of the rebels into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NSLV), a Communist-led coalition that included various religious, nationalist and social groups . The armed wing of the NLF, known as the National Liberation Army, consisted of local militia, provincial military units and elite shock battalions. The South Vietnamese government called these forces the Viet Cong (using this term to refer to all Vietnamese communists). The political program of the NLF provided for the replacement of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime with a democratic government, the implementation of agrarian reform, the implementation by South Vietnam of a policy of neutrality in the international arena, and, finally, the unification of the country through the negotiation process.
Drawing the US into the conflict. In 1961, the Viet Cong controlled a significant territory of South Vietnam and could block traffic on the country's roads at almost any time. American military advisers were convinced that a large-scale invasion from the north should be expected, as was the case in Korea, and recommended that Ngo Dinh Diem create a regular army with an extensive command and control system, equip it with heavy weapons and artillery. But such an army turned out to be unable to effectively withstand the rapid attacks of the partisans. Thus, maintaining security in rural areas fell on the shoulders of an undertrained and poorly armed national police force, which was also often infiltrated by guerrillas. Another serious problem was the massive flow of weapons into the hands of the Viet Cong, either during the fighting or through defectors. The rapid weakening of the position of the South Vietnamese government forced the United States to provide it with additional military assistance in 1961, which made it possible to temporarily improve the situation in 1962. To support military operations, Ngo Dinh Diem began a program to create "strategic villages", which included building defensive structures in the villages, training local self-defense units in tactics to repel Viet Cong attacks before the arrival of government troops, and turning them into centers for health care, secondary education and agricultural training. . It was assumed that eventually the peasants would stop supplying the partisans with food and supplying them with recruits and information. However, the social situation of the peasants hardly changed for the better, so the government was unable to protect the “strategic villages” from partisan attacks, and corrupt officials often robbed the rural population. In 1963, in the face of intensified militant Buddhist opposition and under American pressure demanding a change in political course, Ngo Dinh Diem was removed as a result of the first of a series of military coups. His successors focused on strengthening security, primarily in the Saigon area, but by 1964 the central government more or less controlled only 8 of the 45 South Vietnamese provinces, and the Viet Cong were pushing back government troops in almost every other area of the country. Although it was officially reported that thousands of Viet Cong were killed, the number of guerrillas, taking into account only their permanent contingent, was estimated at 35 thousand people. In addition, it was believed that these regular guerrilla forces were supported by armed units numbering approx. 80 thousand people, whose members worked on the land during the day and fought at night. Moreover, there were approx. 100 thousand active supporters of the Viet Cong, who carried out important reconnaissance missions and organized the supply of military units with food and weapons. Among the population of South Vietnam as a whole, there was an increase in sentiment in favor of ending the war, but there was also growing dissatisfaction with the corruption of the regime, its inability to provide security and a basic set of services.
Incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin. On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox, a destroyer patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin, approached the coast of North Vietnam and was allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, under unclear circumstances, another attack was carried out. In response, President L. Johnson ordered the American air force to strike North Vietnamese naval installations. Johnson used these attacks as a pretext to get Congress to pass a resolution in support of his actions, which later served as a mandate for an undeclared war.
