AT The war in Vietnam began with the shelling of the USS Maddox. This happened on August 2, 1964.
The destroyer was in the Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnamese territorial waters where no one called the US) and was allegedly attacked by Vietnamese torpedo boats. All torpedoes missed, but one boat was sunk by the Americans. The Maddox fired first, explaining it as a warning fire. The event was called the "Tonkin Incident" and was the reason for the outbreak of the Vietnam War. Further, by order of US President Lyndon Johnson, the US Air Force attacked the naval facilities of North Vietnam. It is clear for whom the war was beneficial, he is a provocateur.

The confrontation between Vietnam and the United States began with the recognition of Vietnam as an independent state in 1954. Vietnam was divided into two parts. The South remained under the control of France (Vietnam had been its colony since the 19th century) and the United States, while the North was dominated by the Communists with the support of China and the USSR. The country was supposed to unite after democratic elections, but the elections did not take place, and in South Vietnam began Civil War.

The US feared that communism could spread throughout Asia in a domino fashion.

Representatives of the communist camp waged a guerrilla war on enemy territory, and its hottest focus was the so-called Iron Triangle, an area of 310 square kilometers northwest of Saigon. Despite such proximity to the strategic settlement of the South, it was actually controlled by communist partisans, and the underground complex near the village of Kuti, which had been significantly expanded by that time, became their base.

The United States supported the South Vietnamese government, fearing further expansion of the Communists in South-East Asia.

The Soviet leadership at the beginning of 1965 decided to provide the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) with large-scale military-technical assistance. According to Alexei Kosygin, chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, aid to Vietnam during the war cost the Soviet Union 1.5 million rubles a day.

To eliminate the partisan zone in January 1966, the United States decided to conduct Operation Crimp, for which 8,000 US and Australian troops were allocated. Once in the jungle of the Iron Triangle, the allies faced an unexpected surprise: in fact, there was no one to fight with. Snipers, stretch marks on the trails, unexpected ambushes, attacks from behind, from territories that, it would seem, had already (just!) been cleared: something incomprehensible was happening around, and the number of victims was growing.

The Vietnamese sat underground and after the attacks again went underground. In the underground cities, the halls were without additional supports and they were designed for the miniature constitution of the Vietnamese. Below is a plan-scheme of a real underground city explored by the Americans.

Much larger Americans could hardly squeeze through the passages, the height of which was usually in the range of 0.8-1.6 meters, and the width was 0.6-1.2 meters. There was no obvious logic in the organization of the tunnels; they were deliberately built as a chaotic labyrinth, equipped with a large number of false dead-end branches that complicated orientation.

Viet Cong guerrillas throughout the war were supplied through the so-called "Ho Chi Minh trail", which ran through neighboring Laos. Americans and the army South Vietnam several times they tried to cut the "path", but it did not work out.

In addition to fire and traps of "tunnel rats", snakes and scorpions, which the partisans specially set on, could also wait. Such methods led to the fact that among the "tunnel rats" there was a very high mortality rate.

Only half of the personnel returned from the holes. They were even armed with special pistols with silencers, gas masks and other things.

The Iron Triangle, the area where the catacombs were discovered, was eventually simply destroyed by the Americans with B-52 bombing.

The fighting took place not only underground, but also in the air. The first battle between anti-aircraft gunners of the USSR and American aircraft took place on July 24, 1965. The Soviet MiGs, which the Vietnamese flew, have proven themselves well.

During the years of the war, the Americans lost 58,000 people in the jungle killed, 2,300 went missing and over 150,000 were wounded. At the same time, the list of official losses did not include Puerto Ricans who were recruited into the US army in order to obtain United States citizenship. North Vietnamese losses amounted to over a million killed military personnel and over three million civilians.

The Paris ceasefire agreements were signed only in January 1973. It took a few more years to withdraw the troops.

Carpet bombing of cities in North Vietnam, carried out by order of US President Nixon. On December 13, 1972, a North Vietnamese delegation left Paris, where peace talks were being held. In order to force them to return back, it was decided to launch massive bombing attacks on Hanoi and Haiphong.

A South Vietnamese Marine wearing a special bandage among the decomposing corpses of American and Vietnamese soldiers who died during the fighting on a rubber plantation 70 km northeast of Saigon, November 27, 1965.

According to the Soviet side, 34 B-52s were lost during Operation Linebacker II. In addition, 11 aircraft of other types were shot down. North Vietnamese losses were about 1,624 civilians, military casualties are unknown. Aviation losses - 6 MiG 21 aircraft.

"Christmas bombing" is the official title.

During Operation Linebacker II, 100,000 tons were dropped on Vietnam! bombs.

The most famous case of the use of the latter is Operation Popeye, when US transport workers sprayed silver iodite over the strategic territories of Vietnam. From this, the amount of precipitation increased three times, roads were washed away, fields and villages were flooded, communications were destroyed. With the jungle, the US military also acted radically. Bulldozers uprooted trees and topsoil, and herbicides and defoliants (Agent Orange) were sprayed on the rebel stronghold from above. This seriously disrupted the ecosystem, and in the long run led to mass diseases and infant mortality.

The Americans poisoned Vietnam with everything they could. They even used a mixture of defoliants and herbicides. From what freaks are still born there already at the genetic level. This is a crime against humanity.

The USSR sent to Vietnam about 2,000 tanks, 700 light and maneuverable aircraft, 7,000 mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters, and much more. Almost the entire air defense system of the country, impeccable and impenetrable for fighters, was built by Soviet specialists at Soviet funds. There were also "exit training". Military schools and academies of the USSR trained Vietnamese military personnel.

