The vietnam war

The Vietnam War originated from the Indochina war against the French colonialists between 1946 and 1954 and then started with the United States and continued until 1975. During the Cold war at no point was there a direct conflict between the US and the Soviets but instead there were indirect conflicts between the two where one would try and implicate themselves as the most powerful State. American involvement in Vietnam was out of fear of the ever expanding communism ideology. We shall look at how the Vietnam War came to happen and also at the different phases that shaped the conflict.

After the Second World War, the US was starting to fear the expansion of the Soviet Union and had to face a decision on what to do. They knew that taking the war to Eastern Europe to stop the Soviet expansionism was too dangerous, so instead opted for a containment strategy which compromised of stopping the spread of communism to other countries. Between 1948 and 1950 events transpired that solidified the US’s paranoia surrounding communism. First of all in in 1948 the Soviet Union blocked all entrances to West Berlin hoping to starve them with conflict continuing into 1949 until the Soviets backed down, and then in 1949 the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb sending a clear message to the US. At the end of 1949 the Chinese nationalists were driven away by Mao Zedong and the Chinese communists (People’s Republic of China). And then finally in 1950 the Korean War started. All this contributed to the fear of a “domino effect” (Rakove, 2012, p17), where the fall of one country to communism would eventually lead to many more. And all of this made for the start of the US involvement in Vietnam with the launch of a military assistance program in 1950 “which, by 1954, would be underwriting nearly 80 per cent of the total cost of the war.” (Ruane, 1998, p22) which makes for a considerable amount bearing in mind at the time they had no military involvement in Vietnam.(Asselin, 2013; Olson, 2013; Ruane, 1998).

After years of war, on 21 of July 1954 a cease-fire was agreed to by the French and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN). The Geneva conference that ended the war split the country in to two halves separating the DRVN up north from the French and the SOVN down south, with a deadline of 1956 being set for a vote on reunification. The DRVN was finding it hard to progress due to the fact that most of the transportation systems were either damaged or had been destroyed and with the North reliant on the south for rice but with all economic exchanges suspended food had to be rationed. In 1955 began giving their aid directly to Saigon and helping fund and train their soldiers. The deadline passed after Diem decided to cancel the elections, over the next years the strategy taken up by the north and the south were very different, America provided South Vietnam with $1.65 billion mostly for military equipment and personnel. Whereas the North wanted to spread propaganda about the Diem regime to the peasants to win their support and was being funded by the Soviets and China. This showed that the war in Vietnam for the US, China and the Soviets was about showing which system was more sustainable and fairer. With a growing support for the north by late 1960 the North started launching guerrilla lightning strikes against ARVN forces. Throughout 1959 and 1960 there was an increase in assassinations and terrorist attacks. The political instability relaunched the communist bid for reunification. And at the same time J.F Kennedy had just been appointed president of the US (Asselin, 2013; Tucker, 2013; Olson, 1998).

The US was starting to lose the war against communism and in 1961 Kennedy was urged by general Lyman to send 40.000 American troops to Vietnam. Whereas George Ball the undersecretary of state of economic affairs said “within “five years there will be 300,000 American soldiers fighting in Vietnam.””(Olson, 2013, p74) if American troops were to be deployed to Vietnam. But Kennedy not knowing enough decided to send his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to find out more about the situation. After learning that Diem was starting to fall out of favour the US send more money, but Kennedy was still reluctant to military involvement. America’s support to South Vietnam became even stronger in 1963 due to firstly Moscow’s decision to withdraw its missiles from Cuba, and the assassination of Kennedy. The US helped in military coups in 1963 with Diem and then in 1964 with Minh until general Khanh was put in power with the hope he would be very receptive to advice from the US, but instead he assumed almost doctorial power until he was removed from office in February 1965. A new government was then formed who sanctioned the bombing of North Vietnam, and once again the head was replaced but this time by Nguyen Cao Ky and Nguyen Van Thieu. And with them cam what the Americans wanted “a native government that was anti-communist, anti-neutralist and willing to take orders.”(Ruane, 1998, p73). At the time of Kennedy’s death in 1963 there were 16.000 military advisers, by 1965 there would be 180.000 and at the peak in 1968 would be at approximately 540.000 and over those years hundreds of thousands tonnes of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam but it was this build-up of American combat forces that helped the South Vietnamese Government from the brink of collapsing. Whereas for the North of Vietnam it was the Chinese and Soviets that were funding and supplying them with weaponry. In 1968 Richard Nixon was voted president and he would start the withdrawal process in 1969 and at the same time giving a greater responsibility to the ARVN. In the years that followed the US slowly but gradually withdrew men on the 27th January 1973 a peace treaty was signed by representatives of the United States, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government and the US promised Thieu that they would respond in full force if the agreement was violated by North Vietnam. Saigon was taken by the communists on April 1975 but Nixon’s resignation in August 1974 after the Watergate scandal meant that Congress did not keep his promise. By this time the ARVN was suffering from the lack of funds needed to continue to function (Olson, 2013; Asselin, 2013; Ruane, 1998).

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