The Vietnam War started in 1946 and was fought for almost 30 years. At the beginning, it was an effort by Vietnam to gain independence from French rule. This war was fought mainly by Vietnamese Communists, who were strong in the north of Vietnam. After the French were forced out, the Communists led a civil war against the government of South Vietnam. The United States entered the war against the Communists, but even American military might could not save the South Vietnamese government. The Americans agreed to leave Vietnam, and the war ended in 1975, when Vietnam was unified under Communist control.

Origins of the war

Since the mid-1800s, much of Vietnam had been controlled by France as part of French Indo-China. In 1940, during World War II, French Indo-China was occupied by Japan. During most of the war the Japanese permitted French officials, police, and soldiers to stay in power. In August 1945, World War II ended with the defeat of Japan. Vietnam was then occupied by armies of two of Japan's opponents, Great Britain and China.

China was in military command of the north, and British forces commanded the south. The dividing line between the two sides was located at latitude 17 degrees north, a line that became known as the 17th parallel. South of this line, the British helped the French to reclaim their old power. In the north, Vietnamese Communists joined with other groups to create the Viet Minh, a group that sought independence for all of Vietnam. The Viet Minh formed a government with their leader, Ho Chi Minh, as its head. They proclaimed the entire country to be the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

France and the Viet Minh immediately argued over the future of Vietnam. Their disputes soon led to fighting. This opened a bloody seven-and-a-half-year struggle that became known as the French Indochina War, or First Indochina War. It can be considered the first phase of the Vietnam War.

Defeat of the French

When the fighting began, the French seemed to have an advantage with their bigger army. But the Viet Minh fighters had the support of people in the countryside, and they also received aid from the new Communist government of China. This worried the United States, which wanted to prevent Communism from spreading to other countries. The United States supported France and began to pay a large share of the cost of waging the war.

The war went badly for the French, and it also spread into neighboring Laos. Finally, in May 1954 the French fortress of Dien Bien Phu fell to Viet Minh troops. France agreed to negotiate an end to the dispute. A conference at Geneva, Switzerland, produced an agreement in July 1954 that French rule would be ended in Vietnam. The country was be divided between north and south only until an election was held in 1956 for the Vietnamese people to decide whether their country should be reunited.

Civil War in South Vietnam

Not long after the 1954 settlement, United States military advisers began to train the South Vietnamese army. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh, president of North Vietnam, pledged to “liberate” South Vietnam. Communist guerrillas entered South Vietnam across the 17th parallel and by way of Laos, joining bands of Communists in the south. These rebels tried to disrupt South Vietnam's society and economy. They killed local administrators and also raided industrial plants, plantations, military installations, and entire villages. Frequently they attacked at night, hiding by day in the forest. Seldom were South Vietnamese soldiers able to fight them in the open.

While the rebels made gains, the South Vietnamese government lost popularity. The government was led by Ngo Dinh Diem, whose harsh actions displeased many Vietnamese. In 1956 Diem refused to hold elections to decide on unifying Vietnam, as had been set out in the Geneva settlement. A guerrilla movement developed against his government, and this struggle grew into civil war. The main anti-government group, the National Liberation Front (NLF), included supporters of the Viet Minh and eventually was supplied and trained by North Vietnam. It sought withdrawal of foreign troops from Vietnam and the unification of north and south. The NLF was referred to by the South Vietnamese government as Viet Cong, meaning Vietnamese Communists.

During the early 1960s, much of South Vietnam came under Viet Cong control. They made several attempts to overthrow the Diem regime. Then in May 1963 Diem, a Roman Catholic, banned the flying of the Buddhist flag. Thousands of Buddhists were arrested, and some were tortured or killed. Buddhist priests publicly burned themselves to death in protest. The Viet Cong attacked with greater fervor, causing casualties and desertions from the South Vietnamese army. In early November, Diem was assassinated, and a group of military officers took over.

The United States enters the war

Meanwhile, the United States was becoming deeply involved in South Vietnam. In October 1961 President John F. Kennedy's military advisers reported that South Vietnam needed more and better military equipment. American aid was stepped up. During the next two years more than 16,000 military advisers were sent to South Vietnam. On August 4, 1964, two United States warships were reportedly attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. In response, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered United States warplanes to attack North Vietnamese military areas.