Vietnamese women and children hide from artillery fire in an overgrown canal 30 km west of Saigon on January 1, 1966.

On March 16, 1968, American soldiers completely destroyed a Vietnamese village, killing 504 innocent men, women, and children. For this war crime, only one person was convicted, who three days later was "pardoned" by the personal decree of Richard Nixon.

Vietnam War became a drug war. Drug addiction in the troops has become another factor that crippled the combat capability of the United States.

On average, an American soldier in Vietnam fought 240 days a year! For comparison, an American soldier during the Second World War in the Pacific fought an average of 40 days in 4 years. Helicopters performed well in this war. Which the Americans lost about 3500 pieces.

From 1957 to 1973, about 37,000 South Vietnamese were shot by Viet Cong guerrillas for collaborating with the Americans, most of whom were petty civil servants.

Civilian casualties are unknown to date - about 5 million are believed to have died, with more in the North than in the South. In addition, the losses of the civilian population of Cambodia and Laos are not taken into account anywhere - apparently, here they also number in the thousands.

The average age of a dead American soldier was 23 years 11 months. 11,465 dead were under the age of 20, and 5 died before reaching the age of 16! The oldest person to die in the war was a 62-year-old American.

The Vietnam War was the longest military confrontation in modern military history. The conflict lasted about 20 years: from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

But Vietnam won...

Our crimson flag proudly flies,
And on it - the stars of the victory sign.
Like the surf
Thunderstorm -
The power of friendship is fighting,
To new dawns we go step by step.

This is Lao Dong, our party
Us forward from year to year
Leads!
— Do Ming, "Lao Dong Party Song"

Soviet tanks in Saigon ... this is the end ... The Yankees do not want to remember this war, they no longer openly fight with the radicals and generally revised their methods of fighting the "red plague".

The basis of information and photos (C) is the Internet. Main sources:

What is the cause of the US war in Vietnam, the results and consequences

The subject of the Vietnam War cannot be covered in one article. Therefore, a number of articles will be written about this period in. This material will examine the background of the conflict, the causes of the Vietnam War and its results. The US war in Vietnam was the Second Indochina War. The First Indochina War was a liberation war for Vietnam and was fought against France. It ran from 1946 to 1954. By the way, the United States also took part in that war, which is much less often remembered. In the United States, the Vietnam War is treated as a “dark spot” in its history, and for the Vietnamese, it became a tragic and heroic stage on the way to their sovereignty. For Vietnam, this war was both a struggle against foreign occupation and a civil confrontation between various political forces.

Vietnam was colonized by France in the second half of the 19th. A few decades later, the national identity of the Vietnamese led to the creation of the League for Independence in 1941. The organization was called the Viet Minh and united under its wing all those who were dissatisfied with the power of the French in Vietnam.

The Viet Minh organization was created in China and its main figures were communist. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. During World War II, Ho Chi Minh collaborated with the Americans against Japan. When Japan capitulated, Ho Chi Minh supporters took control of northern Vietnam, with Hanoi as its capital. They proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

France brought an expeditionary force into the country in December 1946. Thus began the First Indochina War. But the French could not cope with the partisans, and starting in 1950, the United States began to help them. main reason their participation in this war, the reason for their intervention in this war was the importance of Vietnam in strategic terms. It was a region that covered the Philippines and Japan from the southwest. And since the French had become allies of the United States by that time, they decided that it was better for them to control the territory of Vietnam.

Gradually, by 1954, the United States already bore almost all the costs of this war. Soon the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and the United States, along with the allies, were on the verge of defeat. Richard Nixon, then Vice President of the United States, even spoke out in favor of nuclear bombing. But this was avoided and in July 1954 an agreement was concluded in Geneva on the temporary division of the territory of Vietnam along the 17th parallel. A demilitarized zone passed through it. This is how Severny and appeared on the map. The North controlled the Viet Minh, while the South was given independence by the French.

Thus ended the First Indochinese War, but it was only a prelude to more carnage. After the communist power was established in China, the US leadership decided to completely replace the French presence with its own. To do this, they placed their puppet Ngo Dinh Diem in the southern part. With US support, he proclaimed himself President of the Republic of Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem turned out to be one of the worst rulers in the history of Vietnam. He appointed relatives to leadership positions in the country. Corruption and tyranny reigned in South Vietnam. The people hated this government, but all opponents of the regime were killed and rotted in prisons. The US didn't like it, but Ngo Dinh Diem was "their scoundrel". As a result of such rule, the influence of North Vietnam and the ideas of communism grew. The number of partisans also increased. However, the US leadership saw the reason not in this, but in the intrigues of the USSR and communist China. Measures to tighten the government did not give the desired result.

By 1960, all partisans and underground organizations in the southern part of the country organized the National Liberation Front. In Western countries, he was dubbed the Viet Cong. In 1961, the first regular units of the US Army arrived in Vietnam. These were helicopter companies. The reason for this was the complete incapacity of the leadership of South Vietnam in the fight against the partisans. In addition, the reason for these actions was also cited as a response to North Vietnamese assistance to the guerrillas. Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese authorities gradually began to lay the so-called supply route for the guerrillas in South Vietnam. Despite the significantly worse equipment than the US soldiers, the partisans successfully used various ones and carried out sabotage activities.

Another reason was that the US leadership by sending troops demonstrated their determination to the Soviet Union in the destruction of communism in Indochina. The American authorities could not lose South Vietnam, because this led to the loss of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos. And this put Australia at risk. In November 1963, the secret services organized a coup, as a result of which Diem and his brother (the head of the secret police) were killed. The reason for this is clear - they completely discredited themselves in the fight against the underground.