Escalation of the war and changes in its nature. Military advisers advocated the bombing of North Vietnamese territory even before the 1964 presidential elections. In the fall of 1964, the US Embassy in Saigon reported an increase in cases of significant groups of North Vietnamese infiltrating into South Vietnamese territory. In February 1965, following a Viet Cong attack on a U.S. air base at Pleiku, Johnson ordered U.S. aircraft to begin bombing barracks and troop staging areas in North Vietnam that were believed to be used as bases for attacks on South Vietnam. The initial purpose of the bombing was to stop North Vietnamese forces from infiltrating South Vietnam, to force North Vietnam to withdraw aid to the rebels, and to boost South Vietnamese morale. Over time, two more reasons appeared - to force Hanoi to the negotiating table and to use the bombing as a bargaining chip in concluding an agreement. By March 1965, American bombing of North Vietnam began to become regular. In early 1965, the United States began to involve its troops in South Vietnam in combat operations, indicating that its status as military advisers had outlived its usefulness. In February, at the initial stage of the escalation of hostilities, there were approx. 24,000 American troops. By the end of 1965, this figure had risen to approximately 175,000, not counting the approximately 40,000 Navy personnel on US ships operating off the coast of South Vietnam. However, only ok. 60% of this contingent consisted of actual combat units, the rest were auxiliary and support troops. Military air operations also intensified in South Vietnam. Helicopters were widely used to increase the mobility of South Vietnamese and American troops in rough terrain. New types of weapons and methods of combat were developed. For example, defoliants were sprayed, “liquid” mines were used that penetrated the surface of the earth and retained the ability to explode for several days, as well as infrared detectors that made it possible to detect the enemy under a dense forest canopy. Air operations against guerrillas changed the nature of the war; Now the peasants were forced to leave their houses and fields, destroyed by intense bombing and napalm. By the end of 1965, 700 thousand people left the rural areas of South Vietnam and became refugees. Another new element was the involvement of other countries in the war. In addition to the United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and later the Philippines and Thailand came to the aid of the South Vietnamese government. In 1965, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin promised to send Soviet anti-aircraft guns, MIG jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles to North Vietnam.
Progress of the war in 1965-1967. A significant increase in 1965 in the number of personnel and equipment in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States and its allies made it possible to expand the zone they controlled, especially in the Saigon area and in Central Vietnam. However, the Viet Cong kept many rural areas firmly within their sphere of influence. Beginning in 1965, the intensity of American bombing of North Vietnam gradually increased. In the summer of 1965, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese came into direct contact with South Vietnamese and American troops and fought serious battles. To prevent enemy penetration along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a system of mountain trails in the border areas of South Vietnam, the US government allowed its troops to pursue the enemy into Cambodia and intensified the bombing of the eastern regions of Laos. By the end of 1965, the governments of the warring parties made a number of fruitless attempts to find a way out of the situation at the negotiating table. At the beginning of 1966, it was decided to switch the main forces of the South Vietnamese army to peacekeeping operations in order to ensure the security of densely populated rural areas such as the Mekong Delta. Meanwhile, the US Army undertook a gigantic, although never achieved, combing operation, the purpose of which was to destroy enemy personnel. The main military operations in 1966 took place in the central coastal provinces, the central mountainous provinces of Kontum and Pleiku, bordering Laos and Cambodia, as well as in the area located south of the demilitarized zone. The United States began bombing supply bases and gas depots in North Vietnam, as well as targets in the demilitarized zone. The first bombing of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and the port city of Haiphong was carried out on June 29, 1966. Despite this, the number of North Korean troops infiltrating South Vietnam steadily increased. Soviet supplies to North Vietnam were carried out through the port of Haiphong, which the United States refrained from bombing and mining, fearing the consequences of the destruction of Soviet ships. In North Vietnam, American bombing also resulted in numerous civilian casualties and the destruction of many civilian objects. Civilian casualties were relatively low thanks to the construction of thousands of single-occupancy concrete shelters and the evacuation of much of the urban population, especially children, to rural areas. Industrial enterprises were also removed from cities and located in rural areas. In 1966, the Viet Cong failed to launch a major offensive, which gave the US command bright hopes. The strengthening of the allied forces allowed the American General W. Westmoreland to launch a massive offensive against rebel strongholds in the first months of 1967. One of the assigned tasks was the destruction of