With the involvement of the United States, the Vietnam War became an international conflict. Between 1965 and 1967, the United States increased its forces in Vietnam to about 500,000. The South Vietnamese army, numbering some 400,000 men, was also assisted by small units from South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines. The Viet Cong, some 35,000 strong, drew their support and supplies from the Soviet Union and China, and they were joined by units of the North Vietnamese army. Soon United States troops were fighting openly against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese.

The United States also launched air raids against North Vietnam. At first the main targets were highways and bridges, as the United States tried to prevent troops and supplies from moving south. In neighboring Laos, bombers struck the Ho Chi Minh Trail, another important Viet Cong supply line. Soon the bombers were striking Hanoi and other North Vietnamese cities. In April 1965 President Johnson stopped the bombing and proposed peace talks to settle the conflict. His offer was ignored by North Vietnam, which insisted that United States forces first be pulled out of the South.

The United States withdraws

In February 1968, during the Vietnamese New Year holiday of Tet, the Communists launched a devastating attack throughout South Vietnam. The targets included about 30 cities, many of which were only taken back from the Viet Cong after several weeks of hard fighting. The Viet Cong suffered heavy losses (33,000 killed) in these battles, and the civilian population did not rise up in support of them as they had expected. Still, many United States soldiers also died during Tet, and a number of Americans back home in the United States grew convinced that the civil war in Vietnam could not be stopped by military force alone. Protests against the war took place throughout the country.

In March 1968 President Johnson ordered a partial halt of the bombing of North Vietnam in order to start peace talks. On May 13, negotiations began in Paris, France. In October Johnson stopped all bombing of the North. In 1969 the United States, now led by President Richard M. Nixon, began to take troops out of Vietnam. Nixon began a policy of “Vietnamization,” which consisted of gradually bringing home United States troops and replacing them with South Vietnamese forces. By the end of 1971 fewer than 200,000 United States troops were left in South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese army took over all fighting on the ground.

The peace talks in Paris made little or no progress. In April 1970, United States and South Vietnamese troops began an assault on North Vietnamese and Viet Cong sites in Cambodia. Months later, they made similar attacks in Laos. In April 1972, North Vietnam launched a major invasion of the South. The United States struck back with air raids against the North. President Nixon ordered all harbors to be mined and rail lines to be bombed. These actions brought on more antiwar protests in the United States, but they also brought the Communists back to serious peace talks.

Cease-fire and Communist victory

In January 1973, United States, North and South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed a cease-fire agreement. By April all United States troops were withdrawn from South Vietnam. Fighting continued, however. The North began preparing for a major offensive, while the South tried to hold all of the areas under its control. In August 1974 the United States drastically cut its military aid to South Vietnam.

In the winter of 1974–75 North Vietnamese forces launched a new attack. In only three weeks South Vietnam lost nearly two thirds of its territory. With Communist troops approaching the southern capital of Saigon, President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned. The South Vietnamese army melted away, and the remaining Americans escaped by air and sea with Vietnamese friends and coworkers. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks entered Saigon, and 30 years of war were over. In 1976 South Vietnam was reunited with the North, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

The cost

More than 47,000 Americans were killed fighting the Vietnam War, nearly 11,000 died of other causes, and more than 303,000 were wounded. The long and costly United States involvement in the war caused a lasting division among the people of the United States. It continues to influence the attitude of many Americans toward foreign wars.

Estimates of South Vietnam's casualties range from 185,000 to 225,000 killed and from 500,000 to 570,000 wounded. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong suffered about 900,000 troops killed and an unknown, but huge, number of wounded. In addition, more than 1 million North and South Vietnamese civilians were killed. By the war's end many people in South Vietnam had become refugees seeking an escape from the fighting. Parts of the countryside were scarred by bombs, some cities and towns were heavily damaged, and farms, businesses, and factories were ruined. It would take years for Vietnam to overcome the damages caused by war. Nevertheless, with Communists also coming to power in Cambodia and Laos, the new Vietnam became an important power in Southeast Asia.