Vietnam War: Difference between revisions

Name: Vietnam War
Start: 1955-11-01
End: 1955-11-01
Location: Cambodia

Vietnam War; (Chiến tranh Việt Nam)
	Part of the Indochina Wars and the Cold War
	File:VNWarMontage.png; Clockwise, from top left: US combat operations in Ia Drang, ARVN Rangers defending Saigon during the 1968 Tet Offensive, two A-4C Skyhawks after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, ARVN recapture Quảng Trị during the 1972 Easter Offensive, civilians fleeing the 1972 Battle of Quảng Trị, burial of 300 victims of the 1968 Huế Massacre.
Date	1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975; (19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks and 1 day)
Location	South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
Result	Decisive North Vietnamesevictory US military and political defeat; Withdrawal of US Forces from Indochina; Communist governments take power in South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; South Vietnam is annexed by North Vietnam;
Territorial; changes	Unification of North and South Vietnam into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

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Latest revision as of 00:34, 21 March 2022

A simple video explanation of the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War (also known as Second Indochina War or American War in Vietnam) lasted from 1 November 1955–30 April 1975, (19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks, and 1 day). It was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China and North Korea, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. People from other countries also went to fight but not in their own national army. 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 helped by North Vietnam. It fought a guerrilla war against the anticommunist forces in the South. The People's Army of Vietnam (also known as the North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times putting large forces to battle.

The Vietnam War was very controversial, especially in the United States, and was the first war to feature live television coverage. It was also 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[edit | edit source]

The Viet Minh waves its flag over a captured French bunker at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The French defeat at the Battle of Ðiện Biên Phủ led to the Geneva Conference and to the partition of Vietnam.

Map of a partitioned Vietnam, 1964. The communist-controlled North Vietnam is in red. Most of the ground fighting was in South Vietnam.

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

During World War II, after Nazi Germany had defeated the French in 1940, French Indochina was controlled by the Vichy French government, a puppet government recognized by Germany. In March 1945, Imperial Japan launched the Second French Indochina Campaign. Japan occupied Indochina until its surrender 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 Vietnamese army called 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. The 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. This resulted in dividing Vietnam along the 17th parallel into a northern section, under the control of the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh as president and a southern section, led by the Catholic anticommunist Ngo Dinh Diem. The partition was to be temporary until elections in 1956. However, Diem started arresting suspected communist sympathizers in 1956 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 supported the anticommunist government in South Vietnam and began to send military advisors to help train and support the South Vietnamese Army. The South was fighting against the Viet Cong (known as the National Liberation Front to the North Vietnamese), a communist party based in South Vietnam that was allied 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 South Vietnamese military units. In the domino theory, the US feared that if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would then spread to other countries nearby.^[1]

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution[edit | edit source]

On 2 August 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 then 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 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 had been believed by some that they were an excuse for expanded US involvement in Indochina.

The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were supplied by a vast network of hidden trails, known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.^[2] 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 3,000,000 short tons (2,700,000 t) of bombs were dropped on Laos.^[3] That slowed down but did not stop the trail system.^[3]

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," South Vietnamese troops were trained and equipped to replace the Americans who had left. By 1973, 95% of the American troops were gone.

All of the parties signed a peace treaty in Paris in January 1973, but the fighting continued until 1975.

Guerilla warfare[edit | edit source]

Cross-sectional diagram showing an example of a section of tunnel system used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.

The area with the most tunnels was called the Iron Triangle by the Americans. The Viet Minh and later the Vietcong used these tunnels.

Some of the larger tunnel complexes had kitchens, operating rooms, dorm rooms, storage rooms, and school rooms.

Vietcong soldiers wore typical clothing and sandals in a tunnel.

They often ate and slept in the tunnels and disappeared into them when the Americans raided a village.

There were some large-scale battles during the Vietnam War, but most of the fighting was guerilla warfare, a type of warfare that is different from the large-scale battles fought between armies like those during World War II.

File:Viet Cong002.jpg

Captured photo showing Vietcong troops traveling in flat-bottomed boats, called sampans

US Airborne troops under attack during the Battle of Dak To (1967)

In guerilla warfare, small units fight limited battles against an enemy force, set up ambushes, make surprise attacks, and then retreat back into 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 land mines and booby traps. The communist troops more often engaged in guerilla warfare against the South Vietnamese and American troops^[4] than the reverse because they knew of their weakness in conventional (large-scale) warfare.

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

Another style of trap was nicknamed “Venus Flytrap” and 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. Then, the barbs would rip through his leg.

Another Vietcong 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 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 would cause fear and lower morale.^[5]

Fall of Saigon[edit | edit source]

Fleeing from communist forces, Vietmanese refugees on an American aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam on April 29, 1975, the day before the 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, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians had fled.

The North Vietnamese forces were under the command of General Văn Tiến Dũng and began their final attack on Saigon, which was commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan on April 29, with a heavy artillery bombardment of Tân Sơn Nhứt Airport. That 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 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.

Aftermath[edit | edit source]

After Vietnam was reunified, the communists sent anyone associated with South Vietnam to re-education camps.^[6]

The war also made potential farmland useless, as it was bombed and affected by Agent Orange. The economy crashed because inflation was high, so unemployment was common, and there was poor health care. Many people fled Vietnam because of these conditions.^[6]

The Đổi Mới reform ended the poor conditions, and now Vietnam is a modern nation.

Related pages[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

↑ "Domino Theory". History/A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
↑ "Guerrilla Tactics: An Overview". Battlefield: Vietnam. PBS. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 "Ho Chi Minh Trail". United States History. U-S-HISTORY.COM. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
↑ "Battlefield:Vietnam | Guerrilla Tactics". pbs.org. 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
↑ "Booby Traps". Mcdonald College. 2004. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Seah, Audrey; Nair, Charissa; Piddock, Charles; Nevins, Debbie (2015). Cultures of the World: Vietnam. 243 5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016: Cavendish Square Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-5026-0080-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Other websites[edit | edit source]

The herbicide Agent Orange has left a lasting legacy on Vietnam

[1] "Domino Theory". History/A&E Television Networks, LLC. Retrieved 8 March 2016.

[2] "Guerrilla Tactics: An Overview". Battlefield: Vietnam. PBS. Retrieved 17 November 2016.

[hcmtUSHIST-3] 3.0 ^3.1 "Ho Chi Minh Trail". United States History. U-S-HISTORY.COM. Retrieved 17 November 2016.

[4] "Battlefield:Vietnam | Guerrilla Tactics". pbs.org. 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.

[5] "Booby Traps". Mcdonald College. 2004. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2012.

