The Vietnam War is the commonly used proper noun for the Second Indochina War, 1954–1975. Usually it refers to the catamenia when the United States and other members of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Arrangement) joined the forces with the Democracy of South Vietnam to contest communist forces, comprised of Due south Vietnamese guerrillas and regular-forcefulness units, generally known as Viet Cong (VC), and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentially directed the war from 1965 to 1968. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known every bit the American State of war. Information technology was a direct consequence of the Kickoff Indochina War (1946–1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known equally Viet Minh. In 1973 a "third" Vietnam war began—a continuation, actually—betwixt North and Southward Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. It ended with communist victory in April 1975.

The Vietnam War was the longest in U.S. history until the Afghanistan War (2002-2014). The war was extremely divisive in the U.South., Europe, Australia, and elsewhere. Because the U.S. failed to achieve a military victory and the Republic of South Vietnam was ultimately taken over by Northward Vietnam, the Vietnam experience became known as "the merely war America ever lost." It remains a very controversial topic that continues to affect political and military decisions today.

Facts

when was the vietnam war?

1954–1975

LocationS

  • South Vietnam
  • Due north Vietnam
  • Cambodia
  • Laos

who won the vietnam war?

North Vietnam

Troop Strength

  • South Vietnam: 850,000
  • United States: 540,000
  • South korea: 50,000
  • Others: 80,000+

Casualties

South Vietnam
  • 200,000–400,000 civilians
  • 170,000-220,000 military
  • Over i million wounded
Us
  • 58,200 dead
  • 300,000 wounded
N Vietnam
  • 50,000+ civilian dead
  • 400,000–1 million military dead
  • Over 500,000 wounded

more than vietnam war Stories

how many people died in the Vietnam State of war?

The U.South. suffered over 47,000 killed in action plus some other 11,000 noncombat deaths; over 150,000 were wounded and x,000 missing.

Casualties for the Republic of South Vietnam will never be adequately resolved. Depression estimates calculate 110,000 combat KIA and a one-half-million wounded. Civilian loss of life was also very heavy, with the lowest estimates around 415,000.

Similarly, prey totals amid the VC and NVA and the number of dead and wounded civilians in Northward Vietnam cannot be adamant exactly. In April 1995, Vietnam's communist government said one.1 million combatants had died between 1954 and 1975, and another 600,000 wounded. Civilian deaths during that time period were estimated at 2 million, but the U.S. estimate of civilians killed in the n at thirty,000.

Amongst Due south Vietnam's other allies, Australia had over 400 killed and 2,400 wounded; New Zealand, over 80 KIA; South korea, 4,400 KIA; and Thailand 350 killed.

North Vietnam, Southward Vietnam

Vietnam has a long history of being ruled by foreign powers, and this led many Vietnamese to run across the United States' involvement in their country every bit neo-colonialism. China conquered the northern part of modernistic Vietnam in 111 BC and retained control until 938 Advert; it continued to exert some control over the Vietnamese until 1885. Originally, Vietnam ended at the 17th parallel, but information technology gradually conquered all the surface area southward along the coastline of the South China Sea and west to Cambodia. Population in the south was mostly clustered in a few areas along the coast; the north always enjoyed a larger population. The two sections were not unlike North and South in the United states of america prior to the Ceremonious War; their people did non fully trust each other.

France'south war machine involvement in Vietnam began when it sent warships in 1847, ostensibly to protect Christians from the ruling emperor Gia Long. Before the 1880s, the French controlled Vietnam. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism began to rising, clashing with the French colonial rulers. By the fourth dimension of World War Two, a number of groups sought Vietnamese independence but as Vo Nguyen Giap—who would build Vietnam's post–WWII army—expressed it, the communists were the all-time organized and about action-oriented of these groups.