villages controlled by the Viet Cong. Residents of suspicious villages were evicted from their homes, which were then burned or bulldozed, and peasants were relocated to other areas. The heaviest fighting in the second half of 1967 took place in five provinces adjacent to the demilitarized zone to the south. American infantry troops were sent here to support the American Marines, who were fighting bloody battles with the North Vietnamese. In other parts of the country, fighting was mainly limited to guerrilla attacks and counterattacks by government troops. The only exceptions were large-scale offensive operations undertaken by the Viet Cong in October at Loc Ninh, near the Cambodian border, and in November at Dak To, on the Central Plateau. In 1967, American bombing of North Vietnam intensified again. The United States admitted that its aircraft flew combat missions against North Vietnam from air bases in Thailand. American bombers attacked not only military targets, but also industrial enterprises, power plants, railways, bridges, river communications and oil storage facilities. At the end of 1967, US officials reported that in total they had lost 1,833 aircraft and 1,204 helicopters in the Vietnam War, of which 767 were shot down over North Vietnam. North Vietnam never supported one side or the other in the Sino-Soviet conflict because it needed help from both countries. Beginning in 1965, the USSR supplied equipment and ammunition for air defense, and China sent auxiliary troops numbering from 30 to 50 thousand to North Vietnam to assist in restoring transport communications and strengthening air defense. Throughout the 1960s, China insisted that North Vietnam continue the armed struggle until complete and final victory. The USSR, wary of border conflicts, seemed inclined to open peace negotiations, but due to rivalry with China for leadership of the communist bloc, did not put serious pressure on the North Vietnamese. Operation Tet in 1968. In early 1968, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong conducted a number of major operations against South Vietnamese cities. At this time approx. 20% of the 490,000 American troops in South Vietnam and 35-40% of combat troops were stationed in the northern provinces. In January, North Vietnamese troops surrounded Khe Sanh, a small community near the demilitarized zone, where significant American troops were pinned down for months. While the Americans stood at Khe Sanh, expecting a big offensive there, the Viet Cong launched it elsewhere. On January 30, shortly after the Allied ceasefire to mark the Tet holiday, the Vietnamese New Year, North Vietnamese units attacked several cities, including Quy Nhan, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Kon Tum and Pleiku. Small groups of Viet Cong attacked individual pre-selected targets (like the American embassy in Saigon), others strengthened their positions in populated areas where they already enjoyed some support (for example, in the Cholon area of Saigon). The ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, Hue, fell under the attacks of the attackers, but during the counteroffensive the city was virtually destroyed by American aircraft. To fight the Viet Cong in the cities, government troops had to be brought in from rural areas. Entire urban areas were destroyed during street fighting, and by the end of February there were 1.5 million refugees in the country, of whom 700,000 had lost their homes since January 30th. Meanwhile, the MNLF regained control of many rural areas. Despite the fact that calls for a general uprising were unsuccessful, the Tet operation permanently undermined the prestige of the American military and dealt a severe blow to the morale of the South Vietnamese. In June 1969, the rebels formed the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam.
Peace negotiations. From 1965 to 1968, repeated attempts were made to start peace negotiations, but they were unsuccessful, as were the efforts of international mediators. UN Secretary General U Thant, after a meeting with representatives of North Vietnam in Rangoon (Burma) in March 1967, reported: “Hanoi understands the principle of reciprocity as follows: there is a civil war in South Vietnam, Hanoi supports one side, the United States supports the other. If the United States stops its assistance , then Hanoi is ready to do the same." The United States claimed that it was protecting South Vietnam from external aggression. Three main obstacles stood in the way of peace negotiations: 1) Hanoi's demand that the United States finally and unconditionally stop bombing North Vietnam; 2) the US refusal to agree to this without concessions from North Vietnam; 3) the reluctance of the South Vietnamese government to enter into negotiations with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. On March 31, 1968, US President Johnson yielded to demands to limit the scope of American participation in the war and announced a reduction in bombing of North Vietnam (which, as it turned out later, did not affect the 200-mile strip north of the demilitarized zone) and called for an end to the war on the terms of the Geneva Accords . Although the United States continued ground and air combat in South Vietnam and intensified bombing attacks on the southern part of North Vietnam, the governments of North Vietnam and the United States began preliminary peace talks in Paris in May. Immediately before the 1968 presidential election, Johnson ordered an end to American bombing of North Vietnam on November 1. The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Saigon government were invited to take part in the negotiations in Paris.