[:0-6] 6.0 ^6.1 Seah, Audrey; Nair, Charissa; Piddock, Charles; Nevins, Debbie (2015). Cultures of the World: Vietnam. 243 5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016: Cavendish Square Publishing. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-5026-0080-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Infobox military conflict
-| conflict          = Vietnam War<br>{{native name|vi|Chiến tranh Việt Nam}}<br>''Chiến tranh Hoa Kỳ'' (American War)
+| conflict    = Vietnam War<br /><small>(Chiến tranh Việt Nam)</small>
-| partof            = the [[Indochina Wars]] and the [[Cold War]]
+| partof      = the Indochina Wars and the [[Cold War]]
-| image             = File:VNWarMontage.png
+| image       = VNWarMontage.png
-| image_size        = 300px
+| caption     = '''Clockwise, from top left''': US combat operations in [[Battle of Ia Drang|Ia Drang]], ARVN Rangers defending [[Battle of Saigon (1968)|Saigon]] during the 1968 [[Tet Offensive]], two [[Douglas A-4 Skyhawk|A-4C Skyhawks]] after the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]], ARVN recapture [[Quảng Trị]] during the 1972 [[Easter Offensive]], civilians fleeing the [[First Battle of Quảng Trị|1972 Battle of Quảng Trị]], burial of 300 victims of the 1968 [[Huế Massacre]].
-| caption           = '''Clockwise, from top left''': U.S. combat operations in [[Battle of Ia Drang|Ia Đrăng]], [[Vietnamese Rangers|ARVN Rangers]] defending [[Battle of Saigon (1968)|Saigon]] during the 1968 [[Tet Offensive|Tết Offensive]], two [[Douglas A-4 Skyhawk|A-4C Skyhawks]] after the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]], ARVN recapture [[Quảng Trị]] during the 1972 [[Easter Offensive]], civilians fleeing the [[First Battle of Quảng Trị|1972 Battle of Quảng Trị]], and burial of 300 victims of the 1968 [[Huế Massacre]].
+| date        = {{start date|df=yes|1955|11|1}}&nbsp;– {{End date|df=yes|1975|4|30}}<br>({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=11|day1=01|year1=1955|month2=04|day2=30|year2=1975}})
-| date              = 1 November 1955 – {{End date|df=yes|1975|4|30}}<br>({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=11|day1=1|year1=1955|month2=04|day2=30|year2=1975}}){{refn|Due to the early presence of U.S. troops in Vietnam the start date of the Vietnam War is a matter of debate. In 1998, after a high level review by the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]] (DoD) and through the efforts of [[Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr.|Richard B. Fitzgibbon's]] family the start date of the Vietnam War according to the US government was officially changed to 1 November 1955.<ref>{{cite news|title=Name of Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial|publisher=[[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense (DoD)]] |url=http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=1902|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020044326/http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=1902|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 October 2013}}</ref> U.S. government reports currently cite 1 November 1955 as the commencement date of the "Vietnam Conflict", because this date marked when the U.S. [[Military Assistance Advisory Group]] (MAAG) in Indochina (deployed to Southeast Asia under President Truman) was reorganized into country-specific units and MAAG Vietnam was established.<ref name=Lawrence>{{Cite book|last=Lawrence|first=A.T.|year=2009 |title=Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-4517-2}}</ref>{{rp|20}}
+| place       = [[South Vietnam]], [[North Vietnam]], [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]]
-Other start dates include when Hanoi authorized Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam to begin a low-level [[insurgency]] in December 1956,{{sfn|Olson|Roberts|2008|p=67}} whereas some view 26 September 1959, when the first battle occurred between the Viet Cong and the South Vietnamese army, as the start date.<ref name="WarBegan">{{cite book |chapter-url= http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent14.htm |chapter=Chapter 5, Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954–1960 |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 1 |location=Boston |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1971 |at=Section 3, pp. 314–346 |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}}</ref> |group="A"|name="start date"}}<ref name="mtholyoke.edu">{{cite report |url= https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/paris.htm |title=The Paris Agreement on Vietnam: Twenty-five Years Later |type=Conference Transcript |publisher=The Nixon Center |location=Washington, DC |date=April 1998 |access-date=5 September 2012 |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}}</ref>
+| causes      = Reunification of Vietnam (US)<br />[[Containment policy]] and [[domino theory]], [[Gulf of Tonkin Incident]]
-| place             = [[South Vietnam]], [[North Vietnam]], [[Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970)|Cambodia]], [[Kingdom of Laos|Laos]], [[South China Sea]], [[Gulf of Thailand]]
+| territory   = Unification of North and South Vietnam into the [[Vietnam|Socialist Republic of Vietnam]].
-| territory         = Reunification of North and South Vietnam into the [[Vietnam|Socialist Republic of Vietnam]] in 1976
+| result      = Decisive [[North Vietnam|North Vietnamese]]victory
-| result            = [[North Vietnam]]ese and [[Viet Cong]]/[[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|PRG]] victory
+* US military and political defeat
-* [[Vietnamization|Withdrawal]] of U.S. coalition's forces from Vietnam in 1973
+* Withdrawal of [[United States Armed Forces|US Forces]] from [[Indochina]]
-* Communist forces take power in [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|South Vietnam]], [[Democratic Kampuchea|Cambodia]] and [[Laos]]
+* Communist governments take power in [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|South Vietnam]], [[Democratic Kampuchea|Cambodia]] and [[Laos]]
-* [[Reunification of Vietnam]]
+* South Vietnam is annexed by North Vietnam
-* Start of the [[Vietnamese boat people|boat people]] and [[Indochina refugee crisis|refugee]] crises
-* Start of the [[Cambodian genocide]] and the [[Third Indochina War]]
-| combatant2        = {{Plainlist}}
-* {{flag|South Vietnam}}
-* {{flagdeco|United States}} [[Role of the United States in the Vietnam War|United States]]
-* {{flagcountry|Fourth Republic of Korea}}
-* {{flag|Australia}}
-* {{flag|New Zealand}}
-* {{flag|Kingdom of Laos|name=Laos}}
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia}} [[Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970)|Cambodia]] <small>(1967–1970)</small>
-* {{nowrap|{{flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}} [[Khmer Republic]] <small>(1970–1975)</small>}}
-*{{flag|Thailand|1932}}
-* {{flag|Philippines|1936}}
-{{Endplainlist}}
-{{clist
-|bullets=no
-|title=Supported by:
-| {{flag|Republic of China}}<ref name=UONC>{{cite book |last1=Moise |first1=Edwin E. |title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War |date=1996 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2 |pages=3–4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UEnAnvQ978C |language=en}}</ref>
-| {{flag|Malaysia}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/747/4/BAB3.pdf |title=Chapter Three: 1957–1969 Early Relations between Malaysia and Vietnam |publisher=[[University of Malaya]] Student Repository|access-date=17 October 2015|page=72}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.idfr.gov.my/images/stories/publication/2008/tunku.pdf |title=Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj (Profiles of Malaysia's Foreign Ministers)|publisher=Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR), [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Malaysia)]] |year=2008 |access-date=17 October 2015 |isbn=978-983-2220-26-8 |page=31 |quote=The Tunku had been personally responsible for Malaya's partisan support of the South Vietnamese regime in its fight against the Vietcong and, in reply to a Parliamentary question on 6 February 1962, he had listed all the used weapons and equipment of the Royal Malaya Police given to Saigon. These included a total of 45,707 single-barrel shotguns, 611 armoured cars and smaller numbers of carbines and pistols. Writing in 1975, he revealed that "we had clandestinely been giving 'aid' to Vietnam since early 1958. Published American archival sources now reveal that the actual Malaysian contributions to the war effort in Vietnam included the following: "over 5,000 Vietnamese officers trained in Malaysia; training of 150 U.S. soldiers in handling Tracker Dogs; a rather impressive list of military equipment and weapons given to Viet-Nam after the end of the Malaysian insurgency (for example, 641 armored personnel carriers, 56,000 shotguns); and a creditable amount of civil assistance (transportation equipment, cholera vaccine, and flood relief)". It is undeniable that the Government's policy of supporting the South Vietnamese regime with arms, equipment and training was regarded by some quarters, especially the Opposition parties, as a form of interfering in the internal affairs of that country and the Tunku's valiant efforts to defend it were not convincing enough, from a purely foreign policy standpoint. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016191310/http://www.idfr.gov.my/images/stories/publication/2008/tunku.pdf |archive-date=16 October 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
-| {{flag|Singapore}}<ref name=UONC />
-| {{flag|Canada}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Boyko |first=John |date=9 April 2021 |title=Canada is making the same mistakes in Yemen that it did in Vietnam |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canada-is-making-the-same-mistakes-in-yemen-that-it-did-in-vietnam/ |work=The Globe and Mail |location=Toronto |access-date=29 July 2021}}</ref>
-| {{flag|Francoist Spain|name=Spain}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Marin |first=Paloma |date=9 April 2012 |title=Spain's secret support for US in Vietnam |url=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/09/inenglish/1333979983_253264.html |work=El Pais |location=Madrid |access-date=29 July 2021}}</ref>
-}}
-| combatant1        = {{Plainlist}}
-* {{flag|North Vietnam}}
-* {{flagdeco|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Viet Cong]] and [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|PRG]]
-* {{flagdeco|Laos}} [[Pathet Lao]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} [[Khmer Rouge]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1973}} [[GRUNK]] <small>(1970–1975)</small>
-* {{flag|People's Republic of China}}
-* {{flag|Soviet Union|1955}}
-* {{flag|North Korea|1948}}
-{{Endplainlist}}
-{{clist
-|bullets=no
-|title=Supported by:
-| {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Czechoslovak Socialist Republic}}}}
-| {{nowrap|{{flag|East Germany}}}}
-| {{flagcountry|Polish People's Republic|1947}}
-| {{flag|Socialist Republic of Romania|name=Romania}}
-| {{flag|Hungarian People's Republic|name=Hungary}}
-| {{flag|People's Republic of Bulgaria|name=Bulgaria}}
-| {{flag|Cuba}}
-| {{flag|Kingdom of Sweden|name=Sweden}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Logevall |first1=Fredrik |year=1993 |title=The Swedish-American Conflict over Vietnam |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24912244 |journal=Diplomatic History |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=421–445 |access-date=29 July 2021}}</ref>
-}}
-| strength1         = '''≈860,000 (1967)'''
-{{Plainlist}}
-* {{flagdeco|North Vietnam}} '''North Vietnam:'''<br>690,000 (1966, including [[People's Army of Vietnam|PAVN]] and Viet Cong).{{refn|group="A"|According to Hanoi's official history, the Viet Cong was a branch of the People's Army of Vietnam.<ref>{{harvnb|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=182}}. "By the end of 1966 the total strength of our armed forces was 690,000 soldiers."</ref>}}
-* {{flagdeco|Republic of South Vietnam}} '''Viet Cong:'''<br>~200,000<br />(estimated, 1968)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Doyle|first1=Edward|last2=Lipsman|first2=Samuel|last3=Maitland|first3=Terence|title=The Vietnam Experience The North|publisher=Time Life Education|year=1986|isbn=978-0-939526-21-5|pages=45–9}}</ref><ref name=AtoZ>{{cite book|last=Moïse|first=Edwin|title=The A to Z of the Vietnam War|publisher=The Scarecrow Press |year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VG4AQAAQBAJ&q=troops+both+sides+in+vietnam+war&pg=PA11|isbn=978-1-4617-1903-8}}</ref>{{rp|}}
-* {{flagdeco|China|1949}} '''China:'''<br>170,000 (1968)<br>320,000 total<ref name="Toledo Blade 320,000 Chinese troops">{{cite news |agency=Reuters |title=China admits 320,000 troops fought in Vietnam |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19890516&id=HkRPAAAAIBAJ&pg=3769,1925460 |access-date=24 December 2013 |newspaper=Toledo Blade |date=16 May 1989}}</ref><ref name=Roy>{{cite book|last=Roy|first=Denny|title=China's Foreign Relations|year=1998|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8476-9013-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/chinasforeignrel0000royd/page/27 27]|url=https://archive.org/details/chinasforeignrel0000royd/page/27}}</ref><ref name=Womack>{{cite book|last=Womack|first=Brantly|title=China and Vietnam|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GaZvX2BzeegC&pg=PA176|isbn=978-0-521-61834-2|page=179}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} '''Khmer Rouge:'''<br>70,000 (1972)<ref name=Tucker>{{cite book|last=Tucker|first=Spencer C|title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2011|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qh5lffww-KsC|isbn=978-1-85109-960-3}}</ref>{{rp|376}}
-* {{flagdeco|Laos}} '''Pathet Lao:'''<br>48,000 (1970)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/laos/la_glos.html#Lao|title=Area Handbook Series Laos|access-date=1 November 2019}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|Soviet Union}} '''Soviet Union:''' ~3,000<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Ballance|first=Edgar|title=Tracks of the bear: Soviet imprints in the seventies|year=1982|publisher=Presidio|isbn=978-0-89141-133-8|page=171|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNa4AAAAIAAJ}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|North Korea|1948}} '''North Korea:''' 200<ref>{{cite news|author=Pham Thi Thu Thuy |url=https://www.nknews.org/2013/08/the-colorful-history-of-north-korea-vietnam-relations/|title=The colorful history of North Korea-Vietnam relations|date=1 August 2013|access-date=3 October 2016 |work=NK News}}</ref>
-| strength2         = '''≈1,420,000 (1968)'''
-{{Plainlist}}
-* {{flagdeco|South Vietnam}} '''South Vietnam:'''<br>850,000 (1968)<br>1,500,000 (1974–1975)<ref>{{cite book|last=Le Gro|first=William|title=Vietnam from ceasefire to capitulation|publisher=US Army Center of Military History|year=1985|isbn=978-1-4102-2542-9|url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-29/CMH_Pub_90-29.pdf|page=28}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|United States}} '''United States:'''<br>2,709,918 serving in Vietnam total<br>{{nowrap|Peak: 543,000 (April 1969)<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|xlv}}}}
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}} '''Khmer Republic:'''<br>200,000 (1973)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/cambodia2.htm|title=Cambodia Civil War, 1970s|first=John|last=Pike|website=www.globalsecurity.org}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|Laos|1952}} '''Laos:'''<br>72,000 (Royal Army and [[Hmong people|Hmong]] militia)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.footprinttravelguides.com/c/4999/the-rise-of-communism |title=The rise of Communism |website=www.footprinttravelguides.com|access-date=31 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101117114707/http://footprinttravelguides.com/c/4999/the-rise-of-communism/|archive-date=17 November 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://members.ozemail.com.au/~yeulee/Topical/Hmong%20rebellion%20in%20Laos.html|title=Hmong rebellion in Laos|website=Members.ozemail.com.au|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|Fourth Republic of Korea}} '''South Korea:'''<br>48,000 per year (1965–1973, 320,000 total)
-* {{flagdeco|Thailand|1939}} '''Thailand:''' 32,000 per year (1965–1973)<br>(in Vietnam<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |title=Vietnam War Allied Troop Levels 1960–73 |access-date=2 August 2016|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802134052/http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |archive-date=2 August 2016}}, accessed 7 November 2017</ref> and Laos)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/laos.htm|title=Pathet Lao Uprising|first=John|last=Pike|website=Globalsecurity.org}}</ref>
-* {{flagdeco|Australia}} '''Australia:''' 50,190 total<br>(Peak: 7,672 combat troops)
-* {{flagdeco|New Zealand}} '''New Zealand:''' 3,500 total<br>(Peak: 552 combat troops)<ref name=AtoZ/>{{rp|}}
-* {{flagdeco|Philippines|1936}} '''Philippines:''' 2,061
-| commander1        = {{Plainlist}}
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Ho Chi Minh|Hồ Chí Minh]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Lê Duẩn]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Võ Nguyên Giáp]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Lê Đức Thọ]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Phạm Văn Đồng]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Trường Chinh]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Tôn Đức Thắng]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Văn Tiến Dũng]]
-* {{flagicon|North Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Hữu An]]
-* {{flagicon|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Hoàng Văn Thái]]
-* {{nowrap|{{flagicon|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Chí Thanh]]}}{{KIA}}
-* {{flagicon|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Văn Linh]]
-* {{flagicon|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Thị Định]]
-* {{flagicon|Republic of South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Thị Bình]]
-* {{flagicon|Laos}} [[Souphanouvong]]
-* {{nowrap|{{flagicon|Laos}} [[Kaysone Phomvihane]]}}
-* {{flagicon|Laos}} [[Phoumi Vongvichit]]
-* {{nowrap|{{flagicon|Laos}} [[Nouhak Phoumsavanh]]}}
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} [[Pol Pot]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} [[Nuon Chea]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} [[Ieng Sary]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}} [[Khieu Samphan]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia}} [[Norodom Sihanouk]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia}} [[Son Sann]]
-* {{flagdeco|China}} [[Mao Zedong]]
-* {{flagdeco|Soviet Union}} [[Nikita Khrushchev]]
-* {{flagdeco|Soviet Union}} [[Leonid Brezhnev]]
-* {{flagdeco|North Korea|1948}} [[Kim Il-sung]]
-* [[Leaders of the Vietnam War|…''and others'']]
-{{Endplainlist}}
-| commander2        = {{Plainlist}}
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] [[Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem|†]]
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Ngô Đình Nhu]] [[Arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem|†]]
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Văn Thiệu]]
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Nguyễn Cao Kỳ]]
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Cao Văn Viên]]
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Dương Văn Minh]]
-* {{flagicon|South Vietnam}} [[Trần Văn Hương]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[John F. Kennedy]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Richard Nixon]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Henry Kissinger]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Robert McNamara]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Maxwell D. Taylor]]
-* {{nowrap|{{flagicon|US|1960}} [[William Westmoreland]]}}
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Creighton Abrams]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Frederick C. Weyand]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Paul D. Harkins]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Melvin Laird|Melvin Robert Laird]]
-* {{flagicon|US|1960}} [[Clark Clifford]]
-* {{flagicon|Laos|1952}} [[Souvanna Phouma]]
-* {{flagicon|Laos|1952}} [[Phoumi Nosavan]]
-* {{flagicon|Laos|1952}} [[Vang Pao]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}} [[Lon Nol]]
-* {{flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}} [[Sisowath Sirik Matak]]{{KIA}}
-* {{flagicon|Third Republic of Korea}} [[Park Chung-hee]]
-* {{flagicon|Fourth Republic of Korea}} [[Chae Myung-shin]]
-* {{flagicon|Thailand|1939}} [[Thanom Kittikachorn]]
-* {{flagicon|Australia}} [[Robert Menzies]]
-* {{flagicon|Australia}} [[Harold Holt]]
-* {{flagicon|Australia}} [[John Gorton]]
-* [[Leaders of the Vietnam War|…''and others'']]
-{{Endplainlist}}
-| casualties1       = {{Plainlist}}
-* {{flagdeco|North Vietnam}}{{flagdeco|Republic of South Vietnam}} '''North Vietnam & Viet Cong'''<br>30,000–182,000 civilian dead<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|176}}<ref name=Hirschman>{{cite journal|last1=Hirschman|first1=Charles|last2=Preston|first2=Samuel|last3=Vu|first3=Manh Loi|title=Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate|journal=[[Population and Development Review]]|url=http://faculty.washington.edu/charles/new%20PUBS/A77.pdf|date=December 1995|volume=21|issue=4|pages=783|doi=10.2307/2137774|jstor=2137774}}</ref><ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–3}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html|title=Battlefield:Vietnam – Timeline|publisher=[[PBS]]}}</ref><br>849,018 military dead <small>(per Vietnam; 1/3 non-combat deaths)</small><ref name=Chuyen>{{Cite web|url=http://datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/Qu%E1%BA%A3n%20l%C3%BD%20ch%E1%BB%89%20%C4%91%E1%BA%A1o/Chuy%C3%AAn%20%C4%91%E1%BB%81%204.doc|title=Chuyên đề 4 CÔNG TÁC TÌM KIẾM, QUY TẬP HÀI CỐT LIỆT SĨ TỪ NAY ĐẾN NĂM 2020 VÀ NHỮNG NĂM TIẾP THEO|website=Datafile.chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref><ref name=VNMOD>{{cite web|url=http://chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/tinbai/309/Tap-huan-cong-tac-chinh-sach|title=Công tác tìm kiếm, quy tập hài cốt liệt sĩ từ nay đến năm 2020 và những năn tiếp theo|trans-title=The work of searching and collecting the remains of martyrs from now to 2020 and the next|publisher=[[Ministry of Defence (Vietnam)|Ministry of Defence]], Government of Vietnam|language=vi|access-date=11 June 2018|archive-date=17 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217065036/http://chinhsachquandoi.gov.vn/tinbai/309/Tap-huan-cong-tac-chinh-sach|url-status=dead}}</ref><br>666,000–950,765 dead<br>{{nowrap|<small>(US estimated 1964–1974)</small>{{refn|Upper figure initial estimate, later thought to be inflated by at least 30% (lower figure)<ref name=Hirschman/><ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–3}}|name=USclaim|group=A}}<ref name=Hirschman/><ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–1}}<br>600,000+ military wounded<ref name=Hastings>{{cite book|last=Hastings|first=Max|title=Vietnam an epic tragedy, 1945–1975|publisher=Harper Collins|year=2018|isbn=978-0-06-240567-8}}</ref>{{rp|739}}}}<br>300,000+ military missing<ref>{{cite web|title=Lost Souls: The Search for Vietnam's MIAs|author=Joseph Babcock|website=Pulitzer Centre|url=https://pulitzercenter.org/projects/lost-souls-search-vietnams-mia|date=23 December 2018|access-date=28 June 2021}}</ref>
-* '''{{flagdeco|Cambodia|1975}}''' '''Khmer Rouge:''' Unknown
-* '''{{flagicon|Laos}}''' '''Pathet Lao:''' Unknown
-* '''{{flagu|China|1949}}:''' ~1,100 dead and 4,200 wounded<ref name=Womack/>
-* {{nowrap|'''{{flagu|Soviet Union}}:''' 16 dead<ref>{{cite book|author1=James F. Dunnigan|author2-link=Albert A. Nofi|author2=Albert A. Nofi|title=Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War: Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7t-XPOvtWUkC|year=2000|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-25282-3}}</ref>}}
-* '''{{flagu|North Korea|1948}}:''' 14 dead<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/696970.stm |title=North Korea fought in Vietnam War |work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=31 March 2000 |access-date=18 October 2015}}</ref>
-'''Total military dead:<br>≈667,130–951,895'''<br>'''Total military wounded:<br>≈604,200'''<br>{{nowrap|<small>(excluding [[GRUNK]] and [[Pathet Lao]])</small>}}
-{{Endplainlist}}
-| casualties2       = {{Plainlist}}
-* '''{{flagu|South Vietnam}}:'''<br>195,000–430,000 civilian dead<ref name=Hirschman/><ref name=Lewy>{{cite book|last=Lewy|first=Guenter|author-link=Guenter Lewy|title=America in Vietnam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1978|isbn=978-0-19-987423-1}}</ref>{{rp|450–3}}<ref name=Thayer>{{cite book|last=Thayer|first=Thomas C.|title=War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam|publisher=Westview Press|year=1985|isbn=978-0-8133-7132-0}}</ref>{{rp|}}<br>254,256–313,000 military dead<ref name=Clarke>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=Jeffrey J.|title=United States Army in Vietnam: Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965–1973|publisher=Center of Military History, United States Army|year=1988|quote=The Army of the Republic of Vietnam suffered 254,256 recorded combat deaths between 1960 and 1974, with the highest number of recorded deaths being in 1972, with 39,587 combat deaths}}</ref>{{rp|275}}<ref name=Rummel>{{citation|last=Rummel|first=R.J|year=1997|url=http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB6.1A.GIF|format=GIF|title=Table 6.1A. Vietnam Democide : Estimates, Sources, and Calculations |work=Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War, University of Hawaii System}}</ref><br>1,170,000 military wounded<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}<br>≈ 1,000,000 captured<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2005/R2208.pdf|title=The Fall of South Vietnam|website=Rand.org|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref>
-* '''{{flagu|United States|1960}}:'''<br>58,281 dead<ref name=2new>{{cite press release|author=Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund |url=https://www.vvmf.org/News/2021-Name-Additions-and-Status-Changes-on-the-Vietnam-Veterans-Memorial/|title=2021 NAME ADDITIONS AND STATUS CHANGES ON THE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL |date=4 May 2021}}</ref> <small>(47,434 from combat)</small><ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#hostile|title=National Archives–Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualties|date=15 August 2016|access-date=July 29, 2020}}</ref><ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#hostile "Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics: HOSTILE OR NON-HOSTILE DEATH INDICATOR."] U.S. National Archives. 29 April 2008. Accessed 13 July 2019.</ref><br>303,644 wounded <small>(including 150,341 not requiring hospital care)</small>{{refn|The figures of 58,220 and 303,644 for U.S. deaths and wounded come from the Department of Defense Statistical Information Analysis Division (SIAD), Defense Manpower Data Center, as well as from a Department of Veterans fact sheet dated May 2010; the total is 153,303 WIA excluding 150,341 persons not requiring hospital care<ref>{{cite report|title=America's Wars|url=http://www1.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf |publisher=Department of Veterans Affairs |date=May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140124020810/http://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf |archive-date=24 January 2014}}</ref> the CRS ([[Congressional Research Service]]) Report for Congress, American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, dated 26 February 2010,<ref>{{cite report |date=26 February 2010 |title=American War and Military Operations: Casualties: Lists and Statistics |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf |author1=Anne Leland |author2=Mari–Jana "M-J" Oboroceanu |publisher=Congressional Research Service}}</ref> and the book Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant.<ref name=Lawrence/>{{rp|65,107,154,217}} Some other sources give different figures (e.g. the 2005/2006 documentary ''Heart of Darkness: The Vietnam War Chronicles 1945–1975'' cited elsewhere in this article gives a figure of 58,159 U.S. deaths,<ref>{{cite video |people=Aaron Ulrich (editor); Edward FeuerHerd (producer and director) (2005, 2006) |url=https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Darkness-Vietnam-Chronicles-1945-1975/dp/B000GDIBT8|title=Heart of Darkness: The Vietnam War Chronicles 1945–1975 |format=Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Dolby, Vision Software |medium=Documentary |publisher=Koch Vision|time=321 minutes|isbn=1-4172-2920-9}}</ref> and the 2007 book ''Vietnam Sons'' gives a figure of 58,226)<ref name=Kueter>{{cite book|last=Kueter|first=Dale|title=Vietnam Sons: For Some, the War Never Ended|publisher=AuthorHouse|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4259-6931-8}}</ref>|name=USd&w|group=A}}
-* '''{{flagu|Laos|1952}}:''' 15,000 army dead<ref>T. Lomperis, From People's War to People's Rule (1996)</ref>
-* '''{{flagdeco|Cambodia|1970}}''' '''Khmer Republic:''' Unknown
-* '''{{flagdeco|Fourth Republic of Korea}}''' '''South Korea''': 5,099 dead; 10,962 wounded; 4 missing
-* '''{{flagu|Australia}}:''' 521 dead; 3,129 wounded<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/vietnam/statistics |title=Australian casualties in the Vietnam War, 1962–72 |publisher=Australian War Memorial |access-date=29 June 2013}}</ref>
-* '''{{flagu|Thailand|1939}}:''' 351 dead<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}
-* '''{{flagu|New Zealand}}:''' 37 dead<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vietnamwar.govt.nz/resources  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130726010609/http://vietnamwar.govt.nz/resources  |url-status=dead  |archive-date=26 July 2013  |title=Overview of the war in Vietnam|publisher=New Zealand and the Vietnam War|date=16 July 1965|access-date=29 June 2013}}</ref>
-* '''{{flagu|Taiwan}}:''' 25 dead<ref>{{cite web |url=http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/10/02/the-international-vietnam-war-the-other-world-powers-that-fought-in-south-east-asia/ |title=America Wasn't the Only Foreign Power in the Vietnam War |access-date=10 June 2017 |date=2 October 2013}}</ref>
-* '''{{flagu|Philippines|1936}}:''' 9 dead;<ref>{{cite book|last=Larsen|first=Stanley|title=Vietnam Studies Allied Participation in Vietnam|publisher=Department of the Army|year=1975|url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/090/90-5-1/CMH_Pub_90-5-1.pdf|isbn=978-1-5176-2724-9}}</ref> 64 wounded<ref>{{cite web|url=http://175thengineers.homestead.com/Philcav.pdf|title=Asian Allies in Vietnam |publisher=Embassy of South Vietnam|date=March 1970|access-date=18 October 2015}}</ref>
-{{Endplainlist}}
-'''Total military dead:<br>333,620–392,364'''<br>'''Total military wounded:<br>≈1,340,000+'''<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}<br><small>(excluding [[Royal Cambodian Armed Forces|FARK and FANK]])</small><br>'''Total military captured:<br>≈1,000,000+'''
-{{Endplainlist}}
-| casualties3       = {{Plainlist}}
-* '''Vietnamese civilian dead''': 627,000–2,000,000<ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–3}}<ref name=Shenon>{{cite news|title=20 Years After Victory, Vietnamese Communists Ponder How to Celebrate|first=Philip|last=Shenon |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/23/world/20-years-after-victory-vietnamese-communists-ponder-how-to-celebrate.html|date=23 April 1995|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=24 February 2011|quote=The Vietnamese government officially claimed a rough estimate of 2 million civilian deaths, but it did not divide these deaths between those of North and South Vietnam.}}</ref><ref name=Obermeyer>{{cite journal |title=Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme |first1=Ziad|last1=Obermeyer|first2=Christopher J L|last2=Murray|first3=Emmanuela |last3=Gakidou |journal=[[British Medical Journal]]|volume=336|issue=7659|pages=1482–1486|doi=10.1136/bmj.a137|pmid=18566045|pmc=2440905|date=23 April 2008 |quote=From 1955 to 2002, data from the surveys indicated an estimated 5.4 million violent war deaths ... 3.8 million in Vietnam}}</ref>
-* '''Vietnamese total dead''': 966,000<ref name=Hirschman/>–3,010,000<ref name=Obermeyer/>
-* '''Cambodian Civil War dead''': 275,000–310,000<ref name=Heuveline>{{cite book|last=Heuveline|first=Patrick |chapter=The Demographic Analysis of Mortality Crises: The Case of Cambodia, 1970–1979 |title=Forced Migration and Mortality|publisher=[[National Academies Press]]|year=2001|pages=102–04, 120, 124 |isbn=978-0-309-07334-9 |quote=As best as can now be estimated, over two million Cambodians died during the 1970s because of the political events of the decade, the vast majority of them during the mere four years of the 'Khmer Rouge' regime.&nbsp;... Subsequent reevaluations of the demographic data situated the death toll for the [civil war] in the order of 300,000 or less.}}</ref><ref name=Banister>{{cite book|last1=Banister|first1=Judith|last2=Johnson|first2=E. Paige|title=Genocide and Democracy in Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge, the United Nations and the International Community |publisher=Yale University Southeast Asia Studies |year=1993|isbn=978-0-938692-49-2|quote=An estimated 275,000 excess deaths. We have modeled the highest mortality that we can justify for the early 1970s.|url=https://archive.org/details/genocidedemocrac00kier|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/genocidedemocrac00kier/page/97 97]}}</ref><ref name=Sliwinski>{{Cite book|last=Sliwinski|first=Marek|title=Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique|trans-title=The Khmer Rouge genocide: A demographic analysis|publisher=[[L'Harmattan]]|year=1995|isbn=978-2-7384-3525-5|pages=42–43, 48}}</ref>
-* '''Laotian Civil War dead''': 20,000–62,000<ref name=Obermeyer/>
-* '''Non-Indochinese military dead''': 65,494
-* '''Total dead''': 1,326,494–3,447,494
-* For more information see [[Vietnam War casualties]] and [[Aircraft losses of the Vietnam War]]
-{{Endplainlist}}
-| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Indochina Wars}}
-{{Campaignbox Vietnam War}}
-{{Campaignbox Vietnam War massacres}}
 }}
+[[File:The main facts about the Vietnam War.webm|thumb|305x305px|{{center|A simple video explanation of the Vietnam War}}]]
+The '''Vietnam War''' (also known as '''Second Indochina War''' or '''American War''' in [[Vietnam]]) lasted from 1 November 1955–30 April 1975, (19 years, 5 months, 4 weeks, and 1 day).  It was fought between [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]]. North Vietnam was supported by the [[Soviet Union]], [[China]] and [[North Korea]], while South Vietnam was supported by the [[United States]], South Korea, [[Thailand]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], and the [[Philippines]]. People from other countries also went to fight but not in their own national army. The conflict between [[communist]] and [[capitalist]] countries was part of the [[Cold War]].
-The '''Vietnam War''' ({{lang-vi|Chiến tranh Việt Nam}}), also known as the '''Second Indochina War''',<ref name="Factasy"/> was a conflict in [[Vietnam]], [[Laos]], and [[Cambodia]] from 1 November 1955<ref group=A name="start date" /> to the [[fall of Saigon]] on 30 April 1975.<ref name="mtholyoke.edu"/> It was the second of the [[Indochina Wars]] and was officially fought between [[North Vietnam]] and [[South Vietnam]]. North Vietnam was supported by the [[Soviet Union]], [[China]],<ref name="Toledo Blade 320,000 Chinese troops"/> and other [[communist]] allies; South Vietnam was supported by the [[United States]], [[South Korea]], the [[Philippines]], [[Australia]], [[Thailand]], and other [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] [[free World Military Forces|allies]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|title=Vietnam War|quote=Meanwhile, the United States, its military demoralized and its civilian electorate deeply divided, began a process of coming to terms with defeat in its longest and most controversial war|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/628478/Vietnam-War|access-date=5 March 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.psywarrior.com/AlliesRepublicVietnam.html|title=Allies of the Republic of Vietnam|last=Friedman|first=Herbert|access-date=1 May 2019}}</ref> The war, considered a [[Cold War]]-era [[proxy war]] by some,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lind-vietnam.html|title=Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict|last=Lind|first=Michael|website=The New York Times|year=1999|access-date=17 January 2014}}</ref> lasted 19 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973, and included the [[Laotian Civil War]] and the [[Cambodian Civil War]], which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.
+The [[Viet Cong]], also known as the National Liberation Front, or NLF, was a South Vietnamese communist force helped by North Vietnam. It fought a [[guerrilla war]] against the anticommunist forces in the South. The [[People's Army of Vietnam]] (also known as the North Vietnamese Army) engaged in a more conventional war, at times putting large forces to battle.
-The conflict emerged from the [[First Indochina War]] between the French and the communist-led [[Viet Minh]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Eckhardt|first=George|title=Vietnam Studies Command and Control 1950–1969|publisher=Department of the Army|year=1991|url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/Comm-Control/index.htm|page=6}}</ref><ref name="advisors" group="A">The [[Military Assistance Advisory Group|Military Assistance Advisory Group, Indochina]] (with an authorized strength of 128 men) was set up in September 1950 with a mission to oversee the use and distribution of US military equipment by the French and their allies.</ref>  After the French quit attempted recolonization of Indochina in 1954, the US assumed financial and military support for the South Vietnamese state. The [[Viet Cong|Việt Cộng]], also known as {{lang|fr|Front national de libération du Sud-Viêt Nam}} or ''NLF'' (the National Liberation Front), a South Vietnamese [[common front]] under the direction of North Vietnam, initiated a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] in the south. North Vietnam had also invaded [[North Vietnamese invasion of Laos|Laos]] in the mid-1950s in support of insurgents, establishing the [[Ho Chi Minh Trail]] to supply and reinforce the Việt Cộng.<ref name="Ang">{{cite book|last=Ang|first=Cheng Guan|title=The Vietnam War from the Other Side|publisher=RoutledgeCurzon|year=2002|isbn=978-0-7007-1615-9}}</ref>{{rp|16}} U.S. involvement escalated under President [[John F. Kennedy]] through the [[Military Assistance Advisory Group|MAAG]] program, from just under a thousand military advisors in 1959 to 23,000 in 1964.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|131}}<ref name="AWL">{{cite web|url=http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802134052/http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 August 2016 |title=Vietnam War Allied Troop Levels 1960–73|access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref> By 1963, the North Vietnamese had sent 40,000 soldiers to fight in South Vietnam.<ref name=Ang/>{{rp|16}}
+The Vietnam War was very [[Controversy|controversial]], especially in the United States, and was the first war to feature live television coverage. It was also the first major [[War|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.
-In the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]] in early August 1964, a U.S. [[destroyer]] was alleged to have clashed with North Vietnamese fast attack craft. In response, the U.S. Congress passed the [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]] and gave President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] broad authority to increase American military presence in Vietnam. Johnson ordered the deployment of [[Military organization|combat units]] for the first time and increased troop levels to 184,000.<ref name=AWL/> The [[People's Army of Vietnam]] (PAVN) (also known as the North Vietnamese Army or NVA) engaged in more [[conventional warfare]] with U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. Despite little progress, the United States continued a significant build-up of forces. U.S. Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]], one of the principal architects of the war, began expressing doubts of victory by the end of 1966.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|287}} U.S. and South Vietnam forces relied on [[air supremacy|air superiority]] and overwhelming [[firepower]] to conduct [[search and destroy]] operations, involving [[army|ground forces]], [[artillery]], and [[airstrike]]s. The U.S. also conducted a large-scale [[strategic bombing]] campaign against North Vietnam and Laos. North Vietnam was backed by the USSR and the People's Republic of China.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|371–4}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Li|first=Xiaobing|title=Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyopkZOVIx8C|year=2010|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7386-3|page=85}}</ref>
+== Background and causes ==
+{{multiple image
+| align = right
+| direction = horizontal
+| image1 = Victory in Battle of Dien Bien Phu.jpg
+| width1 = 242
+| caption1 = The Viet Minh waves its flag over a captured French bunker at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The French defeat at the [[Battle of Ðiện Biên Phủ]] led to the Geneva Conference and to the partition of Vietnam.
+| image2 = North and south vietnam map.jpg
+| width2 = 140
+| caption2 = Map of a partitioned Vietnam, 1964. The communist-controlled North Vietnam is in red. Most of the ground fighting was in South Vietnam.
+}}
+[[France]] began to [[Colony|colonize]] Vietnam between 1859 and 1862, when it took control of [[Saigon]]. By 1864, it had controlled all of Cochinchina, the [[south]]ern part of Vietnam. France took control of Annam, the large central part of Vietnam, in 1874. After France defeated [[China]] in the Sino-French War (1884–1885), it took over Tonkin, the [[North Vietnam|northern]] part of Vietnam. [[French Indochina]] was formed in October 1887 from these three areas of Vietnam (Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin), as well as the [[Cambodia|Kingdom of Cambodia]]. [[Laos]] was added after a war with Thailand, the [[Franco-Siamese War]], in 1893.
-With the VC and PAVN mounting large-scale offensives in the [[Tet Offensive]] throughout 1968, U.S. domestic support for the war began fading. The [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] (ARVN) expanded following a period of neglect after Tet and was modeled after U.S. doctrine. The VC sustained heavy losses during the Tet Offensive and subsequent U.S.-ARVN operations in the rest of 1968, losing over 50,000 men.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|481}} The CIA's [[Phoenix Program]] further degraded the VC's membership and capabilities. By the end of the year, the VC insurgents held almost no territory in South Vietnam, and their recruitment dropped by over 80% in 1969, signifying a drastic reduction in guerrilla operations, necessitating increased use of PAVN regular soldiers from the north.{{sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|pp=247–249}} In 1969, North Vietnam declared a [[Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam|Provisional Revolutionary Government]] in South Vietnam in an attempt to give the reduced VC a more international stature, but the southern guerrillas from then on were sidelined as PAVN forces began more conventional [[combined arms]] warfare. By 1970, over 70% of communist troops in the south were northerners, and southern-dominated VC units no longer existed.<ref>Kiernan, Ben. [https://books.google.com/books?id=C1EjDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA447&lpg=PA447&dq=70+percent+of+communist+troops+in+the+South+were+northerners&source=bl&ots=4ELET9YKjM&sig=ACfU3U0EYrNHxpazEte22fZcVHjA-YLy9g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiMkMyb7fvpAhXJs54KHeu4C9AQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=70%20percent%20of%20communist%20troops%20in%20the%20South%20were%20northerners&f=false "Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present"]. Oxford University Press, Feb. 2017, page 447.</ref> Operations crossed national borders: North Vietnam used Laos as a supply route early on, while Cambodia was also used starting in 1967; the route through Cambodia began to be bombed by the U.S. in 1969, while the Laos route had been heavily bombed since 1964. The deposing of the monarch [[Norodom Sihanouk]] by the Cambodian National Assembly resulted in a PAVN invasion of the country at the request of the [[Khmer Rouge]], escalating the Cambodian Civil War and resulting in a U.S.-ARVN [[Cambodian campaign|counter-invasion]].
+During [[World War II]], after [[Nazi Germany]] had defeated the French in 1940, French Indochina was controlled by the [[Vichy France|Vichy French]] government, a [[Puppet state|puppet government]] recognized by  Germany. In March 1945, Imperial [[Japan]] launched the Second French Indochina Campaign. Japan occupied Indochina until its surrender in August 1945.
-In 1969, following the election of U.S. President [[Richard Nixon]], a policy of "[[Vietnamization]]" began, which saw the conflict fought by an expanded ARVN, with U.S. forces sidelined and increasingly demoralized by domestic opposition and reduced recruitment. U.S. ground forces had largely withdrawn by early 1972 and support was limited to air support, artillery support, advisers, and [[materiel]] shipments. The ARVN, buttressed by said U.S. support, stopped the first and largest mechanized PAVN offensive during the [[Easter Offensive]] of 1972. The offensive resulted in heavy casualties on both sides and the failure of the PAVN to subdue South Vietnam, but the ARVN itself failed to recapture all territory, leaving its military situation difficult. The [[Paris Peace Accords]] of January 1973 saw all U.S. forces withdrawn; the [[Case–Church Amendment]], passed by the U.S. Congress on 15 August 1973, officially ended direct U.S. military involvement.<ref name="Kolko">{{cite book|last=Kolko|first=Gabriel|title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience|url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofwarviet00kolk|url-access=registration|publisher=Pantheon Books|year=1985|isbn=978-0-394-74761-3}}</ref>{{rp|457}} The Peace Accords were broken almost immediately, and fighting continued for two more years. [[Fall of Phnom Penh|Phnom Penh fell]] to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975 while the [[1975 Spring Offensive]] saw the capture of Saigon by the PAVN on 30 April; this marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.
+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 Vietnamese army called the [[Viet Minh]].
+[[File:Ho Chi Minh 1946.jpg|left|120px|thumb|{{center|[[Hồ Chí Minh]]}}]]
-The scale of fighting was enormous. By 1970, the ARVN was the world's fourth largest army, and the PAVN was not far behind with approximately one million regular soldiers.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|770}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pilger|first=John|title=Heroes|publisher=South End Press|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dcL6w-VmjWwC&pg=PA238|isbn=978-0-89608-666-1|page=238}}</ref> The war exacted an [[Vietnam War casualties|enormous human cost]]: estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 966,000<ref name=Hirschman/> to 3&nbsp;million.<ref name=Obermeyer/> Some 275,000–310,000 [[Khmer people|Cambodians]],<ref name=Heuveline/><ref name=Banister/><ref name=Sliwinski/> 20,000–62,000 [[Lao people|Laotians]],<ref name=Obermeyer/> and 58,220 U.S. service members also died in the conflict, and a further 1,626 remain [[missing in action]].<ref group="A" name="USd&w" />
+The [[Vietnamese Independence League|Viet Minh]] had been founded in 1941 by the Vietnamese Communist Party and was led by [[Ho Chi Minh|Hồ Chí Minh]]. That led to the [[First Indochina War]] between France and the Viet Minh. The fighting started with the French [[bombardment]] of [[Haiphong|Haiphong Harbor]] in November 1946 and ended with a triumph of the Viet Minh at [[Battle of Ðiện Biên Phủ|Dien Bien Phu]].