Subsequently, a series of coups followed, during which the partisans managed to further expand the territory under their control. American President Lyndon Johnson, who came to power after Kennedy's assassination, continued to send troops to Vietnam. By 1964, their number there was increased to 23 thousand.

In early August 1964, as a result of the provocative actions of the destroyers Turner Joy and Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, they were fired upon by the military of North Vietnam. A few days later, a report was received of a second shelling of Maddox, which was later denied by the ship's crew. But intelligence reported an interception of a message, where the Vietnamese allegedly recognized the attack on the ship.

The secrets of the Vietnam War were hidden by the American leadership for a long time. As it turned out in our days, the NSA officers made a mistake when deciphering the message. But the NSA leadership, aware of the error, presented the data in a favorable light for themselves. And that was the reason for the war.

As a result, the military invasion was approved by the US Congress. They adopted the Tonkin resolution and started with the US or Second Indochinese.

Causes of the Vietnam War

It can be unequivocally said that the war was unleashed by American politicians. At one time, the inhabitants of the USSR were called the imperialist habits of the United States and the desire to subjugate the planet as the cause of the war. In general, given the worldview of the Anglo-Saxon elite of this country, this version is not far from the truth. But there were also more prosaic reasons.

In the United States, they were very afraid of the spread of the communist threat and the complete loss of Vietnam. American strategists wanted to completely surround the communist bloc of countries with a ring of their allies. Such actions have been taken in Western Europe, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and several other countries. Nothing worked out with Vietnam and this became the reason for the military solution to the problem.

The second weighty reason was the desire to enrich corporations that sell weapons and ammunition. As you know, in the United States, economic and political elites are very interconnected. And the corporate lobby has a very strong influence on political decisions.

And how did they describe the cause of the war to ordinary Americans? The need to support democracy, of course. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? In fact, for US politicians, communist Vietnam was like a "splinter in one place." And the owners of military enterprises wanted to increase their fortunes on deaths. The latter, by the way, did not need a victory. They needed a massacre that would last as long as possible.

With the end of the Second World War, when it seemed to everyone that now the long-awaited and long peace, another serious force appeared on the political arena - the people's liberation movement. If in Europe the end of hostilities developed into a political confrontation between the two systems, then in the rest of the world the end of the world war became a signal for the activation of the anti-colonial movement. In Asia, the struggle of the colonies for self-determination took on a sharp form, giving impetus to a new round of confrontation between the West and the East. A civil war flared in China, and a conflict flared up on the Korean Peninsula. Acute military-political confrontation also affected French Indochina, where Vietnam sought to gain independence after the war.

Further events first took the form of a guerrilla struggle between the pro-communist forces and the French colonial troops. Further, the conflict escalated into a full-scale war that engulfed the entire Indochina, taking the form of direct armed intervention with the participation of the United States. Over time, the Vietnam War became one of the bloodiest and longest military conflicts of the Cold War period, lasting for a long 20 years. The war engulfed the whole of Indochina, bringing destruction, death and suffering to its peoples. The consequences of American participation in the war were fully felt not only by Vietnam, but by the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. Prolonged hostilities and the results of the armed confrontation determined the further fate of the vast and densely populated region. Having first defeated the French and broken the chains of colonial oppression, the Vietnamese had to fight one of the strongest armies in the world over the next 8 years.

The entire military conflict can be divided into three stages, each of which differs in the scale and intensity of hostilities and forms of armed struggle:

the period of guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam (1957-1965);
direct intervention of the US Army against the DRV (1965-1973);
Vietnamization of the conflict, withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam (1973-1975).

It is worth noting that each of the stages, under certain circumstances, could be the last, but external and third-party factors constantly appeared that contributed to the escalation of the conflict. Even before the direct entry of the US Army into hostilities as one of the parties to the conflict, an attempt was made to unravel the military-political knot peacefully. However, the attempts were unsuccessful. The principles of the positions of the parties to the conflict, which did not want to make any concessions, had an effect.

The result of the failure of the negotiation process was the protracted military aggression of the world's leading power against a small country. For eight whole years, the American army tried to destroy the first socialist state in Indochina, throwing armadas of aircraft and ships against the army of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The United States for the first time since the Second World War gathered such a huge military force in one place. The number of American troops in 1968, at the height of the fighting, reached 540 thousand people. Such a huge military contingent not only could not inflict a final defeat on the semi-partisan army of the communist government of the North, but was also forced to leave the territory of the long-suffering war. More than 2.5 million American soldiers and officers passed through the crucible of the war in Indochina. The cost of the war, led by the Americans for 10 thousand km. from the very territory of the United States amounted to a colossal figure - 352 billion US dollars.

Having failed to achieve the necessary results, the Americans lost the geopolitical duel with the countries of the socialist bloc, so the United States does not like to talk about the Vietnam War, even today, when 42 years have passed since the end of the war.

Background to the Vietnam War

Back in the summer of 1940, when, after the defeat of the French army in Europe, the Japanese hurried to seize French Indochina, the first resistance units began to appear on the territory of Vietnam. The leader of the Vietnamese communists, Ho Chi Minh, led the fight against the Japanese invaders, proclaiming a course for the complete liberation of the countries of Indochina from Japanese domination. The American government, despite the difference in ideology, then declared its full support for the Viet Minh movement. Communist partisan detachments, who were called nationalists across the ocean, began to receive military and financial assistance from the States. The main goal of the Americans at that time was to use every opportunity to destabilize the situation in the territories occupied by Japan.