Anti-war sentiments. In the late 1960s, the United States was gripped by an unprecedented wave of public discontent over the undeclared war in Vietnam. Apparently, this was caused not only by the enormous costs of the war and heavy casualties (during 1961-1967, almost 16,000 American troops were killed and 100,000 wounded; total losses from 1961 to 1972 were 46,000 killed and more than 300,000 wounded) , but also by demonstrating on television the destruction caused by American troops in Vietnam. Johnson's decision not to run for re-election, which was announced at the same time he was abandoning the bombing of North Vietnam, was the result of a domestic protest movement against his policies in Vietnam.
Vietnamization. R. Nixon, who replaced Johnson as president in January 1969, announced a transition to the “Vietnamization” of the war, which provided for the gradual withdrawal of American ground forces from Vietnam, the use of the remaining military personnel mainly as advisers, instructors, and also to provide technical assistance and air support for the South Vietnamese armed forces, which meant shifting the brunt of the fighting onto the shoulders of the South Vietnamese army. Direct participation of American troops in combat operations ceased in August 1972. The number of American troops in Vietnam fell from 536,000 at the end of 1968 to approximately 24,000 in 1973. However, another 100,000 troops were stationed in Thailand and Guam, where the main air bases, as well as on US Navy ships off the coast of Vietnam. At the same time, the United States noticeably intensified its bombing of Vietnam, first in the south and then in the north, and soon military operations and bombing covered almost all of Indochina. The expansion of the air war led to an increase in the number of American aircraft shot down (8,500 by 1972). In 1970, the facts of the massacre committed by American soldiers in 1968 in the village of My Lai during a combing operation became public knowledge. These atrocities, as well as the military trials of those involved in the massacre, raised a new wave of public debate about the role of American troops in Vietnam and the situation of the civilian population in a war that does not have a clearly defined front line. In April 1970, US and South Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia to destroy South Vietnamese guerrilla bases and support the anti-communist Cambodian government of General Lon Nol, which had recently overthrown the neutral government of Norodom Sihanouk. By the end of June 1970, the 8,000 American troops involved in the operation had withdrawn from Cambodia, but South Vietnamese troops remained in the country, and American aircraft continued to support troops fighting against Sihanouk's supporters and communists. By the end of 1971, the war was raging throughout almost the entire territory of Cambodia. In 1970 and 1971, American aircraft continued to attack areas of Laos controlled by the pro-communist Pathet Lao forces. In 1970, bombing of the territory north of the demilitarized zone resumed under the guise of a “response” to attacks by American reconnaissance aircraft. In February 1971, South Vietnamese troops, with massive support from American aircraft, attacked the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. However, heavy anti-aircraft fire and furious infantry attacks, supported by heavy Soviet-made tanks, forced Saigon troops to retreat after a month and a half. In 1968, during the Tet Operation, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese suffered heavy losses and switched to limited guerrilla warfare between 1969 and late 1971. However, in early April 1972 they launched a series of major offensives involving tanks and heavy artillery in several areas of South Vietnam. They achieved the most significant success in the north, where they literally swept away the South Vietnamese units that fled in panic, expelling them from the province of Quang Tri, and for the first time since the beginning of the war they captured one of the provincial centers - the city of Quang Tri. A serious threat also loomed over Kontum on the Central Plateau and Anlok, 113 km northwest of Saigon. In response to the enemy advance, Nixon ordered the resumption of full-scale aerial bombing throughout North Vietnam, using new, more precisely targeted bombs. On May 8, he ordered the mining of North Vietnamese ports and inland waterways. Such an unprecedented decision, it seemed, should have hampered the emerging improvement in US relations with China and the USSR, but none of these countries agreed to confrontation. By early summer, South Vietnamese troops launched a counteroffensive and gradually regained some of the previously lost territory. The decisive factor in the success of the offensive was the powerful bombing strikes of American aircraft. At the end of October 1972, after secret negotiations in Paris between President Nixon's national security adviser Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, a preliminary nine-point agreement was reached. However, the United States hesitated to sign it, and after the Saigon government raised objections on a number of points, they tried to change the content of the agreements already reached. In mid-December, negotiations were interrupted, and the United States launched the most intense bombing of North Vietnam during the entire war. American B-52 strategic bombers carried out "carpet" bombing of the areas of Hanoi and Haiphong, covering an area 0.8 km wide and 2.4 km long in one bombing. Agreement