which president started the vietnam war
[268][269] American bases were ringed by bars and brothels. Sweden sent humanitarian support to North Vietnam, offered political and diplomatic opposition to the U.S., and harbored American deserters. Massive aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and PAVN forces were carried out by the US to prevent the collapse of the Royal central government, and to deny the use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. They seized some Japanese arms after Japanese forces surrendered. [97]:672674 With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. The United States also reduced support troops, and in March 1971 the 5th Special Forces Group, the first American unit deployed to South Vietnam, withdrew to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. [148] Nonetheless, it is possible to specify certain groups who led the anti-war movement at its peak in the late 1960s and the reasons why. [244], R.J. Rummel estimated that 39,000 were killed by South Vietnam during the Diem-era in democide from a range of between 16,000 and 167,000 people; for 1964 to 1975, Rummel estimated 50,000 people were killed in democide, from a range of between 42,000 and 128,000. [103]:570571 However, Thieu outmanoeuvred and sidelined Ky by filling the ranks with generals from his faction. Moreover, the rushed nature of Vietnamization, intended to cover the US retreat, resulted in a lack of spare parts, ground-crew, and maintenance personnel, which rendered most of the equipment inoperable. 90% of herbicide use was directed at forest defoliation. [275] A number of prominent Western journalists were also involved in covering the war, with Dickey Chapelle being among the first as well as the first American female reporter killed in a war. Four students were killed by National Guardsmen in May 1970 during a protest at Kent State University in Ohio, which provoked further public outrage in the United States. [323] James E. Westheider wrote that "At the height of American involvement in 1968, for example, 543,000 American military personnel were stationed in Vietnam, but only 80,000 were considered combat troops. Ambassador Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war". The Paris Peace Accords of January 1973 saw all U.S. forces withdrawn;[75]:457 accords were broken almost immediately, and fighting continued for two more years. He foresaw that if the election was held in 1956 possibly eighty percent of Vietnamese population would have voted for Ho Chi Minh 2 and Vietnam would certainly fall to the communists. As the PAVN/VC recovered from their 1968 losses . For two bloody weeks, severe fighting raged as the ARVN defenders made a last stand to try to block the PAVN advance. By 28 March 35,000 PAVN troops were poised to attack the suburbs. Vietnam | JFK Library Recent scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",[358]:373 attacking the previous orthodox and revisionist schools of American historiography of the Vietnam War. [283], The US service rifle was initially the M14. Most Asian countries were unwilling to accept these refugees, many of whom fled by boat and were known as boat people. 89. On 24 November 1963, he said, "the battle against communism must be joined with strength and determination. [71]:76. [312] Of all the countries of Indochina, Laos experienced the largest refugee flight in proportional terms, as 300,000 people out of a total population of 3million crossed the border into Thailand. China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, and continued to aid them for years afterward. [40]:7576 Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained skeptical of France's chance of success. [292][A 13] However, in the years following the war, a vast number of South Vietnamese were sent to re-education camps where many endured torture, starvation, and disease while being forced to perform hard labor. [122] Kennedy rejected the idea but increased military assistance yet again. [115]:26 About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation. [348][349] It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel on the Viet Cong side as many persons were part-time guerrillas or impressed labourers who did not wear uniforms[350][351] and civilians killed were sometimes written off as enemy killed because high enemy casualties was directly tied to promotions and commendation. Why did America go to war with Vietnam? [45]:275 Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties. [40]:704707 An embittered and tearful president Thieu resigned on the same day, declaring that the United States had betrayed South Vietnam. [311] Between 1975 and 1998, an estimated 1.2million refugees from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries resettled in the United States, while Canada, Australia, and France resettled over 500,000. [150]:94, On 8 March 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were landed near Da Nang, South Vietnam. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of U.S. [326] According to Dale Kueter, "Of those killed in combat, 86.3 percent were white, 12.5 percent were black and the remainder from other races. Others, such as Stephen Spiro, opposed the war based on the theory of Just War. Kennedy advisors Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow recommended that U.S. troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers. Which president started the war in Vietnam? - TimesMojo President Richard M. Nixon assumed responsibility for the Vietnam War as he swore the oath of office on January 20, 1969. [97]:670672. Following Vietnamization many Montagnard groups and fighters were incorporated into the Vietnamese Rangers as border sentries. Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam. [46] Benjamin Valentino estimates 110,000310,000 deaths as a "possible case" of "counter-guerrilla mass killings" by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces during the war. Among the internal refugees were many young women who became the ubiquitous "bar girls" of wartime South Vietnam, "hawking her waresbe that cigarettes, liquor, or herself" to American and allied soldiers. [307][308] In Laos, 80million bombs failed to explode and remain scattered throughout the country. [263][264] Some women also served for the PAVN and Viet Cong intelligence services. [249]:77 During their visit to the Con Son Prison in 1970, U.S. congressmen Augustus F. Hawkins and William R. Anderson witnessed detainees either confined in minute "tiger cages" or chained to their cells, and provided with poor-quality food. It was formed in Memot, Cambodia, and directed through COSVN. As a result, by the war's completion in 1975, black casualties had declined to 12.5% of US combat deaths, approximately equal to percentage of draft-eligible black men, though still slightly higher than the 10% who served in the military. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge would eventually kill 13 million Cambodians out of a population of around 8million, in one of the bloodiest genocides in history.