-The [[Sino-Soviet split]] re-emerged following the lull during the Vietnam War. Conflict between North Vietnam and its Cambodian allies in the [[GRUNK|Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea]], and the newly formed [[Democratic Kampuchea]] began almost immediately in a series of border raids by the Khmer Rouge, eventually escalating into the [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War]]. Chinese forces directly invaded Vietnam in the [[Sino-Vietnamese War]], with subsequent [[Sino-Vietnamese conflicts, 1979–1991|border conflicts]] lasting until 1991. The unified Vietnam fought insurgencies in all three countries. The end of the war and resumption of the [[Third Indochina War]] would precipitate the [[Vietnamese boat people]] and the larger [[Indochina refugee crisis]], which saw millions of refugees leave Indochina (mainly southern Vietnam), an estimated 250,000 of whom perished at sea. Within the U.S, the war gave rise to what was referred to as [[Vietnam Syndrome]], a public aversion to American overseas military involvements,<ref>{{cite web|last=Kalb|first=Marvin|url=http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/01/22-obama-foreign-policy-kalb|title=It's Called the Vietnam Syndrome, and It's Back|publisher=Brookings Institution|date=22 January 2013|access-date=12 June 2015}}</ref> which together with the [[Watergate scandal]] contributed to the crisis of confidence that affected America throughout the 1970s.<ref>{{cite book|last=Horne|first=Alistair|title=Kissinger's Year: 1973|publisher=Phoenix Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-7538-2700-0|pages=370–1}}</ref>
+In July 1954, France and the Viet Minh signed the [[Geneva Peace Accord]].  This resulted in dividing Vietnam along the 17th parallel into a northern section, under the control of the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh as president and a southern section, led by the Catholic anticommunist [[Ngo Dinh Diem]]. The partition was to be temporary until elections in 1956. However, Diem started arresting suspected communist sympathizers in 1956 and wanted to keep power for himself. The elections were never held, and in 1957, North Vietnam began [[guerrilla warfare]] against the south.
-==Names==
+The United States supported the anticommunist government in South Vietnam and began to send military advisors to help [[Training|train]] and support the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam|South Vietnamese Army]]. The South was fighting against the Viet Cong (known as the National Liberation Front to the North Vietnamese), a communist party based in South Vietnam that was allied 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 South Vietnamese military units. In the [[domino theory]], the US feared that if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would then spread to other countries nearby.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/domino-theory |title=Domino Theory |author= |website= |publisher=History/A&E Television Networks, LLC |accessdate=8 March 2016}}</ref>
-{{Further|Terminology of the Vietnam War}}
-Various names have been applied to the conflict. ''Vietnam War'' is the most commonly used name in English. It has also been called the ''Second Indochina War''<ref name="Factasy">{{cite web |author=Factasy |url=http://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html |title=The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War |publisher=PRLog |access-date=29 June 2013}}</ref> and the ''Vietnam Conflict''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The National Archives – Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File|date=15 August 2016|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics|access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://libguides.nps.edu/vietnamwar/maps|title=Research Guides: Vietnam Conflict: Maps|first=Greta E.|last=Marlatt|website=Libguides.nps.edu|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics|title=Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics|date=15 August 2016|website=National Archives|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref>
-Given that there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this particular conflict is known by its primary protagonists' names to distinguish it from others. In [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], the war is generally known as ''Kháng chiến chống Mỹ'' (Resistance War Against America),<ref>{{cite book|last=Meaker|first=Scott S.F.|title=Unforgettable Vietnam War: The American War in Vietnam – War in the Jungle|year=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrG4BgAAQBAJ&q=Resistance+War+against+America&pg=PT6|isbn=978-1-312-93158-9}}</ref> but less formally as 'Cuộc chiến tranh Mỹ' (The American War). It is also called ''Chiến tranh Việt Nam'' (The Vietnam War).<ref>{{cite web |title=Asian-Nation: Asian American History, Demographics, & Issues:: The American / Viet Nam War|quote=The Viet Nam War is also called 'The American War' by the Vietnamese|url=http://www.asian-nation.org/vietnam-war.shtml|access-date=18 August 2008}}</ref>
+==Gulf of Tonkin Resolution==
+[[File:USS Maddox (DD-731) underway at sea, circa the early 1960s (NH 97900).jpg|thumb|left|120px|{{Center|The destroyer USS ''Maddox''}}]]
+On 2 August 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 then 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 that they had been found by using the ship's radar.
-== Background ==
+After the alleged second attack the US launched air strikes against North Vietnam. The Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin [[Joint resolution|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 had been believed by some that they were an excuse for expanded US involvement in Indochina.
-{{See also|History of Vietnam|Tây Sơn wars|Cochinchina Campaign|Cần Vương|Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng|Yên Bái mutiny|Vietnam during World War II|War in Vietnam (1945–1946)|1940–1946 in the Vietnam War|1947–1950 in the Vietnam War|First Indochina War|Operation Vulture|Operation Passage to Freedom|1954 in the Vietnam War}}
-The primary military organizations involved in the war were the [[United States Armed Forces]] and the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]], pitted against the [[People's Army of Vietnam]] (PAVN) (commonly called the North Vietnamese Army, or NVA, in English-language sources) and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, more commonly known as the [[Viet Cong]] (VC) in English language sources), a South Vietnamese communist guerrilla force.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|xli}}
+The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong were supplied by a vast network of hidden trails, known as the [[Ho Chi Minh Trail]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/guerrilla/ |title=Guerrilla Tactics: An Overview |author= |website=Battlefield: Vietnam |publisher=PBS |accessdate=17 November 2016}}</ref> 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 {{convert|3000000|ST}} of bombs were dropped on Laos.<ref name=hcmtUSHIST>{{cite web |url=http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1875.html |title=Ho Chi Minh Trail |author= |website=United States History |publisher=U-S-HISTORY.COM |accessdate=17 November 2016}}</ref> That slowed down but did not stop the trail system.<ref name=hcmtUSHIST/>
-Indochina had been a [[French Indochina|French colony]] from late 19th century to mid-20th century. When the Japanese [[Japanese invasion of French Indochina|invaded]] during [[World War II]], the [[Viet Minh]], a Communist-led common front under the leadership of [[Ho Chi Minh]],
+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," South Vietnamese troops were trained and equipped to replace the Americans who had left. By 1973, 95% of the American troops were gone.
-opposed them with support from the US, the Soviet Union and China. They received some Japanese arms when Japan surrendered. On [[Victory over Japan Day|V-J Day]], September 2, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed in Hanoi the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The DRV ruled as the only civil government in all of Vietnam for 20 days, after the abdication of Emperor [[Bảo Đại]], who had governed under the Japanese rule. On 23 September 1945, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, and declared French authority restored.<ref>[[The Pentagon Papers]], [[s:Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part I.djvu/30|Part I]], via [[Wikisource]]</ref> The French gradually retook control of Indochina. Following unsuccessful negotiations, the Viet Minh, then initiated an insurgency against French rule. Hostilities escalated into the [[First Indochina War]] (beginning in December 1946).
-By the 1950s, the conflict had become entwined with the Cold War. In January 1950, China and the Soviet Union recognized the Viet Minh's [[North Vietnam|Democratic Republic of Vietnam]], based in [[Hanoi]], as the legitimate government of Vietnam. The following month the United States and Great Britain recognized the French-backed [[State of Vietnam]] in [[Saigon]], led by former Emperor [[Bảo Đại]], as the legitimate Vietnamese government.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|88}}<ref name=McNamara>{{cite book |last1=McNamara |first1=Robert S. |author-link1=Robert McNamara |last2=Blight |first2=James G. |last3=Brigham |first3=Robert K. |last4=Biersteker |first4=Thomas J. |author-link4=Thomas J. Biersteker |last5=Schandler |first5=Herbert |year=1999 |title=Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy |location=New York |publisher=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=978-1-891620-87-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/argumentwithoute00mcna |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|377–9}} The outbreak of the [[Korean War]] in June 1950 convinced many [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] policymakers that the war in Indochina was an example of communist expansionism directed by the Soviet Union.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|33–5}}
+All of the parties signed a [[peace treaty]] in Paris in January 1973, but the fighting continued until 1975.
-Military advisors from the People's Republic of China (PRC) began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950.<ref name=Ang/>{{rp|14}} PRC weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla force into a regular army.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|26}}<ref name="HistoryPlace">{{cite web |url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html |title=The History Place – Vietnam War 1945–1960 |access-date=11 June 2008}}</ref> In September 1950, the United States created a [[Military Assistance Advisory Group|Military Assistance and Advisory Group]] (MAAG) to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.<ref name="Herring">{{cite book|last=Herring|first=George C.|title=America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 (4th ed.)|publisher=McGraw-Hill|year=2001|isbn=978-0-07-253618-8}}</ref>{{rp|18}} By 1954, the United States had spent $1&nbsp;billion in support of the French military effort, shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|35}}
+==Guerilla warfare==
+{{multiple image
-During the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] (1954), U.S. [[Aircraft carrier|carriers]] sailed to the [[Gulf of Tonkin]] and the U.S. conducted reconnaissance flights. France and the United States also discussed the use of three [[tactical nuclear weapon]]s, although reports of how seriously this was considered and by whom are vague and contradictory.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|75}}<ref name="Maclear">{{cite book|last=Maclear|first=Michael|title=The Ten Thousand Day War: Vietnam 1945–1975|publisher=Thames|year=1981|isbn=978-0-312-79094-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/tenthousanddaywa00mich/page/57 57]|url=https://archive.org/details/tenthousanddaywa00mich/page/57}}</ref> According to then-Vice President [[Richard Nixon]], the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up plans to use small tactical nuclear weapons to support the French.<ref name=Maclear/> Nixon, a so-called "[[War Hawk|hawk]]" on Vietnam, suggested that the United States might have to "put American boys in".<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|76}} President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] made American participation contingent on British support, but the British were opposed.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|76}} Eisenhower, wary of involving the United States in a land war in Asia, decided against military intervention.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|75–6}} Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained sceptical of France's chance of success.<ref name=Gravel>{{cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 1 |pages=391–404}}</ref>
+| align = center
+| direction = horizontal
-On 7 May 1954, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. The defeat marked the end of French military involvement in Indochina. At the [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]], the French negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Viet Minh, and independence was granted to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}
+| image1 = Vietcong tunnels-USAR.jpg
+| width1 = 330
-==Transition period==
+| caption1 = <p>Cross-sectional diagram showing an example of a section of tunnel system used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.</p>
-{{Main|Geneva Conference (1954)|Operation Passage to Freedom|Battle of Saigon (1955)|Ba Cụt|State of Vietnam referendum, 1955|Land reform in Vietnam|Land reform in North Vietnam}}
+<p> The area with the most tunnels was called the Iron Triangle by the Americans. The Viet Minh and later the Vietcong used these tunnels.</p>
-[[File:Gen-commons.jpg|thumb|The [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]], 1954]]
+<p>Some of the larger tunnel complexes had kitchens, operating rooms, dorm rooms, storage rooms, and school rooms.</p>
+| image2 = Vietcong1968.jpg
-At the 1954 Geneva peace conference, Vietnam was [[partition of Vietnam|temporarily partitioned]] at the [[17th parallel north|17th parallel]]. Ho Chi Minh had wished to continue the war in the south, but was restrained by his Chinese allies who convinced him that he could win control by electoral means.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|87–88}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar|title=China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar|date=1 January 2001 |work=Wilson Center|access-date=20 May 2018|language=en}}</ref> Under the terms of the Geneva Accords, civilians were allowed to move freely between the two provisional states for a 300-day period. Elections throughout the country were to be held in 1956 to establish a unified government.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|88–90}} Around one million northerners, mainly minority Catholics, fled south, fearing persecution by the communists.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|96}}<ref>{{cite web|title=The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954?|first=John|last=Prados|date=January–February 2005 |publisher=The VVA Veteran |url=http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527190340/http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-date= 27 May 2006|access-date=11 May 2017}}</ref> This followed an American [[psychological warfare]] campaign, designed by [[Edward Lansdale]] for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA), which exaggerated anti-Catholic sentiment among the Viet Minh and which falsely claimed the US was about to drop atomic bombs on Hanoi.<ref name =Hastings/>{{rp|96–7}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kinzer|first=Stephen|title=The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War|publisher=Macmillan |year=2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVb4-1l1gF4C&q=lansdale.+attache&pg=PA194|isbn=978-1-4299-5352-8|pages=195–6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Patrick|first=Johnson, David|title=Selling "Operation Passage to Freedom": Dr. Thomas Dooley and the Religious Overtones of Early American Involvement in Vietnam|date=2009|publisher=University of New Orleans|url=https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/950/|language=en}}</ref> The exodus was coordinated by a U.S.-funded $93&nbsp;million relocation program, which included the use of the [[Seventh Fleet]] to ferry refugees.<ref>{{cite book|last=Murti|first=B.S.N.|title=Vietnam Divided |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamdivided0000unse |url-access=registration|publisher=Asian Publishing House |year=1964}}</ref> The northern, mainly Catholic refugees gave the later [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] regime a strong anti-communist constituency.<ref name="Karnow">{{harvnb|Karnow|1997}}</ref>{{rp|238}} Diệm staffed his government's key posts mostly with northern and central Catholics.
+| width2 = 140
+| caption2 = <p>Vietcong soldiers wore typical clothing and sandals in a tunnel.</p>
-In addition to the Catholics flowing south, over 130,000 "Revolutionary Regroupees" went to the north for "regroupment", expecting to return to the south within two years.<ref name=Kolko/>{{rp|98}} The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 [[Cadre (politics)|cadres]] in the south as a base for future insurgency.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|104}} The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in April 1956.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|116}} The PRC completed its withdrawal from North Vietnam at around the same time.<ref name=Ang/>{{rp|14}}
+<p>They often ate and slept in the tunnels and disappeared into them when the Americans raided a village.</p>
+}}
-Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in significant political oppression. During the land reform, testimony from North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which extrapolated resulted in an initial estimation of nearly 100,000 executions nationwide. Because the campaign was concentrated mainly in the Red River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50,000 executions became widely accepted by scholars at the time.<ref name="Turner">{{cite book|last=Turner |first=Robert F.|title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development|publisher=Hoover Institution Press |year=1975|isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3}}</ref>{{rp|143}}<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=3024603|title=Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam |journal=Far Eastern Survey|volume=28|issue=8|pages=113–126|last1=Gittinger |first1=J. Price|year=1959|doi=10.2307/3024603}}</ref><ref name="Courtois">{{cite book|last1=Courtois |first1=Stephane|last2=Werth|first2=Nicolas |last3=Panne|first3=Jean-Louis|last4=Paczkowski|first4=Andrzej |last5=Bartosek|first5=Karel|last6=Margolin|first6=Jean-Louis|title=The Black Book of Communism|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|year=1997|isbn=978-0-674-07608-2|display-authors=1|title-link=The Black Book of Communism}}</ref>{{rp|569}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Dommen|first=Arthur J.|title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2001 |isbn=978-0-253-33854-9 |page=340}}</ref> However, declassified documents from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate that the number of executions was much lower than reported at the time, although likely greater than 13,500.<ref>{{cite web |date=May 25, 2007 |url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly |title=Newly released documents on the land reform |work=Vietnam Studies Group |access-date=15 July 2016 |last=Vu |first=Tuong |quote=There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954–1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954–1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953–1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (7–9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however). |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420044800/http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html|archive-date=20 April 2011}}<br/>cf. {{cite journal|last=Szalontai|first=Balazs|title=Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]]|volume=5|issue=4|date=November 2005|pages=395–426 |doi= 10.1080/14682740500284630 |s2cid=153956945}}<br/>cf. {{cite book|last=Vu|first=Tuong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZbr9iD1HZ8C&q=15%2C000 |title=Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2010 |isbn=978-1-139-48901-0 |page=103 |quote=Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China.&nbsp;... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign&nbsp;... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.}}</ref> In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" in implementing this program and restored a large amount of the land to the original owners.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|99–100}}
-The south, meanwhile, constituted the State of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as Emperor and Ngô Đình Diệm (appointed in July 1954) as his prime minister. Neither the United States government nor Ngô Đình Diệm's State of Vietnam signed anything at the 1954 Geneva Conference. With respect to the question of reunification, the non-communist Vietnamese delegation objected strenuously to any division of Vietnam, but lost out when the French accepted the proposal of Viet Minh delegate [[Phạm Văn Đồng]],<ref name=PP>{{cite book|title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 3 |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1971}}</ref>{{rp|134}} who proposed that Vietnam eventually be united by elections under the supervision of "local commissions".<ref name=PP/>{{rp|119}} The United States countered with what became known as the "American Plan", with the support of South Vietnam and the United Kingdom.<ref name=PP/>{{rp|140}} It provided for unification elections under the supervision of the United Nations, but was rejected by the Soviet delegation.<ref name=PP/>{{rp|140}} The United States said, "With respect to the statement made by the representative of the State of Vietnam, the United States reiterates its traditional position that peoples are entitled to determine their own future and that it will not join in any arrangement which would hinder this".<ref name=PP/>{{rp|570–1}}
-U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote in 1954:
-{{quote|"I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly eighty percent of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bảo Đại. Indeed, the lack of leadership and drive on the part of Bảo Đại was a factor in the feeling prevalent among Vietnamese that they had nothing to fight for."|author=|title=|source={{sfn|Eisenhower|1963|p=[https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise/page/372 372]}}}}
-According to the ''Pentagon Papers'', however, from 1954 to 1956 "Ngô Đình Diệm really did accomplish miracles" in South Vietnam: "It is almost certain that by 1956 the proportion which might have voted for Ho—in a free election against Diệm—would have been much smaller than eighty percent."<ref name="Turner1990">{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Robert F.|chapter-url=http://www.viet-myths.net/Turner.htm|chapter=Myths and Realities in the Vietnam Debate|title=The Vietnam Debate: A Fresh Look at the Arguments|publisher=[[University Press of America]]|year=1990|isbn=978-0-8191-7416-1}}</ref> In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the [[International Control Commission]] (ICC) stated that fair, unbiased elections were not possible, with the ICC reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement.<ref>{{harvnb|Woodruff|2005|p=6}} states: "The elections were not held. South Vietnam, which had not signed the Geneva Accords, did not believe the Communists in North Vietnam would allow a fair election. In January 1957, the International Control Commission (ICC), comprising observers from India, Poland, and Canada, agreed with this perception, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. With the French gone, a return to the traditional power struggle between north and south had begun again."</ref>
-[[File:Ba Cut Trial.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ba Cut]] in Can Tho Military Court 1956, commander of religious movement the [[Hòa Hảo]], which had fought against the [[Việt Minh]], [[Vietnamese National Army]] and [[Caodaism|Cao Dai]] movement throughout the first war]]
-From April to June 1955, Diệm eliminated any political opposition in the south by launching military operations against two religious groups: the [[Cao Đài]] and [[Hòa Hảo]] of [[Ba Cụt]]. The campaign also focused on the [[Bình Xuyên]] [[organized crime]] group, which was allied with members of the communist party secret police and had some military elements. The group was ultimately defeated in April following a [[Battle of Saigon (1955)|battle]] in Saigon. As broad-based opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm increasingly sought to blame the communists.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}
-In a referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam on 23 October 1955, Diệm [[electoral fraud|rigged]] the poll supervised by his brother [[Ngô Đình Nhu]] and was credited with 98.2 percent of the vote, including 133% in Saigon. His American advisors had recommended a more "modest" winning margin of "60 to 70 percent." Diệm, however, viewed the election as a test of authority.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|224}} Three days later, he declared South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with himself as president.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|}} Likewise, Ho Chi Minh and other communist officials always won at least 99% of the vote in North Vietnamese "elections".<ref name=Turner/>{{rp|193–94, 202–03, 215–17}}
-The [[domino theory]], which argued that if one country fell to communism, then all of the surrounding countries would follow, was first proposed as policy by the Eisenhower administration.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|19}} [[John F. Kennedy]], then a [[United States Senate|U.S. senator]], said in a speech to the [[American Friends of Vietnam]]: "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."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626125802/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 June 2012|title=America's Stakes in Vietnam Speech to the American Friends of Vietnam, June 1956|publisher=JFK Library|access-date=26 June 2012}}</ref>
-==Diệm era, 1954–1963==
-{{Main|Ngô Đình Diệm|War in Vietnam (1954–1959)}}
-===Rule===
-[[File:Vietnam war 1957 to 1960 map english.svg|thumb|left|Map of insurgency and "disturbances", 1957 to 1960]]
-A devout [[Roman Catholic]], Diệm was fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and socially conservative. Historian Luu Doan Huynh notes that "Diệm represented narrow and extremist nationalism coupled with autocracy and [[nepotism]]."<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|200–1}} Most Vietnamese people were [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], and they were alarmed by Diệm's actions, like his dedication of the country to the [[Virgin Mary]].
-Beginning in the summer of 1955, Diệm launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. He instituted the death penalty against any activity deemed communist in August 1956.<ref name="WarBegan" /> The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 individuals were imprisoned and 2,148 were killed in the process.<ref>{{cite book|last=Turner|first=Robert F.|title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development|year=1975|publisher=[[Hoover Institution]] Publications|isbn=978-0817964313|pages=174–78}}</ref> According to [[Gabriel Kolko]], 40,000 [[political prisoner]]s had been jailed by the end of 1958.<ref name=Kolko/>{{rp|89}}
-[[File:Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington - ARC 542189.jpg|thumb|U.S. President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] and Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] greet President [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] of [[South Vietnam]] in Washington, 8 May 1957]]
-In May 1957, Diệm undertook a [[Ngô Đình Diệm presidential visit to the United States|ten-day state visit to the United States]]. President Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Diệm's honor in New York City. Although Diệm was publicly praised, Secretary of State [[John Foster Dulles]] privately conceded that Diệm had to be backed because they could find no better alternative.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|230}}
-===Insurgency in the South, 1954–1960===
-{{Main|Viet Cong|War in Vietnam (1959–1963)}}
-Between 1954 and 1957, the Diệm government succeeded in preventing large-scale organized unrest in the countryside. In April 1957, insurgents launched an assassination campaign, referred to as "extermination of traitors".<ref name="McNamera35">{{cite book |last1= McNamera |first1= Robert S.|last2= Blight |first2= James G.|last3= Brigham |first3= Robert K. |title= Argument Without End |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0sBl9BuPYYC |year=1999 |work=[[PublicAffairs]] |isbn=1-891620-22-3 |pages= 35}}</ref> Seventeen people were killed in an attack at a bar in [[Châu Đốc]] in July and in September a district chief was killed with his family on a highway.<ref name="WarBegan" /> By early 1959, however, Diệm had come to regard the (increasingly frequent) violence as an organized campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death and property confiscation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc6.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723163835/http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc6.html|url-status=dead|title=Excerpts from Law 10/59, 6 May 1959|archive-date=23 July 2008}}</ref> There had been some division among former Viet Minh whose main goal was to hold the elections promised in the Geneva Accords, leading to "[[wildcat strike|wildcat]]" activities separate from the other communists and anti-GVN activists. [[Douglas Pike]] estimated that insurgents carried out 2,000 abductions, and 1,700 assassinations of government officials, village chiefs, hospital workers and teachers from 1957 to 1960.<ref name="WarBegan" /><ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|106}} Violence between the insurgents and government forces increased drastically from 180 clashes in January 1960 to 545 clashes in September.<ref name= cmh>{{cite book | url = http://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm | title =  History of Special Forces in Vietnam, 1961–1971 | publisher = [[United States Army Center of Military History]] | first = Francis John | last = Kelly | orig-year = 1973 | year = 1989 | location = Washington, D.C. | id =CMH Pub 90-23 |page = 4
-}}</ref>
-In September 1960, [[Central Office for South Vietnam|COSVN]], the southern communist headquarters, gave an order for a full scale coordinated uprising in South Vietnam against the government and 1/3 of the population was soon living in areas of communist control.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|106–107}} In December 1960, the Viet Cong was formally created with the intent of uniting all anti-GVN insurgents, including non-communists. It was formed in [[Memot District|Memot, Cambodia]], and directed through COSVN. According to the ''Pentagon Papers'', the Viet Cong "placed heavy 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." The identities of the leaders of the organization often were kept secret.<ref name="WarBegan" />
-Support for the VC was driven by peasant resentment of Diem's reversal of land reforms in the countryside. Most of the population lived in countryside villages and strongly supported the reforms. In areas they controlled, the Viet Minh had confiscated large private landholdings, reduced rents and debts, and leased communal lands, mostly to the poorer peasants. Diem brought the landlords back to the villages. People who were farming land they had held for years now had to return it to landlords and pay years of back rent. This rent collection was enforced by the South Vietnamese army. [[Marilyn B. Young]] wrote that "The divisions within villages reproduced those that had existed against the French: 75 percent support for the NLF, 20 percent trying to remain neutral and 5 percent firmly pro-government".<ref name="Young">{{cite book|last=Young|first=Marilyn|title=The Vietnam Wars: 1945–1990|url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamwars194510000youn|url-access=registration|publisher=Harper Perennial|year=1991|isbn=978-0-06-092107-1}}</ref>{{rp|73}}
-====North Vietnamese involvement====
-{{See also|North Vietnamese invasion of Laos|Ho Chi Minh trail}}
-[[File:HoCMT.png|thumb|The [[Ho Chi Minh trail]], known as the Truong Son Road by the North Vietnamese, cuts through Laos. This would develop into a complex logistical system which would allow the North Vietnamese to maintain the war effort despite the largest aerial bombardment campaign in history]]
-In March 1956, southern communist leader [[Lê Duẩn]] presented a plan to revive the insurgency entitled "The Road to the South" to the other members of the Politburo in Hanoi; however, as both China and the Soviets opposed confrontation at this time, Lê Duẩn's plan was rejected.<ref name=Ang/>{{rp|58}} Despite this, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive the southern insurgency in December 1956.{{sfn|Olson|Roberts |2008|p=67}} This decision was made at the 11th Plenary Session of the Lao Dong Central Committee. Communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958.{{sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=68}} In May 1958, North Vietnamese forces seized the transportation hub at [[Tchepone]] in Southern Laos near the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam.<ref name="Prados-1999">{{cite book |last1=Prados |first1=John |title=The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War |date=1999 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9780471254652 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDluAAAAMAAJ |access-date=26 May 2020}}</ref>{{RP|24}}
-[[File:Ho_Chi_Minh_Trail_(Colorized).jpg|thumb|left|The Ho Chi Minh trail required, on average, four months of rough-terrain travel for combatants from North Vietnam destined for the Southern battlefields.]]
-The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South at a session in January 1959,<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|119–20}} and, in May, [[Group 559]] was established to maintain and upgrade the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]], at this time a six-month mountain trek through Laos. On July 28, North Vietnamese and [[Pathet Lao]] forces invaded Laos, fighting the Royal Lao Army all along the border. Group 559 was headquartered in Na Kai, [[Houaphan]] province in northeast Laos close to the border.<ref name="Morrocco-1985">{{cite book |last1=Morrocco |first1=John |title=Rain of Fire: Air War, 1969–1973 |date=1985 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=9780939526147 |series=Volume 14 of Vietnam Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dEhuAAAAMAAJ |access-date=26 May 2020}}</ref>{{RP|26}} About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation.{{sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=xi}} The first arms delivery via the trail was completed in August 1959.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prados |first=John |year=2006 |chapter=The Road South: The Ho Chi Minh Trail |editor-last=Wiest |editor-first=Andrew |title=Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land |pages=74–95 |location=Oxford |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-84603-020-8 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/rollingthunderin00wies}}</ref> In April 1960, North Vietnam imposed universal military conscription for adult males. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south from 1961 to 1963.<ref name=Ang/>{{rp|76}}
-{{clear}}
-==Kennedy's escalation, 1961–1963==
-{{Main|War in Vietnam (1959–1963)|Strategic Hamlet Program}}
-{{See also|Phạm Ngọc Thảo}}
-[[File:The President's News Conference, 23 March 1961.jpg|thumb|President Kennedy's news conference of 23 March 1961]]
-In the [[1960 U.S. presidential election]], Senator John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Although Eisenhower warned Kennedy about Laos and Vietnam, Europe and Latin America "loomed larger than Asia on his sights."<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|264}} In April 1961, Kennedy approved the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]] and that invasion failed. In June 1961, he bitterly disagreed with Soviet premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] when they [[Vienna summit|met in Vienna]] to discuss key U.S.–Soviet issues. Only 16 months later, the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] (16–28 October 1962) played out on television worldwide. It was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale [[nuclear war]], and the U.S. raised the readiness level of [[Strategic Air Command]] (SAC) forces to [[DEFCON]] 2.
-The Kennedy administration remained essentially committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. In 1961, the U.S. had 50,000 troops based in South Korea, and Kennedy faced four crisis situations: the failure of the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]] that he had approved on 4 April,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188|title=It's Time to Stop Saying that JFK Inherited the Bay of Pigs Operation from Ike|publisher=History News Network|date=12 May 2015}}</ref> settlement negotiations between the pro-Western government of Laos and the [[Pathet Lao]] communist movement in May ("Kennedy sidestepped Laos, whose rugged terrain was no battleground for American soldiers."<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|265}}), the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] in August, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. Kennedy believed that yet another failure to gain control and stop communist expansion would irreparably damage U.S. credibility. He was determined to "draw a line in the sand" and prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. He told James Reston of ''[[The New York Times]]'' immediately after his Vienna summit meeting with Khrushchev, "Now we have a problem making our power credible and Vietnam looks like the place."<ref>[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/goldzwig.htm The case of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam Presidential Studies Quarterly].</ref><ref>Mann, Robert. ''A Grand Delusion'', Basic Books, 2002.</ref>
-[[File:South Vietnam Map.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[South Vietnam]], Military Regions, 1967]]
-Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed that Diệm and his forces had to ultimately defeat the guerrillas on their own. He was against the deployment of American combat troops and observed that "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."<ref>{{Cite book |author=Vietnam Task Force |year=1969 |title=Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force |location=Washington, DC |publisher=[[Office of the Secretary of Defense]] |chapter=IV. B. Evolution of the War 4. Phased Withdrawal of U.S. Forces in Vietnam, 1962–64 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504231323/http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-4.pdf |archive-date=2015-05-04 |url= http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-4.pdf |pages=1–2}}</ref> The quality of the South Vietnamese military, however, remained poor. Poor leadership, corruption, and political promotions all played a part in weakening the ARVN. The frequency of guerrilla attacks rose as the insurgency gathered steam. While Hanoi's support for the Viet Cong played a role, South Vietnamese governmental incompetence was at the core of the crisis.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|369}}
-One major issue Kennedy raised was whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the United States. Although Kennedy stressed long-range missile parity with the Soviets, he was also interested in using [[special forces]] for [[counterinsurgency]] warfare in Third World countries threatened by communist insurgencies. Although they were originally intended for use behind front lines after a conventional Soviet invasion of Europe, Kennedy believed that the guerrilla tactics employed by special forces such as the [[Special Forces (United States Army)|Green Berets]] would be effective in a "brush fire" war in Vietnam.
-[[File:President meets with Secretary of Defense. President Kennedy, Secretary McNamara. White House, Cabinet Room - NARA - 194244.jpg|thumb|[[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] and [[Robert McNamara|McNamara]]]]
-Kennedy advisors [[Maxwell D. Taylor|Maxwell Taylor]] and [[Walt Whitman Rostow|Walt Rostow]] recommended that U.S. troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1971/07/22/a-special-supplement-kennedys-private-war/|title=A Special Supplement: Kennedy's Private War|last=Stavins|first=Ralph L.|date=22 July 1971|work=The New York Review of Books|access-date=2 December 2017|issn=0028-7504}}</ref> Kennedy rejected the idea but increased military assistance yet again. In April 1962, [[John Kenneth Galbraith]] warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force in the area and bleed as the French did."<ref>{{cite book |author=John Kenneth Galbraith |chapter=Memorandum to President Kennedy from John Kenneth Galbraith on Vietnam, 4 April 1962 |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 2 |location=Boston |publisher=Beacon Press |year=1971 |pages=669–671}}</ref> Eisenhower's put 900 advisors in Vietnam, and by November 1963, Kennedy had put 16,000 American military personnel in Vietnam.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|131}}
-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 some forced relocation and segregation of rural South Vietnamese into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from the Viet Cong. It was hoped these new communities would provide security for the peasants and strengthen the tie between them and the central government. However, by November 1963 the program had waned, and it officially ended in 1964.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|1070}}
-On 23 July 1962, fourteen nations, including China, South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam and the United States, signed an [[International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos|agreement]] promising to respect the neutrality of Laos.
-===Ousting and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm===
-{{Main|Cable 243|Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm|Buddhist crisis| Krulak Mendenhall mission|McNamara Taylor mission|1963 South Vietnamese coup|Reaction to the 1963 South Vietnamese coup}}
-{{See also|Role of the United States in the Vietnam War#John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)|1960 South Vietnamese coup attempt|1962 South Vietnamese Independence Palace bombing|Huế Phật Đản shootings|Xá Lợi Pagoda raids}}
-The inept performance of the ARVN was exemplified by failed actions such as the [[Battle of Ap Bac|Battle of Ấp Bắc]] on 2 January 1963, in which a small band of Viet Cong won a battle against a much larger and better-equipped South Vietnamese force, many of whose officers seemed reluctant even to engage in combat.<ref name="Sheehan">{{cite book|last=Sheehan|first=Neil|title=A Bright Shining Lie – John Paul Vann and the American War in Vietnam|publisher=Vintage|year=1989|isbn=978-0-679-72414-8}}</ref>{{rp|201–6}} During the battle the South Vietnamese had lost 83 soldiers and 5 US war helicopters serving to ferry ARVN troops that had been shot down by Vietcong forces, while the Vietcong forces had lost only 18 soldiers. The ARVN forces were led by Diệm's most trusted general, [[Huỳnh Văn Cao]], commander of the [[IV Corps (South Vietnam)|IV Corps]]. Cao was a Catholic who had been promoted due to religion and fidelity rather than skill, and his main job was to preserve his forces to stave off coup attempts; he had earlier vomited during a communist attack. Some policymakers in Washington began to conclude that 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 more paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962, which he partly attributed to U.S. encouragement. As [[Robert F. Kennedy]] noted, "Diệm wouldn't make even the slightest concessions. He was difficult to reason with&nbsp;..."<ref>Live interview by [[John Bartlow Martin]]. ''Was Kennedy Planning to Pull out of Vietnam?'' New York City. John F. Kennedy Library, 1964, Tape V, Reel 1.</ref> Historian [[James Gibson (historian)|James Gibson]] summed up the situation:
-{{quote|Strategic hamlets had failed&nbsp;... The South Vietnamese regime was incapable of winning the peasantry because of its class base among landlords. Indeed, there was no longer a 'regime' in the sense of a relatively stable political alliance and functioning bureaucracy. Instead, civil government and military operations had virtually ceased. The National Liberation Front had made great progress and was close to declaring provisional revolutionary governments in large areas.<ref>{{cite news|author=James Gibson |title=The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam |url=https://archive.org/details/perfectwartechno0000gibs |url-access=registration |publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Press |date=1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/perfectwartechno0000gibs/page/88 88]}}</ref>}}
-Discontent with Diệm's policies exploded in May 1963 following the [[Huế Phật Đản shootings]] of nine unarmed Buddhists protesting against the ban on displaying the [[Buddhist flag]] on [[Vesak]], the Buddha's birthday. This resulted in mass protests against discriminatory policies that gave privileges to the Catholic Church and its adherents over the Buddhist majority. Diệm's elder brother [[Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục|Ngô Đình Thục]] was the Archbishop of Huế and aggressively blurred the separation between church and state. Thuc's anniversary celebrations occurred shortly before Vesak had been bankrolled by the government, and Vatican flags were displayed prominently. There had also been reports of Catholic paramilitaries demolishing Buddhist pagodas throughout Diệm's rule. Diệm refused to make concessions to the Buddhist majority or take responsibility for the deaths. On 21 August 1963, the ARVN [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces|Special Forces]] of Colonel [[Lê Quang Tung]], loyal to Diệm's younger brother Ngô Đình Nhu, [[Xá Lợi Pagoda raids|raided pagodas]] across Vietnam, causing widespread damage and destruction and leaving a death toll estimated to range into the hundreds.
-[[File:Arvncapture.jpg|thumb|upright|ARVN forces capture a Viet Cong]]
-U.S. officials began discussing the possibility of a [[regime change]] during the middle of 1963. The [[United States Department of State]] wanted to encourage a coup, while the Defense Department favored Diệm. Chief among the proposed changes was the removal of Diệm's younger brother Nhu, who controlled the secret police and special forces, and was seen as the man behind the Buddhist repression and more generally the architect of the Ngô family's rule. This proposal was conveyed to the U.S. embassy in Saigon in [[Cable 243]].
-[[File:Corpse of Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1963 coup.jpg|thumb|left|[[Ngô Đình Diệm]] after being shot and killed in a coup on 2 November 1963]]
-The CIA contacted generals planning to remove Diệm and told them that the United States would not oppose such a move nor punish the generals by cutting off aid. President Diệm was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. When Kennedy was informed, Maxwell Taylor remembered that he "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face."<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|326}} Kennedy had not anticipated Diệm's murder. The U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, [[Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.|Henry Cabot Lodge]], invited the coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. Ambassador Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war".<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|327}} Kennedy wrote Lodge a letter congratulating him for "a fine job".<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=304. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam—Washington, November 6, 1963—7:50 p.m. |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume IV, Vietnam, August–December 1963 |via=Office of the Historian |website=history.state.gov |chapter-url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d304}}</ref>