The complete history of the Vietnam War calls this period the moment of the formation of the communist regime in Vietnam. Immediately after the end of World War II, the pro-communist Viet Minh movement became the main military and political force in Vietnam, bringing a lot of trouble to its former patrons. First, the French, and later the Americans - former allies, were forced to fight this national liberation movement in the region by all means. The consequences of the struggle radically changed not only the balance of power in Southeast Asia, but also had a profound effect on other participants in the confrontation.

The main events began to develop rapidly after the surrender of Japan. Armed detachments of the Vietnamese communists captured Hanoi and the northern regions of the country, after which the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed in the liberated territory. The French, who were trying with all their might to keep their former colonies in their imperial orbit, could in no way agree with such a development of events. The French brought an expeditionary force into North Vietnam, again returning the entire territory of the country under their control. From that moment on, all the military-political institutions of the DRV went underground, and a guerrilla war broke out in the country with the French colonial army. Initially, the partisan detachments were armed with guns and machine guns, inherited as trophies from the Japanese occupation army. In the future, more modern weapons began to enter the country through China.

It is important to note that France, despite its imperial ambitions, could not at that time independently maintain control over vast overseas possessions. The actions of the occupying troops were of a limited local character. Without American help, France could no longer keep a huge region in its sphere of influence. For the United States, participation in the military conflict on the side of France meant keeping the region under the control of Western democracies.

The consequences of the guerrilla war in Vietnam for the Americans were very important. If the French colonial army had gained the upper hand, the situation in Southeast Asia would have become controllable for the United States and its allies. Having lost the confrontation with the pro-communist forces in Vietnam, the United States could lose its dominant role in the entire Pacific region. In the context of a global confrontation with the USSR and in the face of the growing strength of communist China, the Americans could not allow the emergence of a socialist state in Indochina.

Involuntarily, America, due to its geopolitical ambitions, was drawn into another, second after the Korean War, major armed conflict. After the defeat of the French troops and the fruitless peace talks in Geneva, the United States assumed the main burden of conducting military operations in this region. Already at that time, the United States paid more than 80% of military spending from its own treasury. Preventing the unification of the country on the basis of the Geneva Accords, in opposition to the Ho Chi Minh regime in the north, the United States contributed to the proclamation of a puppet regime, the Republic of Vietnam, in the south of the country under its control. From that moment, a further escalation of the conflict in a purely military manner became inevitable. The 17th parallel became the border between the two Vietnamese states. The Communists were in power in the North. In the South, in areas controlled by the French administration and the American army, a military dictatorship of a puppet regime was established.

The Vietnam War - the American way of looking at things

The struggle between the North and the South for the unification of the country took on an extremely fierce character. This was facilitated by the military-technical support of the regime of South Vietnam from across the ocean. The number of military advisers in the country in 1964 was already more than 23 thousand people. Together with advisers, main types of weapons were constantly delivered to Saigon. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was technically and politically supported by the Soviet Union and communist China. Civilian armed confrontation smoothly flowed into a global confrontation between superpowers supported by their allies. The chronicles of those years are full of headlines about how the Viet Cong guerrillas confront the heavily armed army of South Vietnam.

Despite the serious military support of the South Vietnamese regime, the Viet Cong guerrilla units and the army of the DRV managed to achieve significant success. By 1964, nearly 70% of South Vietnam was controlled by communist forces. In order to avoid the collapse of its ally, in the United States, high level It was decided to start a full-scale intervention in the country.

To start the operation, the Americans used a very dubious reason. To do this, an attack by torpedo boats of the Navy of the DRV on the ship of the US Navy, the destroyer Medox, was invented. The collision of ships of the warring parties, later called the "Tonkin Incident", occurred on August 2, 1964. After that, the US Air Force launched the first missile and bomb strikes on coastal and civilian targets in North Vietnam. Since that moment, the Vietnam War has become a full-fledged international conflict, in which the armed forces of various states participated, active hostilities were conducted on land, in the air and at sea. In terms of the intensity of hostilities, the size of the territories used and the number of military contingents, this war has become the most massive and bloody in modern history.

The Americans decided to air raids to force the government of North Vietnam to stop supplying weapons and providing assistance to the rebels in the South. The army, meanwhile, would have to cut off the supply lines of the rebels in the area of the 17th parallel, block and then destroy the detachments of the South Vietnam Liberation Army.

To bombard military installations on the territory of the DRV, the Americans used mainly tactical and naval aviation, based on airfields in South Vietnam and aircraft carriers of the 7th Fleet. Later, B-52 strategic bombers were deployed to help front-line aviation, which began carpet bombing the territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the areas bordering the demarcation line.

In the spring of 1965, the participation of American troops on land began. First, the Marines tried to take control of the border between the Vietnamese states, then the US Army Marines began to take regular part in identifying and destroying the bases and supply lines of partisan formations.

The number of American troops constantly increased. Already in the winter of 1968, almost half a million US troops were stationed in South Vietnam, not counting the formations of the Navy. Almost 1/3 of the entire American army took part in the hostilities. Almost half of all US Air Force tactical aviation took part in the raids. Not only the marines were actively used, but also the army aviation, which assumed the main function of fire support. A third of all strike aircraft carriers of the US Navy took part in organizing and supporting regular raids on Vietnamese cities and villages.

Beginning in 1966, the Americans set out to globalize the conflict. From that moment on, the support of the US Armed Forces in the fight against the Viet Cong and the DRV army was supported by Australia and South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, members of the SEATO military-political bloc.