to end the war and restore peace. In January 1973, negotiations between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho resumed in Paris, resulting in a settlement agreement that was officially signed on January 27. The agreement was reminiscent of the October version and even the old Geneva agreements of 1954. It recognized the unity of Vietnam and at the same time confirmed that the 17th parallel remains a temporary demarcation line. The agreement provided for a ceasefire between North Vietnamese and Saigon militias in South Vietnam; the withdrawal of all American troops from South Vietnam with the simultaneous release of all American prisoners of war; cessation of US bombing and mining of the territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. To oversee compliance with the ceasefire agreement, joint military commissions and an international commission for control and monitoring in Vietnam were created, which included representatives of Hungary, Poland, Canada and Indonesia. The agreement allowed the supply of weapons to Vietnam only for replacement on a one-unit-for-one basis, while the replacement of military contingents was prohibited. The agreement also provided for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Laos and Cambodia, and it was assumed that both countries would enter into ceasefire agreements. In South Vietnam, new elections were supposed to be held, the organization of which was entrusted to the National Council, consisting of representatives of the Saigon government, communists and neutral forces, but the date of the elections was not specified. In addition, a special international conference was to be convened within thirty days, the task of which was to “guarantee peace in Indochina.”
End of the war. In April 1973, the last American military units left Vietnam, and in August the US Congress passed a law prohibiting any use of American military forces in Indochina. The political clauses of the ceasefire agreement were not implemented, and the fighting never stopped. In 1973 and early 1974, the Saigon government managed to achieve significant successes, but at the end of 1974 the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam struck back and in 1975, together with North Vietnamese troops, launched a general offensive. In March they occupied the city of Methuot, and Saigon troops were forced to leave the entire territory of the Central Plateau. Their retreat soon became a rout, and by mid-April the Communists had captured two-thirds of the country. Hue, Danang, Quang Ngai, Quy Nhan and Nha Trang fell without resistance; Saigon was surrounded, and on April 30, 1975, South Vietnamese troops laid down their arms. The Vietnam War is over. From 1961 to 1975, 56,555 American military personnel were killed and 303,654 were injured. The Vietnamese lost at least 200,000 Saigon soldiers, approximately a million soldiers from the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese Army, and half a million civilians. Several million more people were injured, and about ten million were left homeless.
Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .
Armed conflict in the 60-70s. XX century on the territory of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with the participation of the United States and its allies. The war was one of the main conflicts of the Cold War.
Division of Vietnam.
After the defeat of France and the withdrawal of its troops under the Geneva Accords in the spring of 1954, Vietnam was temporarily divided into two parts by a demarcation line running along the 17th parallel: to the north, where the pro-communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) existed, and to the south, where in 1955 The Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed with its capital in Saigon. South Vietnam soon came under US control. The new government under Ngo Dinh Diem relied on the support of a narrow layer of citizens associated with Western countries and received American financial assistance. In 1956, South Vietnam, with the tacit support of the United States, refused to hold a national referendum on the issue of reunifying the country. The adopted constitution included a provision according to which any actions aimed at spreading communist ideas in the country were prosecuted. The persecution of political opponents of the regime began. The Catholic Church, along with the army, constituted the main support of the South Vietnamese regime.
At the same time, the communist regime led by Ho Chi Minh, which was popular among a wide segment of the population and sought to liberate and unify the entire country on an anti-colonial basis, strengthened in the North of Vietnam.
Viet Cong.
The DRV communists organized the sending of weapons and “volunteers” to the south along the so-called “Ho Chi Minh Trail” - roads laid in the jungle from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia. The authorities of these two countries were unable to resist the actions of the communists. In December 1960, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam was created, leading the guerrilla struggle against the South Vietnamese regime. The South Vietnamese government called these forces the Viet Cong (using this term to refer to all Vietnamese communists). Soon it already numbered 30 thousand fighters. Their struggle had military support from North Vietnam.
The idea of agrarian reform carried out in North Vietnam became extremely popular among the poor, which led to the transition of many South Vietnamese to the ranks of the partisans.