Ho Chi Minh. (Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

During the 2nd World War, Vichy France could practise little to protect its colony from Japanese occupation. Post-war, the French tried to re-institute control but faced organized opposition from the Viet Minh (brusque for Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or League for the Independence of Vietnam), led by Ho Chi Minh and Giap. The French suffered a major defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, leading to negotiations that concluded with the Geneva Agreements, July 21, 1954. Under those agreements, Cambodia and Laos—which had been role of the French colony—received their independence. Vietnam, however, was divided at the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh led a communist government in the north (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) with its majuscule at Hanoi, and a new Republic of South Vietnam was established under President Ngo Dinh Diem, with its capital at Saigon.

The division was supposed to exist temporary: elections were to be held in both sections in 1956 to determine the state's future. When the fourth dimension came, withal, Diem resisted the elections; the more than populous north would certainly win. Hanoi re-activated the Viet Minh to acquit guerilla operations in the south, with the intent of destabilizing President Diem's government. In July 1959, North Vietnam's leaders passed an ordinance chosen for continued socialist revolution in the north and a simultaneous revolution in S Vietnam.

Some eighty,000 Vietnamese from the s had moved to the north after the Geneva Agreements were signed. (Ten times every bit many Vietnamese had fled the north, where the Communist Party was killing off its rivals, seizing property, and oppressing the large Cosmic population.) A cadre was drawn from those who went north; they were trained, equipped and sent back to the south to aid in organizing and guiding the insurgency. (Some in the Due north Vietnamese government thought the course of war in the south was unwise, but they were overruled.) Although publicly the state of war in the south was described equally a ceremonious war within Southward Vietnam, it was guided, equipped and reinforced by the communist leadership in Hanoi. The insurgency was called the National Liberation Front end (PLF); however, its soldiers and operatives became more usually known by their opponents as the Viet Cong (VC), brusk for Vietnamese Communists. The VC were often supplemented by units of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), more oft chosen simply the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) by those fighting confronting information technology. Following the Tet Offensive of 1968, the NVA had to assume the major gainsay role because the VC was decimated during the offensive.

Us Military Advisors in Vietnam

The U.Southward., which had been gradually exerting influence after the departure of the French authorities, backed Diem in gild to limit the area under communist command. Mao Zedong's Communist Party had won the Chinese Civil State of war in 1949, and western governments—particularly that of the U.S—feared communist expansion throughout Southeast Asia. This fear evolved into the "Domino Theory"; if one country fell to communist control, its neighbors would also soon fall like a row of dominos. The Fundamental Intelligence Agency (CIA) brash that was not the example—America had a strong military presence in the Pacific that would serve equally a deterrent. Earlier, "Wild Pecker" Donovan, caput of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II forerunner of the CIA, had also advised that the U.South. had nil to gain and much to lose by becoming involved in what was then French Indochina.

A different feeling prevailed amidst many within the U.South. government. The communist takeover of China and subsequent war in Korea (1950-53) against North Korean and Chinese troops had focused a great deal of attention on Southeast Asia as a place to take a strong stand against the spread of communism. During President Dwight Eisenhower's administration (1953–1961), financial assist was given to pay South Vietnam's war machine forces and American advisors were sent to help railroad train them. The first American fatality was Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., killed June 8, 1956. (His son, Marine Corps lance corporal Richard Fitzgibbon III would be killed in action in Vietnam September 7, 1965. They were the but male parent-son pair to die in Vietnam.) In July 1959 Major Dale Buis and Chief Sergeant Chester Ovnand were off duty when they were killed during an attack at Bien Hoa.

Ho Chi Minh had been educated in Paris. There is considerable contend over whether he was primarily nationalist or communist, just he was non particularly anti-Western. (An American medic treated him during World War II, probably saving his life.) Ho attempted to contact Eisenhower to discuss Vietnam but received no answer. "Ike" may not accept seen the bulletin, only at any rate he was focused on establishing NATO (Due north Atlantic Treaty Organization) as a wall against additional communist advances in Europe and was intent on securing France's participation in NATO. That would have made any negotiation with Ho politically ticklish. A lingering question of the state of war is what might have happened if Eisenhower and Ho had arranged a meeting; possibly, an accordance could accept been reached, or possibly Ho was merely seeking to limit American involvement, in guild to more hands depose the Diem government.

