Vietnam War

The Vietnam War (also known as the Second Indochina War, Vietnamese-American War or the American War in Vietnam) lasted from 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975. It was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, and South Vietnam was set up by the United States and supported by South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. People from other countries also went to fight but not in their own national armies. The conflict between communist and capitalist countries was part of the Cold War.

The Viet Cong, also known as the National Liberation Front or NLF, was a South Vietnamese communist force that was helped by North Vietnam. It fought a guerrilla war against non-communist South Vietnamese forces. The People's Army of Vietnam (also known as the North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war by at times putting large forces to battle.

The Vietnam War was very controversial, especially in the United States. It was the first war to feature live television coverage and the first major armed conflict that the United States lost. The war became so unpopular in the United States that President Richard Nixon eventually agreed to send American soldiers home in 1973.

 Background and causes 

France began to colonize Vietnam between 1859 and 1862, when it took control of Saigon. By 1864, it had controlled all of Cochinchina, in the south of Vietnam. France took control of Annam, the large central part of Vietnam, in 1874. After France defeated China during the Sino-French War (1884–1885), it took over Tonkin, the north of Vietnam. French Indochina was formed in October 1887 from these three areas of Vietnam (Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin), as well as Cambodia. Laos was added after a war against Thailand, the Franco-Siamese War, in 1893.

During World War II, after Nazi Germany had defeated France in 1940, French Indochina was controlled by the Vichy French government, a puppet government recognized by Germany. In March 1945, the Japanese Empire launched the Second French Indochina Campaign. Japan occupied Indochina but surrendered in August 1945.

After the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Vichy government was no longer in control of France or its territories. The newly formed Provisional Government of the French Republic attempted to take back control of its former colonies in Indochina by force, if necessary, but France's efforts at regaining its colony in Vietnam were opposed by a communist Vietnamese army, the Viet Minh. 

The Viet Minh had been founded in 1941 by the Vietnamese Communist Party and was led by Hồ Chí Minh. That led to the First Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh. Fighting started with the French bombardment of Haiphong Harbor in November 1946 and ended with a triumph of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu.

In July 1954, France and the Viet Minh signed the Geneva Peace Accord, which resulted in dividing Vietnam along the 17th parallel into a northern section, under the control of the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, and a southern section, led by the Catholic anticommunist Ngo Dinh Diem who is backed by the United States. The partition was to be temporary until elections in 1956. However, Diem started arresting suspected communist sympathizers that year and wanted to keep power for himself. The elections were never held, and in 1957, North Vietnam began guerrilla warfare against the south.

The United States began to send military advisors to help train and support the non-communist South Vietnamese Army. It was fighting against the Viet Cong, also known as the National Liberation Front, a communist party from South Vietnam that was controlled with North Vietnam. The Viet Cong began a campaign of assassination in 1957. In 1959, North Vietnam dramatically increased its military assistance to the Viet Cong, which then began attacking anticommunist South Vietnamese military units. Because of domino theory, the US feared that if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would then spread to other countries nearby.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox was in the Gulf of Tonkin, on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast. The US said that three North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked the destroyer. The Maddox fired back and damaged the three torpedo boats. The US later claimed that two days later, the torpedo boats again attacked the Maddox and the destroyer USS Turner Joy. In the second attack, the US ships did not actually see the torpedo boats, but it was said that they had been found by using the ship's radar.

After the alleged second attack, the US launched air strikes against North Vietnam. The Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Joint Resolution (H.J. RES 1145) on 7 August 1964 and so gave the president the power to run large-scale military operations in Southeast Asia without declaring war. There was little to no proof of the attacks, and it was believed by some that they had been an excuse for expanded US involvement in Indochina.

The communists were supplied by a vast network of hidden trails, known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was very well hidden although many attempts were made by the US to bomb and destroy it. Supplies and soldiers from North Vietnam were sent through Laos to communists forces in South Vietnam. American planes heavily bombed the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and  of bombs were dropped on Laos. That slowed down but did not stop the trail system.

Severe communist losses during the 1968 Tet Offensive made it possible for the US to withdraw many soldiers. As part of a policy called "Vietnamization," non-communist South Vietnamese troops were trained and equipped to replace the Americans who had left. By 1973, 95% of the American troops had left.

All of the parties signed a peace treaty in Paris in January 1973, but the fighting continued until 1975, when the non-communist South Vietnamese government surrendered after its capital, Saigon, had fallen.