US intervention.
For the United States, the communist offensive in Indochina was a challenge, as it could lead to the West losing control over Southeast Asia. The “domino” concept was popular in Washington at that time, according to which the fall of one pro-American regime inevitably led to a change in the political situation in the entire region. By the end of 1963, there were already 17 thousand American military advisers operating in South Vietnam. Since January 1964, the Saigon regime was headed by Nguyen Khanh, who came to power as a result of a military coup and proclaimed as his goal the defeat of the partisans and the unification of the entire territory of the country under his rule. But the popularity of the Viet Cong only grew, and dissatisfaction with the ruling regime, unable to cope with the situation within the country, also grew. Many southerners shared intelligence information with the partisans. The situation was becoming threatening.
The US used the Vietnamese shelling of the US Navy destroyer Maddox as a pretext for large-scale intervention. On August 2, 1964, the Maddox, patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin, approached the coast of North Vietnam and was allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, another attack was carried out in international waters under unclear circumstances. At the initiative of US President L. Johnson, the American Congress adopted a resolution to protect the United States in Indochina.
Bombing of Vietnam by American aircraft.
In February 1965, massive bombing of the DRV from air and sea began. Johnson sought to “bomb Vietnam into the Stone Age.” For 1965-1968 More than 2.5 million air bombs were dropped on Vietnam. By the end of 1965 alone, 700 thousand people left the rural areas of South Vietnam and became refugees. In March, 3.5 thousand American Marines landed in South Vietnam to protect the air base in Da Nang. Three years later, the number of troops reached 550 thousand people. The US military operation was also supported by contingents from South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Germany, Great Britain and Japan stood in solidarity with the United States, but did not directly participate in the war.
The Americans failed to suppress the enemy's morale, cut off the routes for transferring aid from North to South, or defeat the partisan forces in South Vietnam. To break the resistance, American troops undertook punitive operations, accompanied by the burning of peaceful settlements and the mass extermination of residents. In March 1968, Lieutenant W. Kelly's company killed almost all the inhabitants of the Vietnamese village of Song My, including women and children. This massacre caused an explosion of outrage in the United States. More and more Americans believed that their army was no better than the Nazis. Soon the Americans had to move to the defense of their bases, limiting themselves to combing and bombing the jungle. American aircraft watered the jungle with pesticides, which dried out the vegetation covering the partisans and made people sick. Napalm was often used during bombing. American bombers attacked not only military targets, but also industrial enterprises and various infrastructure facilities: power plants, railways, bridges, river communications and oil storage facilities. But the Vietnamese partisans opposed the American “helicopter war” with unprecedented troop mobility with the “war of tunnels.” Their branched catacombs covered most of Vietnam - and under one single village, the length of tunnels with warehouses, bedrooms and rooms for the wounded could exceed one and a half kilometers. But this environmental war did not help.
Viet Cong counter-offensive.
In January-February 1968, the guerrillas attacked all the bases and roads of South Vietnam, captured the large city of Hue, the ancient imperial capital, and fought in the streets of Saigon. Dramatic events unfolded around the storming of the American embassy building: a stubborn battle lasted six hours before US troops, with the help of reinforcements that arrived in time, managed to push back the Viet Cong. It was this fact that had a shocking effect on American society, demonstrating the weakness of the Saigon regime, American forces and the determination of the Communists. At the cost of incredible efforts, American forces pushed back the enemy forces through intensified bombing, but by the end of 1968, about two-thirds of South Vietnam was in Communist hands.
Help from the USSR and China.
Political, economic and military assistance from the Soviet Union played a major role in the current situation. Soviet supplies to North Vietnam were carried out through the port of Haiphong, which the United States refrained from bombing and mining, fearing the consequences of the destruction of Soviet ships. Beginning in 1965, the USSR supplied equipment and ammunition for air defense, tanks and heavy weapons. Soviet specialists were widely involved in training the Viet Cong.