American Armed services Interest Escalates

American involvement began to escalate under President John F. Kennedy'southward administration (Jan 1961–November 1963). Due north Vietnam, had by then established a presence in Lao people's democratic republic and developed the Ho Chi Minh Trail through that country in gild to resupply and reinforce its forces in South Vietnam. Kennedy saw American efforts in Southeast Asia almost every bit a crusade and believed increasing the military advisor program, coupled with political reform in South Vietnam, would strengthen the south and bring peace. 2 U.S. helicopter units arrived in Saigon in 1961. The following Feb a "strategic hamlet" program began; it forcibly relocated South Vietnamese peasants to fortified strategic hamlets. Based on a plan the British had employed successfully against insurgents in Malaya, it didn't work in Vietnam. The peasants resented beingness forced from their ancestral lands, and consolidating them gave the VC better targets. The plan, which had been poorly managed, was abandoned after near two years, post-obit the coup that deposed Diem.

Diem barbarous from favor with his American patrons, partly over disagreements in how to handle the war against the VC and partly considering of his unpopular suppression of religious sects and anyone he feared threatened his government. Buddhists, who comprised South Vietnam'due south majority, claimed Diem, a Catholic, favored citizens of his faith in distributing aid. He, in plow, chosen the Buddhists VC sympathizers. On June 11, 1963, an elderly Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc sat down in the street in forepart of a pagoda in Saigon to protest Diem's policies. Two younger monks poured a mix of gasoline and jet fuel over him and, as the three had planned, set fire to him. Associated Printing correspondent Malcolm "Mal" Browne photographed him sitting quietly in the lotus position as the flames consumed him. The photo was published worldwide under the title "The Ultimate Protestation," raising (or in some cases reinforcing) doubts well-nigh the government that the democratic United States was supporting. Seven more than such immolations occurred that year. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas.

In November, a coup deposed Diem, with the blessing of Kennedy's administration, which had quietly assured South Vietnam'southward military leaders it was not adverse to a alter in leadership and military assistance would continue. The assistants was defenseless by surprise, however, when Diem was murdered during the coup, which was led by Full general Duong Van Minh. This began a serial of destabilizing changes in government leadership.

That same month, Kennedy himself was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. His successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, inherited the Vietnam situation. Johnson wanted to focus on instituting "Great Society" programs at home, but Vietnam was a snake he did not cartel let go of. His political political party, the Democrats, had been blamed for China falling to communism; withdrawing from Vietnam could hurt them in the 1964 elections. On the other hand, Congress had never alleged state of war then the president was limited in what he could do in Southeast Asia.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

That changed in August 1964. On August 2, ii N Vietnamese torpedo boats in broad daylight engaged USS Maddox, which was gathering communications intelligence in the Gulf of Tonkin. 2 nights later, Maddox and the destroyer USS Turner Joy were on patrol in the Gulf and reported they were under attack. The pilot of an F-8E Crusader did not see whatsoever ships in the expanse where the enemy was reported, and years later crew members said they never saw attacking arts and crafts. An electrical storm was interfering with the ships' radar and may take given the impression of approaching assault boats.

Congress swiftly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that removed most restrictions from the president in regards to Vietnam. By year'southward end, 23,000 American military personnel would be in South Vietnam. Though a congressional investigative committee the previous twelvemonth had warned that America could find itself slipping into in a morass that would require more and more military participation in Vietnam, Johnson began a steady escalation of the state of war, hoping to bring it to a quick decision. Ironically, the leadership of N Vietnam came to a similar conclusion: they had to inflict plenty casualties on Americans to end support for the war on the U.S. homefront and force a withdrawal earlier the U.S. could build up sufficient numbers of men and material to defeat them.