-Following the coup, chaos ensued. Hanoi took advantage of the situation and increased its support for the guerrillas. South Vietnam entered a period of extreme political instability, as one military government toppled another in quick succession. Increasingly, each new regime was viewed by the communists as a puppet of the Americans; whatever the failings of Diệm, his credentials as a nationalist (as Robert McNamara later reflected) had been impeccable.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|328}}
-[[File:Viet Cong002.jpg|thumb|Viet Cong fighters crossing a river]]
-U.S. military advisors were embedded at every level of the South Vietnamese armed forces. They were however criticized for ignoring the political nature of the insurgency.{{sfn|Demma|1989}} The Kennedy administration sought to refocus U.S. efforts on pacification- which in this case was defined as countering the growing threat of insurgency-<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.afsa.org/counterinsurgency-vietnam-lessons-today |title=Counterinsurgency in Vietnam: Lessons for Today |work=The Foreign Service Journal |date=April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.vietnamgear.com/dictionary/pacification.aspx |title=Pacification |work=Vietnam War Dictionary}}</ref> and [[winning hearts and minds|"winning over the hearts and minds"]] of the population. The military leadership in Washington, however, was hostile to any role for U.S. advisors other than conventional troop training.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blaufarb |first=Douglas S.|title=The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance, 1950 to the Present|publisher=Free Press|year=1977 |isbn=978-0-02-903700-3|page=119}}</ref> General [[Paul D. Harkins|Paul Harkins]], the [[COMUSMACV|commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam]], confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963.<ref name=Herring/>{{rp|103}} The CIA was less optimistic, however, 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".<ref>{{cite book |last=Schandler |first=Herbert Y. |title=America in Vietnam: The War That Couldn't Be Won |publisher= Rowman & Littlefield |year=2009 |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0-7425-6697-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha/page/36 36]}}</ref>
-Paramilitary officers from the CIA's [[Special Activities Division]] trained and led [[Hmong people|Hmong]] tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. The indigenous forces numbered in the tens of thousands and they conducted direct action missions, led by paramilitary officers, against the Communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese supporters.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Southworth|first1=Samuel|last2=Tanner |first2=Stephen|title=U.S. Special Forces: A Guide to America's Special Operations Units: the World's Most Elite Fighting Force |url=https://archive.org/details/usspecialforcesg0000sout |url-access=registration |publisher=Da Capo Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-306-81165-4}}</ref> The CIA also ran the [[Phoenix Program]] and participated in [[Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group]] (MAC-V SOG), which was originally named the Special Operations Group, but was changed for cover purposes.<ref>{{cite book|last=Warner|first=Roger|title=Shooting at the Moon The story of America's clandestine war in Laos|publisher=Steerforth Press|year=1996|isbn=978-1-883642-36-5}}</ref>
-==Johnson's escalation, 1963–1969==
-{{Main|Joint warfare in South Vietnam, 1963–1969}}
-{{Further|Role of the United States in the Vietnam War#Americanization}}
-{{See also|January 1964 South Vietnamese coup|September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt|December 1964 South Vietnamese coup|1965 South Vietnamese coup}}
-President Kennedy [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|was assassinated]] on 22 November 1963. Vice President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] had not been heavily involved with policy toward Vietnam;<ref name="Karnow 1997 336_339">{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|pp=336–39}}.<br />Johnson viewed many members that he inherited from Kennedy's cabinet with distrust because he had never penetrated their circle during Kennedy's presidency; to Johnson's mind, those like [[W. Averell Harriman]] and [[Dean Acheson]] spoke a different language.</ref>{{refn|group="A"|Shortly after the assassination of Kennedy, when [[McGeorge Bundy]] called LBJ on the phone, LBJ responded: "Goddammit, Bundy. I've told you that when I want you I'll call you."<ref>{{cite book |first=Brian |last=VanDeMark |title=Into the Quagmire |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |page=13}}</ref>}} however, upon becoming president, Johnson immediately focused on the war. On 24 November 1963, he said, "the battle against communism&nbsp;... must be joined&nbsp;... with strength and determination."<ref>{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|p=339}}.<br />Before a small group, including Henry Cabot Lodge, the new president also said, "We should stop playing cops and robbers [a reference to Diệm's failed leadership] and get back to… winning the war&nbsp;... tell the generals in Saigon that Lyndon Johnson intends to stand by our word…[to] win the contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy."</ref> Johnson knew he had inherited a rapidly deteriorating situation in South Vietnam,<ref name="Karnow 1997 339">{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|p=339}}: "At a place called Hoa Phu, for example, the strategic hamlet built during the previous summer now looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.&nbsp;... Speaking through an interpreter, a local guard explained to me that a handful of Viet Cong agents had entered the hamlet one night and told the peasants to tear it down and return to their native villages. The peasants complied without question."</ref> but he adhered to the widely accepted domino theory argument for defending the South: Should they retreat or appease, either action would imperil other nations beyond the conflict.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hunt|first=Michael|title=The World Transformed – 1945 to the Present |publisher=Oxford|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-937102-0|location=New York|pages=169–71}}</ref> Some have argued that the policy of North Vietnam was not to topple other non-communist governments in South East Asia.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|48}}
-The military revolutionary council, meeting in lieu of a strong South Vietnamese leader, was made up of 12 members. This council was headed by General [[Dương Văn Minh]], whom [[Stanley Karnow]], a journalist on the ground, later recalled as "a model of lethargy".<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|340}} Lodge, frustrated by the end of the year, cabled home about Minh: "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?" Minh's regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General [[Nguyễn Khánh]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|341}} There was also persistent instability in the military, however, as several coups—not all successful—occurred in a short period of time.
-===Gulf of Tonkin incident===
+There were some large-scale battles during the Vietnam War, but most of the fighting was [[guerilla warfare]], a type of warfare that is different from the large-scale battles fought between armies like those during World War II.[[File:Viet Cong002.jpg|thumb|left|{{center|Captured photo showing Vietcong troops traveling in flat-bottomed boats, called sampans}}]][[File:173d Airborne Brigade- Vietnam War-Hill 823.jpg|thumb|left|{{center|US Airborne troops under attack during the Battle of Dak To (1967)}}]]In guerilla warfare, small units fight limited battles against an enemy force, set up ambushes, make surprise attacks, and then retreat back into 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 [[land mine]]<nowiki/>s and [[booby trap]]<nowiki/>s. The communist troops more often engaged in guerilla warfare against the South Vietnamese and American troops<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/guerrilla/index.html |title=Battlefield:Vietnam &#124; Guerrilla Tactics |work=pbs.org |year=2011 |accessdate=March 13, 2011}}</ref> than the reverse because they knew of their weakness in conventional (large-scale) warfare.
-{{Main|Gulf of Tonkin incident}}
-{{Further|Credibility gap}}
-On 2 August 1964, {{USS|Maddox|DD-731|6}}, on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast, allegedly fired upon and damaged several torpedo boats that had been stalking it in the Gulf of Tonkin.<ref name=Kolko/>{{rp|124}} A second attack was reported two days later on {{USS|Turner Joy|DD-951|6}} and ''Maddox'' in the same area. The circumstances of the attacks were murky.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|218–9}} Lyndon Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish."<ref>{{cite book|last=Kutler|first=Stanley I.|title=Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1996|isbn=978-0-13-276932-7|page=249}}</ref>
+Although most of the traps were non-explosive, all of the few explosive traps used grenades. A trip wire was placed, and if a soldier tripped over the wire, a grenade pin was pulled out, the grenade would blow, and the soldier would be killed.
-An undated [[National Security Agency|NSA]] publication declassified in 2005 revealed that there was no attack on 4 August.<ref>{{cite news|author=Scott Shane|date=31 October 2005|title=Vietnam Study, Casting Doubts, Remains Secret|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html |work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=4 July 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211090222/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all|archivedate=11 December 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>
+Another style of trap was nicknamed “Venus Flytrap” and 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. Then, the barbs would rip through his leg.
-[[File:1965-02-08 Showdown in Vietnam.ogv|thumb|left|[[Universal Newsreel]] film about the attack on the U.S. Army base in Pleiku and the U.S. response, February 1965]]
+Another Vietcong 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 and was very effective. It was also often [[wikt:contaminated|contaminated]] (often with feces) so that the soldier would also become infected.
-The second "attack" led to [[Operation Pierce Arrow|retaliatory airstrikes]], and prompted Congress to approve the [[Gulf of Tonkin Resolution]] on 7 August 1964.<ref name="Moïse">{{cite book|last=Moïse|first=Edwin E.|title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002}}</ref>{{rp|78}} The resolution granted the president power "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression" and Johnson would rely on this as giving him authority to expand the war.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|221}} In the same month, Johnson pledged that he was not "committing American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help protect their own land".<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|227}}
+Besides hurting or killing people, the traps would cause fear and lower morale.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://vietnam-warfare.tripod.com/vietnamwarfare/id3.html |title= Booby Traps |work= Mcdonald College |year= 2004 |accessdate= May 30, 2012 |archive-date= May 24, 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120524055043/http://vietnam-warfare.tripod.com/vietnamwarfare/id3.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>
-[[File:Bombing in Vietnam.jpg|thumb|upright|A U.S. [[Douglas B-66 Destroyer|B-66 Destroyer]] and four [[Republic F-105 Thunderchief|F-105 Thunderchiefs]] dropping bombs on [[North Vietnam]] during [[Operation Rolling Thunder]]]]
+==Fall of Saigon==
+[[File:Vietnamese refugees on US carrier, Operation Frequent Wind.jpg|thumb|150px|{{center|Fleeing from communist forces, Vietmanese refugees on an American aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam on April 29, 1975, the day before the 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.
-The [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] recommended a three-stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. Following an [[Attack on Camp Holloway|attack on a U.S. Army base in Pleiku]] on 7 February 1965,<ref>{{cite web|last=Simon|first=Dennis M.|title=The War in Vietnam, 1965–1968 |date=August 2002 |url=http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426064833/http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2.html |url-status=dead|access-date=7 May 2009|archive-date=26 April 2009}}</ref> a series of airstrikes was initiated, [[Operation Flaming Dart]], while Soviet Premier [[Alexei Kosygin]] was on a [[state visit]] to North Vietnam. [[Operation Rolling Thunder]] and [[Operation Arc Light]] expanded aerial bombardment and ground support operations.{{sfn|Nalty|1998|pp=97, 261}} The bombing campaign, which ultimately lasted three years, was intended to force North Vietnam to cease its support for the Viet Cong by threatening to destroy North Vietnamese air defenses and industrial infrastructure. It was additionally aimed at bolstering the morale of the South Vietnamese.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tilford|first=Earl L.|title=Setup: What the Air Force did in Vietnam and Why|publisher=Air University Press|year=1991 |url=https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/07/2001728434/-1/-1/0/B_0040_TILFORD_SETUP.PDF|page=89}}</ref> Between March 1965 and November 1968, ''Rolling Thunder'' deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|468}}
+Before the city fell, the few American civilian and military personnel  had left Vietnam, along with tens of thousands of South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians had fled.
-===Bombing of Laos===
+The North Vietnamese forces were under the command of General [[Văn Tiến Dũng]] and began their final attack on Saigon, which was commanded by General Nguyen Van Toan on April 29, with a heavy artillery bombardment of Tân Sơn Nhứt Airport. That killed the last two American servicemen who died in Vietnam: Charles McMahon and Darwin Judge.
-{{Main|Laotian Civil War}}
-[[File:Nguyenvancoc.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Ho Chi Minh]] awards a medal to [[Nguyễn Văn Cốc]], who was claimed to have been responsible for downing 11 enemy aircraft.]]
-Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam. Other aerial campaigns, such as [[Operation Barrel Roll]], targeted different parts of the Viet Cong and PAVN infrastructure. These included the Ho Chi Minh trail supply route, which ran through Laos and Cambodia. The ostensibly neutral Laos had become [[Laotian Civil War|the scene of a civil war]], pitting the [[Kingdom of Laos|Laotian government]] backed by the US against the Pathet Lao and its North Vietnamese allies.
+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.
-Massive aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and PAVN forces were carried out by the US to prevent the collapse of the Royal central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, nearly equal to the 2.1&nbsp;million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population.<ref name="KiernanTaylor">{{cite journal|author-link1=Ben Kiernan|last1=Kiernan|first1=Ben|last2=Owen|first2=Taylor|url=http://apjjf.org/2015/13/16/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html |title=Making More Enemies than We Kill? Calculating U.S. Bomb Tonnages Dropped on Laos and Cambodia, and Weighing Their Implications|journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal|date=26 April 2015|volume=13 |issue=17 |id=4313 |access-date=18 September 2016}}</ref>
+The Americans still in Saigon were evacuated by helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft. The surrender of Saigon was given in person by South Vietnamese President General [[Dương Văn Minh|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.
-The objective of stopping North Vietnam and the Viet Cong was never reached. The [[Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force]] [[Curtis LeMay]], however, had long advocated saturation bombing in Vietnam and wrote of the communists that "we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age".<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|328}}
+Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, after the communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
-===The 1964 Offensive===
+== Aftermath ==
-[[File:DongXoaiHuey-65a.JPG|thumb|left|ARVN Forces and a US Advisor inspect a downed helicopter, [[Battle of Dong Xoai]], June 1965]]
+After Vietnam was reunified, the communists sent anyone associated with South Vietnam to re-education camps.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Cultures of the World: Vietnam|last=Seah|first=Audrey|last2=Nair|first2=Charissa|last3=Piddock|first3=Charles|last4=Nevins|first4=Debbie|publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing|year=2015|isbn=978-1-5026-0080-6|location=243 5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016|pages=31}}</ref>
-Following the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Hanoi anticipated the arrival of US troops and began expanding the Viet Cong, as well as sending increasing numbers of North Vietnamese personnel southwards. At this phase they were outfitting the Viet Cong forces and standardising their equipment with [[AK-47]] rifles and other supplies, as well as forming the [[9th Division (Vietnam)|9th Division]].<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|223}}<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dch3m7u2K5YC&pg=PA84|title=Vietnam War After Action Reports|publisher=BACM Research|language=en}}</ref> "From a strength of approximately 5,000 at the start of 1959 the Viet Cong's ranks grew to about 100,000 at the end of 1964&nbsp;... Between 1961 and 1964 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men."{{sfn|Demma|1989}} The numbers for U.S. troops deployed to Vietnam during the same period were much lower: 2,000 in 1961, rising rapidly to 16,500 in 1964.<ref name=Kahin>{{cite book|last1=Kahin|first1=George|last2=Lewis|first2=John W.|title=The United States in Vietnam: An analysis in depth of the history of America's involvement in Vietnam|publisher=Delta Books|year=1967}}</ref> During this phase, the use of captured equipment decreased, while greater numbers of ammunition and supplies were required to maintain regular units. Group 559 was tasked with expanding the Ho Chi Minh trail, in light of the near constant bombardment by US warplanes. The war had begun to shift into the final, conventional warfare phase of Hanoi's [[Viet Cong and PAVN strategy, organization and structure#The Protracted War conflict model|three-stage protracted warfare model]]. The Viet Cong was now tasked with destroying the ARVN and capturing and holding areas; however, the Viet Cong was not yet strong enough to assault major towns and cities.
+The war also made potential farmland useless, as it was bombed and affected by [[Agent Orange]]. The economy crashed because inflation was high, so unemployment was common, and there was poor health care. Many people fled Vietnam because of these conditions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Cultures of the World: Vietnam|last=Seah|first=Audrey|last2=Nair|first2=Charissa|last3=Piddock|first3=Charles|last4=Nevins|first4=Debbie|publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing|year=2015|isbn=978-1-5026-0080-6|location=243 5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016|pages=31}}</ref>
-In December 1964, ARVN forces had suffered heavy losses at the [[Battle of Bình Giã]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Moyar|first=Mark|title=Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=phJrZ87RwuAC&pg=PA339 |isbn=978-0-521-86911-9|page=339}}</ref> in a battle that both sides viewed as a watershed. Previously, the VC had utilised hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. At Binh Gia, however, they had defeated a strong ARVN force in a conventional battle and remained in the field for four days.<ref name="McNeill">{{cite book|last=McNeill|first=Ian|title=To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=1993|isbn=978-1-86373-282-6}}</ref>{{rp|58}} Tellingly, South Vietnamese forces were again defeated in June 1965 at the [[Battle of Đồng Xoài]].<ref name=McNeill/>{{rp|94}}
+The [[Đổi mới|Đổi Mới]] reform ended the poor conditions, and now Vietnam is a modern nation.
-===American ground war===
+==Related pages==
-{{see also|Buddhist Uprising}}
+*[[First Indochina War]]
-[[File:Vietcongsuspect.jpg|thumb|A Marine from [[1st Battalion, 3rd Marines]], moves a suspected Viet Cong during a search and clear operation held by the battalion {{convert|15|mi|km|0}} west of [[Da Nang Air Base]], 1965.]]
+*[[Weapons of the Vietnam War]]
-On 8 March 1965, 3,500 [[United States Marine Corps|U.S. Marines]] were landed near [[Da Nang]], South Vietnam.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|246–7}} This marked the beginning of the American ground war. U.S. public opinion overwhelmingly supported the deployment.<ref>{{Cite web|date=October 17, 2002|title=Generations Divide Over Military Action in Iraq|url=http://www.people-press.org/2002/10/17/generations-divide-over-military-action-in-iraq/ |publisher=Pew Research Center}}</ref> The Marines' initial assignment was the defense of [[Da Nang Air Base]]. The first deployment of 3,500 in March 1965 was increased to nearly 200,000 by December.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|349–51}} The U.S. military had long been schooled in offensive warfare. Regardless of political policies, U.S. commanders were institutionally and psychologically unsuited to a defensive mission.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|349–51}}
+==References==
-General [[William Westmoreland]] informed Admiral [[U. S. Grant Sharp Jr.]], commander of U.S. Pacific forces, that the situation was critical.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|349–51}} He said, "I am convinced that U.S. troops with their energy, mobility, and firepower can successfully take the fight to the NLF (Viet Cong)".<ref>United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 4, p. 7.</ref> With this recommendation, Westmoreland was advocating an aggressive departure from America's defensive posture and the sidelining of the South Vietnamese. By ignoring ARVN units, the U.S. commitment became open-ended.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|353}} Westmoreland outlined a three-point plan to win the war:
-* Phase 1. Commitment of U.S. (and other free world) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965.
-* Phase 2. U.S. and allied forces mount major offensive actions to seize the initiative to destroy guerrilla and organized enemy forces. This phase would end when the enemy had been worn down, thrown on the defensive, and driven back from major populated areas.
-* Phase 3. If the enemy persisted, a period of twelve to eighteen months following Phase 2 would be required for the final destruction of enemy forces remaining in remote base areas.<ref>United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 5, pp. 8–9.</ref>
-[[File:Vietnamese villagers suspected of being communists by the US Army - 1966.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Peasants suspected of being Viet Cong under detention of U.S. Army, 1966]]
-The plan was approved by Johnson and marked a profound departure from the previous administration's insistence that the government of South Vietnam was responsible for defeating the guerrillas. Westmoreland predicted victory by the end of 1967.<ref>United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 4, pp. 117–19. and vol. 5, pp. 8–12.</ref> Johnson did not, however, communicate this change in strategy to the media. Instead he emphasized continuity.<ref>''Public Papers of the Presidents, 1965.'' Washington, DC Government Printing Office, 1966, vol. 2, pp. 794–99.</ref> The change in U.S. policy depended on matching the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong in a contest of [[attrition warfare|attrition]] and [[morale]]. The opponents were locked in a cycle of [[Conflict escalation|escalation]].<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|353–4}} The idea that the government of South Vietnam could manage its own affairs was shelved.<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|353–4}} Westmoreland and McNamara furthermore touted the [[Body count#Vietnam War|body count]] system for gauging victory, a metric that would later prove to be flawed.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/us/mcnamara-on-record-reluctantly-on-vietnam.html|title=McNamara on Record, Reluctantly, on Vietnam|first=Charles|last=Mohr}}</ref>
-The American buildup transformed the South Vietnamese economy and had a profound effect on society. South Vietnam was inundated with manufactured goods. Stanley Karnow noted that "the main PX [Post Exchange], located in the Saigon suburb of [[Cholon, Ho Chi Minh City|Cholon]], was only slightly smaller than the New York [[Bloomingdale's]]&nbsp;..."<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|453}}
-[[File:VNC Female.jpg|thumb|upright|Heavily bandaged woman burned by napalm, with a tag attached to her arm which reads "VNC Female" meaning Vietnamese civilian]]
-Washington encouraged its [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|SEATO]] allies to contribute troops. Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|556}} all agreed to send troops. South Korea would later ask to join the [[Many Flags]] program in return for economic compensation. Major allies, however, notably [[NATO]] nations Canada and the United Kingdom, declined Washington's troop requests.<ref>{{cite book|last=Church|first=Peter|title=A Short History of South-East Asia|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2006|isbn=978-0-470-82481-8|page=193}}</ref>
-The U.S. and its allies mounted complex [[search and destroy]] operations, designed to find enemy forces, destroy them, and then withdraw, typically using war [[helicopters]]. In November 1965, the U.S. engaged in its first major battle with the PAVN, the [[Battle of Ia Drang]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Joseph Galloway |url=http://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win.htm|title=Ia Drang – The Battle That Convinced Ho Chi Minh He Could Win|access-date=2 May 2016 |publisher=Historynet|date=18 October 2010}}</ref> The operation was the first large scale helicopter air assault by the U.S., and first to employ [[Boeing B-52 Stratofortress]] strategic bombers in a tactical support role.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|284–5}} These tactics continued in 1966–1967 with operations such as [[Operation Masher|Masher]], [[Operation Thayer|Thayer]], [[Operation Attleboro|Attleboro]], [[Operation Cedar Falls|Cedar Falls]] and [[Operation Junction City|Junction City]]. However, the PAVN/VC insurgents remained elusive and demonstrated great tactical flexibility. By 1967, the war had generated large-scale internal refugees, numbering nearly 2.1&nbsp;million in South Vietnam, with 125,000 people evacuated and rendered homeless during Operation Masher alone, which was the largest search and destroy operation in the war up to that point.<ref name="Elliott">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/opinion/violence-pacification-vietnam-war.html |title=The Terrible Violence of 'Pacification'|last=Elliott|first=Mai|date=2018 |work=The New York Times|access-date=8 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Operation Masher would have negligible impact, however, as the PAVN/VC returned to the province just four months after the operation ended.<ref name="Ward">{{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Geoffrey C.|last2=Burns|first2=Ken|title=The Vietnam War: An Intimate History |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2017|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbwvDwAAQBAJ |isbn=978-0-307-70025-4}}</ref>{{rp|153–6}} Despite the continual conductance of major operations, which the Viet Cong and PAVN would typically evade, the war was characterised by smaller-unit contacts or engagements.<ref name="GS">{{cite book |chapter-url= https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent9.htm |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 4 |chapter=Chapter 2, US Ground Strategy and Force Deployments, 1965–1968 |at=Section 4, pp. 277–604 |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College |access-date=12 June 2018}}</ref> Up to the war's end, the Viet Cong and PAVN would initiate 90% of large firefights, of which 80% were clear and well-planned operations, and thus the PAVN/Viet Cong would retain [[strategic initiative]] despite overwhelming US force and fire-power deployment.<ref name=GS/> The PAVN/Viet Cong had furthermore developed strategies capable of countering U.S. military doctrines and tactics (see [[NLF and PAVN battle tactics]]).
-[[File:Vietnam. As the second phase of operation "Thayer," the 1st Air Cavalry Division (airmobile) is having... - NARA - 530612.tif|thumb|left|U.S. soldiers searching a village for potential Viet Cong]]
-Meanwhile, the political situation in South Vietnam began to stabilise with the coming to power of prime minister Air Marshal [[Nguyễn Cao Kỳ]] and figurehead chief of state, General [[Nguyễn Văn Thiệu]], in mid-1965 at the head of a military junta. This ended a series of coups that had happened more than once a year. In 1967, Thieu became president with Ky as his deputy, after rigged elections. Although they were nominally a civilian government, Ky was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. However, Thieu outmanoeuvred and sidelined Ky by filling the ranks with generals from his faction. Thieu was also accused of murdering Ky loyalists through contrived military accidents. Thieu, mistrustful and indecisive, remained president until 1975, having won a [[1971 South Vietnamese presidential election|one-candidate election in 1971]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|706}}
-[[File:NARA 111-CCV-529-CC38112 Ronald A. Payne checking tunnel entrance Operation Cedar Falls 1967.jpg|thumb|A US "[[tunnel rat]]" soldier prepares to enter a Viet Cong tunnel.]]
-[[File:Vietcong1968.jpg|thumb|upright|Viet Cong soldier crouches in a bunker with an [[SKS]] rifle]]
-The Johnson administration employed a "policy of minimum candor"<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|18}} in its dealings with the media. Military information officers sought to manage media coverage by emphasizing stories that portrayed progress in the war. Over time, this policy damaged the public trust in official pronouncements. As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called [[credibility gap]] developed.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|18}} Despite Johnson and Westmoreland publicly proclaiming victory and Westmoreland stating that the "end is coming into view",<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-general-westmoreland-says-end-begins-come-view-vietnam|title=TWE Remembers: General Westmoreland Says the "End Begins to Come Into View" in Vietnam|work=Council on Foreign Relations|access-date=12 June 2018|language=en}}</ref> internal reports in the ''[[Pentagon Papers]]'' indicate that Viet Cong forces retained strategic initiative and controlled their losses. Viet Cong attacks against static US positions accounted for 30% of all engagements, VC/PAVN ambushes and encirclements for 23%, American ambushes against Viet Cong/PAVN forces for 9%, and American forces attacking Viet Cong emplacements for only 5% of all engagements.<ref name=GS/>
-{| class="wikitable"
-|+Types of Engagements, From Department of Defence Study 1967<ref name=GS/>
-!TYPE OF ENGAGEMENTS IN COMBAT NARRATIVES
-!Percentage of
-Total Engagements
-!Notes
-|-
-|Hot Landing Zone. VC/PAVN Attacks U.S. Troops As They Deploy
-|12.5%
-| rowspan="3" |Planned VC/PAVN Attacks
-Are 66.2% Of All Engagements
-|-
-|Planned VC/PAVN Attack Against US Defensive Perimeter
-|30.4%
-|-
-|VC/PAVN Ambushes or Encircles A Moving US Unit
-|23.3%
-|-
-|Unplanned US Attacks On A VC/PAVN Defensive Perimeter,
-Engagement A Virtual Surprise To US Commanders
-|12.5%
-|Defensive Posts Being Well Concealed
-or VC/PAVN Alerted or Anticipated
-|-
-|Planned US Attack Against Known
-VC/PAVN Defensive Perimeter
-|5.4%
-| rowspan="2" |Planned US Attacks Against
-VC/PAVN Represent 14.3%
-Of All Engagements
-|-
-|US Forces Ambushes Moving VC/PAVN Units
-|8.9%
-|-
-|Chance Engagement, Neither Side Planned
-|7.1%
-|
-|}
-===Tet Offensive===
-{{Main|Tet Offensive|United States news media and the Vietnam War}}
-[[File:ARVN in action HD-SN-99-02062.JPEG|thumb|ARVN forces assault a stronghold in the [[Mekong Delta]].]]
-[[File:T4 Vietcong Tet Offensive.jpg|thumb|Viet Cong before departing to participate in the Tet Offensive around Saigon-Gia Dinh]]
-In late 1967, the PAVN lured American forces into the hinterlands at [[Battle of Dak To|Đắk Tô]] and at the Marine [[Battle of Khe Sanh|Khe Sanh combat base]] in [[Quảng Trị Province]], where the U.S. fought a series of battles known as [[The Hill Fights]]. These actions were part of a diversionary strategy meant to draw US forces towards the Central Highlands.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-nva-general-tran-van-tra.htm|title=Interview with NVA General Tran Van Tra {{!}} HistoryNet|website=www.historynet.com|language=en-US|access-date=1 June 2018|date=12 June 2006}}</ref> Preparations were underway for the ''General Offensive, General Uprising'', known as Tet Mau Than, or the [[Tet Offensive]], with the intention of [[Văn Tiến Dũng]] for forces to launch "direct attacks on the American and puppet nerve centers—Saigon, [[Huế]], Danang, all the cities, towns and main bases..."<ref name="Wilson">{{Cite news|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-urban-movement-and-the-planning-and-execution-the-tet-offensive|title=The Urban Movement and the Planning and Execution of the Tet Offensive|date=20 October 2014|work=Wilson Center|access-date=1 June 2018|language=en}}</ref> Le Duan sought to placate critics of the ongoing stalemate by planning a decisive victory.<ref name="Nguyen">{{Cite book|last=Nguyen|first=Lien-Hang T.|title=Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1-4696-2835-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=od5ZwW9QuQsC}}</ref>{{rp|90–4}} He reasoned that this could be achieved through sparking a general uprising within the towns and cities,<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|148}} along with mass defections among ARVN units, who were on holiday leave during the truce period.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/tet-offensive-americans-vietnam.html|title=Opinion {{!}} The Tet Offensive Was Not About Americans|last=Wiest|first=Andrew|date=1 March 2018|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 June 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
-The Tet Offensive began on 30 January 1968, as over 100 cities were attacked by over 85,000 VC/PAVN troops, including assaults on key military installations, headquarters, and government buildings and offices, including the [[United States Embassy, Saigon|U.S. Embassy in Saigon]].<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|363–5}} U.S. and South Vietnamese forces were initially shocked by the scale, intensity and deliberative planning of the urban offensive, as infiltration of personnel and weapons into the cities was accomplished covertly;<ref name=Wilson/> the offensive constituted an [[Failure in the intelligence cycle|intelligence failure]] on the scale of [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|556}}  Most cities were recaptured within weeks, except the former imperial capital of Huế in which PAVN/Viet Cong troops captured most of the city and citadel except the headquarters of the [[1st Division (South Vietnam)|1st Division]] and held on in the fighting for 26 days.<ref name=Bowden>{{cite book|last=Bowden|first=Mark|title=Hue 1968 A turning point of the American war in Vietnam|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|year=2017}}</ref>{{rp|495}} During that time, they had [[Massacre at Huế|executed approximately 2,800 unarmed Huế]] civilians and foreigners they considered to be enemy's spies.<ref name=Bowden/>{{rp|495}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Hosmer|first=Stephen T.|title=Viet Cong Repression and its Implications for the Future|publisher=Rand Corporation|year=1970|pages=72–8}}</ref> In the following [[Battle of Huế]] American forces employed massive firepower that left 80 percent of the city in ruins.<ref name=Kolko/>{{rp|308–9}} Further north, at Quảng Trị City, the [[Republic of Vietnam Airborne Division|ARVN Airborne Division]], the 1st Division and a regiment of the US [[1st Cavalry Division (United States)|1st Cavalry Division]] had managed to hold out and overcome an assault intended to capture the city.<ref name="Villard">{{cite book|last=Villard|first=Erik B.|title=The 1968 Tet Offensive Battles of Quang Tri City and Hue|publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History|year=2008|url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/vietnam/tet_battles/tet.pdf|isbn=978-1-5142-8522-0}}</ref>{{rp|}}<ref name="Ankony">{{cite book|last=Ankony|first=Robert C.|title=Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7618-3281-2}}</ref>{{rp|104}} In Saigon, Viet Cong/PAVN fighters had captured areas in and around the city, attacking key installations and the neighbourhood of Cholon before US and ARVN forces dislodged them after three weeks.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|479}} During one battle, [[Peter Arnett]] reported an infantry commander saying of the [[Battle of Bến Tre]] (laid to rubble by U.S. attacks) that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When|last=Keyes|first=Ralph|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|year=2006|isbn=978-0-312-34004-9|url=https://archive.org/details/quoteverifierwho00keye}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D1FFA3F541B7B93CAA91789D85F4C8685F9|title=Survivors Hunt Dead of Bentre, Turned to Rubble in Allied Raids|work=The New York Times}}</ref>
-[[File:Pavnbattle.jpg|left|thumb|North Vietnamese regular army forces]]
-[[File:Cholon after Tet Offensive operations 1968.jpg|left|thumb|The ruins of a section of Saigon, in the Cholon neighborhood, following fierce fighting between ARVN forces and Viet Cong Main Force battalions]]
-During the first month of the offensive, 1,100 Americans and other allied troops, 2,100 ARVN and 14,000 civilians were killed.<ref name="Trieu">{{Cite journal|last=Triều|first=Họ Trung|date=5 June 2017|title=Lực lượng chính trị và đấu tranh chính trị ở thị xã Nha Trang trong cuộc Tổng tiến công và nổi dậy Tết Mậu Thân 1968|journal=Hue University Journal of Science: Social Sciences and Humanities|volume=126|issue=6|doi=10.26459/hujos-ssh.v126i6.3770|issn=2588-1213}}</ref> By the end of the first offensive, after two months, nearly 5,000 ARVN and over 4,000 U.S. forces had been killed and 45,820 wounded.<ref name=Trieu/>  The U.S. claimed 17,000 of the PAVN and Viet Cong had been killed and 15,000 wounded.<ref name=Villard/>{{rp|82}}<ref name=Ankony/>{{rp|104}} A month later a second offensive known as the [[May Offensive]] was launched; although less widespread, it demonstrated the Viet Cong were still capable of carrying out orchestrated nationwide offensives.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|488–9}} Two months later a third offensive was launched, the [[Phase III Offensive]]. The PAVN's own official records of their losses across all three offensives was 45,267 killed and 111,179 total casualties.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nhandan.com.vn/chinhtri/item/7976502-.html|title=Tết Mậu Thân 1968 qua những số liệu|access-date=1 June 2018|language=vi-VN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Eyraud|first=Henri|date=March 1987|title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience. By Kolko Gabriel. [New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. 628 pp.]|journal=The China Quarterly|volume=109|page=135|doi=10.1017/s0305741000017653|issn=0305-7410}}</ref> By then it had become the bloodiest year of the war up to that point. The failure to spark a general uprising and the lack of defections among the ARVN units meant both war goals of Hanoi had fallen flat at enormous costs.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|148–9}}
-Prior to Tet, in November 1967, Westmoreland had spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson administration to bolster flagging public support.<ref name="Witz">{{cite book|last=Witz|title=The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War|publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-8014-8209-0|pages=1–2}}</ref> In a speech before the [[National Press Club (USA)|National Press Club]] he said a point in the war had been reached "where the end comes into view."<ref>{{cite book|last=Berman|first=Larry|title=Lyndon Johnson's War|publisher=W.W. Norton|year=1991|page=116}}</ref> Thus, the public was shocked and confused when Westmoreland's predictions were trumped by the Tet Offensive.<ref name=Witz/> Public approval of his overall performance dropped from 48 percent to 36 percent, and endorsement for the war effort fell from 40 percent to 26 percent."<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|546}} The American public and media began to turn against Johnson as the three offensives contradicted claims of progress made by the Johnson administration and the military.<ref name=Witz/>
-At one point in 1968, Westmoreland considered the use of [[nuclear weapons]] in Vietnam in a contingency plan codenamed [[Fracture Jaw]], which was abandoned when it became known to the White House.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/world/asia/vietnam-war-nuclear-weapons.html|title=U.S. General Considered Nuclear Response in Vietnam War, Cables Show|last=Sanger|first=David E.|date=6 October 2018|work=The New York Times|access-date=8 October 2018|language=en}}</ref> Westmoreland requested 200,000 additional troops, which was leaked to the media, and the subsequent fallout combined with intelligence failures caused him to be removed from command in March 1968, succeeded by his deputy [[Creighton Abrams]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Sorley|first=Lewis|title=A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam|publisher=Harvest|year=1999|isbn=0-15-601309-6|pages=11–6}}</ref>
-[[File:Glassboro-meeting1967.jpg|thumb|Soviet Premier [[Alexei Kosygin]] with U.S. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] at the [[Glassboro Summit Conference]] where the two representatives discussed the possibilities of a peace settlement]]
-On 10 May 1968, [[Paris Peace Accords|peace talks]] began between the United States and North Vietnam in Paris. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson gave orders to halt the bombing of North Vietnam. At the same time, Hanoi realized it could not achieve a "total victory" and employed a strategy known as "talking while fighting, fighting while talking", in which military offensives would occur concurrently with negotiations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/north-vietnams-talk-fight-strategy-and-the-1968-peace-negotiations-the-united-states|title=North Vietnam's "Talk-Fight" Strategy and the 1968 Peace Negotiations with the United States|date=16 April 2012|work=Wilson Center|access-date=1 June 2018|language=en}}</ref>
-Johnson declined to run for re-election as his approval rating slumped from 48 to 36 percent.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|486}} His escalation of the war in Vietnam divided Americans into warring camps, cost 30,000 American lives by that point and was regarded to have destroyed his presidency.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|486}} Refusal to send more U.S. troops to Vietnam was also seen as Johnson's admission that the war was lost.<ref name="Command Magazine Issue 18, page 15">''Command Magazine'' Issue 18, p. 15.</ref> As Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara noted, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead."<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|367}}
-Vietnam was a major political issue during the [[1968 United States presidential election|United States presidential election in 1968]]. The election was won by Republican party candidate Richard Nixon who claimed to have a secret plan to end the war.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|515}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Johns|first=Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oc03Lcf13foC|title=Vietnam's Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8131-7369-6|pages=198|language=en}}</ref>
-==Vietnamization, 1969–1972==
-===Nuclear threats and diplomacy===
-U.S. president Richard Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969. His plan to build up the ARVN so that it could take over the defense of South Vietnam became known as "[[Vietnamization]]". As the PAVN/VC recovered from their 1968 losses and generally avoided contact, Creighton Abrams conducted operations aimed at disrupting logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|517}} On 27 October 1969, Nixon had ordered a squadron of 18 B-52s loaded with nuclear weapons [[Operation Giant Lance|to race to the border of Soviet airspace]] to convince the Soviet Union, in accord with the [[madman theory]], that he was capable of anything to end the Vietnam War.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sagan|first1=Scott Douglas|last2=Suri|first2=Jeremi|date=16 June 2003|title=The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling, and Safety in October 1969|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/43692|journal=International Security|language=en|volume=27|issue=4|pages=150–83|issn=1531-4804|doi=10.1162/016228803321951126|s2cid=57564244}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm|title=Nixon's Nuclear Ploy|last=Evans|first=Michael|website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu|access-date=8 February 2018}}</ref> Nixon had also sought [[détente]] with the Soviet Union and [[Sino-American relations#Rapprochement|rapprochement with China]], which decreased global tensions and led to nuclear arms reduction by both superpowers; however, the Soviets continued to supply the North Vietnamese with aid.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm|title=Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972|work=Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume I|publisher=U.S. Department of State|accessdate=4 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=25797906|title=Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and the American Accommodation with China: A Review Article |last=Van Ness|first=Peter|journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia|volume=8|issue=3|date=December 1986|pages=231–245 }}</ref>
-===Hanoi's war strategy===
-[[File:Vietnampropaganda.png|thumb|upright|Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to the side of the Republic of Vietnam]]
-In September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died at age seventy-nine.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Ho Chi Minh Dies of Heart Attack in Hanoi|date=4 September 1969|work=The Times|page=1}}</ref> The failure of Tet in sparking a popular uprising caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the [[Võ Nguyên Giáp|Giáp]]-[[Trường Chinh|Chinh]] "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the Lê Duẩn-[[Hoàng Văn Thái]] "Southern-First" faction.<ref name="Currey">{{Cite book|last=Currey|first=Cecil B.|title=Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jm-jh1_D0I4C&pg=PA272|isbn=978-1-57488-742-6}}</ref>{{rp|272–4}} An unconventional victory was sidelined in favor of a strategy built on conventional victory through conquest.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|196–205}} Large-scale offensives were rolled back in favour of [[Low intensity conflict|small-unit]] and [[Commando|sapper]] attacks as well as targeting the [[Hearts and Minds (Vietnam War)|pacification]] and Vietnamization strategy.<ref name=Currey/> In the two-year period following Tet, the PAVN had begun its transformation from a fine [[Light infantry|light-infantry]], limited mobility force into a [[Maneuver warfare|high-mobile]] and mechanised [[combined arms]] force.<ref name=Currey/>{{rp|189}}