China, in turn, sent troops of 30 to 50 thousand people to North Vietnam to restore roads and railways, and also supplied food, small arms, and trucks. At the same time, both of North Vietnam's most important allies held different views on war strategy. The Chinese, based on their own experience, advocated a “protracted war”, an emphasis on guerrilla actions carried out in the South mainly by the Viet Cong. The Soviet Union pushed Vietnam to negotiate and thereby indirectly supported the idea of large-scale military operations with the main forces of North Vietnam, capable of creating favorable conditions for reaching agreements.
Changing US strategy.
The Vietnam War was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States. Anti-war rallies took place throughout the country, escalating into clashes between students and police. President L. Johnson was forced to take the course of negotiations with the DRV, but they were delayed due to the principled position of the DRV and the National Front, which demanded the evacuation of American troops and a change of government in Saigon. The failure of negotiations and the continuation of the war led President Johnson to withdraw from his candidacy for another term.
Taking into account the “lessons of Vietnam”, the Republican government led by R. Nixon in the late 60s. set a course for modifying the US Asian strategy. The proclamation of the “Guam Doctrine” or “Nixon Doctrine” reflected the intention of the new US leadership to maintain its predominant influence in Vietnam, while using methods appropriate to the changing conditions.
With regard to South Vietnam, the revision of American strategy was expressed in the implementation of the so-called “Vietnamization” strategy, associated with a gradual reduction in the number of American forces participating in the hostilities. The main burden of political and military responsibility in the fight against the forces of revolutionary liberation was shifted to the Saigon rulers. At the same time, as it was believed in Washington, the main goal was achieved - maintaining American influence in Vietnam. The “Vietnamization” strategy intended to reduce the level of casualties in American troops and thereby protect the United States from criticism from American and international public opinion.
One of the most important components of this strategy was the “pacification” of the South Vietnamese peasants, from whom the rebels drew their strength. The Americans tried to strike at the rear of the revolution and destroy the roots of the liberation struggle of the South Vietnamese population. To achieve these goals, the United States used almost its entire military arsenal on a larger scale, including B-52 bombers and toxic chemicals. Under the leadership of American instructors, the army of South Vietnam, which was entrusted with the main burden of the war, was strengthened. At the same time, the Paris peace negotiations continued. To exert pressure, R. Nixon ordered in May 1972 to mine the North Vietnamese ports. By this, Washington hoped to completely prevent the delivery of Soviet military and economic aid to North Vietnam.
The bombing of the territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was also intensified. In response, rebel military operations against American and South Vietnamese troops intensified. On January 27, 1973, agreements to end the war and restore peace in Vietnam were initialed in Paris. According to the terms of the agreement, the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam withdrew their troops from South Vietnam. The DRV promised not to send weapons or “volunteers” to South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The demarcation between North and South Vietnam continued to follow the 17th parallel, and its temporary nature was emphasized. These countries should have held free elections. But after the resignation of President Nixon in 1974, the United States sharply reduced its assistance to the allied regimes in Indochina, which led to the fall of the government of South Vietnam.
Decisive Viet Cong offensive.
In the spring of 1975, local communists, who, contrary to agreements, received a lot of help from the USSR, China and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, launched a rapid offensive in Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. In Cambodia, the extremist communist group “Khemor Reds” came to power. In December, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, led by communists, was proclaimed. On April 30, National Front forces captured Saigon. A year later, elections to the National Assembly were held throughout Vietnam, which proclaimed on July 2, 1976 the reunification of North and South into a single Socialist Republic of Vietnam with its capital in Hanoi. The city of Saigon was soon renamed Ho Chi Minh, in memory of the founder and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
The US defeat in Vietnam was America's biggest failure during the Cold War. More than 50 thousand American soldiers died in the war. The massive anti-war movement led to the emergence of the so-called. “Vietnamese syndrome”, i.e. dissemination of the idea of renouncing war as a means of resolving conflicts. Also in literature and cinema, widespread attention was paid to the “syndrome” that haunted tens of thousands of soldiers and officers who had been in Vietnam and experienced psychological difficulties in returning to civilian life. For North Vietnam, military losses amounted to more than 1 million people, and for South Vietnam - about 250 thousand people.