On September 30, 1964, the first large-scale antiwar sit-in took identify in America, on the campus of the Academy of California at Berkeley. The war became the cardinal rallying signal of a burgeoning youth counterculture, and the coming years would run across many such demonstrations, dividing generations and families..

On Christmas Eve, in Saigon, a VC set off an explosive at the American officers' billet in the old Brink Hotel, killing two Americans and 51 South Vietnamese. This would be a state of war without a front end or a rear; it would involve full-scale combat units and individuals carrying out terrorist activities such as the Brink Hotel bombing. Both the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) and the VC used torture, to extract information or to cowl opposition.

General William C. Westmoreland

In previous war, progress and setbacks could be shown on maps; large enemy units could exist engaged and destroyed. Guerrilla warfare (asymmetrical warfare) does not permit such lucent data. This presented the new MACV commander (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam), General William C. Westmoreland with a thorny claiming: how to bear witness the American people progress was beingness made.

Westmoreland adopted a search-and-destroy policy to find and engage the enemy and use superior firepower to destroy him. Success was measured in "body count." Information technology was to be a state of war of attrition and statistics, a policy that suited Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who distrusted the military and often bypassed the Articulation Chiefs of Staff in issuing directives. Every major engagement between U.South. forces and VC or NVA was an American victory, and the casualty (body count) ratio always showed significantly larger casualties for the communist forces than for the Americans. The torso count policy fell into disfavor and was not employed in future American wars; in Vietnam it led officers to inflate enemy casualties. The VC and NVA dragged off as many of their dead and wounded as possible, sometimes impressing villagers into performing this task during battles, then determining their casualties was guesswork based on such things equally the number of claret trails.

On the other side, the aforementioned thing was occurring, with even more than inflated numbers—vastly more. Both sides were fighting a war of compunction, and so communist commanders sent Hanoi boxing reports that often were pure fantasy. 1 example, cited in Grab Their Belts to Fight Them: The Viet Cong's Big-Unit State of war Against the U.S., 1965–1966, by Warren Wilkins (Naval Institute Press, 2011), is a description of the first major boxing between the VC and American Forces—U.S. Marines—virtually Van Truong, from the VC indicate of view. It claimed,"In one twenty-four hour period of ferocious fighting nosotros had eliminated from the field of battle a full of 919 American troops, had knocked out 22 enemy vehicles and 13 helicopters, and had captured 1 Yard-fourteen rifle." Marine losses actually were 45 expressionless, 203 wounded, and a few vehicles damaged.

On Feb 7, 1965, the U.South. Air Force began bombing selected sites in North Vietnam. This grew into the functioning known as Rolling Thunder that began on March 2, 1965, and continued to Nov two, 1968. Its primary goal was to demoralize the North Vietnamese and diminish their manufacturing and transportation abilities. An air state of war was the nearly that could be done north of the 17th parallel, because the use of basis troops had been ruled out. North Vietnam was a prodigy of both the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Red china. On July 9, 1964, China had announced it would step in if the U.S. attacked North Vietnam, every bit Red china had done in the Korean War. North Vietnamese officers, after the state of war, said the only thing they feared was an American-led invasion of the due north, only the U.S. was non going to risk starting World State of war III, and at the time that seemed to loom as a singled-out possibility.

Tet—the Turning Point

By the end of 1967, there were 540,000 American troops in Vietnam, and the war machine draft was set to call up 302,000 young men in the coming year, an increase of 72,000 over 1967. Financial costs had risen to $30 billion a yr. But the war news was hopeful. The South Vietnamese Army was showing improvement, winning 37 of their last 45 major engagements. American troops had won every major boxing they fought, and Full general Nguyen Van Thieu had come up to power in South Vietnam in September; he would remain in part until 1975, bringing a new measure of stability to the government, though he could not stop its endemic corruption. Antiwar protests connected across America and in many other countries, but on April 28, 1967, Gen. Westmoreland became the first battleground commander always to address a articulation session of Congress in wartime, and Time magazine named him Man of the Year. In an interview he was asked if there was light at the end of the tunnel, and he responded that the U.S. and its allies had turned a corner in Vietnam.