-===U.S. domestic controversies===
-The anti-war movement was gaining strength in the United States. Nixon appealed to the "[[silent majority]]" of Americans who he said supported the war without showing it in public. But revelations of the 1968 [[My Lai Massacre]],<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|518–21}} in which a U.S. Army unit raped and killed civilians, and the 1969 "[[Green Beret Affair]]", where eight Special Forces soldiers, including the 5th Special Forces Group Commander, were arrested for the murder<ref>{{cite book|last=Stein|first=Jeff|title=A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War|url=https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei|url-access=registration|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0-312-07037-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei/page/60 60–2]}}</ref> of a suspected double agent,<ref>{{cite web|author=Bob Seals|url=http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|title=The "Green Beret Affair": A Brief Introduction|date=2007}}</ref> provoked national and international outrage.
-In 1971, the ''Pentagon Papers'' were leaked to ''The New York Times''. The top-secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, commissioned by the Department of Defense, detailed a long series of public deceptions on the part of the U.S. government. The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruled that its publication was legal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=[[USA.gov]] |date=February 1997 |title=The Pentagon Papers Case |journal=eJournal USA |volume=2 |issue=1 |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112095748/http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |archive-date=12 January 2008 |access-date=27 April 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
-===Collapsing U.S. morale===
-{{Further|G.I. movement}}
-Following the Tet Offensive and the decreasing support among the U.S. public for the war, U.S. forces began a period of morale collapse, disillusionment and disobedience.<ref name="Stewart">{{Cite book|last=Stewart|first=Richard|title=American Military History, Volume II, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2003|year=2005|publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]]|url=https://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm|isbn=978-0-16-072541-8}}</ref>{{rp|349–50}}<ref name="Daddis">{{Cite book|last=Daddis|first=Gregory A.|title=Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3QzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT172|isbn=978-0-19-069110-3}}</ref>{{rp|166–75}} At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels.<ref name="Heinl">{{Cite journal|last=Heinl, Jr.|first=Robert D.|date=7 June 1971|title=The Collapse of the Armed Forces|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf|journal=Armed Forces Journal}}</ref> Among the enlisted, only 2.5% chose infantry combat positions in 1969–1970.<ref name=Heinl/> [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps|ROTC]] enrollment decreased from 191,749 in 1966 to 72,459 by 1971,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sevy|first=Grace|title=The American Experience in Vietnam: A Reader|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZg3emyCL6EC&pg=PA172|isbn=978-0-8061-2390-5|page=172}}</ref> and reached an all-time low of 33,220 in 1974,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html|title=R.O.T.C. Booming as Memories of Vietnam Fade|author=Richard Halloran|access-date=14 June 2018}}</ref> depriving U.S. forces of much-needed military leadership.
-Open refusal to engage in patrols or carry out orders and disobedience began to emerge during this period, with one notable case of an entire company refusing orders to engage or carry out operations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html|title=General Won't Punish G.I.'s for Refusing Orders|publisher=Associated Press|access-date=13 June 2018}}</ref> Unit cohesion began to dissipate and focused on minimising contact with Viet Cong and PAVN.<ref name=Daddis/>{{rp|}} A practice known as "sand-bagging" started occurring, where units ordered to go on patrol would go into the country-side, find a site out of view from superiors and rest while radioing in false coordinates and unit reports.<ref name=Ward/>{{rp|407–11}} Drug usage increased rapidly among U.S. forces during this period, as 30% of U.S. troops regularly used marijuana,<ref name=Ward/>{{rp|407}} while a House subcommittee found 10–15% of U.S. troops in Vietnam regularly used high-grade heroin.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|526}}<ref name=Heinl/> From 1969 on, search-and-destroy operations became referred to as "search and evade" or "search and avoid" operations, falsifying battle reports while avoiding guerrilla fighters.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Robert|first=Graham|title=Vietnam: An Infantryman's View of Our Failure|url=https://web.viu.ca/davies/H323Vietnam/Vietnam.InfantryView.failure.pdf|journal=Military Affairs|volume=48|issue= 3 (Jul. 1984)|pages=133–9|doi=10.2307/1987487|jstor=1987487|year=1984}}</ref> A total of 900 fragging and suspected [[fragging]] incidents were investigated, most occurring between 1969 and 1971.<ref name=Ward/>{{rp|407}}<ref name="Stanton">{{Cite book|last=Stanton|first=Shelby L.|title=The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963–1973|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|year=2007|isbn=978-0-307-41734-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaIc8X-Lc48C}}</ref>{{rp|331}} In 1969, field-performance of the U.S. Forces was characterised by lowered morale, lack of motivation, and poor leadership.<ref name=Stanton/>{{rp|331}} The significant decline in U.S. morale was demonstrated by the [[Battle of FSB Mary Ann]] in March 1971, in which a sapper attack inflicted serious losses on the U.S. defenders.<ref name=Stanton/>{{rp|357}} William Westmoreland, no longer in command but tasked with investigation of the failure, cited a clear dereliction of duty, lax defensive postures and lack of officers in charge as its cause.<ref name=Stanton/>{{rp|357}}
-On the collapse of U.S. morale, historian Shelby Stanton wrote:
-{{quote|In the last years of the Army's retreat, its remaining forces were relegated to static security. The American Army's decline was readily apparent in this final stage. Racial incidents, drug abuse, combat disobedience, and crime reflected growing idleness, resentment, and frustration... the fatal handicaps of faulty campaign strategy, incomplete wartime preparation, and the tardy, superficial attempts at Vietnamization. An entire American army was sacrificed on the battlefield of Vietnam.<ref name=Stanton/>{{rp|366–8}}}}
-===ARVN taking the lead and U.S. ground-force withdrawal===
-[[File:ARVN and US Special Forces.jpg|thumb|ARVN and US Special Forces, September 1968]]
-Beginning in 1970, American troops were withdrawn from border areas where most of the fighting took place and instead redeployed along the coast and interior. US casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969 casualties after being relegated to less active combat.<ref name="upi1970">{{cite web|url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2/#title|title=Vietnamization: 1970 Year in Review|website=UPI.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831125343/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2|archive-date=31 August 2011}}</ref> While US forces were redeployed, the ARVN took over combat operations throughout the country, with casualties double US casualties in 1969, and more than triple US ones in 1970.<ref name="Wiest">{{Cite book|last=Wiest|first=Andrew|title=Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN|publisher=NYU Press|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3dez4JhXUQC&pg=PA124|isbn=978-0-8147-9451-7|pages=124–40}}</ref> In the post-Tet environment, membership in the [[South Vietnamese Regional Force]] and [[South Vietnamese Popular Force|Popular Force]] militias grew, and they were now more capable of providing village security, which the Americans had not accomplished under Westmoreland.<ref name=Wiest/>
-In 1970, Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing the number of Americans to 265,500.<ref name=upi1970/> By 1970, Viet Cong forces were no longer southern-majority, as nearly 70% of units were northerners.<ref>{{cite book|last=Porter|first=Gareth|title=Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism|year=1993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFEAZOoEBn0C|isbn=978-0-8014-2168-6|page=26}}</ref> Between 1969 and 1971 the Viet Cong and some PAVN units had reverted to [[small unit tactics]] typical of 1967 and prior instead of nationwide grand offensives.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|}} In 1971, Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers and U.S. troop count was further reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972. The United States also reduced support troops, and in March 1971 the [[5th Special Forces Group (United States)|5th Special Forces Group]], the first American unit deployed to South Vietnam, withdrew to [[Fort Bragg]], [[North Carolina]].<ref name="StantonVOB">{{cite book|last=Stanton|first=Shelby L.|title=Vietnam order of battle |publisher=Stackpole Books|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8117-0071-9}}</ref>{{rp|240}}{{refn|On 8 March 1965 the first American combat troops, the [[3rd Marine Division (United States)#Vietnam War|Third Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division]], began landing in Vietnam to protect the [[Da Nang Air Base]].{{sfn|Willbanks|2009|p=110}}<ref>{{cite web |year=2010 |url=http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |title=Facts about the Vietnam Veterans memorial collection |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |access-date=26 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528032742/http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |archive-date=2010-05-28}}</ref>|group="A"}}
-===Cambodia===
-{{Main|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|5=Cambodian Civil War}}
-[[File:Cambodian Civil War-era T-54 or Type 59.jpg|thumb|left|A memorial of a T-54/Type 59 tank in [[Siem Reap]], Cambodia, commemorating the overthrow of US/RVN-backed [[Lon Nol]] and the end of the civil war by the [[People's Army of Vietnam|PAVN]] and [[GRUNK]]]]
-Prince [[Norodom Sihanouk]] had proclaimed Cambodia neutral since 1955,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sihanouk |first=Prince Norodom |title=Cambodia Neutral: The Dictates of Necessity |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=1958 |pages=582–83}}</ref> but permitted the PAVN/Viet Cong to use the port of [[Sihanoukville Autonomous Port|Sihanoukville]] and the [[Sihanouk Trail]]. In March 1969 Nixon launched a massive secret bombing campaign, called [[Operation Menu]], against communist sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Only five high-ranking congressional officials were informed of Operation Menu.{{refn|group="A"|They were: Senators [[John C. Stennis]] (MS) and [[Richard B. Russell]] Jr. (GA) and Representatives [[Lucius Mendel Rivers]] (SC), [[Gerald R. Ford]] (MI) and [[Leslie C. Arends]] (IL). Arends and Ford were leaders of the Republican minority and the other three were Democrats on either the Armed Services or Appropriations committees.}}
-In March 1970, Prince [[Cambodian coup of 1970|Sihanouk was deposed]] by his pro-American prime minister [[Lon Nol]], who demanded that North Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia or face military action.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sutsakhan |first=S. |title=The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |url=https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |year=1987 |page=42 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060055/https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-12}}</ref>  Lon Nol began rounding up Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia into internment camps and massacring them, provoking harsh reactions from both the North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese government.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lipsman |first1=Samuel |last2=Doyle |first2=Edward |title=The Vietnam Experience Fighting for time |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-939526-07-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 145]}}</ref> North Vietnam invaded Cambodia at the request of the [[Khmer Rouge]] following negotiations with deputy leader [[Nuon Chea]]. In April–May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam by Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: "Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days."<ref>{{cite book|author=Susan E. Cook |year=2004 |title=Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda |series=Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series |url=https://gsp.yale.edu/genocide-cambodia-and-rwanda-0 |publisher=Yale University |page=54}}</ref> U.S. and ARVN forces launched the [[Cambodian Campaign]] to attack PAVN and Viet Cong bases. A counter-offensive later that year as part of [[Operation Chenla II]] by the PAVN would recapture most of the border areas and decimate most of Lon Nol's forces.
-[[File:Vietconginterrogation.jpg|thumb|upright|An alleged Viet Cong captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.]]
-The invasion of Cambodia sparked [[Protests against the Vietnam War|nationwide U.S. protests]] as Nixon had promised to deescalate the American involvement. [[Kent State shootings|Four students were killed by National Guardsmen]] in May 1970 during a protest at [[Kent State University]] in [[Ohio]], which provoked further public outrage in the United States. The reaction to the incident by the Nixon administration was seen as callous and indifferent, reinvigorating the declining anti-war movement.<ref name=Daddis/>{{rp|128–9}} The U.S. Air Force continued to heavily bomb Cambodia in support of the Cambodian government as part of [[Operation Freedom Deal]].
-===Laos===
-{{Main|3=Operation Commando Hunt|4=Laotian Civil War|6=Operation Lam Son 719}}
-[[File:Vientianne1973.jpg|thumb|left|[[Pathet Lao]] soldiers in [[Vientiane]], 1972]]
-Building up on the success of ARVN units in Cambodia, and further testing the Vietnamization program, the ARVN were tasked to launch [[Operation Lam Son 719]] in February 1971, the first major ground operation aimed directly at attacking the Ho Chi Minh trail by attacking the major crossroad of [[Tchepone]]. This offensive would also be the first time the PAVN would field-test its combined arms force.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|}} The first few days were considered a success but the momentum had slowed after fierce resistance. Thiệu had halted the general advance, leaving armoured divisions able to surround them.{{sfn|Willbanks|2014|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}} Thieu had ordered [[air assault]] troops to capture Tchepone and withdraw, despite facing four-times larger numbers. During the withdrawal the PAVN counterattack had forced a panicked rout. Half of the ARVN troops involved were either captured or killed, half of the ARVN/US support helicopters were downed by anti-aircraft fire and the operation was considered a fiasco, demonstrating operational deficiencies still present within the ARVN.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|644–5}} Nixon and Thieu had sought to use this event to show-case victory simply by capturing Tchepone, and it was spun off as an "operational success".{{sfn|Willbanks|2014|p={{page needed|date=August 2020}}}}<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|576–82}}
-===Easter Offensive and Paris Peace Accords, 1972===
-Vietnamization was again tested by the [[Easter Offensive]] of 1972, a massive conventional PAVN invasion of South Vietnam. The PAVN quickly overran the northern provinces and in coordination with other forces attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. U.S. troop withdrawals continued, but American airpower responded, beginning [[Operation Linebacker]], and the offensive was halted.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|606–37}}
-[[File:СВС у обломков сбитого Б-52 в окрестностях Ханоя 23.12.1972 (1).jpg|thumb|Russian advisers inspecting the debris of a B-52 downed in the vicinity of Hanoi]]
-The war was central to the [[1972 United States presidential election|1972 U.S. presidential election]] as Nixon's opponent, [[George McGovern]], campaigned on immediate withdrawal. Nixon's National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's [[Lê Đức Thọ]] and in October 1972 reached an agreement. President Thieu demanded changes to the peace accord upon its discovery, and when North Vietnam went public with the agreement's details, the Nixon administration claimed they were attempting to embarrass the president. The negotiations became deadlocked when Hanoi demanded new changes. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered [[Operation Linebacker II]], a massive bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong 18–29 December 1972.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|649–63}} Nixon pressured Thieu to accept the terms of the agreement or else face retaliatory military action from the U.S.<ref>{{cite book|last=Beschloss|first=Michael|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSxyDwAAQBAJ|title=Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times|page=579|isbn=978-0-307-40960-7|place=New York|publisher=Crown|year=2018}}</ref>
-On 15 January 1973, all U.S. combat activities were suspended. Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister [[Nguyễn Thị Bình]] and a reluctant President Thiệu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January 1973.<ref name=Ward/>{{rp|508–13}} This officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, created a ceasefire between North Vietnam/PRG and South Vietnam, guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam under the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for elections or a political settlement between the PRG and South Vietnam, allowed 200,000 communist troops to remain in the south, and agreed to a POW exchange. There was a sixty-day period for the total withdrawal of U.S. forces. "This article", noted Peter Church, "proved… to be the only one of the Paris Agreements which was fully carried out."<ref>{{cite book|last=Church|first=Peter|title=A Short History of South-East Asia|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2006|isbn=978-0-470-82181-7|pages=193–4}}</ref> All US forces personnel were completely withdrawn by March 1973.<ref name=Herring/>{{rp|260}}
-==U.S. exit and final campaigns, 1973–1975==
-[[File:Viet Cong soldier DD-ST-99-04298.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Viet Cong soldier stands beneath a Viet Cong flag carrying his AK-47 rifle. He was participating in the exchange of POWs by the [[International Commission of Control and Supervision]] in 1973]]
-In the lead-up to the ceasefire on 28 January, both sides attempted to maximize the land and population under their control in a campaign known as the [[War of the flags]]. Fighting continued after the ceasefire, this time without US participation, and continued throughout the year.<ref name=Ward/>{{rp|508–13}} North Vietnam was allowed to continue supplying troops in the South but only to the extent of replacing expended material. Later that year the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] was awarded to Kissinger and Thọ, but the North Vietnamese negotiator declined it saying that a true peace did not yet exist.
-On 15 March 1973, Nixon implied the US would intervene again militarily if the North launched a full offensive, and Secretary of Defense [[James R. Schlesinger|James Schlesinger]] re-affirmed this position during his June 1973 confirmation hearings. Public and congressional reaction to Nixon's statement was unfavorable, prompting the U.S. Senate to pass the [[Case–Church Amendment]] to prohibit any intervention.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|670–2}}
-[[File:Hanoi-taxi-march1973.jpg|thumb|American POWs recently released from North Vietnamese prison camps, 1973|alt=]]
-PAVN/VC leaders expected the ceasefire terms would favor their side, but Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Viet Cong. The PAVN/VC responded with a new strategy hammered out in a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of [[Trần Văn Trà]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|672–4}} With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–1976 dry season. Tra calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|672–4}} The PAVN/VC resumed offensive operations when the dry season began in 1973, and by January 1974 had recaptured territory it lost during the previous dry season.
-Within South Vietnam, the departure of the US military and the global recession that followed the [[1973 oil crisis]] hurt an economy that was partly dependent on U.S. financial support and troop presence. After two clashes that left 55 ARVN soldiers dead, President Thieu announced on 4 January 1974, that the war had restarted and that the Paris Peace Accords were no longer in effect. This was despite there being over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|683}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thieu-announces-war-has-resumed|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120114757/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thieu-announces-war-has-resumed|url-status=dead|title=This Day in History 1974: Thieu announces war has resumed|publisher=History.com|access-date=17 October 2009|archive-date=20 January 2013}}</ref>
-[[File:Vietcong people.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Civilians in a NVA/Viet Cong controlled zone. Civilians were required to show appropriate flags, during the [[War of the flags]]]]
-The success of the 1973–1974 dry season offensive inspired Trà to return to Hanoi in October 1974 and plead for a larger offensive the next dry season. This time, Trà could travel on a drivable highway with regular fueling stops, a vast change from the days when the Ho Chi Minh trail was a dangerous mountain trek.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|676}} Giáp, the North Vietnamese defence minister, was reluctant to approve of Trà's plan since a larger offensive might provoke U.S. reaction and interfere with the big push planned for 1976. Trà appealed over Giáp's head to first secretary Lê Duẩn, who approved of the operation. Trà's plan called for a limited offensive from Cambodia into [[Phước Long Province]]. The strike was designed to solve local logistical problems, gauge the reaction of South Vietnamese forces, and determine whether the U.S. would return.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|685–90}}
-[[File:Victory Central Highlands.jpg|thumb|upright|Memorial commemorating the 1974 Buon Me Thuot campaign, depicting a [[Degar|Montagnard]] of the [[Central Highlands, Vietnam|Central Highlands]], a NVA soldier and a [[T-54/T-55|T-54 tank]]]]
-At the start of 1975, the South Vietnamese had three times as much artillery and twice the number of tanks and armoured cars as the PAVN. They also had 1,400 aircraft and a two-to-one numerical superiority in combat troops over the PAVN/VC.<ref>[http://www.counterpunch.org/kolko04292005.html The End of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Ago] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012020407/http://counterpunch.org/kolko04292005.html|date=12 October 2007}} by [[Gabriel Kolko]], [[CounterPunch]] 30 April / 1 May 2005.</ref> However, the rising oil prices meant that much of this could not be used, and the rushed nature of Vietnamization, intended to cover the US retreat, saw a lack of spare parts, ground-crew and maintenance personnel, rendering most of the equipment given inoperable.<ref name=Stewart/>{{rp|362–6}} [[Gerald Ford]] took over as U.S. president on 9 August 1974 after President Nixon resigned due to the [[Watergate scandal]] and Congress cut financial aid to South Vietnam from $1&nbsp;billion a year to $700&nbsp;million. Congress also voted in further restrictions on funding to be phased in through 1975 and to culminate in a total cutoff in 1976.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|686}}
-On 13 December 1974, North Vietnamese forces [[Battle of Phuoc Long|attacked Phước Long]]. Phuoc Binh, the provincial capital, fell on 6 January 1975. Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun.<ref name="Ford asks for additional aid">{{cite news|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-asks-for-additional-aid|newspaper=history.com|title=Ford asks for additional aid|access-date=11 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811232207/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-asks-for-additional-aid|archive-date=11 August 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> Congress refused.<ref name="Ford asks for additional aid" /> The fall of Phuoc Binh and the lack of an American response left the South Vietnamese elite demoralized.
-The speed of this success led the Politburo to reassess its strategy. It was decided that operations in the Central Highlands would be turned over to General Văn Tiến Dũng and that [[Pleiku]] should be seized, if possible. Before he left for the South, Dũng was addressed by Lê Duẩn: "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage as great as we have now."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dougan|first1=Clark|last2=Fulgham|first2=David|title=The Vietnam Experience The Fall of the South|publisher=Boston Publishing Company|year=1985|isbn=978-0-939526-16-1|page=22}}</ref>
-===Campaign 275===
-{{See also|1975 Spring Offensive|Battle of Ban Me Thuot|Hue–Da Nang Campaign}}
-[[File:PAVN Captures Hue, Vietnam.jpg|thumb|left|The capture of Hue, March 1975]]
-On 10 March 1975, General Dung launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the Central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery. The target was [[Battle of Buon Me Thuot|Buôn Ma Thuột]], in [[Đắk Lắk Province]]. If the town could be taken, the provincial capital of Pleiku and the road to the coast would be exposed for a planned campaign in 1976. The ARVN proved incapable of resisting the onslaught, and its forces collapsed on 11 March. Once again, Hanoi was surprised by the speed of their success. Dung now urged the Politburo to allow him to seize Pleiku immediately and then turn his attention to [[Kon Tum]]. He argued that with two months of good weather remaining until the onset of the monsoon, it would be irresponsible to not take advantage of the situation.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}
-President Thiệu, a former general, was fearful that his forces would be cut off in the north by the attacking communists; Thieu ordered a retreat, which soon turned into a bloody rout. While the bulk of ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. ARVN general Phu abandoned Pleiku and Kon Tum and retreated toward the coast, in what became known as the "column of tears".<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|693–4}}
-On 20 March, Thieu reversed himself and ordered Huế, Vietnam's third-largest city, be held at all costs, and then changed his policy several times. As the PAVN launched their attack, panic set in, and ARVN resistance withered. On 22 March, the PAVN opened the siege of Huế. Civilians flooded the airport and the docks hoping for any mode of escape. As resistance in Huế collapsed, PAVN rockets rained down on Da Nang and its airport. By 28 March 35,000 PAVN troops were poised to attack the suburbs. By 30 March 100,000 leaderless ARVN troops surrendered as the PAVN marched victoriously through Da Nang. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces came to an end.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|699–700}}
-===Final North Vietnamese offensive===
-{{details|topic=the final North Vietnamese offensive|Ho Chi Minh Campaign}}
-[[File:Xuanloc 18th.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lê Minh Đảo]] and remnants of the [[18th Division (South Vietnam)|18th Division]] and surviving units made a last stand at the [[Battle of Xuân Lộc]].]]
-With the northern half of the country under their control, the Politburo ordered General Dung to launch the final offensive against Saigon. The operational plan for the [[Ho Chi Minh Campaign]] called for the capture of Saigon before 1 May. Hanoi wished to avoid the coming monsoon and prevent any redeployment of ARVN forces defending the capital. Northern forces, their morale boosted by their recent victories, rolled on, taking Nha Trang, Cam Ranh and Da Lat.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|702–4}}
-On 7 April, three PAVN divisions attacked [[Battle of Xuân Lộc|Xuân Lộc]], {{convert|40|mi}}  east of Saigon. For two bloody weeks, severe fighting raged as the ARVN defenders made a [[last stand]] to try to block the PAVN advance. On 21 April, however, the exhausted garrison was ordered to withdraw towards Saigon.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|704–7}} An embittered and tearful president Thieu resigned on the same day, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam. In a scathing attack, he suggested that Kissinger had tricked him into signing the Paris peace agreement two years earlier, promising military aid that failed to materialize. Having transferred power to [[Trần Văn Hương]] on 21 April, he left for [[Taiwan]] on 25 April.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|714}} After having appealed unsuccessfully to Congress for $722 million in emergency aid for South Vietnam, President Ford had given a televised speech on 23 April, declaring an end to the Vietnam War and all U.S. aid.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/12/archives/congress-resists-us-aid-in-evacuating-vietnamese-congress-resists.html|title=Congress Resists U.S. Aid In Evacuating Vietnamese|last=Finney|first=John W.|work=The New York Times|date= 12 April 1975|accessdate= 4 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A75293|title=Transcript of speech by President Gerald R. Ford - April 23, 1975|publisher=Tulane University|accessdate=4 July 2021}}</ref>
-By the end of April, the ARVN had collapsed on all fronts except in the [[Mekong Delta]]. Thousands of refugees streamed southward, ahead of the main communist onslaught. On 27 April 100,000 PAVN troops encircled Saigon. The city was defended by about 30,000 ARVN troops. To hasten a collapse and foment panic, the PAVN shelled [[Tan Son Nhut Airport]] and forced its closure. With the air exit closed, large numbers of civilians found that they had no way out.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|716}}
-===Fall of Saigon===
-{{Main|Fall of Saigon|Operation Frequent Wind}}
-[[File:NVA pose for picture in Presidential Palace at end of Vietnam war.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Victorious PAVN troops at the Presidential Palace, Saigon]]
-Chaos, unrest, and panic broke out as hysterical South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave Saigon. [[Martial law]] was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, U.S. and foreign nationals from various parts of the city and from the U.S. embassy compound. [[Operation Frequent Wind]] had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. Ambassador [[Graham Martin]]'s belief that Saigon could be held and that a political settlement could be reached. Frequent Wind was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. Frequent Wind continued around the clock, as PAVN tanks breached defenses near Saigon. In the early morning hours of 30 April, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|718–20}}
-On 30 April 1975, PAVN troops entered the city of Saigon and quickly overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations. A tank from the [[304th Division (Vietnam)|304th Division]] crashed through the gates of the [[Independence Palace]] at 11:30&nbsp;am local time and the Viet Cong flag was raised above it. President [[Dương Văn Minh]], who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, surrendered to Colonel [[Bùi Tín]].<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|720–1}}
-==Opposition to U.S. involvement, 1964–1973==
-{{Main|Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|Protests of 1968}}
-{{See also|Russell Tribunal|Fulbright Hearings}}
-[[File:vietnamdem.jpg|thumb|left|Anti-war demonstration in the US, 1967]]
-During the course of the Vietnam War a large segment of the American population came to be opposed to U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Public opinion steadily turned against the war following 1967 and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam.<ref>Lunch, W. & Sperlich, P. (1979). The Western Political Quarterly. 32(1). pp. 21–44</ref><ref name="Hagopian">{{cite book|last=Hagopain|first=Patrick|title=The Vietnam War in American Memory|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|year=2009|isbn=978-1-55849-693-4|pages=13–4}}</ref>
-Early opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam drew its inspiration from the Geneva Conference of 1954. American support of Diệm in refusing elections was seen as thwarting the democracy America claimed to support. John F. Kennedy, while senator, opposed involvement in Vietnam.<ref name=Kahin/> Nonetheless, it is possible to specify certain groups who led the anti-war movement at its peak in the late 1960s and the reasons why. Many young people protested because they were the ones being [[Conscription in the United States|drafted]], while others were against the war because the anti-war movement grew increasingly popular among the [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]]. Some advocates within the peace movement advocated a [[unilateral]] withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Opposition to the Vietnam War tended to unite groups opposed to U.S. anti-communism and [[American imperialism|imperialism]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Zimmer|first=Louis B.|title=The Vietnam War Debate|publisher=Lexington Books|year=2011|isbn=978-0-7391-3769-7|pages=54–5}}</ref> and for those involved with the [[New Left]], such as the [[Catholic Worker Movement]]. Others, such as [[Stephen Spiro]], opposed the war based on the theory of [[Just War]]. Some wanted to show solidarity with the people of Vietnam, such as [[Norman Morrison]] emulating the [[self-immolation]] of [[Thích Quảng Đức]].
-[[File:Vietnam War protests in Vienna, Austria (Greyscale).jpg|thumb|Vietnam War protesters in [[Vienna]] in 1968]]
-High-profile opposition to the Vietnam War increasingly turned to mass protests in an effort to shift U.S. public opinion. Riots broke out at the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] during protests against the war.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|514}} After news reports of American military abuses, such as the 1968 My Lai Massacre, brought new attention and support to the anti-war movement, some veterans joined [[Vietnam Veterans Against the War]]. On 15 October 1969, the [[Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam|Vietnam Moratorium]] attracted millions of Americans.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/15/newsid_2533000/2533131.stm 1969: Millions march in US Vietnam Moratorium]. BBC On This Day.</ref> The [[Kent State shootings|fatal shooting of four students at Kent State University]] in 1970 led to nationwide university protests.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Bob Fink |title=Vietnam – A View from the Walls: a History of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement |url=http://www.greenwych.ca/vietnam.htm |publisher=Greenwich Publishing |access-date=18 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130111005135/http://www.greenwych.ca/vietnam.htm |archive-date=11 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Anti-war protests declined after the signing of the [[Paris Peace Accords]] and the [[Conscription in the United States#End of conscription|end of the draft]] in January 1973, and the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam in the months following.
-==Involvement of other countries==
-===Pro-Hanoi===
-{{quote|2,000 years of [[China–Vietnam relations|Chinese-Vietnamese enmity]] and hundreds of years of [[History of Sino-Russian relations|Chinese and Russian mutual suspicions]] were suspended when they united against us in Vietnam.|[[Richard Holbrooke]], 1985<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/18/world/u-s-power-in-asia-has-grown-since-vietnam.html?pagewanted=all |title=U.S. Power in Asia has Grown Since Vietnam|author=Leslie H. Gelb|work=The New York Times|date=18 April 1985|url-access=subscription}}</ref>}}
-====China====
-{{See also|China in the Vietnam War}}
-[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-48579-0009, Stralsund, Ho Chi Minh mit Matrosen der NVA.jpg|thumb|Ho Chi Minh from the [[Viet Minh|Việt Minh]] [[independence movement]] and [[Viet Cong|Việt Cộng]] with [[East Germany|East German]] sailors in [[Stralsund]] harbour, 1957]]
-In 1950, China extended [[diplomatic recognition]] to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and sent heavy weapons, as well as military advisers led by [[Politics of Shanxi#List of Governors of Shanxi|Luo Guibo]] to assist the Viet Minh in its war with the French. The first draft of the 1954 Geneva Accords was negotiated by French prime minister [[Pierre Mendès France]] and Chinese Premier [[Zhou Enlai]] who, seeing U.S. intervention coming, urged the Viet Minh to accept a partition at the 17th parallel.<ref name="Qiang">{{cite book|last=Qiang|first=Zhai|title=China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-8078-4842-5}}</ref>{{rp|54–5}}
-China's support for North Vietnam when the U.S. started to intervene included both financial aid and the deployment of hundreds of thousands of military personnel in support roles. In the summer of 1962, [[Mao Zedong]] agreed to supply Hanoi with 90,000 rifles and guns free of charge. Starting in 1965, China sent [[Anti-aircraft warfare|anti-aircraft]] units and engineering battalions to North Vietnam to repair the damage caused by American bombing, man anti-aircraft batteries, rebuild roads and railroads, transport supplies, and perform other engineering works. This freed North Vietnamese army units for combat in the South. China sent 320,000 troops and annual arms shipments worth $180&nbsp;million.<ref name=Qiang/>{{rp|135}} The Chinese military claims to have caused 38% of American air losses in the war.<ref name=Womack/>{{rp|}} China claimed that its military and economic aid to North Vietnam and the Viet Cong totaled $20&nbsp;billion (approx. $143&nbsp;billion adjusted for inflation in 2015) during the Vietnam War.<ref name=Womack/>{{rp|}} Included in that aid were donations of 5&nbsp;million tons of food to North Vietnam (equivalent to North Vietnamese food production in a single year), accounting for 10–15% of the North Vietnamese food supply by the 1970s.<ref name=Womack/>{{rp|}}
-[[Sino-Soviet relations]] soured after the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia]] in August 1968. In October, the Chinese demanded North Vietnam cut relations with Moscow, but Hanoi refused.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ang|first=Cheng Guan|title=Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective|publisher=Routledge Curzon|year=2005|isbn=978-0-415-40619-2|page=27}}</ref> The Chinese began to withdraw in November 1968 in preparation for a clash with the Soviets, [[Sino-Soviet border conflict#Battle of Zhenbao Island|which occurred at Zhenbao Island]] in March 1969.
-In 1967, the Chinese government launched a secret military program named "[[Project 523]]". which intended to find a treatment for [[malaria]] to provide the assistance to the PAVN who suffered malaria. As a result, Chinese scientist [[Youyou Tu]] and her collaborators discovered [[artemisinin]]. Tu was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2015 for her contribution on the anti-malaria treatment.
-The Chinese also began financing the Khmer Rouge as a counterweight to North Vietnam at this time. China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge during the civil war and continued to aid them for years afterward.<ref>{{cite news|author=Bezlova, Antoaneta|title=China haunted by Khmer Rouge links|publisher=Asia Times|url= http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090223174332/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html|url-status= unfit|archive-date= 23 February 2009|date=21 February 2009}}</ref> The Khmer Rouge launched ferocious raids into Vietnam in 1975–1978. When Vietnam responded with an [[Cambodian–Vietnamese War|invasion that toppled the Khmer Rouge]], China launched a brief, punitive [[Sino-Vietnamese War|invasion of Vietnam in 1979]].
-====Soviet Union====
-{{Hatnote|For further reading, see [[Bibliography of the Post Stalinist Soviet Union]]}}
-[[File:Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon talks in 1973.png|thumb|upright=1.05|[[Leonid Brezhnev]] (left) was the Soviet Union's [[Leaders of the Soviet Union|leader]] during the Vietnam War.]]
-Soviet ships in the South China Sea gave vital early warnings to PAVN/VC forces in South Vietnam. The Soviet intelligence ships would pick up American B-52 bombers flying from [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]] and Guam. Their airspeed and direction would be noted and then relayed to COSVN, North Vietnam's southern headquarters. Using airspeed and direction, COSVN analysts would calculate the bombing target and tell any assets to move "perpendicularly to the attack trajectory." These advance warnings gave them time to move out of the way of the bombers, and, while the bombing runs caused extensive damage, because of the early warnings from 1968 to 1970 they did not kill a single military or civilian leader in the headquarters complexes.<ref name="Truong p. 168">{{harvnb|Truong|1985|p=168}}</ref>
-The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made [[surface-to-air missile]]s at U.S. [[F-4 Phantom II|F-4 Phantoms]], which were shot down over [[Thanh Hóa]] in 1965. Over a dozen Soviet soldiers lost their lives in this conflict. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian officials acknowledged that the Soviet Union had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam during the war.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Soviet Involvement in the Vietnam War|agency=Associated Press|publisher=historicaltextarchive.com|url=http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180}}</ref>
-[[File:Учителя и ученики. Фото, сделанное весной 1965 г. в зенитно-ракетном учебном центре во Вьетнаме.jpg|thumb|left|Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam]]
-Some Russian sources give more specific numbers: Between 1953 and 1991, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included 2,000 tanks, 1,700 [[Armoured personnel carrier|APCs]], 7,000 artillery guns, over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns, 158 surface-to-air missile launchers, and 120 helicopters. During the war, the Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $450&nbsp;million.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|364–71}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sarin|first1=Oleg|last2=Dvoretsky|first2=Lev|title=Alien Wars: The Soviet Union's Aggressions Against the World, 1919 to 1989|url=https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari|url-access=registration|publisher=Presidio Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-89141-421-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari/page/93 93–4]}}</ref> From July 1965 to the end of 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by some 6,500 officers and generals, as well as more than 4,500 soldiers and sergeants of the Soviet Armed Forces. In addition, Soviet military schools and academies began training Vietnamese soldiers—in all more than 10,000 military personnel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |title=Soviet rocketeer: After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly |publisher=rus.ruvr|language=ru|access-date=26 May 2010}}</ref>
-The [[KGB]] had also helped develop the [[signals intelligence]] (SIGINT) capabilities of the North Vietnamese, through an operation known as Vostok (also known as Phương Đông, meaning "Orient" and named after the [[Vostok 1]]).<ref name="MP">{{cite web|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf|title=The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship during the Vietnam War: Cooperation and Conflict|last=Pribbenow|first=Merle|date=December 2014}}</ref> The Vostok program was a [[counterintelligence]] and [[espionage]] program. These programs were pivotal in detecting and defeating CIA and South Vietnamese commando teams sent into North Vietnam, as they were detected and captured.<ref name=MP/> The Soviets helped the [[Ministry of Public Security (Vietnam)|Ministry of Public Security]] recruit foreigners within high-level diplomatic circles among the Western-allies of the US, under a clandestine program known as "B12,MM" which produced thousands of high-level documents for nearly a decade, including targets of B-52 strikes.<ref name=MP/> In 1975, the SIGINT services had broken information from Western US-allies in Saigon, determining that the US would not intervene to save South Vietnam from collapse.<ref name=MP/>
-[[File:VPAF pilots with MiG-17s.jpg|left|thumb|[[Vietnam People's Air Force]] pilots walk by their aircraft, the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17|MiG-17]]. The development of the North Vietnamese [[Vietnam People's Air Force]] (VPAF) during the war was assisted by [[Warsaw Pact]] nations throughout the war. Between 1966 and 1972 a total of 17 [[List of Vietnam War flying aces|flying aces]] was credited by the VPAF against US fighters.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O88vDgAAQBAJ|title=MiG-21 Aces of the Vietnam War|last=Toperczer|first=István|year=2017|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-1-4728-2357-1}}</ref>]]
-====Czechoslovakia====
-The [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]] was a member of the Warsaw Pact and sent significant aid to North Vietnam, both prior to and after the [[Prague Spring]].<ref name="Bischof">{{Cite book|last1=Bischof|first1=Günter|last2=Karner|first2=Stefan|last3=Ruggenthaler|first3=Peter|title=The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968|year=2010|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZzEYyB8X8YC&pg=PA293|isbn=978-0-7391-4304-9}}</ref>{{rp|293}} The Czechoslovakian government created committees which sought to not only promote and establish peace, but also to promote victory for Viet Cong and PAVN forces.<ref name=Bischof/>{{rp|}} Czech-made equipment and military aid would increase significantly following the Prague Spring.<ref name="Francev">{{Cite book|last=Francev|first=Vladimir|title=Československé zbraně ve světě: V míru i za války|publisher=Grada Publishing|year=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWQACgAAQBAJ&pg=PA166|isbn=978-80-247-5314-0|page=166|language=cs}}</ref> Czechoslovakia continued to send tens of thousands of Czech-made rifles as well as mortar and artillery throughout the war.<ref name=Francev/> In general, Czechoslovakia was aligned with European leftist movements,<ref name=Bischof/>{{rp|}} and there were simultaneous protests demonstrating against the Soviet intervention in Prague and the US intervention in Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kavan|first=Jan|date=July 2008|title=Czechoslovakia 1968: Revolt or Reform? 1968 – A Year of Hope and Non-Understanding|journal=Journal of Socialist Theory|volume=36|issue=2|page=289|doi=10.1080/03017600802185415|s2cid=143974538}}</ref>
-Cooperation with Czechoslovakia on the development of North Vietnamese air capabilities began as early as 1956.<ref name="Toperczer">{{Cite book|last=Toperczer|first=István|title=MiG-17 and MiG-19 Units of the Vietnam War|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|year=2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWnCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA10|isbn=978-1-78200-748-7|pages=10–18}}</ref> Czechoslovak instructors and trainers instructed the Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) in China and helped them develop a modernised air force, with the Czech-built [[Aero Ae-45]] and [[Aero L-29 Delfín]] alongside [[Zlín Z 26]] aircraft utilised significantly for training, and regarded as preferential to Soviet-built [[Yakovlev Yak-3]] as training aircraft.<ref name=Toperczer/>
-==== North Korea ====