The results of the military conflict

The Communists of North Vietnam were supported by the USSR and the People's Republic of China. With supplies from Soviet Union anti-aircraft missile systems managed to significantly restrict the freedom of activity American aviation. Military advisers from the Soviet Union and China actively contributed to raising the military power of the army of the DRV, which eventually managed to turn the tide of hostilities in its favor. In total, North Vietnam during the war years received gratuitous loans from the USSR in the amount of 340 million rubles. This not only helped to keep the communist regime afloat, but also became the basis for the transition of the units of the DRV and the Viet Cong detachments to the offensive.

Seeing the futility of military participation in the course of the conflict, the Americans began to look for ways out of the impasse. During the talks held in Paris, agreements were reached to stop the bombing of the cities of North Vietnam in exchange for the cessation of the actions of the armed formations of the liberation army of South Vietnam.

The coming to power in the United States of President Nixon's administration gave hope for a subsequent peaceful settlement of the conflict. A course was chosen for the subsequent Vietnamization of the conflict. The Vietnam War from now on was to become again a civil armed confrontation. At the same time, the American armed forces continued to actively support the army of South Vietnam, and aviation only increased the intensity of the bombing of the territory of the DRV. At the final stage of the war, the Americans began to use chemical munitions to fight partisans. The effects of carpet bombing of the jungle with chemical bombs and napalm are still being celebrated today. The number of American troops was reduced by almost half, and all weapons were transferred to the South Vietnamese armed forces.

Despite this, under pressure from the American public, the curtailment of American participation in the war continued. In 1973, a peace agreement was signed in Paris, ending the direct involvement of the US Army in this conflict. For the Americans, this war was the bloodiest in history. For 8 years of participation in hostilities, the US Army has lost 58 thousand people. More than 300,000 wounded soldiers returned to America. The loss of military equipment and military equipment was a colossal figure. Only the number of downed aircraft and helicopters of the Air Force and Navy amounted to more than 9 thousand vehicles.

After the American troops left the battlefield, the North Vietnamese army went on the offensive. In the spring of 1975, units of the DRV defeated the remnants of the South Vietnamese army and entered Saigon. The victory in the war cost the people of Vietnam dearly. In all 20 years of armed confrontation, only 4 million civilians died, not counting the number of guerrilla fighters and military personnel of the armies of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and South Vietnam.

"I just tremble for my country when I think that God is just" -
US President Thomas Jefferson

In the second half of the 19th century, Vietnam became a French colony. The growth of national consciousness after the First World War led to the creation in 1941 in China of the League for the Independence of Vietnam or Viet Minh - a military-political organization that united all opponents of French power.

The main positions were occupied by supporters of communist views under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. During the Second World War, he actively cooperated with the United States, which helped the Viet Minh with weapons and ammunition to fight the Japanese. After the surrender of Japan, Ho Chi Minh captured Hanoi and other major cities of the country, proclaiming the formation of an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, France did not agree with this and transferred an expeditionary force to Indochina, starting a colonial war in December 1946. The French army could not cope with the partisans alone, and since 1950 the United States came to their aid. The main reason for their intervention was the strategic importance of the region, guarding the Japanese islands and the Philippines from the southwest. The Americans considered that it would be easier to control these territories if they were under the rule of the French allies.

The war went on for the next four years and by 1954, after the defeat of the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the situation became almost hopeless. The United States by this time already paid more than 80% of the costs of this war. Vice President Richard Nixon recommended tactical nuclear bombing. But in July 1954, the Geneva Agreement was concluded, according to which the territory of Vietnam was temporarily divided along the 17th parallel (where there was a demilitarized zone) into North Vietnam (under the control of the Viet Minh) and South Vietnam (under the rule of the French, who almost immediately granted her independence ).

In 1960 in the USA in the battle for White House John Kennedy and Richard Nixon participated. At that time, the fight against communism was considered good form, and therefore the winner was the applicant whose program to combat the "red threat" was more decisive. After the adoption of communism in China, the US government viewed any developments in Vietnam as part of communist expansion. This could not be allowed, and therefore, after the Geneva Accords, the United States decided to completely replace France in Vietnam. With American support, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem proclaimed himself the first President of the Republic of Vietnam. His rule was tyranny in one of its worst forms. Only relatives were appointed to government positions, whom the people hated even more than the president himself. Those who opposed the regime were locked up in prisons, and freedom of speech was forbidden. It was hardly to the liking of America, but you can’t turn a blind eye to anything, for the sake of the only ally in Vietnam.

As one US diplomat said, "Ngo Dinh Diem is certainly a son of a bitch, but he is OUR son of a bitch!"

The appearance on the territory of South Vietnam of underground resistance groups, not even supported from the North, was only a matter of time. However, the United States saw only the intrigues of the Communists in everything. Further tightening of measures only led to the fact that in December 1960, all South Vietnamese underground groups united in the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, called the Viet Cong in the West. Now North Vietnam began to support the partisans. In response, the US stepped up its military aid to Diem. In December 1961, the first regular units of the US Armed Forces arrived in the country - two helicopter companies, designed to increase the mobility of government troops. American advisers trained South Vietnamese soldiers and planned combat operations. The John F. Kennedy administration wanted to demonstrate to Khrushchev its determination to destroy the "communist contagion" and its readiness to defend its allies. The conflict grew and soon became one of the most "hot" hotbeds of the Cold War between the two powers. For the US, the loss of South Vietnam meant the loss of Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, which posed a threat to Australia. When it became clear that Diem was not capable of effectively fighting the partisans, the American intelligence services, through the hands of South Vietnamese generals, organized a coup. On November 2, 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was killed along with his brother. Over the next two years, as a result of the struggle for power, another coup took place every few months, which allowed the partisans to expand the captured territories. At the same time, US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and many fans of the "conspiracy theory" see this as his desire to end the Vietnam War peacefully, which someone really did not like. This version is plausible, in light of the fact that the first document that Lyndon Johnson signed as new president was to send additional troops to Vietnam. Although on the eve of the presidential elections, he was nominated as a "candidate for the world", which influenced his landslide victory. The number of American soldiers in South Vietnam rose from 760 in 1959 to 23,300 in 1964.