On Jan 30, 1968, during Vietnam's celebration of Tet, the lunar new year's day, VC and NVA units launched a massive attack in every province of South Vietnam. They struck at least thirty provincial capitals and the major cities of Saigon and Hue. American intelligence knew an assail was coming, though the Army had downplayed a New York Times written report of large communist troop movements heading south. The timing and scale of the offensive caught ARVN, the U.S. and other SEATO troops by surprise, however. They responded chop-chop, recapturing lost ground and decimating an enemy who had "finally come out to fight in the open." Communist losses were extremely heavy. The VC was effectively finished; it would non field more than 25,000–40,000 troops at any time for the remainder of the war. The NVA had to take over. It was one of the nearly resounding defeats in all of military history—until information technology became a victory.

News footage showed the fighting in Saigon and Hue. The Tet Offensive shocked Americans at home, who idea the war was nearing victory. Initially, however, homefront support for the state of war effort grew, only by March Americans, perceiving no modify in strategy that would bring the war to a decision, became increasingly disillusioned. CBS evening news ballast Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. He had been a state of war correspondent during Earth War Ii and had reported from Vietnam during America's early on involvement. In 1972 a poll determined he was "the most trusted man in America."

In a February 27, 1968, circulate he summed up what he had found during his return trip to the war zone. He closed past proverb:

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To propose we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, nonetheless unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military machine and political analysts are correct, in the adjacent few months we must exam the enemy's intentions, in instance this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. Simply it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational style out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived upwardly to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.

President Johnson, watching the broadcast, said, "If we've lost Walter Cronkite, we've lost the land." In May, Johnson announced he would non run for reelection. He also said there would be a break in the air attacks on North Vietnam as "the get-go pace to de-escalate" and promised America would essentially reduce "the present level of hostilities."

Adding to Americans' disillusionment was the race issue. Tensions between blacks and whites had been intensifying for years as African Americans sought to modify centuries-old racial policies. The Ceremonious Rights Motion had produced significant victories, but many blacks had come to describe Vietnam every bit "a white man'south state of war, a black man's fight." Betwixt 1961 and 1966, black males accounted for about xiii percent of the U.S. population and less than 10 per centum of military personnel but nearly 20 percent of all gainsay-related deaths. That disparity would reject earlier the war concluded, but the racial tensions at dwelling began to insert themselves into the armed services in Vietnam, damaging unit of measurement morale.

Even white troops were beginning to protestation. 1 day in October 1969, fifteen members of the Americal Division wore black armbands while they were on patrol, the symbol antiwar protestors wore in u.s.. Earlier, in March 1968, the Americal Sectionalization had been involved in what became known as the My Lai Massacre, in which over 100 men, women and children were killed. Similar, fifty-fifty larger, atrocities were conducted by VC and NVA units—such as an NVA attack on a Buddhist orphanage at An Hoa in September 1970 or the execution of 5,000 people at Hue during the Tet Offensive—but the concept of American soldiers killing civilians in cold blood was more than many Americans could bear. Support for the war eroded further. Some antiwar protestors blamed the men and women who served in Vietnam, taunting them and spitting on them when they came domicile. Military personnel, including nurses, were warned not to wear their uniforms in the States. Notwithstanding, polls consistently showed the majority of Americans supported the war.

Richard Nixon'due south War

Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in the autumn elections. Emphasis switched to "Vietnamization," preparing S Vietnam'southward military to have over responsibility for continuing the war. General Westmoreland had been promoted to Army Primary of Staff and replaced in Vietnam by Gen. Creighton Abrams. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnam'due south authorities to create annual plans. Security was improving even as American forces were in the process of withdrawing.