Guerrilla warfare

There were some large-scale battles during the Vietnam War, but most of the fighting was guerilla warfare, which is different from the large-scale battles fought between armies like those during World War II. thumb|left|
In guerilla warfare, small units fight limited battles against an enemy force, set up ambushes, make surprise attacks, and then retreat to the countryside or blend into the local population. That also includes making it difficult for the enemy to operate by engaging in sabotage and harassing the enemy with lethal means such as the land mine and the booby trap. The communist troops more often engaged in guerilla warfare against American and non-communist South Vietnamese troops than the reverse because the communists knew of their weakness in conventional (large-scale) warfare.

Although few of the traps were explosive, all of the explosive traps used grenades. A tripwire was placed, and if a soldier tripped over the wire, a grenade pin was pulled out, the grenade would blow, and the soldier would usually be killed.

Another style of trap was nicknamed the Venus flytrap. It had about eight barbs attached to a rectangular frame sitting on a small hole. The barbs faced down so that when the soldier’s leg got caught in it, it would not hurt until he pulled his leg out, when the barbs would rip through his leg.

Another North Vietnamese and Viet Cong trap was the Punji trap. Two wooden platforms were placed and covered with leaves to camouflage it. There were spikes on the inside of the wood. When a soldier came along and walked on the wood, it caved in, and the spikes would go through the soldier’s foot. That trap was the most common because it was the cheapest one and was very effective. It was also often contaminated, often with feces, so that the soldier would also become infected.

Besides hurting or killing people, the traps caused fear and lowered morale.

Fall of Saigon

The Fall of Saigon was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front on April 30, 1975. That marked the end of the Vietnam War and the beginning of the formal reunification of Vietnam into a communist state.

Before the city fell, the few American civilian and military personnel had left Vietnam, and tens of thousands of non-communist South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians had also fled.

The North Vietnamese commanded by General Văn Tiến Dũng and began their final attack on Saigon, whose defence was commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan on April 29. A heavy artillery bombardment of Tân Sơn Nhứt Airport killed the last two American servicemen who died in Vietnam: Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge.

By the afternoon of the next day, North Vietnamese troops had occupied the important points within the city and raised their flag over the South Vietnamese presidential palace. The government of South Vietnam soon formally surrendered.

The Americans still in Saigon were evacuated by helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft. The surrender of Saigon was given in person by anticommunist South Vietnamese President General Duong Van Minh: "We are here to hand over to you the power in order to avoid bloodshed." He was president for two days as his country crumbled.

Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

 War crimes 

War crimes took place, by both sides. Things that happened, were rape, massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, torture, and murder of prisoners of war. In regard to common crimes including theft, arson, and the destruction of property: These things happened sometimes, without [having a military reason, or] being warranted by military necessity.

South Vietnamese, Korean and American: [South Vietnamese soldiers and Korean soldiers] and American soldiers, also did war crimes.https://snl.no/My_Lai-massakren#:~:text=My%20Lai%2Dmassakren%20var%20en,kilometer%20fra%20provinshovedstaden%20Quang%20Ngai. SNL.no. Retrieved 2025-07-01

The My Lai Massacre happened in 1968.

North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
Notable VC [war crimes or] atrocities include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Huế and killing 252 civilians during the Đắk Sơn massacre. 155,000 refugees fleeing the North Vietnamese Spring Offensive were reported to have been killed, or abducted, on the road to Tuy Hòa in 1975. PAVN/VC troops killed 164,000 civilians in democide between 1954-75 in South Vietnam. North Vietnam was known for its abusive treatment of American POWs, most notably in Hỏa Lò Prison (the Hanoi Hilton), where torture was done to (get confessions or) extract confessions.

 Aftermath 

The war made potential farmland useless, as it was bombed and affected by Agent Orange. The economy crashed because inflation was high and so unemployment was common, and there was poor health care. Many people fled Vietnam because of these conditions.

The Đổi Mới reforms helped to improve many of the problems that had been caused by the war. Although there are still many situations with serious economic issues, Vietnam now has a fairly successful economy. The income and the standard of living of the average Vietnamese people have kept improving since the 1990s.

The war also had lasting effects on the US. It led to divisions in American society that are still seen today, and many Americans became more wary of their government. Many veterans came back with PTSD and were not treated well; people who opposed the war saw them as war criminals, and people who supported the war saw them as losers.

The war later led to the Third Indochina War, when Vietnam entered Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime (specifically under Pol Pot's leadership) after numerous mass murders in the Vietnamese–Cambodian border. China then invaded Vietnam in an attempt to disrupt them from Cambodia. The war involves Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand (border dispute) and China.

Other information
North Korea had 1,000 soldiers in the Vietnam War.https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/who-are-north-koreas-military-partners-around-world-2024-10-25/. Retrieved 2025-07-01

Related pages
First Indochina War
Weapons of the Vietnam War
Third Indochina War
Cambodian Civil War
Laotian Civil War

References

Notes

Other websites

The herbicide Agent Orange has left a lasting legacy on Vietnam