On August 2, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin, two American destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, were attacked by North Vietnamese forces. A couple of days later, in the midst of confusion in the command of the Yankees, the destroyer Maddox announced a second shelling. And although the ship's crew soon denied the information, intelligence announced the interception of messages in which the North Vietnamese confessed to the attack. The US Congress, with 466 votes in favor and no votes against, passed the Tonkin Resolution, giving the President the right to respond to this attack by any means. This started the war. Lyndon Johnson ordered airstrikes against North Vietnamese naval installations (Operation Pierce Arrow). Surprisingly, the decision to invade Vietnam was made only by the civilian leadership: Congress, President, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. The Pentagon reacted without enthusiasm to the decision to "settle the conflict" in Southeast Asia.

Colin Powell, then a young officer, said: "Our military was afraid to tell the civilian leadership that this method of war leads to a guaranteed loss."
American analyst Michael Desh wrote: “The unconditional obedience of the military civil authorities leads, firstly, to the loss of their authority, and secondly, it unties the hands of official Washington for further, similar to the Vietnamese, adventures.

Most recently, a statement was made public in the United States by independent researcher Matthew Aid, who specializes in the history of the Agency national security(US Intelligence and Counterintelligence Intelligence Service) that key intelligence about the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident that prompted the US invasion of Vietnam was falsified. The basis was a 2001 report by NSA staff historian Robert Heynock, declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (passed by Congress in 1966). The report shows that the NSA officers made an unintentional error in translating the information received as a result of radio interception. Senior officers, who almost immediately revealed the error, decided to hide it by correcting everything Required documents so that they indicate the reality of the attack on the Americans. High-ranking officials repeatedly referred to these false data in their speeches.

Robert McNamara, stated: “I think it is wrong to think that Johnson wanted war. However, we believed that we had evidence that North Vietnam was going to escalate the conflict.

And this is not the latest falsification of intelligence by the leadership of the NSA. The war in Iraq was based on unconfirmed information on the "uranium dossier". However, many historians believe that even if there had been no incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, the United States would still have found a reason to start military operations. Lyndon Johnson believed that America must defend its honor, impose a new round of the arms race on our country, unite the nation, distract its citizens from internal problems.

When a new presidential election was held in the United States in 1969, Richard Nixon declared that foreign policy The United States will change dramatically. The US will no longer pretend to be the overseer and try to solve problems in all corners of the planet. He revealed a secret plan to end the battles in Vietnam. This was well received by the war-weary American public, and Nixon won the election. However, in reality, the secret plan consisted in the massive use of aviation and navy. In 1970 alone, American bombers dropped more bombs on Vietnam than in the past five years combined.

And here we should mention another side interested in the war - US corporations that manufacture ammunition. More than 14 million tons of explosives were detonated in the Vietnam War, which is several times more than during the Second World War in all theaters of operations. Bombs, including high-tonnage bombs and now banned fragment bombs, leveled entire villages to the ground, and the fire of napalm and phosphorus burned hectares of forest. Dioxin, which is the most toxic substance ever created by man, was sprayed over the territory of Vietnam in an amount of more than 400 kilograms. Chemists believe that 80 grams added to New York's water supply is enough to turn it into a dead city. This weapon has continued to kill for forty years, affecting the current generation of Vietnamese. The profits of US military corporations amounted to many billions of dollars. And they were not at all interested in a quick victory for the American army. After all, it is not by chance that the most developed state in the world, using the latest technologies, large masses of soldiers, winning all their battles, still could not win the war.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said: “We are moving towards a fascism not of the Hitler type, but of a softer type of fascism that is expressed in the loss of civil liberties, when everything is run by corporations and the government is in the same bed with big business.”

In 1967, the International War Crimes Tribunal held two hearings on the conduct of the Vietnam War. It follows from their verdict that the United States bears full responsibility for the use of force and for the crime against peace in violation of the established provisions of international law.

“In front of the huts,” recalls a former US soldier, “old men stood or squatted in the dust at the doorstep. Their life was so simple, it was all in this village and the fields surrounding it. What do they think of strangers invading their village? How can they understand the constant movement of helicopters cutting through their blue sky; tanks and half-tracks, armed patrols paddling through their rice paddies where they cultivate the land?

US military Vietnam War

The "Vietnam War" or "Vietnam War" is Vietnam's Second Indochina War with the United States. It began around 1961 and ended on April 30, 1975. In Vietnam itself, this war is called the Liberation War, and sometimes the American War. The Vietnam War is often seen as the peak of the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and China on the one hand, and the US with some of its allies on the other. In America, the Vietnam War is considered the darkest spot in its history. In the history of Vietnam, this war is perhaps the most heroic and tragic page.
The Vietnam War was both a civil war between various political forces in Vietnam and an armed struggle against the American occupation.

ctrl Enter

Noticed osh s bku Highlight text and click Ctrl+Enter

Vietnam War 1957-1975

The war began as a civil war in South Vietnam. Later, North Vietnam was drawn into the war - later supported by the PRC and the USSR - as well as the United States and its allies, who acted on the side of the friendly South Vietnamese regime. As events unfolded, the war became intertwined with the parallel civil wars in Laos and Cambodia. All fighting in Southeast Asia from the late 1950s to 1975 is known as the Second Indochina War.