-As a result of a decision of the [[Workers' Party of Korea|Korean Workers' Party]] in October 1966, in early 1967, [[North Korea]] (officially known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea) sent a fighter squadron to North Vietnam to back up the North Vietnamese 921st and 923rd Fighter Squadrons defending Hanoi. The North Koreans stayed through 1968, and 200 pilots were reported to have served. In addition, at least two anti-aircraft artillery regiments were sent as well.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Pribbenow|first=Merle|year=2003 |title=The 'Ology War: technology and ideology in the defense of Hanoi, 1967|journal=Journal of Military History |volume=67|issue=1|page=183 |doi=10.1353/jmh.2003.0066 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
-====Cuba====
-[[File:Vietnam Military History Museum (12035733963).jpg|thumb|[[Fidel Castro]] meeting with [[Võ Nguyên Giáp]] at the [[Vietnam Military History Museum]]]]
-The contributions to North Vietnam by the [[Cuba|Republic of Cuba]] under [[Fidel Castro]] have been recognized several times by representatives of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vietnam agradece apoyo cubano durante guerra (Vietnam says thanks for Cuban support during the war, in Spanish) |url=http://vietnam.vnanet.vn/spanish/vietnam-agradece-apoyo-cubano-durante-guerra/41615.html|publisher=Revista Vietnam |access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref> Castro mentioned in his discourses the Batallón Girón (Giron Battalion) as comprising the Cuban contingent that served as [[military advisor]]s during the war.<ref>{{cite web|last=Castro|first=Fidel|title=Cuba y Vietnam: discurso de Fidel Castro en apoyo del F.N.L. (Cuba and Vietnam, speech of Fidel Castro in support of Viet Cong, in Spanish) |url=http://www.ruinasdigitales.com/cristianismoyrevolucion/cyrcubayvietnamdiscursodefidelcastroenap18/ |publisher=Ruinas Digitales |access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://en.nhandan.org.vn/politics/external-relations/item/8285402-vietnam-cuba-60-years-of-historic-friendship.html|title=Vietnam - Cuba: 60 years of historic friendship|website=En.nhandan.org.vn|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref> In this battalion, the Cubans were aided by [[Nguyễn Thị Định]], founding member of the Viet Cong, who later became the first female major general in the PAVN.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cubanos y vietnamitas conmemoran aniversarios de victorias|url=http://anterior.cubaminrex.cu/AnivRev/52AnivRev/Exterior/cubanos1.html|website=Cuba Diplomática (Diplomatic Cuba)|publisher=Embajada de Cuba en Vietnam (Cuban Embassy in Vietnam)|access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref>
-There are numerous allegations by former U.S. [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] that Cuban military personnel were present at North Vietnamese prison facilities during the war and that they participated in torture activities. Witnesses to this include [[John McCain|Senator John McCain]], the 2008 [[United States presidential election|U.S. presidential candidate]] and a former Vietnam prisoner of war, according to his 1999 book ''[[Faith of My Fathers]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/23114586/ns/world_news-americas/t/castro-denies-mccains-claim-torture/#.Xb19opIzbBU|title=Castro denies McCain's torture claim|publisher=MSNBC|date=2 November 2008|access-date=2 November 2019}}</ref>
-====Other Eastern Bloc countries====
-[[File:Stamps of Germany (DDR) 1968, MiNr 1371.jpg|left|upright|thumb|[[East Germany|East German]] solidarity stamp depicting a Vietnamese mother and child with the text "''Invincible Vietnam''"]]
-The Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam (''Bộ Công An'') states that there was special interest towards the [[Stasi]] of [[East Germany]] in establishing an intelligence and security apparatus, particularly since the Stasi was well-regarded and considered as "industrial, modern, and (with a) scientific working-style".<ref name="Grossheim">{{Cite journal|last=Grossheim|first=Martin|date=September 2014|title=The East German 'Stasi' and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/ACFB26.pdf|journal=Wilson Center}}</ref> In official Vietnamese language histories on the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, the assistance provided by the Soviet and East German intelligence services to Vietnam is usually rated as the most important within the socialist bloc.<ref name=Grossheim/> East Germany had also provided a substantial amount of aid to help North Vietnam duplicate "Green Dragon" identity cards, which were created by Saigon in order to identify North Vietnamese combatants and were difficult to duplicate.<ref name=Grossheim/>
-East German authorities had also begun providing material and technical aid to help develop and modernise the North Vietnamese economy and military.<ref name=Grossheim/> In addition, East Germany had also vigorously denounced the US war effort, and had reaped significant international and diplomatic standing as a result of its anti-war campaigns.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Horten|first=Gerd|date=15 November 2013 |title=Sailing in the Shadow of the Vietnam War: The GDR Government and the "Vietnam Bonus" of the Early 1970s |journal=German Studies Review|language=en|volume=36|issue=3|pages=557–78|doi=10.1353/gsr.2013.0114 |s2cid=159909822|issn=2164-8646|url=https://commons.cu-portland.edu/humfacultyresearch/3}}</ref>
-[[People's Republic of Romania|Romania]] was also among primary supporters of North Vietnam during the war in political, economic and military terms. Contemporarily, the Eastern Bloc country was also known for its role in the mediation activities in the mid-1960s, resulting in what became known as the "Trinh Signal" in January 1967, in which Hanoi accepted the possibility of negotiation with Washington.<ref>{{cite book|last=Deletant|first=Dennis |title=Romania under Communism: Paradox and Degeneration|publisher=Routeledge|year=2018|isbn=978-1-138-70742-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=es5wDwAAQBAJ&q=romania+support+north+vietnam&pg=PT216 }}</ref>
-[[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]] committed their charge-free military and economic supplies to North Vietnam in a bilateral agreement signed in 1972. Bulgarian military aid had already been provided to the latter since 1967. Similar conducts was undertaken by Hungary, which was reaffirmed in mutual visits of Hungary and North Vietnam in 1972 and 1973. Hungary also expressed their support through their representatives at the [[International Commission of Control and Supervision]], a body established to supervise the implementation of the Paris Peace Accords.{{sfn|Cooper|2019}}
-===Pro-Saigon===
-{{See also|Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|Many Flags}}
-As South Vietnam was formally part of a military alliance with the US, Australia, New Zealand, France, the [[United Kingdom|UK]], [[Pakistan]], [[Thailand]] and the [[Philippines]], the alliance was invoked during the war. The UK, France and Pakistan declined to participate, and South Korea and Taiwan were non-treaty participants.
-====South Korea====
-{{Main|South Korea in the Vietnam War}}
-[[File:Photo taken by Phillip Kemp from cockpit after sling-loading water drums to outpost..jpg|thumb|Soldiers of the South Korean [[9th Infantry Division (South Korea)|White Horse Division]] in Vietnam]]
-On the anti-communist side, [[South Korea]] (a.k.a. the Republic of Korea, ROK) had the second-largest contingent of foreign troops in South Vietnam after the United States. In November 1961, President [[Park Chung-hee]] proposed South Korean participation in the war to John F. Kennedy, but Kennedy disagreed as they were not SEATO treaty members.<ref name="Chang">{{cite book|last=Chang|first=Jae Baik |title=The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-674-05820-0|page=409}}</ref> On 1 May 1964, Lyndon Johnson agreed to permit South Korean participation under the Many Flags Program in return for monetary compensation.<ref name=Chang/> The first South Korean troops began arriving in 1964 and large combat formations began arriving a year later. The [[Republic of Korea Marine Corps|ROK Marine Corps]] dispatched their [[2nd Marine Brigade (Republic of Korea)|2nd Marine Brigade]], while the ROK Army sent the [[Capital Division]] and later the [[9th Infantry Division (Republic of Korea)|9th Infantry Division]]. In August 1966, after the arrival of the 9th Division, the Koreans established a corps command, the Republic of Korea Forces Vietnam Field Command, near [[I Field Force, Vietnam|I Field Force]] at [[Nha Trang]].<ref name=StantonVOB/>{{rp|}}
-State Department reports publicly questioned the usefulness of ROK forces in the conflict, as they have "appeared to have been reluctant to undertake offensive operations, and are only useful in guarding a small sector of the populated area".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XIX, Pt. 1, Korea, 1969–1972|publisher=Government Printing Office|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WkKLfh9Kx7gC&pg=PA242|isbn=978-0-16-087642-4|page=242}}</ref> State department reports furthermore state that ROK forces engaged in systemic, well-organised corruption in diverting US-equipment, and that actual security was often provided by South Vietnamese Regional Forces, which lacked organic firepower and heavy artillery but served as a buffer between Korean units and the PAVN/VC.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hunt|first=Richard A.|title=Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969–1973|publisher=Government Printing Office|year=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJm39QTdRtgC&pg=PA354|isbn=978-0-16-092757-7|pages=352–5}}</ref> In addition, a RAND author conducting studies in South Vietnam in 1970 alleged that ROK forces had a "deliberate, systematic policy of committing atrocities", prompting civilians to leave ROK-controlled sectors.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Robert M.|title=Vietnam Killings Laid to Koreans|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/01/10/archives/vietnam-killings-laid-to-koreans-researcher-says-he-found-evidence.html|date=1970|work=The New York Times|access-date=31 May 2018|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The conduct of ROK forces often emboldened and strengthened the Viet Cong, adding ranks from an otherwise neutral population and undermining efforts to defeat the insurgency overall.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Elliott|first=Mai|title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era|publisher=Rand Corporation|year=2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ctb6aN2_y2oC&q=korea|isbn=978-0-8330-4915-5|pages=187–93}}</ref>
-Approximately 320,000 South Korean soldiers were sent to Vietnam,<ref name="Donga">{{cite web|url=http://www.donga.com/fbin/output?n=200807020125 |title=1965년 전투병 베트남 파병 의결 |publisher=[[Donga Ilbo]]|access-date=17 July 2011 |date=2 July 2008}}</ref> each serving a one-year tour of duty. Maximum troop levels peaked at 50,000 in 1968, however all were withdrawn by 1973.{{sfn|Leepson|1999|p=209}} About 5,099 South Koreans were killed and 10,962 wounded during the war. South Korea claimed to have killed 41,000 Viet Cong.<ref name=Donga/><ref>{{Cite report|title=Eighth US Army Chronology 1972|pages=22–24|url=http://nautilus.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/army_chro_1972.pdf |via=Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability}}</ref> The United States paid South Korean soldiers 236&nbsp;million dollars for their efforts in Vietnam,<ref name=Donga/> and South Korean [[GNP]] increased five-fold during the war.<ref name=Donga/>
-====Thailand====
-{{Main|Thailand in the Vietnam War}}
-[[File:Queen's Cobras Conduct a Search and Sweep Mission in Phuoc Tho, 11-67 2.jpg|thumb|The Thai Queen's Cobra battalion in Phuoc Tho]]
-Thai Army formations, including the [[Royal Thai Volunteer Regiment]] (Queen's Cobras) and later the [[Royal Thai Army Expeditionary Division]] (Black Panthers), saw action in South Vietnam between 1965 and 1971. Thai forces saw much more action in the covert war in Laos between 1964 and 1972, though Thai regular formations there were heavily outnumbered by the irregular "volunteers" of the CIA-sponsored Police Aerial Reconnaissance Units or PARU, who carried out reconnaissance activities on the western side of the Ho Chi Minh trail.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}
-====Australia and New Zealand====
-{{Main|Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War|New Zealand in the Vietnam War}}
-[[File:RAR Vietnam.jpg|thumb|upright|An Australian soldier in Vietnam]]
-Australia and New Zealand, close allies of the United States and members of the SEATO and the [[ANZUS]] military cooperation treaty, sent ground troops to Vietnam. Both nations had gained experience in counterinsurgency and jungle warfare during the [[Malayan Emergency]] and World War II, and their governments subscribed to the domino theory. New Zealand was, however, a reluctant participant. Officials expected a foreign intervention to fail, were concerned that they would be supporting a corrupt regime, and did not want to further stretch their country's small military (which was already deployed to Malaysia).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Independence and Foreign Policy: New Zealand in the World Since 1935|last=McKinnon|first=Malcolm|publisher=Auckland University Press|year=1993|location=Auckland, NZ|pages=152–77}}</ref> In the end, though, a desire to prove their commitment to the ANZUS alliance and discourage an American withdrawal from Southeast Asia necessitated a military commitment. Australia began by sending advisors to Vietnam in 1962, and combat troops were committed in 1965.<ref name="Dennis">{{cite book|last=Dennis|first=Peter|title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History (Second ed.)|publisher=Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand|year=2008|isbn=978-0-19-551784-2}}</ref>{{rp|555–8}} New Zealand began by sending a detachment of engineers and an artillery battery, later sending special forces and regular infantry, which were attached to Australian formations.<ref name="McGibbon">{{cite book|last=McGibbon|first=Ian|title=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-19-558376-2}}</ref>{{rp|561–6}} Australia's peak commitment was 7,672 combat troops and New Zealand's 552. Around 50,190 Australian personnel were involved during the war, of which 521 were killed and more than 3,000 wounded.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/vietnam.htm |title=Vietnam War 1962–1972|publisher=[[Australian War Memorial]]|access-date=1 July 2006}}</ref> Approximately 3,500 New Zealanders served in Vietnam, with 37 killed and 187 wounded.<ref name=McGibbon/>{{rp|539}} Most Australians and New Zealanders served in the [[1st Australian Task Force]] in [[Phước Tuy Province]].<ref name=Dennis/>
-Australia, with decades of experience from both the Malayan Emergency and its [[Australian Army Training Team Vietnam|AATTV]] role in 1962, recognised the necessity of a true counter-insurgency, which relied on providing village-level security, establishing civilian trust and economic incentives and improving ARVN capabilities.<ref name="Ross">{{cite web|url=http://www.vvaa.org.au/bross-1.pdf|title=Australia's Military Involvement in the Vietnam War|last=Ross|first=Brian|date=1995|website=Vietnam Veterans of Australia Association}}</ref> This brought Australian commanders into conflict with Westmoreland's conventional attrition warfare approach, since Australian ground forces were required to follow US doctrine.<ref name=Ross/> Nevertheless, Australian forces were generally the most capable at counter-insurgency, and they helped to train Regional Forces despite being under significant doctrinal constraints.<ref name=Ross/>
-====Philippines====
-Some 10,450 Filipino troops were dispatched to South Vietnam and primarily supported medical and other civilian pacification projects. These forces operated under the designation A or Philippine Civic Action Group-Vietnam. The naval base at [[U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay|Subic Bay]] was used for the [[U.S. Seventh Fleet]] from 1964 until the end of the war in 1975.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Gerald |title=Subic bay: from Magellan to Pinatubo|year=2009|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform|isbn=978-1-4414-4452-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Karnow|first=Stanley|title=In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines|publisher=Ballantine books|year=1990|isbn=978-0-345-32816-8|url=https://archive.org/details/inourimageameric00karn}}</ref> Subic Bay and [[Clark Air Base]] achieved maximum functionality during the war, as well as supporting an estimated 80,000 locals in allied tertiary businesses that ranged from shoe making to prostitution.<ref>{{cite book|last=Utts|first=Thomas|title=GI Joe Doesn't Live Here Anymore: A History of Clark Air Base, America's Mighty Air Force Bastion in the Philippines|publisher=University of Michigan|year=2006|isbn=978-1-4137-7835-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/gijoedoesntliveh0000utts}}</ref>
-====Taiwan====
-{{Main|Republic of China in the Vietnam War}}
-Beginning in November 1967, Taiwan secretly operated a cargo transport detachment to assist the United States and South Vietnam. Taiwan also provided military training units for the South Vietnamese diving units, later known as the Lien Doi Nguoi Nhai (LDMN) or "Frogman unit" in English.<ref name=Moïse/>{{rp|3–4}} Military commandos from Taiwan were captured by North Vietnamese forces three times trying to infiltrate North Vietnam.<ref name=Moïse/>{{rp|3–4}}
-===Neutral and non-belligerent nations===
-====Canada====
-{{Main|Canada and the Vietnam War}}
-Contributor to the three-nation monitoring-force, the [[International Control Commission]] (ICC/ICSC) [1954–1973] and, briefly, its successor: the [[International Commission for Control and Supervision]] (ICCS) [1973-1973].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Edelgard|first1=Elsbeth|last2=Mount|first2=Graeme S.|title=Invisible and inaudible in Washington: American policies toward Canada|publisher=UBC Press|year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RNdDi0cvn3YC&pg=PA50 |isbn=978-0-7748-0703-6|page=50}}</ref> Officially, Canada did not have state-sanctioned combat involvement in the Vietnam War, and diplomatically, it was "[[non-belligerent]]", though the sympathies of the state and many of its citizens were well-understood by both sides.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/16/canadainvietnamwar.shtml |title=Quiet Complicity: Canadian Involvement in the Vietnam War |publisher=Review by The Manitoba Historical Society |access-date=15 July 2010}}</ref> The ''Vietnam War'' entry in ''[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]'' asserts that Canada's record on the truce commissions was a pro-Saigon partisan one.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/vietnam-war |title=Vietnam War |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426174749/https://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/vietnam-war|archive-date=26 April 2012}}</ref>
-====Poland====
-Contributor to the three-nation monitoring-force, the [[International Control Commission]] (ICC/ICSC) [1954–1973] and its successor: the [[International Commission for Control and Supervision]] (ICCS) [1973–1975]. The [[Polish People's Republic]] had played a substantive role in brokering and serving as an intermediary for peace-talks between Hanoi and Saigon, as part of a delegation under the International Control Commission established under the Geneva Accords. Recent evidence has emerged that Poland played an early role in attempting to broker talks between Ngô Đình Nhu and the Diem regime and Hanoi in 1963 in an effort to prevent the expansion of the war, given that Polish representatives were the only communist nation present in Saigon and had acted as a broker and representative for Hanoi.<ref>{{Cite report|last=Gnoinska|first=Margaret K.|date=March 2005|title=Poland and Vietnam, 1963: New Evidence on Secret Communist Diplomacy and the "Maneli Affair|editor-last=Ostermann|editor-first=Christian F.|series=Cold War International History Project|id=Working Paper #45|citeseerx=10.1.1.401.5833}}</ref>
-====Spain====
-President Johnson had asked the Spanish ''[[Caudillo de Espana|Caudillo]]'' [[Francisco Franco]] to contribute a military contingent to the war effort. After lengthy debate between his ministers, Franco took the advice of veteran General [[Agustín Muñoz Grandes]]. Franco was even more cautious in committing himself to the US cause and finally decided to send a medical team of around thirty people, and under strict secrecy. The first group of medical soldiers, including four doctors, seven nurses and one officer in charge of military supplies, arrived in Vietnam in 1966 and worked at [[Truong Cong Dinh]] hospital in the [[Gò Công|Gò Công district]]. From 1966 to 1971 three other groups, totalling nearly 100 Spaniards, worked at the hospital.<ref name="Marin">{{cite web|url=https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/09/inenglish/1333979983_253264.html|title=Spain's secret support for US in Vietnam|publisher=El Pais|date=9 April 2012|access-date=30 April 2020|last1=Marín|first1=Paloma}}</ref>
-====Brazil====
-[[Brazil]], under a U.S.-backed [[Brazilian military government|military regime]], officially supported the United States' position in South Vietnam and contributed a medical team and supplies to the country. It was the only [[Latin America]]n country with a presence in the region.<ref name=Weil>{{cite book|last=Weil|first=Thomas E.|title=Area Handbook for Brazil|year=1975|page=293}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Munhoz |first1=Sidnei José |last2=Silva |first2=Francisco Carlos Teixeira da |title=Brazil – United States relations: XX and XXI centuries |date=2013 |publisher=Editora da Universidade Estadual de Maringá – EDUEM |isbn=978-85-7628-659-2 |pages=316–7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6tZCwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>
-==United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO)==
-{{Main|United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races|FULRO insurgency against Vietnam}}
-The ethnic minority peoples of South Vietnam, like the [[Degar|Montagnards]] (Degar) in the Central Highlands, the Hindu and Muslim [[Cham people|Cham]], and the Buddhist [[Khmer Krom]], were actively recruited in the war. There was an active strategy of recruitment and favorable treatment of Montagnard tribes for the Viet Cong, as they were pivotal for control of infiltration routes.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Kaminsky|first1=Arnold P.|last2=Long|first2=Roger D.|title=Nationalism and Imperialism in South and Southeast Asia: Essays Presented to Damodar R.SarDesai|publisher=Routledge|year=2016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aGIPDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT300|isbn=978-1-351-99742-3}}</ref> Some groups had split off and formed the [[United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races]] (French: ''Front Uni de Lutte des Races Opprimées'', acronym: FULRO) to fight for autonomy or independence. FULRO fought against both the South Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, later proceeding to fight against the unified [[Socialist Republic of Vietnam]] after the fall of South Vietnam.
-During the war, the South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem began a program to settle ethnic Vietnamese Kinh on Montagnard lands in the Central Highlands region. This provoked a backlash from the Montagnards, some joining the Viet Cong as a result. The Cambodians under both the pro-China King Sihanouk and the pro-American Lon Nol supported their fellow co-ethnic Khmer Krom in South Vietnam, following an anti-ethnic Vietnamese policy. Following Vietnamization many Montagnard groups and fighters were incorporated into the [[Vietnamese Rangers]] as border sentries.
-==War crimes==
-{{Main|List of war crimes#1955–1975: Vietnam War|Vietnam War casualties}}
-{{See also|List of massacres in Vietnam}}
-A large number of [[war crimes]] took place during the Vietnam War. War crimes were committed by both sides during the conflict and included rape, massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, [[Viet Cong and PAVN strategy, organization and structure#VC/NVA use of terror|terrorism]], the widespread use of torture, and the murder of [[prisoners of war]]. Additional common crimes included theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by [[military necessity]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Solis|first=Gary D.|title=The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6FKf0ocxEPAC&pg=PA301|isbn=978-1-139-48711-5|pages=301–3}}</ref>
-===South Vietnamese, Korean and American{{anchor|War crimes committed by US forces}}===
-{{See also|United States war crimes|Winter Soldier Investigation|Vietnam War Crimes Working Group|Tiger Force}}
-[[File:My Lai massacre.jpg|thumb|Victims of the My Lai massacre]]
-In 1968, the [[Vietnam War Crimes Working Group]] (VWCWG) was established by the [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] [[task force]] set up in the wake of the My Lai Massacre, to attempt to ascertain the veracity of emerging claims of [[war crimes by U.S. armed forces]] in Vietnam, during the Vietnam War period.
-Of the war crimes reported to military authorities, sworn statements by witnesses and status reports indicated that 320 incidents had a factual basis.<ref name="TurseNelson">{{cite web|author1=Nick Turse|author2=Deborah Nelson |date=6 August 2006 |title=Civilian Killings Went Unpunished |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,7018171,full.story|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215021044/http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,7018171,full.story|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 December 2012|work=[[Los Angeles Times|latimes.com]]|access-date=14 September 2013}}</ref> The substantiated cases included 7 massacres between 1967 and 1971 in which at least 137 civilians were killed; seventy eight further attacks targeting non-combatants resulting in at least 57 deaths, 56 wounded and 15 sexually assaulted; and 141 cases of U.S. soldiers torturing civilian detainees or prisoners of war with fists, sticks, bats, water or electric shock. [[Journalism]] in the ensuing years has documented other overlooked and uninvestigated war crimes involving every army division that was active in Vietnam,<ref name=TurseNelson/> including the atrocities committed by [[Tiger Force]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sallah|first=Michael|title=Tiger Force: a true story of men and war|publisher=Little, Brown|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/tigerforcetruest00sall|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0-316-15997-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/tigerforcetruest00sall/page/306 306]}}</ref>  Rummel estimated that American forces committed around 5,500 [[Democide|democidal]] killings between 1960 and 1972, from a range of between 4,000 and 10,000 killed.<ref name=Rummel/>{{rp|}}
-[[File:Vietconginterrogation1967.jpg|thumb|left|A suspected Viet Cong prisoner captured in 1967 by the U.S. Army awaits interrogation. He has been placed in a [[stress position]] by tying a board between his arms.]]
-[[File:Viet nam Tragedy.jpg|thumb|left|Napalm burn victims during the war being treated at the [[67th Combat Support Hospital (United States)|67th Combat Support Hospital]]]]
-U.S. forces established numerous [[free-fire zone]]s as a tactic to prevent Viet Cong fighters from sheltering in South Vietnamese villages.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thevietnamwar.info/free-fire-zone/ |title=Free Fire Zone – The Vietnam War|work=The Vietnam War|access-date=20 June 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> Such practice, which involved the assumption that any individual appearing in the designated zones was an enemy combatant that could be freely targeted by weapons, is regarded by journalist Lewis M. Simons as "a severe violation of the laws of war".<ref>{{cite web|author=Lewis M. Simons |url=http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/free-fire-zones/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019162449/http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/free-fire-zones/ |url-status=dead |title=Free Fire Zones|access-date=5 October 2016|publisher=Crimes of War|archive-date=19 October 2016}}</ref> [[Nick Turse]], in his 2013 book, ''Kill Anything that Moves'', argues that a relentless drive toward higher [[body count]]s, a widespread use of free-fire zones, rules of engagement where civilians who ran from soldiers or helicopters could be viewed as Viet Cong and a widespread disdain for Vietnamese civilians led to massive civilian casualties and endemic war crimes inflicted by U.S. troops.<ref name="Turse">{{cite book|last=Turse|first=Nick|title=Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam |publisher=Metropolitan Books|year=2013|isbn=978-0-8050-8691-1}}</ref>{{rp|251}} One example cited by Turse is [[Operation Speedy Express]], an operation by the 9th Infantry Division, which was described by [[John Paul Vann]] as, in effect, "many Mỹ Lais".<ref name=Turse/>{{rp|251}} A report by ''Newsweek'' magazine suggested that at least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during six months of the operation, and there were approximately 748 recovered weapons and an official US military body count of 10,889 enemy combatants killed.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Kevin Buckley|title=Pacification's Deadly Price |url=http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/buckley.html|magazine=Newsweek |date=19 June 1972 |pages=42–43}}</ref>
-R.J. Rummel estimated that 39,000 were killed by South Vietnam during the Diem-era in democide from a range of between 16,000 and 167,000 South Vietnamese civilians; for 1964 to 1975, Rummel estimated 50,000 people were killed in democide, from a range of between 42,000 and 128,000. Thus, the total for 1954 to 1975 is 81,000, from a range of between 57,000 and 284,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam.<ref name=Rummel/>{{rp|}} Benjamin Valentino attributes possibly 110,000–310,000 "counter-guerrilla mass killings" of non-combatants to U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the war.<ref name="Valentino">{{cite book|title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century |last=Valentino|first=Benjamin|publisher=[[Cornell University Press]]|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8014-7273-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQfeXVU_EvgC&q=vietnam |page=84}}</ref> An estimated 26,000 to 41,000 civilian members of the PRG/Viet Cong termed "VC Infrastructure" were killed during the Phoenix Program, by US and South Vietnamese intelligence and security, with an unknown number being innocent civilians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Otterman |first=Michael|title=American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond|publisher=[[Melbourne University Publishing]]|year=2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wiVqrgS68NoC&pg=PA62|isbn=978-0-522-85333-9 |page=62}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Hersh|first=Seymour|author-link=Seymour Hersh|date=15 December 2003|title=Moving Targets|url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/12/15/031215fa_fact?currentPage=all|magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=20 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McCoy|first=Alfred|title=A question of torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror|publisher=Macmillan|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVwUYSBwtKcC&pg=PA68|isbn=978-0-8050-8041-4|page=68}}</ref>
-[[File:Tam Toa Church, Dong Hoi.jpg|thumb|[[Tam Tòa Church]] in [[Đồng Hới]], [[Quảng Bình Province]] destroyed by bombing in 1965.]]
-Torture and ill-treatment were frequently applied by the South Vietnamese to POWs as well as civilian prisoners.<ref name="Greiner">{{cite book|last=Greiner|first=Bernd|title=War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam|publisher=Vintage Books|year=2010|isbn=978-0-09-953259-0}}</ref>{{rp|77}} During their visit to the [[Con Dao Prison|Con Son Prison]] in 1970, U.S. congressmen [[Augustus F. Hawkins]] and [[William Anderson (naval officer)|William R. Anderson]] witnessed detainees either confined in minute "tiger cages" or chained to their cells, and provided with poor-quality food. A group of American doctors inspecting the prison in the same year found many inmates suffering symptoms resulting from forced immobility and torture.<ref name=Greiner/>{{rp|77}} During their visits to transit detention facilities under American administration in 1968 and 1969, the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|International Red Cross]] recorded many cases of torture and inhumane treatment before the captives were handed over to South Vietnamese authorities.<ref name=Greiner/>{{rp|78}} Torture was conducted by the South Vietnamese government in collusion with the CIA.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newsweek.com/cia-torture-report-vietcong-vietnam-war-292041|title=Torture: What the Vietcong Learned and the CIA Didn't|date=15 December 2014|work=Newsweek|access-date=20 June 2018|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no1/article06.html|title=The Man in the Snow White Cell |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|access-date=20 June 2018}}</ref>
-South Korean forces were also accused of war crimes. One documented event was the [[Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre]] where the [[2nd Marine Division (South Korea)|2nd Marine Brigade]] reportedly killed between 69 and 79 civilians on 12 February 1968 in Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất village, [[Điện Bàn District]], [[Quảng Nam Province]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://h21.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2000/021003000200011150334040.html|script-title=ko:잠자던 진실, 30년만에 깨어나다 "한국군은 베트남에서 무엇을 했는가"… 미국 국립문서보관소 비밀해제 보고서·사진 최초공개 |author=Go Gyeong-tae |newspaper=[[Hankyoreh]] |date=15 November 2000 |access-date=8 September 2016 |language=ko}}</ref> South Korean forces are also accused of perpetrating other massacres, namely: [[Bình Hòa massacre]], [[Binh Tai Massacre]] and [[Hà My massacre]].
-===North Vietnamese and Viet Cong===
-{{Main|Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam use of terror in the Vietnam War}}
-{{See also|Cambodian Civil War#War Crimes}}
-[[File:Hue Massacre Interment.jpg|thumb|Interment of victims of the [[Huế Massacre]]]]
-Ami Pedahzur has written that "the overall volume and lethality of Viet Cong terrorism rivals or exceeds all but a handful of terrorist campaigns waged over the last third of the twentieth century", based on the definition of terrorists as a non-state actor, and examining targeted killings and civilian deaths which are estimated at over 18,000 from 1966 to 1969.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pedahzur|first=Ami|title=Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism: The Globalization of Martyrdom|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-77029-3|page=116}}</ref> The US Department of Defense estimates the VC/PAVN had conducted 36,000 murders and almost 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972, c. 1973.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lanning|first1=Michael|last2=Cragg|first2=Dan|title=Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces|publisher=Texas A&M University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-1-60344-059-2|pages=186–8}}</ref> Statistics for 1968–1972 suggest that "about 80 percent of the terrorist victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres."<ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|273}} Benjamin Valentino attributes 45,000–80,000 "terrorist mass killings" of non-combatants to the Viet Cong during the war.<ref name=Valentino/> Viet Cong tactics included the frequent mortaring of civilians in refugee camps, and the placing of mines on highways frequented by villagers taking their goods to urban markets. Some mines were set only to go off after heavy vehicle passage, causing extensive slaughter aboard packed civilian buses.<ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|270–9}}
-Notable Viet Cong atrocities include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Huế<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Ben Kiernan|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|title=Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2017|isbn=978-0-19-062730-0|page=444}}</ref> during the Tet Offensive and the killing of 252 civilians during the [[Đắk Sơn massacre]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pike|first=Douglas|title=PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam|url=https://archive.org/details/pavnpeoplesarmyo00pike|url-access=registration|publisher=Presidio Press|year=1996|isbn=978-0-89141-243-4}}</ref> 155,000 refugees fleeing the final North Vietnamese Spring Offensive were reported to have been killed or abducted on the road to [[Tuy Hòa]] in 1975.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wiesner|first=Louis|title=Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954–1975|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1988|isbn=978-0-313-26306-4|pages=318–9}}</ref> According to Rummel, PAVN and Viet Cong troops killed 164,000 civilians in democide between 1954 and 1975 in South Vietnam, from a range of between 106,000 and 227,000 (50,000 of which were reportedly killed by shelling and mortar on ARVN forces during the retreat to Tuy Hoa).<ref name=Rummel/>{{rp|}} North Vietnam was also known for its abusive treatment of American POWs, most notably in [[Hỏa Lò Prison]] (aka the ''Hanoi Hilton''), where [[Forced confession|torture was employed to extract confessions]].<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|655}}
-==Women==
-{{See also|Women in the Vietnam War|Timeline of American women in war and the U.S. military from 1945 to 1999#1965}}
-===American nurses===
-[[File:Da Nang, South Vietnam...United States Navy nurse Lieutenant Commander Joan Brouilette checks the condition of Pfc.... - NARA - 558531.jpg|thumb|left|Da Nang, South Vietnam, 1968]]
-American women served on active duty performing a variety of jobs. Early in 1963, the [[Army Nurse Corps (United States)|Army Nurse Corps]] (ANC) launched Operation Nightingale, an intensive effort to recruit nurses to serve in Vietnam.<ref name="Norman">{{cite book|last=Norman|first=Elizabeth M.|title=Women at War: the Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam|journal=New Jersey Nurse|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|year=1990 |volume=22|issue=2|page=15|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esg7mGs6nQMC|isbn=978-0-8122-1317-1|jstor=j.ctt3fhsqj|pmid=1570214}}</ref>{{rp|7}} [[First Lieutenant]] Sharon Lane was the only female military nurse to be killed by enemy gunfire during the war, on 8 June 1969.<ref name=Norman/>{{rp|57}} One civilian doctor, [[Eleanor Ardel Vietti]], who was captured by Viet Cong on 30 May 1962, in [[Buôn Ma Thuột]], remains the only American woman unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.<ref>{{cite web |website=POW Network |url=http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/v/v600.htm |title=Vietti, Eleanor Ardel |access-date=4 January 2018}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=The last missing woman from the Vietnam War |url=https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-last-missing-woman-from-the-Vietnam-War-2043691.php |last=Fisher|first=Binnie|date=28 October 2001|work=Houston Chronicle |access-date=4 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Fact Check: Why Are So Few Women's Names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall? |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/fact-check-why-are-so-few-womens-names-on-the-vietnam-memorial-wall/article/2008250 |last=Lloyd|first=Alice B. |date=29 May 2017 |work=Weekly Standard |access-date=4 January 2018}}</ref>
-[[File:Second Lieutenant Kathleen M. Sullivan treats a Vietnamese child during Operation MED CAP, a U.S. Air Force civic... - NARA - 542331.jpg|thumb|A nurse treats a Vietnamese child, 1967]]
-Although a small number of women were assigned to combat zones, they were never allowed directly in the field of battle. Unlike the men, the women who served in the military were solely volunteers. They faced a plethora of challenges, one of which was the relatively small number of female soldiers. Living in a male-dominated environment created tensions between the sexes. By 1973, approximately 7,500 women had served in Vietnam in the Southeast Asian theater.<ref>{{Harvnb|Holm|1992|p=206}}.</ref> American women serving in Vietnam were subject to societal stereotypes. To address this problem, the ANC released advertisements portraying women in the ANC as "proper, professional and well protected." This effort to highlight the positive aspects of a nursing career reflected the feminism of the 1960s–1970s in the United States. Although female military nurses lived in a heavily male environment, very few cases of sexual harassment were ever reported.<ref name=Norman/>{{rp|71}}
-===Vietnamese soldiers===
-[[File:Female Vietcong Guerrilla.jpg|thumb|left|Female [[Viet Cong]] guerrilla in combat]]
-Unlike the American women who went to Vietnam, both South and North Vietnamese women were enlisted and served in combat zones. Women were enlisted in both the PAVN and the Viet Cong, many joining due to the promises of female equality and a greater social role within society.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wood |first=Jordan|date=October 2015|title=Taking on a Superpower: A Salute to the Women of Vietnam |url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?&article=1340&context=kaleidoscope |volume=3|issue=1 |journal=Kaleidoscope}}</ref><ref name="BBC2016">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-37986986|title=The women who fought for their country|date=6 December 2016 |work=BBC News|access-date=19 June 2018}}</ref> Some women also served for the PAVN and Viet Cong intelligence services. The deputy military commander of the Viet Cong, was a female general, Nguyễn Thị Định. All-female units were present throughout the entirety of the war, ranging from front-line combat troops to anti-aircraft, scout and reconnaissance units.<ref name="Herman">{{Cite news|last=Herman|first=Elizabeth D.|date=6 June 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/vietnam-war-women-soldiers.html|title=Opinion {{!}} The Women Who Fought for Hanoi|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Female combat squads were present in the Cu Chi theatre.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Nguyen|first= Hai T.|date=17 January 2017 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/as-the-earth-shook-they-stood-firm.html |title=Opinion {{!}} As the Earth Shook, They Stood Firm|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> They also fought in the Battle of Hue.<ref name=Bowden/>{{rp|388–91}} In addition, large numbers of women served in North Vietnam, manning anti-aircraft batteries, providing village security and serving in logistics on the Ho Chi Minh trail.<ref name=BBC2016/><ref name=Herman/> Other women were embedded with troops on the front-lines, serving as doctors and medical personnel. [[Đặng Thùy Trâm]] became renowned after her diary was published following her death. The Foreign Minister for the Viet Cong and later the PRG was also a woman, Nguyễn Thị Bình.
-[[File:WAFC-ARVN Pharmacist.jpg|thumb|Master-Sergeant and pharmacist Do Thi Trinh, part of the WAFC, supplying medication to ARVN dependents]]
-In South Vietnam, many women voluntarily served in the ARVN's Women's Armed Force Corps (WAFC) and various other Women's corps in the military. Some, like in the WAFC, served in combat with other soldiers. Others served as nurses and doctors in the battlefield and in military hospitals, or served in South Vietnam or America's intelligence agencies. During Diệm's presidency, his sister-in-law [[Madame Nhu]] was the commander of the WAFC.<ref>{{cite news|last=Shapiro|first=T. Rees|title=Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu, who exerted political power in Vietnam, dies at 87 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mme-ngo-dinh-nhu-who-exerted-political-power-in-vietnam-dies-at-87/2011/04/26/AFpwwF2E_story.html |access-date=4 February 2014 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=27 April 2011}}</ref> Many women joined provincial and voluntary village-level militia in the [[People's Self-Defense Force]] especially during the ARVN expansions later in the war.
-[[File:Đền thờ Nguyễn Thị Định.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial temple to [[Nguyễn Thị Định]] and the female volunteers of the Viet Cong whom she commanded. They came to call themselves the "Long-Haired Army".|alt=]]
-During the war more than one million rural people migrated or fled the fighting in the South Vietnamese countryside to the cities, especially Saigon. Among the internal refugees were many young women who became the ubiquitous "bar girls" of wartime South Vietnam, "hawking her wares—be that cigarettes, liquor, or herself" to American and allied soldiers.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Gustafsson, Mai Lan|title=Freedom. Money. Fun. Love': The Warlore of Vietnamese Bargirls|journal=Oral History Review|year=2011|volume=38|issue=2|pages=308–30|doi=10.1093/ohr/ohr097|pmid=22175096|s2cid=7718015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=Richard A.|title=Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam's Hearts and Minds|publisher=Westview Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8133-3459-2|page=40}}</ref> American bases were ringed by bars and brothels.<ref>{{cite book|last=Barry|first=Kathleen|title=The Prostitution of Sexuality|url=https://archive.org/details/prostitutionofse00barrrich|url-access=registration|publisher=NYU Press|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8147-1277-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/prostitutionofse00barrrich/page/133 133]}}</ref>
-,040 Vietnamese women came to the United States as war brides between 1964 and 1975.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Trinh Võ|first1=Linda|last2=Sciachitano|first2=Marian|title=Asian American women: the Frontiers reader|url=https://archive.org/details/asianamericanwom00lind|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8032-9627-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/asianamericanwom00lind/page/144 144]}}</ref> Many mixed-blood [[Amerasian]] children were left behind when their American fathers returned to the United States after their tour of duty in South Vietnam; 26,000 of them were permitted to immigrate to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Lamb, David|title=Children of the Vietnam War|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/children-of-the-vietnam-war-131207347/|magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|date=June 2009}}</ref>
-===Journalists===
-Women also played a prominent role as front-line reporters in the conflict, directly reporting on the conflict as it occurred.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/opinion/women-journalists-vietnam.html|title=Opinion {{!}} The Women Who Covered Vietnam|last=Becker|first=Elizabeth|date=17 November 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=1 June 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> A number of women volunteered on the North Vietnamese side as embedded journalists, including author [[Lê Minh Khuê]] embedded with PAVN forces,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/stars-earth-river|title=The Stars, The Earth, The River {{!}} Northwestern University Press|website=www.nupress.northwestern.edu|language=en|access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref> on the Ho Chi Minh trail as well as on combat fronts.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/10/world/fg-vietnam10|title=Vietnam's Women of War|last=Lamb|first=David|date=10 January 2003|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=1 June 2018|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref> A number of prominent Western journalists were also involved in covering the war, with [[Dickey Chapelle]] being among the first as well as the first American female reporter killed in a war. The French-speaking Australian journalist [[Kate Webb]] was captured along with a photographer and others by the Viet Cong in Cambodia and travelled into Laos with them; they were released back into Cambodia after 23 days of captivity.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.upi.com/Kate-Webb-Captured-in-Cambodia/53871034760165/|title=Kate Webb – Captured in Cambodia|work=UPI|access-date=1 June 2018|language=en}}</ref> Webb would be the first Western journalist to be captured and released, as well as cover the perspective of the Viet Cong in her memoir ''On The Other Side.'' Another French-speaking journalist, [[Catherine Leroy]], was briefly captured and released by North Vietnamese forces during the Battle of Huế, capturing some famous photos from the battles that would appear on the cover of ''Life Magazine''.<ref name=Bowden/>{{rp|245}}