And then, on March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese attacked beyond the 17th parallel with 14 divisions and additional individual regiments. Better armed than always before, thank you to increased assistance from the Soviet Union, they employed tanks for the first time.

The ARVN aptitude but did non break. Past June they had stalled the invasion, with the aid of American airpower. The NVA suffered some 120,000 casualties. American drawdown continued, with simply 43,000 personnel left in-country by mid-August.

In retaliation for the invasion, and in hopes of forcing Hanoi to negotiate in good faith, Nixon ordered Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam to exist mined and he intensified bombing of North Vietnam. Hanoi offered to restart peace talks, yet remained intransigent in its demands. Frustrated, Nixon ordered the large bombers—B-52s—to strike Hanoi, beginning Dec sixteen (Operation LINEBACKER). In less than 2 weeks, these strategic bombers had shattered the north'south defenses. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between N Vietnam and the U.Due south.

The ceasefire immune Nixon to declare "peace with honor," but no provisions existed for enforcing the terms of the accords. North Vietnam spent two years rebuilding its military; South Vietnam was hamstrung in its responses past a fear the U.Due south. Congress would cut off all aid if it took armed forces activeness against communist buildup. Its regular army lacked reserves, while the NVA was growing.

On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded once more. ARVN divisions in the north were surrounded and routed. No American air strikes came to aid the overstretched South Vietnamese, despite Nixon's before assurances to Thieu. To its own surprise, Hanoi found its forces advancing chop-chop toward Saigon, realized victory was at hand, and renamed the performance the Ho Chi Minh Offensive. On April 30, their tanks entered Saigon. American helicopters rescued members of its embassy and flew some South Vietnamese to prophylactic, only almost were left backside. Northward and South Vietnam were combined into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.

The domino barbarous but did non take down any of those around information technology. Although America's war in Vietnam failed to salvage the Commonwealth of South Vietnam, it bought time in which neighboring countries improved their economies and defensive capabilities, and it may have discouraged greater communist activism in places like the Philippines.

One of the lingering legacies of the Vietnam State of war is the widespread conventionalities in America that "the media toll us the war in Vietnam." Images such as the burning monk; South Vietnamese Police force Master Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan about to pull the trigger of a pistol pointed at the caput of a leap VC prisoner; of a naked immature girl running crying down a road after an American napalm strike that left her badly burned—these images and others became seared into the minds of Americans on the homefront, and in those of civilians in allied nations such equally Australia.

Never before or since take journalists been given such complete access to cover a war. Unlike previous wars, where only all the same images or short movie newsreels were available for conveying images, this was America'south first television war. Images of fighting, of dead and wounded soldiers, of POWs held in Northward Vietnam were beamed into America's living rooms night subsequently night, as was footage of hundreds, sometimes thousands of antiwar protestors marching through the streets. Such images pack tremendous emotional punch just frequently lack context. The photograph of the South Vietnamese law chief, for example, cannot by itself explain he had just seen the dead trunk of a close friend minutes before; even Eddie Adams, the photojournalist who snapped the photo felt information technology unfairly maligned Lt. Col. Loan.

Undoubtedly, news media played an important role in Americans saying, "Enough." Indeed, Vo Nyugen Giap had always envisioned using media as one of his spear points for victory. He has written that he was prepared for a 25-year war; he realized he did non have to achieve military victory; he simply had to avoid losing.

Yet, to say the media price America victory in Vietnam is vastly oversimplifying a very circuitous state of affairs. Every bit noted above, a number of sources warned U.S. leaders against becoming embroiled in Southeast Asia. Corruption and instability in South Vietnam's authorities did not instill conviction in its people, or in the Americans working with it. Ruling out an invasion of North Vietnam assured that a purely armed services victory would not be possible, a fact that was at odds with many Americans' expectations for the war.

The Vietnam War remains a very controversial discipline. It is unlikely historians will ever concur on whether it was necessary or what benefits derived from it.