History
HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR
The Vietnam War molded the political world from the mid to late 20th century and redirected international focus from Europe to Asia. The central players in the war included the Vietnamese, the French, and finally the Americans. France had maintained colonial rule over the Indochina region for nearly a hundred years until July of 1954 when they were forced to leave. Since the 1920s Ho Chi Minh and a group of Vietnamese expatriates pushed forward a Communist campaign to gain independence for Vietnam known as the Vietminh. The Vietminh continuously fought against the French and finally won their landmark victory at Dien Bien Phu under the guide of General Vo Nguyen Giap. On July 21, 1954 after the defeat of the French, the warring sides signed the Geneva Peace Accords, a cease-fire agreement in which Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel between French and Vietminh forces with plans to organize a national election to unify the country.
Vietnamese Victory at Dien Bien Phu
It is important to keep in mind that throughout this conflict the United States had supported and sent aid to the French troops as an attempt to strike against the rising powers of communism. Secretary of State John Dulles and President Dwight D. Eisenhower did not agree with the Geneva Peace Accords because they believed it granted the Vietminh extensive control of Vietnam. Dulles and Eisenhower favored the idea of starting a non-Communist revolutionary movement in Southern Vietnam to counter the powers of Northern Vietnam through the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). With the assistance of the United States government, South Vietnam gave rise to the Government of the Republic of Vietnam and anti-Communist Ngo Dinh Diem was elected president. Diem passed strict laws to monitor the activity of the South Vietnamese people as a means of capturing the Communist supporters. His domineering and tyrannical rule caused a massive protest from the Vietnamese who feared a regression back to the dictatorial way of life under the French.
The Geneva Conference in Geneva, Switzerland
The administration of John F. Kennedy supported the efforts of the Republic of South Vietnam against the National Liberation Front and the Viet Cong. The NLF, the opposition’s political wing, sought to bring down Diem and join together the two halves of their country. They claimed they were not in cahoots with the Communists and were comprised mostly of non-Communist supporters. The NLF also had a military wing that did a great deal of the fighting against the ARVN (The Army of the Republic of Vietnam) and US forces. The United States referred to them as “Viet Cong,” an insulting name to mean Vietnamese Communist.
Within a few years the United States became thoroughly disheartened by Diem’s reluctance to increase the powers of the South Vietnamese government. With repeated reports from Vietnam showing a lack of progress and Diem’s growing unpopularity, Kennedy worked on creating a coup. On November 1, 1963 the Vietnamese generals established General Duong Van Minh as president. It is later on this day that Diem and his brother were captured and killed by military opponents.
Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin Address
Following the assassination of Kennedy November 22 of the same year, President Johnson came to power and wanted to send larger military forces into Vietnam in order to calm the political turmoil there. In August of 1964, two American ships were attacked by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson used this event to broaden United States involvement in Vietnam through the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The first American combat troops were deployed in March of 1965, but the Communist Party of Vietnam believed they could win the war because they were determined to reach their objective of permanently removing foreign control.
About 2.5 million soldiers served in the war, and only 25% of the total United States forced serving were draftees as compared to 66% during World War II. While the war had the overwhelming support of the American people at first, that support began to wain as American casualties mounted. The war took a sour turn for Americans on January 30, 1968 during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, when the Viet Cong attacked most major cities in South Vietnam and briefly occupied the grounds of the U.S. embassy in Saigon. While the offensive resulted in a significant military defeat for the Viet Cong forces, the American public opinion turned firmly the war. Indeed the opposition to the war was so intense in the United States that it was a significant factor in President Johnson’s decision not to run for another term in office.
Tet Offensive
President Nixon won the election in November of 1968 and spoke of quickly ending the war. The Vietnamese were thoroughly ravaged by the war and American patience was dwindling fast. Instead of successfully negotiating, Nixon started the process of “Vietnamization,” allowing the US to withdraw its troops while increasing the bombing campaign against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese and at the same time handing more control to South Vietnam’s Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University
The effects of the draft, intensified bombing of Laos and Cambodia, as well as the growing reach of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) culminated in the infamous Kent State protests. On May 4, 1970, the National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University anti-war demonstrators, ultimately killing four and wounding nine Kent State Students. This event triggered students from all over the country to go on strike and force the closure of hundreds of universities and colleges.
By 1972, a peace agreement had been drawn to end the war, but President Nguyen van Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky in Saigon rejected the deal. In January of 1973, under the Paris Peace Accords, the United States government convinced the leaders of South Vietnam that they would withdraw all troops and leave Vietnam to the Vietnamese. The conflict within Vietnam continued as the Communist and non-Communist forces fought until the eventual fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 at the hands of the North Vietnamese.
The Paris Peace Accords
The United States at this point wished to put as much distance as possible between itself and Vietnam. Vietnam was considered a failure and the government backed away from adequately caring after the needs of the returning soldiers. Due to the recession of the early 1970s and the fear of attracting public attention to the nation’s longest war, many Vietnam veterans felt they were ignored and/or slighted by the Federal Government and the general American public upon coming home. These veterans joined together to find comfort in each other and endure the lasting effects of the war that followed them here from Vietnam. The story of the Vietnam War has not yet ended.
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Citations
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“Footprint Vietnam Travel.” 2009.http://www.footprintsvietnam.com/gallery/dienbienphu/dien-bien-phu1.jpg (accessed 12 May 2009).
Hensley, Thomas R. and Jerry M. Lewis. “The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: The Search for Historical Accuracy. The Ohio Council For The Social Studies Review34. 1 (1998), 9-21, http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm. (accessed May 13, 2009).
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Nelson, Cary . “A Vietnam War Timeline.” 1999. http://www.pbshttp://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/vietnam/vietnamwar.htm.org/battlefieldvietnam/history/index.html (accessed 7 May 2009).
Nelson, Cary . “The Causes of the Vietnam War.” 1999. http://www.english.illinois.edu/Maps/vietnam/causes.htm
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I hope you guys don’t mind but I made a bunch of edits. I also don’t understand one segment in the middle referring to can’t state. You can find it because it has question marks around it.
The edits are great and the Kent State bit is fixed.