-==Black servicemen==
-{{See also|Civil rights movement|Military history of African Americans#Vietnam War}}
-[[File:Haeberlewounded.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|A wounded [[African Americans|African-American]] soldier being carried away, 1968]]
-The experience of American military personnel of African ancestry during the Vietnam War had received significant attention. For example, the website "African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War" compiles examples of such coverage,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aavw.org/served/homepage_wetoo_integrated.html |title=Fully Integrated |work=African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War (aavw.org) |access-date=11 May 2017}}</ref> as does the print and broadcast work of journalist [[Wallace Terry]] whose book ''Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans'' (1984), includes observations about the impact of the war on the black community in general and on black servicemen specifically. Points he makes on the latter topic include: the higher proportion of combat casualties in Vietnam among African American servicemen than among American soldiers of other races, the shift toward and different attitudes of black military volunteers and black conscripts, the discrimination encountered by black servicemen "on the battlefield in decorations, promotion and duty assignments" as well as their having to endure "the racial insults, cross-burnings and Confederate flags of their white comrades"—and the experiences faced by black soldiers stateside, during the war and after America's withdrawal.{{sfn|Terry|1984|loc=Epigraph, pp. xv–xvii}}
-Civil rights leaders protested the disproportionate casualties and the overrepresentation in hazardous duty and combat roles experienced by African American servicemen, prompting reforms that were implemented beginning in 1967–68. As a result, by the war's completion in 1975, black casualties had declined to 12.5% of US combat deaths, approximately equal to percentage of draft-eligible black men, though still slightly higher than the 10% who served in the military.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Appy|first=Christian|title=Working-class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam|publisher=The University of North Carolina Press|year=1993|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sEygbABXmFUC&q=Working-Class+War:+American+Combat+Soldiers+and+Vietnam|isbn=978-0-8078-6011-3}}</ref>
-==Weapons==
-{{Main|Weapons of the Vietnam War}}
-[[File:HoChiMinhTrail003.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Guerillas assemble shells and rockets delivered along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.]]
-During the early stages of the war, the Viet Cong mainly sustained itself with captured arms; these were often of American manufacture or were crude, makeshift weapons used alongside [[shotgun]]s made of galvanized pipes. Most arms were captured from poorly defended ARVN militia outposts. In 1967, all Viet Cong battalions were reequipped with arms of Soviet design such as the AK-47 assault rifle, carbines and the [[RPG-2]] anti-tank weapon.<ref name=Sheehan/>{{rp|}} Their weapons were principally of Chinese<ref>[http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thcentury/articles/chinesesupport.aspx Chinese Support for North Vietnam during the Vietnam War: The Decisive Edge], Bob Seals, Military History Online, 23 September 2008</ref> or Soviet manufacture.<ref>Albert Parray, ''Military Review'', [http://calldp.leavenworth.army.mil/eng_mr/txts/VOL47/00000006/art2.pdf "Soviet aid to Vietnam"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428210157/http://calldp.leavenworth.army.mil/eng_mr/txts/VOL47/00000006/art2.pdf |date=28 April 2011}}, June 1967</ref> In the period up to the conventional phase in 1970, the Viet Cong and PAVN were primarily limited to 81&nbsp;mm mortars, recoilless rifles, and small arms and had significantly lighter equipment and firepower in comparison with the US arsenal. They relied on ambushes, superior stealth, planning, marksmanship, and small-unit tactics to face the disproportionate US technological advantage.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jexmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT101|title=Indochina and Vietnam: The Thirty-five Year War, 1940–1975|last1=Miller|first1=Robert|last2=Wainstock|first2=Dennis D.|year=2013|publisher=Enigma Books|isbn=978-1-936274-66-6|pages=101–02|language=en}}</ref>
-After the Tet Offensive, many PAVN units incorporated [[light tank]]s such as the [[Type 62]] [[Type 59 tank]]., [[BTR-60]], [[D-74 122 mm field gun|Type 60 artillery]], [[Amphibious vehicle|amphibious tanks]] (such as the [[PT-76]]) and integrated into new war doctrines as a mobile combined-arms force.<ref name=":9" /> The PAVN started receiving experimental Soviet weapons against ARVN forces, including [[Man-portable air-defense system|MANPADS]] [[9K32 Strela-2]] and [[anti-tank missile]]s, [[9M14 Malyutka]]. By 1975, they had fully transformed from the strategy of mobile light-infantry and using the people's war concept used against the United States.<ref name=":9">{{cite web|url=http://www.historynet.com/north-vietnams-master-plan.htm|title=North Vietnam's Master Plan {{!}} HistoryNet|website=www.historynet.com|language=en-US|access-date=1 June 2018|date=12 June 2006}}</ref>
-The US service rifle was initially the [[M14 rifle|M14]]. The M14 was a powerful, accurate rifle, but it was heavy, hard-recoiling, and especially unwieldy in jungle fighting, as it was unsuited for the combat conditions, often suffering from feed failure. It was gradually replaced by the [[M16 rifle]], designed by [[Eugene Stoner]], between 1964 and 1970. When first deployed, the M16 also suffered from a propensity to jam in combat, leaving the soldier defenseless and potentially killing him.<ref>{{cite journal|author=C.H. Chivers |title=How Reliable is the M16 Rifle? |journal=[[The New York Times]] |date=2 November 2009 |url=http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/how-reliable-is-the-m-16-rifle/}}</ref> According to a congressional report, the jamming was not related to operator error or to an inherent flaw in the rifle, but instead due to a change in the gunpowder to be used in the rifle's cartridges, which led to rapid powder fouling of the action and failures to extract or feed cartridges. This decision, made after "inadequate testing", proved that "the safety of soldiers was a secondary consideration."<ref>{{cite book|last=Maraniss|first=David|title=They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2003|url=https://archive.org/details/theymarchedintos00mara|url-access=registration|isbn=978-0-7432-6255-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/theymarchedintos00mara/page/410 410]}}</ref> The issue was solved in early 1968 with the issuance of the M16A1, featuring a chrome-plated bore, which reduced fouling, and the introduction of a cleaner-burning powder.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|408–11}} Incorporating features from the German [[FG-42]] and [[MG-42]], the U.S. replaced their earlier [[M1919 Browning]] in most roles with the [[M60 machine gun]], including on helicopters where it was used for [[suppressive fire]]. While its issues were not as severe as they were in the M14 or M16, the M60 still could fail to fire at crucial times – spent casings could get stuck inside of the chamber, meaning the barrel would have to be replaced before it could fire again.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dockery |first1=Kevin |title=The M60 Machine Gun |date=2012 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |page=58}}</ref>
-[[File:UH-1D helicopters in Vietnam 1966.jpg|thumb|[[Bell UH-1 Iroquois|UH-1D]] helicopters airlift members of a U.S. infantry regiment, 1966]]
-The [[Lockheed AC-130|AC-130 "Spectre"]] Gunship and the [[UH-1]] "Huey" gunship were used frequently during the war. The AC-130 was a heavily armed [[attack aircraft|ground-attack aircraft]] variant of the [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules|C-130 Hercules]] transport plane, while the Huey is a military helicopter powered by a single, [[turboshaft]] engine; approximately 7,000 UH-1 aircraft saw service in Vietnam. The U.S. heavily armored, 90&nbsp;mm [[M48 Patton|M48A3 Patton tank]] saw extensive action during the Vietnam War, and over 600 were deployed with US Forces. Ground forces also had access to B-52 and F-4 Phantom II and other aircraft to launch [[napalm]], [[White phosphorus munitions|white phosphorus]], [[tear gas]], [[chemical weapon]]s, [[precision-guided munition]] and [[cluster bomb]]s.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/opinion/vietnam-the-chemical-war.html?mtrref=www.google.ca&assetType=opinion|title=Opinion {{!}} Vietnam: The Chemical War|last=Biggs|first=David|access-date=20 June 2018|language=en}}</ref>
-===Radio communications===
-[[File:North Vietnamese SA-2.jpg|thumb|North Vietnamese SAM crew in front of SA-2 launcher. The Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with considerable anti-air defence around installations.]]
-The Vietnam War was the first conflict where U.S. forces had [[secure voice]] communication equipment available at the tactical level. The National Security Agency ran a crash program to provide U.S. forces with a family of security equipment, codenamed [[NESTOR (encryption)|NESTOR]], fielding 17,000 units initially; eventually 30,000 units were produced. However, limitations of the units, including poor voice quality, reduced range, annoying time delays and logistical support issues, led to only one unit in ten being used.<ref name="NSA">{{cite web|url=https://www.governmentattic.org/18docs/Hist_US_COMSEC_Boak_NSA_1973u.pdf|title=A History of U.S. Communications Security; the David G. Boak Lectures|publisher=National Security Agency|volume=2|year=1981|page=43}}</ref> While many in the U.S. military believed that the Viet Cong and PAVN would not be able to exploit insecure communications, interrogation of captured communication intelligence units showed they could understand the jargon and codes used in real time and were often able to warn their side of impending U.S. actions.<ref name=NSA/>{{rp|4,10}}
-===Extent of U.S. bombings===
-{{See also|Operation Rolling Thunder|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|CIA activities in Laos}}
-[[File:Bombs from B-52 Arc Light strike exploding.jpg|thumb|left|Bombs being dropped by the [[B-52 Stratofortress]] long-range strategic bomber.]]
-The U.S. dropped over 7&nbsp;million tons of bombs on Indochina during the war, more than triple the 2.1&nbsp;million tons of bombs the U.S. dropped on Europe and Asia during all of [[World War II]] and more than ten times the amount dropped by the U.S. during the Korean War. 500 thousand tons were dropped on Cambodia, 1&nbsp;million tons were dropped on North Vietnam, and 4&nbsp;million tons were dropped on South Vietnam. On a per capita basis, the 2&nbsp;million tons dropped on Laos make it the most heavily bombed country in history; ''The New York Times'' noted this was "nearly a ton for every person in Laos."<ref name=KiernanTaylor/> Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs during this war, Laos was a strong advocate of the [[Convention on Cluster Munitions]] to ban the weapons, and was host to the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=Disarmament|url=http://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(httpPages)/B3F3E37A2838630FC125772E0050F4F7?OpenDocument|work=The United Nations Office at Geneva|publisher=United Nations|access-date=20 September 2013|date=November 2011}}</ref>
-Former U.S. Air Force official Earl Tilford has recounted "repeated bombing runs of a lake in central Cambodia. The B-52s literally dropped their payloads in the lake." The Air Force ran many missions of this kind to secure additional funding during budget negotiations, so the tonnage expended does not directly correlate with the resulting damage.<ref>{{cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Jon |url=http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/sep/11/henry-kissinger/kissinger-drones-have-killed-more-civilians-bombin/ |title=Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War |date=11 September 2014 |work=[[Politifact.com]] |access-date=18 September 2016}}</ref>
-==Aftermath==
-===Events in Southeast Asia===
-{{Further|Mayaguez incident|Indochina refugee crisis}}
-[[File:B52 CRASH WRECKAGE AT HUU TIEP LAKE HA NOI FEB 2012 (6887035292).jpg|left|thumb|upright|B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, [[Hanoi]]. Downed during [[Operation Linebacker II]], its remains have turned into a war monument.]]
-On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robbers|first=Gerhard|title=Encyclopedia of world constitutions |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M3A-xgf1yM4C&pg=PA1021|access-date=1 July 2011|year=2007|publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]]|isbn=978-0-8160-6078-8|page=1021}}</ref> Despite speculation that the victorious North Vietnamese would, in President Nixon's words, "massacre the civilians there [South Vietnam] by the millions," there is a widespread consensus that no mass executions took place.<ref>{{cite book |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era|last=Elliot|first=Duong Van Mai |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010|isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0|pages=499, 512–513 |chapter=The End of the War}}</ref>{{refn|group="A"|A study by Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson estimated that 65,000 South Vietnamese were executed for political reasons between 1975 and 1983, based on a survey of 615 Vietnamese refugees who claimed to have personally witnessed 47 executions. However, "their methodology was reviewed and criticized as invalid by authors [[Gareth Porter]] and James Roberts." 16 of the 47 names used to extrapolate this "bloodbath" were duplicates; this extremely high duplication rate (34%) strongly suggests Desbarats and Jackson were drawing from a small number of total executions. Rather than arguing that this duplication rate proves there were very few executions in post-war Vietnam, Porter and Roberts suggest it is an artifact of the self-selected nature of the participants in the Desbarats-Jackson study, as the authors followed subjects's recommendations on other refugees to interview.<ref>{{cite book |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era|last=Elliot|first=Duong Van Mai |publisher=RAND Corporation|year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=512–513 |chapter=The End of the War}}<br />cf. {{cite journal|last1=Porter |first1=Gareth|last2=Roberts|first2=James|date=Summer 1988|title=Creating a Bloodbath by Statistical Manipulation: A Review of ''A Methodology for Estimating Political Executions in Vietnam, 1975–1983'', Jacqueline Desbarats; Karl D. Jackson. |jstor=2759306|journal=Pacific Affairs|volume=61|issue=2|pages=303–310 |doi=10.2307/2759306}}</ref> Nevertheless, there exist unverified reports of mass executions.<ref>''see'' Nguyen Cong Hoan' testimony in {{Cite report|title=Human Rights in Vietnam: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations: House of Representatives, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|date=26 July 1977|pages=149, 153 |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002939991}};<br />''see also'' {{cite journal |last1=Desbarats |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Jackson |first2=Karl D. |doi=10.1080/01636608509477343 |title=Vietnam 1975–1982: The Cruel Peace |journal=The Washington Quarterly |volume=8 |issue=4 |date=September 1985 |pages=169–182|pmid=11618274 }}</ref>}} However, in the years following the war, a vast number of South Vietnamese were sent to [[Re-education camp (Vietnam)|re-education camps]] where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sagan|first1=Ginetta |last2=Denney|first2=Stephen |url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982 |title=Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death |work=The Indochina Newsletter |date=October–November 1982 |access-date=1 September 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Nghia|first=M. Vo |title=The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam|publisher=McFarland|year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7864-1714-8}}</ref> According to Amnesty International Report 1979, this figure varied considerably depend on different observers: "[...] included such figures as "50,000 to 80,000" (''Le Monde'', 19 April 1978), "150,000" (Reuters from Bien Hoa, 2 November 1977), "150,000 to 200,000" (''Washington Post'', 20 December 1978), and "300,000" (Agence France Presse from Hanoi, 12 February 1978)."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/POL100011979ENGLISH.PDF|title=Amnesty International Report, 1979|publisher=Amnesty International|year=1979 |access-date=26 March 2018|page=116}}</ref> Such variations may be because "Some estimates may include not only detainees but also people sent from the cities to the countryside." According to a native observer, 443,360 people had to register for a period in re-education camps in Saigon alone, and while some of them were released after a few days, others stayed there for more than a decade.<ref>''Huy, Đức. Bên Thắng Cuộc. OsinBook.''</ref> Between 1975 and 1980, more than 1 million northerners migrated south to regions formerly in the Republic of Vietnam, while, as part of the [[New Economic Zones program]], around 750,000 to over 1 million southerners were moved mostly to uninhabited mountainous forested areas.<ref name=Desbarats>{{cite book|last=Desbarats|first=Jacqueline|title=Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation|website=Indochina report ; no. 11|publisher=Executive Publications, Singapore 1987}}</ref><ref name=Chapman>{{cite news|title=Hanoi Rebuts Refugees on 'Economic Zones'|first=William|last=Chapman |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/|date=17 August 1979|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=30 June 2021|quote=}}</ref>
-[[File:35 Vietnamese boat people 2.JPEG|thumb|upright|Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984]]
-[[Gabriel García Márquez]], a [[Nobel Prize]] winning writer, described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" after the war, when he visited in 1980: "The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. Ten percent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City was suffering from serious venereal diseases when the war ended, and there were 4 million illiterates throughout the South."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-vietnam-wars-19800529|title=Read Gabriel García Márquez's Moving Vietnam Piece|work=Rolling Stone|access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref> The US used its [[United Nations Security Council veto power|security council veto]] to block Vietnam's recognition by the United Nations three times, an obstacle to the country receiving international aid.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html|title=Vietnam Is Admitted to the U.N. As 32d General Assembly Opens|date=21 September 1977|work=The New York Times|access-date=27 April 2018|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
-By 1975, the North Vietnamese had lost influence over the Khmer Rouge.<ref name=Hastings/>{{rp|708}} [[Phnom Penh]], the capital of Cambodia, fell to the Khmer Rouge on 17 April 1975. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge would eventually [[Cambodian genocide|kill 1–3 million Cambodians]] out of a population of around 8&nbsp;million, in one of the [[List of genocides by death toll|bloodiest genocides in history]].<ref name=Heuveline/>{{rp|}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Sharp|first=Bruce|title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia |date=1 April 2005 |url=http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm |access-date=15 July 2016 |quote=The range based on the figures above extends from a minimum of 1.747 million, to a maximum of 2.495 million.}}</ref><ref>The [[Documentation Center of Cambodia]] has mapped some 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution; execution is believed to account for roughly 60% of the full death toll. See: {{cite book|last1=Seybolt|first1=Taylor B.|last2=Aronson|first2=Jay D.|last3=Fischoff|first3=Baruch|title=Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-997731-4|page=238}}</ref><ref>[[Ben Kiernan]] cites a range of 1.671 to 1.871 million excess deaths under the Khmer Rouge. See {{cite journal|author-link=Ben Kiernan|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|title=The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975–79, and East Timor, 1975–80|journal=Critical Asian Studies|volume=35|issue=4|pages=585–597|date=December 2003|doi=10.1080/1467271032000147041|s2cid=143971159|url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/2a3c3682b9450b6802bce7dd8a5dd2e321f42846}}</ref>
-[[File:Bombed Buddha - panoramio.jpg|left|thumb|upright|A bombed Buddha statue in Laos. U.S. bombing campaigns made Vietnam the single most bombed country in history.]]
-The relationship between Vietnam and [[Democratic Kampuchea]] (Cambodia) escalated right after the end of the war. In response to the Khmer Rouge taking over [[Phu Quoc]] on 17 April and [[Tho Chu]] on 4 May 1975 and the belief that they were responsible for the disappearance of 500 Vietnamese natives on Tho Chu, Vietnam launched a counterattack to take back these islands.<ref>{{cite book|last=Farrell|first=Epsey Cooke|title=The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the law of the sea: an analysis of Vietnamese behavior within the emerging international oceans regime|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|year=1998|isbn=90-411-0473-9}}</ref> After several failed attempts to negotiate by both sides, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea in 1978 and ousted the Khmer Rouge, who were being supported by China, in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. In response, China invaded Vietnam in 1979. The two countries fought a brief border war, known as the Sino-Vietnamese War. From 1978 to 1979, some 450,000 ethnic [[Hoa people|Chinese]] left Vietnam by boat as refugees or were expelled.
-The Pathet Lao overthrew the monarchy of Laos in December 1975, establishing the [[Lao People's Democratic Republic]] under the leadership of a member of the royal family, [[Souphanouvong]]. The change in regime was "quite peaceful, a sort of Asiatic '[[velvet revolution]]'"—although 30,000 former officials were sent to reeducation camps, often enduring harsh conditions for several years. The conflict between Hmong rebels and the Pathet Lao [[Insurgency in Laos|continued]] in isolated pockets.<ref name=Courtois/>{{rp|575–6}}
-[[File:Le musée des Souvenirs de guerre (Hô Chi Minh Ville).jpg|thumb|Captured U.S.-supplied armored vehicles and artillery pieces]]
-[[Unexploded ordnance]], mostly from U.S. bombing, continues to detonate and kill people today and has rendered much land hazardous and impossible to cultivate. According to the Vietnamese government, ordnance has killed some 42,000 people since the war officially ended.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/03/vietname-war-bomb-explodes_n_2229727.html |title=Vietnam War Bomb Explodes Killing Four Children |website=The Huffington Post |date=3 December 2012}}</ref><ref>[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vietnam-war-shell-explodes-kills-two-fishermen/story-fn3dxix6-1226046291270 Vietnam war shell explodes, kills two fishermen] The Australian (28 April 2011)</ref> In Laos, 80&nbsp;million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. According to the government of Laos, unexploded ordnance has killed or injured over 20,000 Laotians since the end of the war and currently 50 people are killed or maimed every year.<ref name="Wright">{{cite news|last=Wright|first=Rebecca|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/05/asia/united-states-laos-secret-war/ |title='My friends were afraid of me': What 80 million unexploded US bombs did to Laos|work=CNN|date=6 September 2016|access-date=18 September 2016}}</ref> It is estimated that the explosives still remaining buried in the ground will not be removed entirely for the next few centuries.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|317}}
-Over 3&nbsp;million people left Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the [[Indochina refugee crisis]] after 1975. Most Asian countries were unwilling to accept these refugees, many of whom fled by boat and were known as [[boat people]].<ref>{{cite web|author1=Stephen Castles|author2=Mark J. Miller |date=July 10, 2009 |title=Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region|publisher=Migration Polict Institute |url=http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-asia-pacific-region}}</ref> Between 1975 and 1998, an estimated 1.2&nbsp;million [[refugee]]s from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries resettled in the United States, while Canada, Australia, and France resettled over 500,000. China accepted 250,000 people.<ref>{{cite book|first=William|last=Robinson|title=Terms of refuge: the Indochinese exodus & the international response|publisher=Zed Books|year=1998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_rjiOXMRd4sC&pg=PA127|isbn=978-1-85649-610-0|page=127}}</ref> Of all the countries of Indochina, Laos experienced the largest refugee flight in proportional terms, as 300,000 people out of a total population of 3&nbsp;million crossed the border into Thailand. Included among their ranks were "about 90 percent" of Laos's "intellectuals, technicians, and officials."<ref name=Courtois/>{{rp|575}} An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 [[Vietnamese boat people]] died at sea, according to the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Nghia|first=M. Vo|title=The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975–1992|publisher= McFarland & Company |year=2006|isbn=978-0-7864-2345-3}}</ref>
-===Effect on the United States===
-====Views on the war====
-{| class="wikitable floatright" style="width: 35%;"
-|+United States expenditures in South Vietnam (SVN) (1953–1974) Direct costs only. Some estimates are higher.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dacy|first=Douglas|title=Foreign aid, war, and economic development: South Vietnam 1955–1975|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1986|url=https://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/108054.pdf|isbn=978-0-521-30327-9|page=242}}</ref>
-|-
-! U.S. military costs || U.S. military aid to SVN || U.S. economic aid to SVN || Total || Total (2015 dollars)
-|-
-| $111&nbsp;billion || $16.138&nbsp;billion || $7.315&nbsp;billion || $134.53&nbsp;billion || $1.020&nbsp;trillion
-|}
-In the post-war era, Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. As General Maxwell Taylor, one of the principal architects of the war, noted, "First, we didn't know ourselves. We thought that we were going into another Korean War, but this was a different country. Secondly, we didn't know our South Vietnamese allies… And we knew less about North Vietnam. Who was Ho Chi Minh? Nobody really knew. So, until we know the enemy and know our allies and know ourselves, we'd better keep out of this kind of dirty business. It's very dangerous."<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|23}} President [[Ronald Reagan]] coined the term "[[Vietnam Syndrome]]" to describe the reluctance of the American public and politicians to support further military interventions abroad after Vietnam. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, 62 percent of Americans believed it was an unjust war.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wyatt-Brown |first=Bertram |title=A Warring Nation: Honor, Race, and Humiliation in America and Abroad|publisher=University of Virginia Press|year=2014|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dywAAAAQBAJ&q=HUMILIATION|isbn=978-0-8139-3475-4 |chapter=Chapter 8}}</ref> US public polling in 1978 revealed that nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral." Nearly a decade later, the number fell to 66%. In the past three decades, surveys have consistently shown that only around 35% of Americans believe that the war was fundamentally wrong and immoral.<ref name=Hagopian/>{{rp|10}} When surveyed in 2000, one third of Americans believed that the war was a noble cause.<ref name=Hagopian/>{{rp|10}}
-Failure of the war is often placed at different institutions and levels. Some have suggested that the failure of the war was due to political failures of U.S. leadership.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |title=McNamara Writes Vietnam Mea Culpa |last=Lippman |first=Thomas W. |date=9 April 1995 |website=The Washington Post |access-date=28 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228230351/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |archive-date=28 December 2019 |quote=As recounted by McNamara ... the war could and should have been avoided and should have been halted at several key junctures, one as early as 1963. According to McNamara, he and other senior advisers to President Lyndon B. Johnson failed to head it off through ignorance, inattention, flawed thinking, political expediency and lack of courage.}}</ref> The official history of the [[United States Army]] noted that "[[military tactics|tactics]] have often seemed to exist apart from larger issues, strategies, and objectives. Yet in Vietnam the Army experienced tactical success and strategic failure... success rests not only on military progress but on correctly analysing the nature of the particular conflict, understanding the enemy's strategy, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of allies. A new humility and a new sophistication may form the best parts of a complex heritage left to the Army by the long, bitter war in Vietnam."{{sfn|Demma|1989}}
-[[File:Marine da nang.jpg|thumb|upright|A young [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, [[Da Nang]], 3 August 1965]]
-Others point to a failure of U.S. military doctrine. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated that "the achievement of a military victory by U.S. forces in Vietnam was indeed a dangerous illusion."<ref name=McNamara/>{{rp|368}} The inability to bring Hanoi to the bargaining table by bombing also illustrated another U.S. miscalculation, and demonstrated the limitations of U.S. military abilities in achieving political goals.<ref name=Karnow/>{{rp|17}} As [[Chief of Staff of the United States Army|Army Chief of Staff]] [[Harold Keith Johnson]] noted, "if anything came out of Vietnam, it was that air power couldn't do the job."<ref name="Buzzano">{{cite web |last=Buzzanco |first=Bob |title=25 Years After End of Vietnam War, Myths Keep Us from Coming to Terms with Vietnam|url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm|access-date=11 June 2008 |date=17 April 2000|work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605195117/http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |archive-date=5 June 2008}}</ref> Even General William Westmoreland admitted that the bombing had been ineffective. As he remarked, "I still doubt that the North Vietnamese would have relented."<ref name=Buzzano/> U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to President Gerald Ford that "in terms of military tactics, we cannot help draw the conclusion that our armed forces are not suited to this kind of war. Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail."{{sfn|Kissinger|1975}}
-Hanoi had persistently sought unification of the country since the Geneva Accords, and the effects of U.S. bombings had negligible impact on the goals of the North Vietnamese government.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|1–10}} The effects of U.S. bombing campaigns had mobilised the people throughout North Vietnam and mobilised international support for North Vietnam due to the perception of a super-power attempting to bomb a significantly smaller, agrarian society into submission.<ref name=Nguyen/>{{rp|48–52}}
-The [[Vietnam War POW/MIA issue]], concerning the fate of U.S. service personnel listed as [[missing in action]], persisted for many years after the war's conclusion. The costs of the war loom large in American popular consciousness; a 1990 poll showed that the public incorrectly believed that more Americans lost their lives in Vietnam than in World War II.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/1552/Victory-Europe-Years-Ago.aspx|title= Victory in Europe 56 Years Ago|publisher=Gallup News Service|date=8 May 2001}}</ref>
-====Cost of the war====
-Between 1953 and 1975, the United States was estimated to have spent $168&nbsp;billion on the war (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.168|1964|r=2}} trillion in {{Inflation/year|US}}).<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thevietnamwar.info/how-much-vietnam-war-cost/|title=How Much Did The Vietnam War Cost?|date=22 January 2014|work=The Vietnam War|access-date=17 May 2018|language=en-US}}</ref> This resulted in a large federal [[United States public debt|budget deficit]]. Other figures point to $138.9&nbsp;billion from 1965 to 1974 (not inflation-adjusted), 10 times all education spending in the US and 50 times more than housing and community development spending within that time period.<ref name="CQ">{{cite web|url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1213988#H2_1|title=CQ Almanac Online Edition|website=library.cqpress.com|access-date=14 June 2018}}</ref> General record-keeping was reported to have been sloppy for government spending during the war.<ref name=CQ/> It was stated that war-spending could have paid off every mortgage in the US at that time, with money leftover.<ref name=CQ/>
-More than 3&nbsp;million Americans served in the Vietnam War, some 1.5&nbsp;million of whom actually saw combat in Vietnam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node/7|title=Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory|publisher=Stanford University}}</ref> James E. Westheider wrote that "At the height of American involvement in 1968, for example, 543,000 American military personnel were stationed in Vietnam, but only 80,000 were considered combat troops."{{sfn|Westheider|2007|p=78}} Conscription in the United States had been controlled by the president since World War II, but ended in 1973.
-As of 2013, the U.S. government is paying Vietnam veterans and their families or survivors more than $22&nbsp;billion a year in war-related claims.<ref>{{Cite news|title=US still making payments to relatives of Civil War veterans, analysis finds |date=20 March 2013 |agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=Fox News|url=http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/20/us-still-paying-for-costs-civil-war-analysis-finds/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Cost U.S. 4–6 Trillion Dollars: Report|author=Jim Lobe|agency=[[Inter Press Service]]|date=30 March 2013|url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/iraq-afghanistan-wars-will-cost-u-s-4-6-trillion-dollars-report/}}</ref>
-====Impact on the U.S. military====
-{{See also|Vietnam War resisters in Canada|Vietnam War resisters in Sweden}}
-By the war's end, 58,220 American soldiers had been killed,<ref name="USd&w" group="A" /> more than 150,000 had been wounded, and at least 21,000 had been permanently disabled.<ref name="DigitalHistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505035502/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513|url-status=dead|archive-date=5 May 2008|title=The War's Costs|publisher=Digital History|access-date=3 November 2019}}</ref> The average age of the U.S. troops killed in Vietnam was 23.11 years.<ref>Combat Area Casualty File, November 1993. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The Wall), Center for Electronic Records, National Archives, Washington, DC</ref> According to Dale Kueter, "Of those killed in combat, 86.3 percent were white, 12.5 percent were black and the remainder from other races."<ref name=Kueter/> Approximately 830,000 Vietnam veterans suffered some degree of [[posttraumatic stress disorder]] (PTSD).<ref name=DigitalHistory/> Vietnam veterans suffered from PTSD in unprecedented numbers, as many as 15.2% of Vietnam veterans, because the U.S. military had routinely provided heavy psychoactive drugs, including amphetamines, to American servicemen, which left them unable to process adequately their traumas at the time.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier: During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Military Plied Its Servicemen with Speed, Steroids, and Painkillers to Help Them Handle Extended Combat |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/|magazine=The Atlantic|date=8 April 2016}}</ref> An estimated 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft,<ref>{{Cite news |title=War Resisters Remain in Canada with No Regrets|date=19 November 2005|work=ABC News|url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339 |access-date=26 February 2010}}</ref> and approximately 50,000 American servicemen deserted.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vietnam War Resisters in Canada Open Arms to U.S. Military Deserters|date=28 June 2005 |url= http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812205654/http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |url-status=dead|archive-date=12 August 2014|publisher=Pacific News Service |access-date= 12 August 2014}}</ref> In 1977, United States president [[Jimmy Carter]] granted a full and unconditional pardon to all Vietnam-era [[draft dodger]]s with [[Proclamation 4483]].<ref>{{cite web |date=January 21, 1977 |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/carter_proclamation.htm|title=Proclamation 4483: Granting Pardon for Violations of the Selective Service Act, August 4, 1964 To March 38, 1973 |access-date=11 June 2008}}</ref>
-[[File:OperationHueCity1967wounded.jpg|thumb|left|A marine gets his wounds treated during operations in Huế City, in 1968]]
-As the Vietnam War continued inconclusively and became more unpopular with the American public, morale declined and disciplinary problems grew among American enlisted men and junior, non-career officers. Drug use, racial tensions, and the growing incidence of fragging—attempting to kill unpopular officers and non-commissioned officers with grenades or other weapons—created severe problems for the U.S. military and impacted its capability of undertaking combat operations. By 1971, a U.S. Army colonel writing in the [[Armed Forces Journal]] declared: "By every conceivable indicator, our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and non commissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near mutinous....The morale, discipline, and battle-worthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at any time in this century and possibly in the history of the United States."<ref name=Heinl/> Between 1969 and 1971 the U.S. Army recorded more than 900 attacks by troops on their own officers and NCOs with 99 killed.<ref name="Lepre">{{cite book|last=Lepre|first=George|title=Fragging: Why U.S. Soldiers Assaulted their Officers in Vietnam|publisher=Texas Tech University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-89672-715-1}}</ref>{{rp|44–7}}
-[[File:Robert S. McNamara and General Westmoreland in Vietnam 1965.png|thumb|Secretary of Defense [[Robert McNamara]] and [[William Westmoreland|General Westmoreland]] talk with General Tee on conditions of the war in Vietnam.]]
-The Vietnam War called into question the U.S. Army doctrine. Marine Corps general [[Victor H. Krulak]] heavily criticised Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives… with small likelihood of a successful outcome."<ref name=Buzzano/> In addition, doubts surfaced about the ability of the military to train foreign forces. Furthermore, throughout the war there was found to be considerable flaws and dishonesty by officers and commanders due to promotions being tied to the body count system touted by Westmoreland and McNamara.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/us/mcnamara-on-record-reluctantly-on-vietnam.html|title=McNamara on Record, Reluctantly, on Vietnam|last=Mohr|first=Charles |access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref> And behind the scenes Secretary of Defense McNamara wrote in a memo to President Johnson his doubts about the war: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Scheer |first=Robert |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/ |title=McNamara's Evil Lives On |magazine=The Nation |date=2009-07-08 |access-date=2020-02-28 |issn=0027-8378}}</ref>
-Ron Milam has questioned the severity of the "breakdown" of the U.S. armed forces, especially among combat troops, as reflecting the opinions of "angry colonels" who deplored the erosion of traditional military values during the Vietnam War.<ref name="Milam">{{cite book|last=Milam|first=Ron|title=Not A Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8078-3712-2}}</ref>{{rp|172}} Although acknowledging serious problems, he questions the alleged "near mutinous" conduct of junior officers and enlisted men in combat. Investigating one combat refusal incident, a journalist declared, "A certain sense of independence, a reluctance to behave according to the military's insistence on obedience, like pawns or puppets...The grunts [infantrymen] were determined to survive...they insisted of having something to say about the making of decisions that determined whether they might live or die."<ref>{{cite book|last=Shkurti|first=William J.|title=Soldiering on in a Dying War: The True Story of the Firebase Pace Incidents and the Vietnam Drawdown |publisher=University of Kansas Press|year=2011|isbn=978-0-7006-1781-4|page=95}}</ref> The morale and discipline problems and resistance to conscription were important factors leading to the creation of an all-volunteer military force by the United States and the termination of conscription. The last conscript was inducted into the army in 1973.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_6ojAAAAIBAJ&pg=5837%2C1959488 |newspaper=The Times-News |location=Hendersonville, NC|agency=Associated Press |title=Military draft ended by Laird|date=27 January 1973|page=1}}</ref> The all-volunteer military moderated some of the coercive methods of discipline previously used to maintain order in military ranks.<ref name=Lepre/>{{rp|183}}
-===Effects of U.S. chemical defoliation===
-[[File:Defoliation agent spraying.jpg|thumb|left|U.S. helicopter spraying chemical [[defoliant]]s in the [[Mekong Delta]], South Vietnam, 1969]]
-One of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. military effort in Southeast Asia was the widespread use of chemical [[defoliant]]s between 1961 and 1971. They were used to [[Wikt:defoliate|defoliate]] large parts of the countryside to prevent the Viet Cong from being able to hide their weapons and encampments under the foliage. These chemicals continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the food chain.<ref>{{Harvnb|Palmer|2007}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2007}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite news |author=Lynne Peeples |date=10 July 2013 |title=Veterans Sick From Agent Orange-Poisoned Planes Still Seek Justice |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/agent-orange-vietnam-veterans_n_3572598.html |access-date=4 September 2013}}</ref>
-[[Agent Orange]] and similar chemical substances used by the U.S. have also caused a considerable number of deaths and injuries in the intervening years, including among the US Air Force crews that handled them. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to chemical sprays while in South Vietnam continued to experience pain in the eyes and skin as well as gastrointestinal upsets. In one study, ninety-two percent of participants suffered incessant fatigue; others reported [[monstrous birth]]s.<ref>{{cite magazine |author1=Rose, Hilary A.|author2=Rose, Stephen P. |title=Chemical Spraying as Reported by Refugees from South Vietnam |magazine=Science |year=1972 |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/177/4050/710.short}}</ref> Meta-analyses of the most current studies on the association between Agent Orange and birth defects have found a statistically significant correlation such that having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange at any point in their life will increase one's likelihood of either possessing or acting as a genetic carrier of birth defects.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Ngo Anh D. |author2=Richard Taylor |author3=Christine L. Roberts |author4=Tuan V. Nguyen |title=Association between Agent Orange and Birth Defects: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |publisher=Oxford University Press|date=13 February 2006|volume=35|issue=5|pages=1220–30 |doi=10.1093/ije/dyl038 |pmid=16543362|doi-access=free}}</ref> The most common deformation appears to be [[spina bifida]]. There is substantial evidence that the birth defects carry on for three generations or more.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/the-children-of-agent-orange|title=The Children of Agent Orange|date=16 December 2016 |website=ProPublica |author1=Charles Ornstein |author2=Hannah Fresques |author3=Mike Hixenbaugh |access-date=23 February 2018}}</ref> In 2012, the United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical on part of [[Danang International Airport]], marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-usa-agentorange-idUSBRE87803K20120809|title=U.S. starts its first Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam |newspaper=Reuters |date=9 August 2012}}</ref>
-[[File:A vietnamese Professor is pictured with a group of handicapped children.jpg|thumb|Handicapped children in Vietnam, most of them victims of [[Agent Orange]], 2004]]
-Vietnamese victims affected by Agent Orange attempted a class action lawsuit against [[Dow Chemical]] and other U.S. chemical manufacturers, but the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York|District Court]] dismissed their case.<ref>{{Harvnb|Roberts|2005|p=380}}.<br />In his 234-page judgment, the judge observed: "Despite the fact that Congress and the President were fully advised of a substantial belief that the herbicide spraying in Vietnam was a violation of international law, they acted on their view that it was not a violation at the time."</ref> They appealed, but the dismissal was cemented in February 2008 by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Crook|2008}}.</ref> {{As of|2006}}, the Vietnamese government estimates that there are over 4,000,000 victims of [[dioxin]] poisoning in Vietnam, although the United States government denies any conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and the Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In some areas of southern Vietnam, dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Anthony Faiola |date=13 November 2006 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html |title=In Vietnam, Old Foes Take Aim at War's Toxic Legacy |website=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=8 September 2013}}</ref>
-The U.S. Veterans Administration has listed [[prostate cancer]], [[lung cancer|respiratory cancers]], [[multiple myeloma]], [[Diabetes mellitus type 2]], [[B-cell lymphomas]], [[soft-tissue sarcoma]], [[chloracne]], [[porphyria cutanea tarda]], [[peripheral neuropathy]] and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange.<ref>{{cite web |title=Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange |url=http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509191150/http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |url-status=dead |publisher=[[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|va.gov]]|access-date=4 September 2013|archive-date=9 May 2010}}</ref>
-===Casualties===
-{{Main page|Vietnam War casualties}}
-{{See also|Vietnam War body count controversy}}
-{| class="wikitable sortable floatright" style="text-align:right;"