Prerequisites
Since the second half of the 19th century, Vietnam has been part of the colonial empire of France. After the end of the First World War, the country began to grow national consciousness, underground circles began to appear that advocated the independence of Vietnam, and several armed uprisings took place. In 1941, the League for the Independence of Vietnam was created in China - a military-political organization that initially united all opponents of the French colonial administration. In the future, the main role in it was played by supporters of communist views, led by Ho Chi Minh.

During World War II, the French administration agreed with Japan that the Japanese would have access to Vietnam's strategic resources while maintaining France's colonial administrative apparatus. This agreement was valid until 1944, when Japan established full control over the French possessions by force of arms. In September 1945, Japan capitulated. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the creation of an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) throughout Vietnamese territory.

However, France refused to recognize the loss of its colony, and despite the agreements reached on the mechanism for granting independence to the DRV, in December 1946, France began a colonial war in Vietnam. However, the French army could not cope with the partisan movement. Since 1950, the United States began to provide military assistance to French troops in Vietnam. Over the next 4 years (1950-1954), US military aid amounted to $3 billion. However, in the same 1950 and the Viet Minh began to receive military aid from the People's Republic of China. By 1954, the situation for the French forces was almost hopeless. The war against Vietnam was extremely unpopular in France. By this time, the US was already paying 80% of the cost of this war. The final blow to French colonial ambitions in Indochina was a heavy defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. In July 1954, the Geneva Accords were concluded, ending the eight-year war.

The main points of the agreement on Vietnam provided:
1) temporary division of the country into two parts approximately along the 17th parallel and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between them;
2) holding on July 20, 1956, general elections to the parliament of a united Vietnam.

After the French left, the Ho Chi Minh government quickly consolidated its hold on North Vietnam. In South Vietnam, the French were replaced by the United States, which viewed South Vietnam as the main link in the security system in the region. The American doctrine of "dominoes" assumed that if South Vietnam became communist, then all the neighboring states of Southeast Asia would fall under the control of the communists. Ngo Dinh Diem became Prime Minister of South Vietnam, a well-known nationalist figure who had a high reputation in
USA. In 1956, Ngo Dinh Diem, with the tacit support of the United States, refused to hold a national referendum on the question of the reunification of the country. Convinced that the peaceful unification of the country had no prospects, the Vietnamese nationalist and communist forces launched an insurgency in rural areas of South Vietnam.

The war can be divided into several periods:

Guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam (1957-1964).
Full-scale US military intervention (1965-1973).
The final stage of the war (1973-1975).

In December 1960, when it became apparent that Ngo Dinh Diem's regime was gradually losing control over rural areas. The US decides to intervene in the war. On August 2, 1964, the US Navy destroyer Maddox, patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin, approached the coast of North Vietnam and, as claimed, was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, under unclear circumstances, another attack was carried out. As a response, President L. Johnson ordered the American air force to strike at the naval facilities of North Vietnam. Johnson used these attacks as a pretext to get Congress to pass a resolution in support of his actions, which later served as a mandate for undeclared war.

The course of the war in 1964-1968.

Initially, the bombing was intended to stop the penetration of North Vietnamese forces into South Vietnam, to force North Vietnam to refuse assistance to the rebels, and also to boost the morale of the South Vietnamese. Over time, two more reasons appeared - to force Hanoi (North Vietnam) to sit down at the negotiating table and use the bombing as a trump card in concluding an agreement. By March 1965, American bombing of North Vietnam had become a regular occurrence.

Air operations in South Vietnam also intensified. Helicopters were widely used to increase the mobility of South Vietnamese and American troops in rough terrain. New types of weapons and combat methods were developed. For example, defoliants were sprayed, "liquid" mines were used, penetrating under the surface of the earth and retaining the ability to explode for several days, as well as infrared detectors that made it possible to detect the enemy under the dense canopy of the forest.

Air operations against the guerrillas changed the nature of the war; now the peasants were forced to leave their houses and fields, destroyed by intense bombing and napalm. By the end of 1965, 700,000 inhabitants had left rural areas of South Vietnam and became refugees. Another new element was the involvement of other countries in the war. In addition to the United States, the South Vietnamese government came to the aid of South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, later Philippines and Thailand. In 1965, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin promised to send Soviet anti-aircraft guns, MIG jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles to North Vietnam.

The United States began bombing supply bases and gas depots in North Vietnam, as well as targets in the demilitarized zone. The first bombardment of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and the port city of Haiphong was carried out on June 29, 1966. Despite this, the number of North Korean troops infiltrating South Vietnam steadily increased. Soviet supplies to North Vietnam were carried out through the port of Haiphong, from the bombing and mining of which the United States refrained, fearing the consequences of the destruction of Soviet ships.

In North Vietnam, American bombing also resulted in numerous civilian casualties and the destruction of many civilian objects. Civilian casualties were relatively low due to the construction of thousands of one-person concrete shelters and the evacuation of much of the urban population, especially children, to rural areas. Industrial enterprises were also taken out of the cities and placed in rural areas. One of the tasks assigned was the destruction of villages controlled by the Viet Cong. Residents of suspicious villages were evicted from their houses, which were then burned or bulldozed, and the peasants were relocated to other areas.

