Vietnam+War+Timeline

The Vietnam War

﻿The Vietnam War was a war (sometimes described as just a "military conflict") fought in the midst of the Cold War, from 1955 to 1975 (20 years!). Over the course of the conflict, several presidents were elected, and all had a different way of approaching the war, which by the end of it had turned out to be a total disaster for America.


 * 1941-1947: In 1941, the Vietminh is created, under Ho Chi Minh, a communist and fervent Vietnamese nationalist. The Vietminh fought Japan in WWII, and once Japan had collapsed, they had set up a government in Hanoi. In 1947, President Truman presented the Truman Doctrine, otherwise known as the Containment Doctrine, which stated that America could and would try to prevent communism wherever and whenever it occurred.
 * 1949-1950: after WWII, the French return to Vietnam to reestablish control and create an "independent" national government (under their control), placing Bao Dai in control of the Vietnam government. The Vietminh fought against the government, prompting the French to ask America for help, and America recognizing the regime and providing them with aid to fund a war.
 * 1950-1954: First Indochina War - fought between French and the Vietminh. While America continued to fund the war, the French were losing horribly, and eventually, after a devastating encounter at Dien Bien Phu where the Vietminh slaughtered the French, Eisenhower decided not to save the French. At the Geneva Conference, it was decided Vietnam would be split along the 17th parallel, with elections to unify the country to occur two years later
 * 1954-1959: South Vietnam, under control of Ngo Dinh Diem, a fervent nationalist, was on very friendly terms with America, and won their approval when he disallowed the unity elections agreed at the Geneva Conference (due to North Vietnam's unanimous support of Ho Chi Minh's communist regime). Diem began a campaign to remove supporters of the Vietminh in the South, which prompted an answer from the Vietminh in the creation of the Viet Cong.
 * 1960-1963: The Viet Cong was working to topple over Diem's government, while Diem's questionable decisions were making him lose popularity in the South. Diem and his government were beginning to "embarrass" the U.S., so they ordered Diem to be overthrown by a group of his generals. They promptly assassinated him and his brother (something the U.S. didn't really want or expect) and set up the first of what would be several unstable governments
 * 1963-1965: with the conflict in Vietnam escalating, Lyndon Johnson was at a loss of what to do regarding the situation. There was substantial pressure to increase intervention, from his cabinet, to the American people, to his military advisers. At first, Lyndon sparcely expanded American involvement, but in August 1964, North Vietnamese torpedoed American destroyers, and Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which basically gave Johnson any and all abilities to do whatever he wanted in Vietnam to stop the spread of communism
 * 1965-1967: the number of American combat troops in Vietnam kept increasing; in March 1965, there were 100,000 troops, but by the end of the year there were 180,000; in 1966, there were 360,000; by the end of 1967 there were more than half a million troops in Vietnam. With this increase in troops, there was also an increase in the American death toll; towards the spring of 1966, the death toll had risen above 4,000.
 * 1967-1969: while the Vietnam efforts were continuing to fail (as America began strategies of "attrition" and "pacification"), the war was creating a steadily-increasing inflation at the home front.
 * 1969- 1972: Richard Nixon was elected into office in 1969 with a plan to solve the stalemate in Vietnam and resolve America's economic problems. He appointed Henry Kissinger as his assistant for national security. With the policy of "Vietnamization", Nixon announced the first reduction of troops since the start of the war.
 * 1970-1971: Nixon and Kissinger concluded that North Vietnam was getting support and supplies from Cambodia, and made the decision to go into Cambodia to destroy persue these assumptions. With this, the Nixon administration garnered a lot of bitter disapproval from the American people as he tried to keep fighting the war, first by trying to send the South Vietnamese troops to invade Laos, and sacking North Vietnamese harbors to prevent flow of supplies from China and the Soviet Union. This revived the antiwar movement to new heights.
 * 1972-1973: As the Easter Offensive and Christmas bombings had American B52's ravaging the Vietnamese country, causing severe casualties on both sides, Nixon tried to negotiate again with North Vietnamaese. These efforts were largely unsuccessful for a long time, as negotiations between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, North Vietnam's secretary of state, often broke off or fell through. Eventually, the U.S. and North Vietnam reached a very vague agreement, which stated the two would cease fire, and American POWs would be released, and not much else
 * 1974-1975: in the midst of the Watergate Scandal (which resulted in President Nixon resigning in 1974), the Communists in the North of Vietnam planned to sack the South. The communists tookd the Phuoc Long Province and experience no American interference, which encouraged them to enact a raid on Saigon, which came into fruition on April 30th, 1975, as North Vietnamese forces invaded the city of Saigon. Previous to the attack, Nixon's successor as President, Gerald Ford, said that "America's involvement in the war was over"

=__OPINIONS:__= Many people just don't know the exact reason why America went to war with Vietnam. Some of the major people involved in the decision-making aspect of it might have said they do, but I believe that's questionable as well!

- At the time of the war, America produced a video shown to all troops going to Vietnam just why they were fighting this enemy in the first place. The video frankly said that America was at war with Vietnam to fight for freedom and democracy, and to contain communism. This is a good justification to the war on America's part - to an extent. Why was Vietnam so significant when compared to other communist entities, such as the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea? - Guenter Lewy argued that America had gone to fight to help their ally, South Korea, fight "foreign aggression", like the North Vietnamese offense. This is a pretty good explanation too, but if this is so, then why didn't America intervene in aiding France in Vietnam when they were getting slaughtered? It still also doesn't justify why Vietnam was so important to America, although friendship is important! - Robert Heilbroner said that America was fighting for its place in the world; that if the communists won, then capitalism would slowly erode, and cease being the dominant world order. This might have been very scary for America, especially coming out of WWII and being in the midst of the Cold War.


 * containment - domino theory
 * imperialism - world order
 * selfless/humanitarian - democracy, freedom