-|+ '''Military deaths in Vietnam War {{nowrap |(1955–1975)}}'''
-|-
-! Year || U.S.<ref name="USarchives">{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#category|title=Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics, Electronic Records Reference Report|at=DCAS Vietnam Conflict Extract File record counts by CASUALTY CATEGORY (as of April 29, 2008)|publisher=U.S. National Archives|date=30 April 2019|access-date=2 August 2021}} (generated from the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files (as of April 29, 2008))</ref>|| South Vietnam
-|-
-| 1956–1959 || 4 || n.a.
-|-
-| 1960 || 5 || 2,223
-|-
-| 1961 || 16 || 4,004
-|-
-| 1962 || 53 || 4,457
-|-
-| 1963 || 122 || 5,665
-|-
-| 1964 || 216 || 7,457
-|-
-| 1965 || 1,928 || 11,242
-|-
-| 1966 || 6,350 || 11,953
-|-
-| 1967 || 11,363 || 12,716
-|-
-| 1968 || 16,899 || 27,915
-|-
-| 1969 || 11,780 || 21,833
-|-
-| 1970 || 6,173 || 23,346
-|-
-| 1971 || 2,414 || 22,738
-|-
-| 1972 || 759 || 39,587
-|-
-| 1973 || 68 || 27,901
-|-
-| 1974 || 1 || 31,219
-|-
-| 1975 || 62 || n.a.
-|-
-| After 1975 || 7 || n.a.
-|- class="sortbottom"
-! Total || 58,220 || >254,256<ref name=Clarke/>{{rp|275}}
-|}
-Estimates of the number of casualties vary, with one source suggesting up to 3.8&nbsp;million violent war deaths in Vietnam for the period 1955 to 2002.<ref>{{cite news|title=fifty years of violent war deaths: data analysis from the world health survey program: BMJ|url=http://www.bmj.com/content/336/7659/1482|date=23 April 2008|access-date=5 January 2013}} From 1955 to 2002, data from the surveys indicated an estimated 5.4 million violent war deaths … 3.8 million in Vietnam.</ref> A detailed demographic study calculated 791,000–1,141,000 war-related deaths during the war for all of Vietnam, for both military and civilians.<ref name=Hirschman/> Between 195,000 and 430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–3}}<ref name=Thayer/>{{rp|}} Extrapolating from a 1969 US intelligence report, Guenter Lewy estimated 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died in the war.<ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–3}} Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder range from 30,000<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|176,617}} to 182,000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index2.html |title=Battlefield:Vietnam Timeline|publisher=Pbs.org|access-date=31 October 2011}}</ref> A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated nearly 1.4&nbsp;million civilians casualties between 1965 and 1974, including 415,000 deaths, and attributed over half as resulting from US and South Vietnamese military action.<ref name=Hirschman/>
-The military forces of South Vietnam suffered an estimated 254,256 killed between 1960 and 1974 and additional deaths from 1954 to 1959 and in 1975.<ref name=Clarke/>{{rp|275}} Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties.<ref name=Gravel/> The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 PAVN/VC forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Defense Department officials believed that these body count figures need to be deflated by 30 percent. Guenter Lewy asserts that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding that the actual number of deaths of PAVN/VC military forces was probably closer to 444,000.<ref name=Lewy/>{{rp|450–3}}
-[[File:Lighting incense at the Dong Loc Junction memorial.jpg|left|thumb|Cemetery for ten unmarried girls who volunteered for logistical activities, who died in a B-52 raid at [[Đồng Lộc Junction]], a strategic junction along the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]]]]
-According to figures released by the Vietnamese government there were 849,018 military deaths on the PAVN/VC side during the war.<ref name=Chuyen/><ref name=VNMOD/> The Vietnamese government released its estimate of war deaths for the more lengthy period of 1955 to 1975. This figure includes battle deaths of Vietnamese soldiers in the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, in which the PAVN was a major participant. Non-combat deaths account for 30 to 40% of these figures.<ref name=Chuyen/> However, the figures do not include deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers.<ref name=Shenon/> It is unclear whether the Vietnamese government figures includes the 300–330,000 PAVN/VC missing in action.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lost Souls: The Search for Vietnam's 300,000 or More MIAs|author=Joseph Babcock|website=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/lost-souls-the-search-for-vietnams-300000-or-more-mias|date=26 April 2019|access-date=7 May 2019}}</ref>
-US reports of "enemy KIA", referred to as body count were thought to have been subject to "falsification and glorification", and a true estimate of PAVN/VC combat deaths may be difficult to assess, as US victories were assessed by having a "greater kill ratio".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://articles.latimes.com/1991-01-31/news/mn-442_1_body-count|title=In This War, Body Count Is Ruled Out: Casualties: Gen. Schwarzkopf makes it clear he's not repeating a blunder made in Vietnam.|last=Kempster|first=Norman|date=31 January 1991|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=3 June 2018|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Aman|first=Mohammed M.|date=April 1993|title=General H. Norman Schwarzkopf: The Autobiography: It Doesn't Take a Hero; H. Norman Schwarzkopf with Peter Petre|journal=Digest of Middle East Studies|volume=2|issue=2|pages=90–94 |doi=10.1111/j.1949-3606.1993.tb00951.x|issn=1060-4367}}</ref> It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel on the Viet Cong side as many persons were part-time guerrillas or impressed labourers who did not wear uniforms{{sfn|Willbanks|2008|p=32}}<ref>[[Rand Corporation]] [http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a032189.pdf "Some Impressions of Viet Cong Vulnerabilities, an Interim Report"] 1965</ref> and civilians killed were sometimes written off as enemy killed because high enemy casualties was directly tied to promotions and commendation.<ref name=Currey/>{{rp|649–50}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience|last1=Kelman|first1=H.C|last2=Hamilton|first2=V.|work=Crimes of Obedience: Towards a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1989|isbn=978-0-300-04813-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/crimesofobedienc0000unse/page/1 1–12] |url=https://archive.org/details/crimesofobedienc0000unse/page/1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a096431.pdf |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190412100450/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a096431.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 April 2019 |title=Declassification of the BDM Study, "The Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam" |publisher=Defense Technical Center |pages=225–234}}</ref>
-Between 275,000<ref name=Banister/> and 310,000<ref name=Sliwinski/> Cambodians were estimated to have died during the war including between 50,000 and 150,000 combatants and civilians from US bombings.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Ben Kiernan|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|title=How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|year=2004 |isbn=978-0-300-10262-8 |page=xxiii |url=https://archive.org/details/howpolpotcametop00kier_0|url-access=registration}}</ref> 20,000–62,000 Laotians also died,<ref name=Obermeyer/> and 58,281 U.S. military personnel were killed,<ref name=2new/> of which 1,584 are still listed as missing as of March 2021.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Statistics%20as%20of%20March%201.pdf|title=Vietnam-era unaccounted for statistical report|date=1 March 2021}}</ref>
-===In popular culture===
-{{Main|Vietnam War films}}
-{{more citations needed|section|date=January 2020}}
-[[File:Thuong Tiec.jpg|thumb|Stone plaque with photo of the "Thương tiếc" ''(Mourning Soldier)'' statue, originally, installed at the [[Bình An Cemetery|Republic of Vietnam National Military Cemetery]]. The original statue was demolished in April 1975.]]
-The Vietnam War has been featured extensively in television, film, video games, music and literature in the participant countries. In Vietnam, one notable film set during Operation Linebacker II was the film ''[[Girl from Hanoi]]'' (1975) depicting war-time life in Hanoi. Another notable work was the diary of Đặng Thùy Trâm, a Vietnamese doctor who enlisted in the Southern battlefield, and was killed at the age of 27 by US forces near [[Quảng Ngãi]]. Her diaries were later published in Vietnam as ''Đặng Thùy Trâm's Diary'' (''Last Night I Dreamed Of Peace''), where it became a best-seller and was later made into a film ''[[Don't Burn]]'' (''Đừng Đốt''). In Vietnam the diary has often been compared to ''[[The Diary of a Young Girl|The Diary of Anne Frank]]'' and both are used in literary education.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov|title=Amsterdam Mayor visits Hanoi-Amsterdam High School|date=10 December 2014|work=VOV Online Newspaper|access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref> Another Vietnamese film produced was ''[[The Abandoned Field: Free Fire Zone]]'' (''Cánh đồng hoang)'' in 1979 which weaves the narrative of living on the ground in a US "free-fire zone" as well as perspectives from US helicopters.
-In American popular culture, the "Crazy Vietnam Veteran", who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, became a common [[stock character]] after the war.
-One of the first major films based on the Vietnam War was [[John Wayne]]'s pro-war ''[[The Green Berets (film)|The Green Berets]]'' (1968). Further cinematic representations were released during the 1970s and 1980s, some of the most noteworthy examples being [[Michael Cimino]]'s ''[[The Deer Hunter]]'' (1978), [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (1979), [[Oliver Stone]]'s ''[[Platoon (film)|Platoon]]'' (1986)&nbsp;– based on his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' (1987). Other Vietnam War films include ''[[Hamburger Hill]]'' (1987), ''[[Casualties of War]]'' (1989), ''[[Born on the Fourth of July (film)|Born on the Fourth of July]]'' (1989), ''[[The Siege of Firebase Gloria]]'' (1989), ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' (1994), ''[[We Were Soldiers]]'' (2002) and ''[[Rescue Dawn]]'' (2007).<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}}
-The war also influenced a generation of musicians and songwriters in Vietnam, the United States, and throughout the world, both anti-war and pro/anti-communist, with the [[Vietnam War Song Project]] having identified 5,000+ songs about or referencing the conflict.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brummer |first1=Justin |title=The Vietnam War: A History in Song |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/vietnam-war-history-song |website=History Today |access-date=6 August 2021}}</ref> The band [[Country Joe and the Fish]] recorded ''[[The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag]]'' in 1965, and it became one of the most influential anti-Vietnam protest anthems.<ref name=Tucker/>{{rp|}} Many songwriters and musicians supported the anti-war movement, including [[Pete Seeger]], [[Joan Baez]], [[Bob Dylan]], [[Peggy Seeger]], [[Ewan MacColl]], [[Barbara Dane]], [[The Critics Group]], [[Phil Ochs]], [[John Lennon]], [[John Fogerty]], [[Nina Simone]], [[Neil Young]], [[Tom Paxton]], [[Jimmy Cliff]] and [[Arlo Guthrie]]. The modern classical composer [[George Crumb]] composed a string quartet, a [[threnody]], regarding the war in 1970 titled [[Black Angels (Crumb)|''Black Angels'']].
-====Myths==== <!-- Redirect target of [[Mythology of the Vietnam War]] and [[Vietnam War myths]] -->
-{{See also|Vietnam stab-in-the-back myth}}
-Myths play a central role in the [[historiography]] of the Vietnam War, and have become a part of the [[culture of the United States]]. Much like the general historiography of the war, discussion of myth has focused on U.S. experiences, but changing myths of war have also played a role in [[Vietnam]]ese and [[Australia]]n historiography.
-Recent scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",<ref name=Milam/>{{rp|373}} attacking the previous orthodox and revisionist schools of American historiography of the Vietnam War. This scholarship challenges myths about American society and soldiery in the Vietnam War.<ref name=Milam/>{{rp|373}}
-Kuzmarov in ''The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs'' challenges the popular and Hollywood narrative that US soldiers were heavy drug users,<ref>{{cite book|last=Kuzmarov|first=Jeremy|title=The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qDbtvEIxWigC|year=2009|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-705-4|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qDbtvEIxWigC&pg=PA3&dq=nixon+%22tide+of+drug+abuse%22 3–4]}}</ref> in particular the notion that the My Lai massacre was caused by drug use.<ref name=Milam/>{{rp|373}} According to Kuzmarov, Richard Nixon is primarily responsible for creating the drug myth.<ref name=Milam/>{{rp|374}}
-Michael Allen in ''Until The Last Man Comes Home'' also accuses Nixon of myth making, by exploiting the plight of the [[League of Wives of American Prisoners in Vietnam]] and the [[National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia]] to allow the government to appear caring as the war was increasingly considered lost.<ref name=Milam/>{{rp|376}} Allen's analysis ties the position of potential missing or prisoner Americans into post-war politics and recent presidential elections, including the [[Swift Vets and POWs for Truth|Swift boat]] controversy in US electoral politics.<ref name=Milam/>{{rp|376–7}}
-===Commemoration===
-On 25 May 2012, President [[Barack Obama]] issued a [[Presidential proclamation|proclamation]] of the [[s:Proclamation 8829|commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Office of the Press Secretary|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2012/05/25/presidential-proclamation-commemoration-50th-anniversary-vietnam-war|title=Presidential Proclamation Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War|work=[[whitehouse.gov]]|publisher=[[White House]]|location=[[Washington, DC]]|language=en|date=25 May 2017|access-date=13 November 2017|author1-link=White House Office of the Press Secretary}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/06/01/2012-13514/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war|title=Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War|work=[[Federal Register]]|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|location=[[Washington, DC]]|date=25 May 2012|access-date=11 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114040944/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/06/01/2012-13514/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war|archive-date=14 November 2017}} [https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-06-01/pdf/2012-13514.pdf Alt URL]</ref> On 10 November 2017, President [[Donald Trump]] issued an additional [[s:Proclamation 9674|proclamation commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/trump-marks-veterans-day-commemoration-vietnam/story?id=51057690|title=Trump marks Veterans Day with commemoration in Vietnam|first=Devin|last=Dwyer|work=[[ABC News]]|publisher=[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]|location=[[New York City]]|date=10 November 2017|access-date=13 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/17/2017-25164/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war|title=Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War|work=[[Federal Register]]|publisher=[[National Archives and Records Administration]]|location=[[Washington, DC]]|date=10 November 2017|access-date=20 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117170703/https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/11/17/2017-25164/commemoration-of-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-vietnam-war|archive-date=17 November 2017}} [https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-11-17/pdf/2017-25164.pdf Alt URL]</ref>
-==See also==
-{{Portal|Vietnam|United States|War|1950s|1960s|1970s}}
-* [[History of Cambodia]]
-* [[History of Laos]]
-* [[History of Vietnam]]
-* [[List of conflicts in Asia]]
-* [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War]]
-* [[U.S. news media and the Vietnam War]]
-* [[Third Indochina War]]
-* [[Sino-Vietnamese War]]
-* [[The Vietnam War (TV series)|''The Vietnam War'' (TV series)]]
-* [[Soviet–Afghan War]]
-{{clear}}
-==Annotations==
-{{Reflist|group="A"}}
-== References ==
-{{Anchor|Notes}}
-The references for this article are grouped in three sections.
-* [[Vietnam War#Citations|Citations]]: references for the in-line, numbered superscript references contained within the article.
-* [[Vietnam War#Main sources|Main sources]]: the main works used to build the content of the article, but not referenced as in-line citations.
-* [[Vietnam War#Additional sources|Additional sources]]: additional works used to build the article
-=== Citations ===
 {{reflist}}
-=== Works cited ===
+==Other websites==
-{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
+{{commons}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=John F. |year=2019 |title=Communist Nations' Military Assistance |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-72473-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BiyNDwAAQBAJ}}
+*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3798581.stm The herbicide Agent Orange has left a lasting legacy on Vietnam]
-*{{Cite journal |last=Crook |first=John R. |year=2008 |title=Court of Appeals Affirms Dismissal of Agent Orange Litigation |journal=[[American Journal of International Law]] |volume=102 |number=3 |pages=662–664 |jstor=20456664 |doi=10.2307/20456664}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Demma |first=Vincent H. |year=1989 |chapter=The U.S. Army in Vietnam |pages=619–694 |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/AMH-28.htm |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/amh-toc.htm |title=American Military History |location=Washington, DC |publisher=[[US Army Center of Military History]]}}
-*{{cite book|last=Eisenhower|first=Dwight D.|title=Mandate for Change|publisher=Doubleday & Company|year=1963|url=https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise|url-access=registration}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Holm |first=Jeanne |author-link=Jeanne M. Holm |year=1992 |title=Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution |location=Novato, CA |publisher=[[Presidio Press]] |isbn=978-0-89141-450-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninmilitary00jean |url-access=registration}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Karnow |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Karnow |year=1997 |title=Vietnam: A History |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-026547-7}}
-*{{cite report |type=memo |last=Kissinger |year=1975 |title="Lessons of Vietnam" by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, ca. May 12, 1975 |url=http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/vietnam/750512a.htm |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080509064916/http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/vietnam/750512a.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 May 2008 |access-date=11 June 2008}}
-*{{cite book |editor-last=Leepson |editor-first=Marc |year=1999 |title=Dictionary of the Vietnam War |location=New York |publisher=Webster's New World}}
-*{{cite book |author=Military History Institute of Vietnam |title=Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975 |translator=Merle Pribbenow |publisher=University of Kansas Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-7006-1175-4}}
-*{{cite book |last=Nalty |first=Bernard |year=1998 |title=The Vietnam War |location=New York |publisher=Barnes and Noble |isbn=978-0-7607-1697-7}}
-*{{Cite book |last1=Olson |first1=James S. |last2=Roberts |first2=Randy |year=2008 |title=Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam 1945–1995 |edition= 5th |location=Malden, MA |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-4051-8222-5}}
-*{{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=Michael G. |year=2007 |title=The Case of Agent Orange |journal= Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=29 |number=1 |pages=172–195 |jstor=25798819 |doi=10.1355/cs29-1h}}
-*{{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Anthea |year=2005 |title=The Agent Orange Case: Vietnam Ass'n for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin v. Dow Chemical Co |journal=[[American Society of International Law|ASIL Proceedings]] |volume=99 |number=1 |pages=380–385 |jstor=25660031}}
-*{{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Richard |year=2007 |title=Agent Orange's Bitter Harvest |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=315 |issue=5809 |pages=176–179 |jstor=20035179 |pmid=17218503 |s2cid=161597245 |doi=10.1126/science.315.5809.176}}
-*{{cite book |editor-last=Terry |editor-first=Wallace |editor-link=Wallace Terry |title=Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans |year=1984 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-394-53028-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodsoralhistor00terr |url-access=registration}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Truong |first=Như Tảng |author-link=Trương Như Tảng |year=1985 |title=A Vietcong memoir |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=978-0-15-193636-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/vietcongmemoir00trng}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Westheider |first=James E. |year=2007 |title=The Vietnam War |location=Westport, CN |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-33755-0}}
-*{{cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |year=2008 |title=The Tet Offensive: A Concise History |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-12841-4}}
-*{{cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |year=2009 |title=Vietnam War almanac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5WWklFB5O4C |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-7102-9}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |year=2014 |title=A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/28613 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-1-62349-117-8}}
-*{{cite book |last=Woodruff |first=Mark |year=2005 |title=Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of The Viet Cong and The North Vietnamese |location=Arlington, VA |publisher=[[Presidio Press]] |isbn=978-0-89141-866-5}}
-{{refend}}
-===Main sources===
-{{Refbegin|40em|indent=yes}}
-*Central Intelligence Agency. "[https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/laos/ Laos]", ''CIA World Factbook''
-*{{cite web |url=http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=227219&sid=1880539 |title=Cora Weiss Collection |work=Special Collections – Lloyd Sealy Library: Manuscript Collections |publisher=[[John Jay College of Criminal Justice]]}} (materials related to war resistance and peace activism movements during the Vietnam War),
-*''Foreign Relations of the United States''<br/>{{cite book |title=Volume I, Vietnam 1964 |editor-last1=Keefer |editor-first1=Edward C. |editor-last2=Sampson |editor-first2=Charles S. |year=1992 |others=General Editor: John P. Glennon |isbn=0-16-032358-4 |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01 |via=Office of the Historian}}<br/>{{cite book |title=Volume II, Vietnam January–June 1965 |editor-last1=Humphrey |editor-first1=David C. |editor-last2=Landa |editor-first2=Ronald D. |editor-last3=Smith |editor-first3=Louis J. |others=General Editor: Glenn W. LaFantasie |year=1996 |isbn=0-16-045126-4 |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v02 |via=Office of the Historian}}<br/>{{cite book |title=Volume III, Vietnam June–December 1965 |editor-last1=Humphrey |editor-first1=David C. |editor-last2=Keefer |editor-first2=Edward C. |editor-last3=Smith |editor-first3=Louis J. |others=General Editor: Glenn W. LaFantasie |year=1996 |isbn=0-16-045129-9 |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v03 |via=Office of the Historian}}<br/>{{cite book |title=Volume IV, Vietnam 1966 |editor-last1=Humphrey |editor-first1=David C. |others=General Editor: David S. Patterson |year=1998 |isbn=0-16-048812-5 |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v04 |via=Office of the Historian}}
-*{{cite book |last=Ho |first=Chi Minh |contribution=Vietnam Declaration of Independence |title=Selected Works |date=1960–1962}}
-*{{cite book |last1=LeMay |first1=Curtis E. |last2=Kantor |first2=MacKinlay |title=Mission with LeMay |year=1965}} autobiography of controversial former Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force
-*{{Cite book|last=O'Connell|first=Kim A.|year=2006|title=Primary Source Accounts of the Vietnam War|location=Berkeley Heights, NJ|publisher=MyReportLinks.com|isbn=978-1-59845-001-9}}
-*{{cite book |last=McCain |first=John |title=Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir |title-link=Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir |year=1999 |isbn=0-06-095786-7}}
-*{{cite book |last=Marshall |first=Kathryn |title=In the Combat Zone: An Oral History of American Women in Vietnam, 1966–1975 |year=1987 |isbn=0-316-54707-7}}
-*{{cite book |last=Myers |first=Thomas |title=Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam |year=1988 |isbn=0-19-505351-6}}
-*{{cite book |title=Pentagon Papers |year=1971 |location=Boston |publisher=Beacon Press |title-link=Pentagon Papers|edition=Gravel }} 5 volumes.<br/>{{cite book |title=Volume 1 |chapter=Chapter I, Background to the Crisis, 1940-50 |pages=1–52 |chapter-url= http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent1.html |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}}<br/>Combination of narrative and secret documents compiled by Pentagon.
-*''Public Papers of the Presidents, 1965'' (1966) official documents of U.S. presidents.
-*{{cite book |last=Schlesinger |first=Arthur M. Jr. |title=Robert Kennedy and His Times |year=1978}} a first-hand account of the Kennedy administration by one of his principal advisors
-*{{cite journal |last=Sinhanouk |first=Prince Norodom |title=Cambodia Neutral: The Dictates of Necessity |journal=Foreign Affairs |year=1958}} describes the geopolitical situation of Cambodia
-*United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense. Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1971, 12 volumes.
-*{{cite AV media |title=Vietnam: A Television History |title-link=Vietnam: A Television History |date=1983 |publisher=PBS |series=American Experience}}
-{{refend}}
-===Additional sources===
-{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
-*{{Cite book|last=Anderson |first=David L. |year=2004 |title=Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-11492-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780231114929}}
-*Angio, Joe. ''Nixon a Presidency Revealed'' (2007) [[The History Channel]] television documentary
-*{{Cite book |last=Appy |first=Christian G. |author-link=Christian G. Appy |year=2006 |title=Vietnam: The Definitive Oral History, Told from All Sides |location=London |publisher=Ebury Press |isbn=978-0-09-191011-2}}
-*Baker, Kevin. "Stabbed in the Back! The past and future of a right-wing myth", ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'' (June 2006) {{cite web |url=http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0081080 |title=Stabbed in the back! The past and future of a right-wing myth (Harper's Magazine) |access-date=11 June 2008}}
-*{{Cite book|last=Berman |first=Larry |year=1989 |title=Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam |location=New York |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-393-02636-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/lyndonjohnsonswa00berm}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Blaufarb |first=Douglas S. |year=1977 |title=The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance, 1950 to the Present |location=New York |publisher=[[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]] |isbn=978-0-02-903700-3}}
-*Blaufarb Douglas S. ''The Counterinsurgency Era'' (1977). A history of the Kennedy Administration's involvement in South Vietnam.
-*Brigham, Robert K. ''Battlefield Vietnam: A Brief History''. A PBS interactive website.
-*{{Cite book|last=Brocheux |first=Pierre |title=Ho Chi Minh: a biography |year=2007 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-85062-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hochiminhbiograp00broc/page/198 198] |url=https://archive.org/details/hochiminhbiograp00broc/page/198}}
-*{{cite magazine |last=Buckley |first=Kevin |url=http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/buckley.html |title=Pacification's Deadly Price |magazine=[[Newsweek]] |date=19 June 1972 |access-date=5 August 2008}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Carney |first=Timothy |year=1989 |chapter=The Unexpected Victory |editor=Karl D. Jackson |title=Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death |pages=13–35 |location=Princeton, NJ |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-07807-6}}
-*{{Cite book |editor1-last=Church |editor1-first=Peter |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-470-82181-7}}
-*{{Cite book |last1=Cooper |first=Chester L. |title=The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam |url=https://archive.org/details/lostcrusadeameri00coop |url-access=registration |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-396-06241-7}} a Washington insider's memoir of events.
-*{{Cite book |last=Courtwright |first=David T. |year=2005 |title=Sky as Frontier: Adventure, Aviation, and Empire |location=College Station, TX |publisher=[[Texas A&M University Press]]|isbn=978-1-58544-384-0}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Crump |first=Laurien |year=2015 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLSgBgAAQBAJ |title=The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955–1969 |location=Oxon |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-73254-1}}
-*{{cite book |last=Dennis |first=Peter |title=The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History |publisher=Oxford University Press Australia & New Zealand |location=Melbourne |year=2008 |edition= Second |isbn=978-0-19-551784-2 |display-authors=etal}}
-*{{cite web |last=DoD |date=6 November 1998 |url=http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=1902 |title=Name of Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon to be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial |publisher=[[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense (DoD)]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020044326/http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=1902 |archive-date=20 October 2013}}
-*{{Cite book |last1=Dror |first1=Olga |title=Making Two Vietnams: War and Youth Identities, 1965–1975 |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-47012-4}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Duiker |first=William J. |year=1981 |title=The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-89158-794-1}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Duncanson |first=Dennis J. |year=1968 |title=Government and Revolution in Vietnam |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |oclc=411221}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Etcheson |first=Craig |year=2005 |title=After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide |location=New York |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-275-98513-4}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Fall |first=Bernard B. |author-link=Bernard B. Fall |year=1967 |title=The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis |edition= 2nd |location=New York |publisher=[[Praeger Publishing|Praeger]] |isbn=978-0-9991417-9-3}}
-*{{cite book |last=Fincher |first=Ernest Barksdale |title=The Vietnam War |year=1980}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Ford |first=Harold P. |title=CIA and the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962–1968 |year=1998 |oclc= 39333058}}
-*{{Cite book |editor1-last=Gerdes |editor1-first=Louise I. |title=Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons: The Vietnam War |year=2005 |publisher=Greenhaven Press |isbn=978-0-7377-2531-5}}
-*{{cite book |last1=Gettleman |first1=Marvin E. |last2=Franklin |first2=Jane |last3=Young |first3=Marilyn |title=Vietnam and America: A Documented History |year=1995}}
-*{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aAnucQAZikoC |last=Greiner |first=Bernd |year=2010 |title=War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam |location=London|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-09-953259-0}}
-*{{cite book |last=Healy |first=Gene |title=The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MRA2jIyejwAC |year=2009 |publisher=Cato Institute |isbn=978-1-933995-19-9}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George C. |year=2001 |title=America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 |edition= 4th |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-253618-8}}
-*{{cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |title=The Vietnam Syndrome}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Michael P. |year=2002 |title=Where We Were in Vietnam |location=Oregon |publisher=Hellgate Press |isbn=978-1-55571-625-7}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Khong |first=Yuen Foong |year=1992 |title=Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 |url=https://archive.org/details/analogiesatwarko00khon |url-access=registration |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-07846-5}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Kiernan |year=2008 |title=The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia Under the Khmer Rouge |edition= 3rd |location=New Haven, Connecticut |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-14434-5}}
-*{{Cite journal |author-mask=3 |last1=Kiernan |first=Ben |last2=Owen |first2=Taylor |title=Bombs over Cambodia |url=http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf |journal=[[The Walrus]] |issue=October 2006 |pages=62–69}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Kolko |first=Gabriel |author-link=Gabriel Kolko |year=1985 |title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience |location=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-394-74761-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofwarviet00kolk |url-access=registration}}
-*{{Cite book | editor-last= Kutler |editor-first= Stanley I. |year=1996 |title=Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War |location=New York |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |isbn=978-0-13-276932-7}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=A.T. |year=2009 |title=Crucible Vietnam: Memoir of an Infantry Lieutenant |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-4517-2}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Lawrence |first=Mark Atwood |year=2008 |title=The Vietnam War: A Concise International History |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-531465-6}}
-*{{Cite book|last=Lewy |first=Guenter |author-link=Guenter Lewy |year=1978 |title=America in Vietnam |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-502732-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam00lewy}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Logevall |first=Fredrik |author-link=Fredrik Logevall |year=2001 |title=The Origins of the Vietnam War |location=Harlow |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-31918-9}}
-*{{Cite book |author-mask=3 |last=Logevall |first=Fredrik |year=2010 |chapter=The Indochina wars and the Cold War, 1945–1975 |editor1=Melvyn P. Leffler |editor2=Odd Arne Westad |title=The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume II: Crises and Détente |pages=281–304 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83720-0}}
-*{{cite book |last=McGibbon |first=Ian |author2=ed |title=The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Auckland |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-19-558376-2}}
-*{{Cite book |last=McMahon |first=Robert J. |year=1995 |title=Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays}}
-*{{Cite book |last=McNeill |first=Ian |title=To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966 |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |location=St Leonards |year=1993 |isbn=978-1-86373-282-6}}
-*{{cite book |title= Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam |first= Edward |last= Miller |year= 2013 |publisher= Harvard University Press |isbn= 978-0-674-07298-5}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Milne |first=David |year=2008 |title=America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War |location=New York |publisher=Hill & Wang |isbn=978-0-374-10386-6}}
-*{{Cite book|last=Moïse |first=Edwin E. |author-link=Edwin E. Moise |year=1996 |title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002}}
-*{{Cite book |author-mask=3 |last=Moïse |first=Edwin E. |year=2002 |title=Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-4183-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000mois}}
-*{{cite book |last=Moss |first=George D. |title=Vietnam |edition=4th |year=2002}} textbook.
-*{{Cite book |last=Moyar |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Moyar |year=2006 |title=Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86911-9}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Neale |first=Jonathan |year=2001 |title=The American War: Vietnam, 1960–1975 |location=London |publisher=Bookmarks |isbn=978-1-898876-67-0}}
-*{{cite book |last=Neel |first=Spurgeon |author-link=Spurgeon Neel |title=Medical Support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1965–1970 |publisher=Department of the Army |year=1991}} official medical history
-*{{Cite book|last=Nelson |first=Deborah |year=2008 |title=The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth about U.S. War Crimes |location=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-00527-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/warbehindmevietn00nels_0}}
-*{{cite book |last1=Nguyen |first1=Duy Lap |title=The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam |date=2020 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-4396-9}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Oberdorfer |first=Don |author-link=Don Oberdorfer |year=2001 |orig-year=1971 |title=Tet! The Turning Point in the Vietnam War |location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-0-8018-6703-3}}
-*{{Cite journal |last1=Obermeyer |first1=Ziad |last2=Murray |first2=Christopher J.L. |last3=Gakidou |first3=Emmanuela |year=2008 |title=Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme |journal=[[BMJ]] |volume=336 |pages=1482–86 |doi=10.1136/bmj.a137 |pmid=18566045 |issue=7659 |pmc=2440905}}
-*{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Bruce Jr. |title=The Twenty-Five Year War |year=1984}} Narrative military history by a senior U.S. general.
-*{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Dave R. |author-link=Dave Richard Palmer |year=1978 |title=Summons of Trumpet: U.S.–Vietnam in Perspective |url=https://archive.org/details/summonsoftrumpet00palm |url-access=registration |location=Novato, CA |publisher=[[Presidio Press]] |isbn=978-0-89141-550-3}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Robbins |first=Mary Susannah |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RK1XoEXCoVEC |title=Against the Vietnam War: Writings by Activists |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-0-7425-5914-1}}
-*{{cite book |last=Roberts III |first=Mervyn Edwin |title=The Psychological War for Vietnam, 1960–1968 |year=2018}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Schandler |first=Herbert Y. |year=2009 |title=America in Vietnam: The War That Couldn't Be Won |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-6697-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha}}
-*Schell, Jonathan. ''The Time of Illusion'' (1976).
-*Schulzinger, Robert D. ''A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941–1975'' (1997).
-*{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Sheehan |year=1989 |title=A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam |location=New York |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-679-72414-8|title-link=A Bright Shining Lie}}
-*Sorley, Lewis, ''A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam'' (1999), based upon still classified tape-recorded meetings of top level US commanders in Vietnam, {{ISBN|0-15-601309-6}}
-*Spector, Ronald. ''After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam'' (1992), very broad coverage of 1968.
-*{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=Vietnam order of battle |edition= 2003 |year=2003 |publisher=Stackpole Books |isbn=978-0-8117-0071-9}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Stuart-Fox |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Stuart-Fox |year=1997 |title=A History of Laos |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-59235-2|title-link=History of Laos}}
-*Summers, Harry G. [https://books.google.com/?id=-Z4l-ZySVWwC ''On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War''], Presidio press (1982), {{ISBN|0-89141-563-7}} (225 pages)
-*{{Cite book |last=Thayer |first=Thomas C. |year=1985 |title=War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam |location=Boulder, CO|publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-8133-7132-0}}
-*Tucker, Spencer. ed. ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War'' (1998) 3 vol. reference set; also one-volume abridgement (2001).
-*{{Cite book |author-mask=3 |last=Thayer |first=Thomas C. |year=1999 |title=Vietnam |location=London |publisher=[[UCL Press]] |isbn=978-1-85728-921-3}}
-*{{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |year=2011 |orig-year=1998 |title=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-960-3}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |year=1975 |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |location=Stanford, CA |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Turse |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Turse |year=2013 |title=Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam |location=New York |publisher=Metropolitan Books |isbn=978-0-8050-8691-1}}
-*{{Cite book |last=Young |first=Marilyn B. |author-link=Marilyn B. Young |year=1991 |title=The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990 |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamwars194510000youn |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=[[HarperPerennial]] |isbn=978-0-06-092107-1}}
-*Xiaoming, Zhang. "China's 1979 War With Vietnam: A Reassessment", ''China Quarterly.'' Issue no. 184, (December 2005) {{Cite journal |title=CJO – Abstract – China's 1979 War with Vietnam: A Reassessment |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=184 |pages=851 |doi=10.1017/S0305741005000536 |year=2005 |last1=Zhang |first1=Xiaoming |s2cid=154831743 |url=https://semanticscholar.org/paper/e60e9897f3dd09b3667d4010b23d754438c78da2}}
-{{Refend}}
-===Historiography and memory===
-{{Refbegin}}
-*{{cite journal |last=Hall |first=Simon |title=Scholarly Battles over the Vietnam War |journal=Historical Journal |volume=52 |date=September 2009 |issue=3 |pages=813–829|doi=10.1017/S0018246X09990185 |s2cid=161303298 }}
-*{{cite book |last=Nau |first=Terry L. |date=2013 |title=Reluctant Soldier... Proud Veteran: How a cynical Vietnam vet learned to take pride in his service to the USA |location=Leipzig |publisher=Amazon Distribution GmbH |isbn=978-1-4827-6149-8 |oclc=870660174}}
-{{Refend}}
-==Further reading==
-* {{cite book |first=Jan |last=Berry |author-link=W.D. Ehrhart |title=Demilitarized Zones – Veterans after Vietnam |publisher=East River Anthology |year=1976 |location=Perkasie, PA |isbn=0-917238-01-X}}
-*{{cite journal |last1=Conboy|first1=Ken|last2=Morrison|first2=James|name-list-style=amp|title=Plausible Deniability: US-Taiwanese Covert Insertions into North Vietnam |journal=Air Enthusiast |date=November–December 1999|issue=84 |pages=29–34 |issn=0143-5450}}
-* {{cite book |last=Hammond |first=William |title=Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962–1968 |year=1987}}
-* [[Elizabeth Kolbert|Kolbert, Elizabeth]], "This Close; The day the Cuban missile crisis almost went nuclear" (a review of [[Martin J. Sherwin]]'s ''Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis'', New York, Knopf, 2020), ''[[The New Yorker]]'', 12 October 2020, pp.&nbsp;70–73. Kolbert writes: "[On taking office as President, Lyndon] Johnson wasn't informed that... President [Kennedy] had traded away American [nuclear] warheads [in Turkey in order to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis]. The lesson L.B.J. seems to have drawn... was that Kennedy had succeeded by refusing to compromise [with the Soviets]. This would have deeply unfortunate consequences when it came time for Johnson to deal with North Vietnam." (p.&nbsp;72.)
-* {{cite magazine |first=Chris |last=Mullin |title=Terror Was Absolute |magazine=[[London Review of Books]] |volume=41 |number=14 |date=18 July 2019 |pages=35–36}} (Review of [[Max Hastings]], ''Vietnam:  An Epic Tragedy, 1945–75'', Collins, 2019, 722 pp., {{ISBN|978-0-00-813301-6}})
-* {{cite book |author-mask=3 |last=Hammond |first=William |title=Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1968–1973 |year=1995}} Full-scale history of the war by U.S. Army; much broader than title suggests.
-* {{cite book |publisher=[[DK (publisher)|DK]] |title=The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History |year=2017}}
-==External links==
-{{Sister project links|d=Q8740|n=no|species=no|voy=no|s=no|b=Modern History/Vietnam War}}
-* [http://watch.opb.org/video/2285035194/ A Vietnam Diary's Homecoming] Video produced by the [[PBS]] Series [[History Detectives]]
-* [http://www.americanhistoryprojects.com/downloads/vietnam.htm Detailed bibliography of Vietnam War]
-* [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy–Vietnam] primary sources on U.S. involvement
-* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510024439/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552505 Fallout of the War] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160115205405/https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
-* [http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Glossary/Sixties_Term_Gloss_K_P.html Glossary of Military Terms & Slang from the Vietnam War]
-* [http://content.library.ccsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/VHP&CISOPTR=5558&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 Impressions of Vietnam and descriptions of the daily life of a soldier from the oral history of Elliott Gardner, U.S. Army] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430050258/http://content.library.ccsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2FVHP&CISOPTR=5558&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 |date=30 April 2011 }}
-* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121024150216/http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/manuscripts/collections/ms044.dot Stephen H. Warner Southeast Asia Photograph Collection at Gettysburg College]
-* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110501134722/http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=vietnam Timeline US&nbsp;– Vietnam (1947–2001)] in Open-Content project
-* [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/vietnam/short.history/chap_28.txt The U.S. Army in Vietnam] the official history of the United States Army
-* [http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war The Vietnam War] at The History Channel
-* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/ UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: Anti-Vietnam War Protests]
-* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403230616/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/ Vietnam war timeline] comprehensive timeline of the Vietnam War
-* [http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/ Virtual Vietnam Archive]&nbsp;– Texas Tech University
-* [http://mashable.com/2016/02/05/another-vietnam-photography/ 1965–1975 Another Vietnam; Unseen images of the war from the winning side] – [[Mashable]]
-* [http://openarchives.umb.edu/cdm/search/collection/p15774coll8/searchterm/Vietnam%20War/field/subjec/mode/exact/conn/and/order/date Archival collections about the Vietnam War], University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, [[University of Massachusetts Boston]]
-{{Vietnam War|state=expanded}}
-{{Vietnam War graphical timeline}}
-{{Vietnam in the 20th century}}
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