Beginning Since 1965, the USSR has been supplying equipment and ammunition for air defense, while China has sent auxiliary troops numbering from 30,000 to 50,000 troops to North Vietnam. to assist in the restoration of transport communications and strengthening air defense. Throughout the 1960s, China insisted that North Vietnam continue the armed struggle until complete and final victory. The USSR, fearful of border conflicts, was apparently inclined to open peace negotiations, but because of the rivalry with China for the leadership of the communist bloc, did not put serious pressure on the North Vietnamese.

Peace negotiations. End of the war
From 1965 to 1968, repeated attempts were made to start peace negotiations, but they turned out to be fruitless, as were the efforts of international mediators. : “Hanoi understands the principle of reciprocity as follows: there is a civil war in South Vietnam, Hanoi supports one side, the US the other. If the US stops its aid, then Hanoi is ready to do the same.” The United States, on the other hand, claimed that it was protecting South Vietnam from external aggression.
Three major obstacles stood in the way of the peace talks:
1) Hanoi's demand that the US finally and unconditionally stop the bombing of North Vietnam;
2) the refusal of the United States to go for it without concessions from North Vietnam;
3) the unwillingness of the South Vietnamese government to enter into negotiations with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.

In the late 1960s, the United States was swept by an unprecedented wave of public discontent over the undeclared war in Vietnam. Apparently, this was not only due to the huge costs of the war and heavy losses (during 1961-1967 almost 16,000 American troops were killed and 100,000 wounded; total losses from 1961 to 1972 amounted to 46,000 killed and more than 300,000 wounded) , but also by televised demonstrations of the devastation caused by US troops in Vietnam. The Vietnam War had a very significant impact on the worldview of the people of the United States. A new movement, the hippies, emerged from the youth protesting against this war. The movement culminated in the so-called "Pentagon Campaign", when up to 100,000 young people gathered in Washington in October 1967 to protest against the war, as well as protests during the US Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in August 1968.
Desertion during the Vietnam campaign was a fairly widespread phenomenon. Many deserters from the Vietnam era left units tormented by the fears and horrors of war. This is especially true of those who were drafted into the army against the will of the recruits themselves. However, many of the future deserters went to war on own will. The American authorities tried to solve the problem of their legalization immediately after the end of the war. President Gerald Ford in 1974 offered a pardon to all draft evaders and deserters. More than 27,000 people came to confession. Later, in 1977, the next head of the White House, Jimmy Carter, pardoned those who fled the United States so as not to be drafted.

"Vietnam Syndrome"
One of the consequences of US participation in the Vietnam War is the emergence of the "Vietnam Syndrome". The essence of the "Vietnam Syndrome" is the refusal of the Americans to support the participation of the United States in military campaigns that are long in nature, do not have clear military and political goals, and are accompanied by significant losses among American military personnel. Separate manifestations of the "Vietnamese syndrome" are observed at the level of the mass consciousness of Americans. Anti-interventionist sentiments became a concrete expression of the “Vietnam Syndrome”, when the increased desire of the American people for the non-participation of their country in hostilities abroad was often accompanied by a demand to exclude war from the arsenal of means of the government’s national policy as a method of resolving foreign policy crises. The attitude to avoid situations fraught with a "second Vietnam" took shape in the form of a slogan "No more Vietnams!".

On March 31, 1968, US President Johnson gave in to demands to limit the scale of American participation in the war and announced a reduction in the bombing of the North and called for an end to the war on the terms of the Geneva Accords. Immediately before the 1968 presidential election, Johnson ordered an end to American bombing of North Vietnam on November 1. The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Saigon government were invited to take part in the talks in Paris. R. Nixon, who replaced Johnson as president in January 1969, announced a transition to the "Vietnamization" of the war, which provided for the phased withdrawal of American ground forces from Vietnam, the use of the remaining military personnel mainly as advisers, instructors, as well as to provide technical assistance and air support for the South Vietnamese armed forces, which meant shifting the main burden of hostilities onto the shoulders of the South Vietnamese army. The direct participation of American troops in hostilities ceased from August 1972. At the same time, the United States significantly increased the bombing of Vietnam, first in the south, and then in the north, and soon hostilities and bombing engulfed almost the entire Indochina. The expansion of the scale of the air war led to an increase in the number of downed American aircraft (8500 by 1972).

Late October 1972, after secret talks in Paris between President Nixon's national security adviser H. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, a nine-point tentative agreement was reached. However, the United States hesitated to sign it, and after the Saigon government raised objections on a number of points, they tried to change the content of the agreements already reached. In mid-December, negotiations broke down, and the United States launched the most intense bombing of North Vietnam of the entire war. American B-52 strategic bombers carried out "carpet" bombing of the areas of Hanoi and Haiphong, covering an area 0.8 km wide and 2.4 km long in one bombing.

In April 1973, the last American military units left Vietnam, and in August the US Congress passed a law prohibiting any use of American military forces in Indochina.

The political clauses of the ceasefire agreement were not implemented and the fighting never stopped. In 1973 and early 1974, the Saigon government managed to achieve significant successes, but at the end of 1974 the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam struck back and in 1975, together with the North Vietnamese troops, launched a general offensive. In March, they occupied the city of Methuot, and the Saigon troops were forced to leave the entire territory of the Central Plateau. Their retreat soon turned into a rout, and by mid-April the Communists had captured two-thirds of the country. Saigon was surrounded, and on April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese troops laid down their arms.

The Vietnam War is over. From 1961 to 1975, 56,555 American servicemen died and 303,654 were injured. The Vietnamese lost at least 200,000 Saigon soldiers, an estimated one million soldiers of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese army, and half a million civilians. Several million more people were injured, about ten million were left homeless.