[64][303][304][305]. Journalism in the ensuing years has documented other overlooked and uninvestigated war crimes involving every army division that was active in Vietnam,[239] including the atrocities committed by Tiger Force. [287], The Vietnam War was the first conflict where U.S. forces had secure voice communication equipment available at the tactical level. Between 1961 and 1964 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men. [193]:349350[194]:166175 At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels. President Dim was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. By 1968, the number of US forces surpassed 500,000. [34]:270279, Notable Viet Cong atrocities include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Hu[255] during the Tet Offensive and the killing of 252 civilians during the k Sn massacre. Thus, the total for 1954 to 1975 is 81,000, from a range of between 57,000 and 284,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam. Defoliation was also used to clear sensitive areas, including base perimeters and possible ambush sites along roads and canals. Ho Chi Minh, then known as Nguyen ai Quac, wrote to US Secretary of State Robert Lansing in 1919, asking for support in securing Vietnamese liberation from French colonial rule The indigenous forces numbered in the tens of thousands and they conducted direct action missions, led by paramilitary officers, against the Communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese supporters. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II, a massive bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong 1829 December 1972. In some areas of southern Vietnam, dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard. [223]:85 The statement was on air at 2:30pm. The above figures on missing and wounded were calculated using Hanoi's declared casualty ratios for the period of 1945 to 1979, during which time the Communists incurred 1.1 million killed, 300,000 missing, and 600,000 wounded. [228] The fatal shooting of four students at Kent State University in 1970 led to nationwide university protests. By 1967, the war had generated large-scale internal refugees, numbering nearly 2.1million in South Vietnam, with 125,000 people evacuated and rendered homeless during Operation Masher alone,[159] which was the largest search and destroy operation in the war up to that point. "[216], At the start of 1975, the South Vietnamese had three times as much artillery and twice the number of tanks and armoured cars as the PAVN. [161] The PAVN/Viet Cong had furthermore developed strategies capable of countering U.S. military doctrines and tactics (see NLF and PAVN battle tactics). President Eisenhower November 1, 1955 President Eisenhower deploys the Military Assistance Advisory Group to train the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Gabriel Garca Mrquez, a Nobel Prize winning writer, described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" after the war, when he visited in 1980: The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. Format BW Photograph, 8.5" x 11" Source United Press International Series American Experience Encounter Books, December 2022. [167]:245, The experience of American military personnel of African ancestry during the Vietnam War had received significant attention. He helped found the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930 and the League for the Independence of Vietnam, or Viet Minh, in 1941. [A 12]. [85]:369. JFK and Vietnam: The September 1963 TV Interviews On November 1, 1963, the South Vietnamese government was overthrown. [320], As of 2013, the U.S. government is paying Vietnam veterans and their families or survivors more than $22billion a year in war-related claims.[321][322]. Commitment of U.S. (and other allies) forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965. [85]:353 Westmoreland outlined a three-point plan to win the war: The plan was approved by Johnson and marked a profound departure from the previous administration's insistence that the government of South Vietnam was responsible for defeating the guerrillas. It was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war, and the U.S. raised the readiness level of Strategic Air Command (SAC) forces to DEFCON 2. [187] The failure of Tet in sparking a popular uprising caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the Gip-Chinh "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the L Dun-Hong Vn Thi "Southern-First" faction. Scientific reports have concluded that refugees exposed to chemical sprays while in South Vietnam continued to experience pain in the eyes and skin as well as gastrointestinal upsets. [265] Female combat squads were present in the Cu Chi theatre. Beginning in the summer of 1955, Dim launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected communists and other anti-government elements were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, or executed. As the media's coverage of the war and that of the Pentagon diverged, a so-called credibility gap developed. US casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969 casualties after being relegated to less active combat. Milestones: 1969-1976 - Office of the Historian Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail. The U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, invited the coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. One documented event was the Phong Nh and Phong Nht massacre where the 2nd Marine Brigade reportedly killed between 69 and 79 civilians on 12 February 1968 in Phong Nh and Phong Nht village, in Bn District, Qung Nam Province. "[119][120], Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed that Dim and his forces had to ultimately defeat the guerrillas on their own. "[315] General William Westmoreland admitted that the bombing had been ineffective, saying he doubted "that the North Vietnamese would have relented. Fighting continued after the ceasefire, this time without US participation, and continued throughout the year. [89] The official US Department of Defense figure was 950,765 PAVN/VC forces killed in Vietnam from 1965 to 1974. Lyndon B. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969. The first deployment of 3,500 in March 1965 was increased to nearly 200,000 by December. [146], The objective of stopping North Vietnam and the Viet Cong was never reached. Before he left for the South, Dng was addressed by L Dun: "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage as great as we have now. [183][184] Nixon had also sought dtente with the Soviet Union and rapprochement with China, which decreased global tensions and led to nuclear arms reduction by both superpowers; however, the Soviets continued to supply the North Vietnamese with aid. [69] It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973. The group was ultimately defeated in April following a battle in Saigon. The UK, France and Pakistan declined to participate, and South Korea and Taiwan were non-treaty participants. [24]:76 President Dwight D. Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support, but the British were opposed. [97]:556 Most cities were recaptured within weeks, except the former imperial capital of Hu in which PAVN/Viet Cong troops captured most of the city and citadel except the headquarters of the 1st Division and held on in the fighting for 26 days. [77], Various names have been applied to the conflict. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The CIA contacted generals planning to remove Dim and told them that the United States would not oppose such a move nor punish the generals by cutting off aid. The Vietnam War had its origins in the broader Indochina wars of the 1940s and '50s, when nationalist groups such as Ho Chi Minh 's Viet Minh, inspired by Chinese and Soviet communism, fought the colonial rule first of Japan and then of France. [330] In 1977, United States president Jimmy Carter granted a full and unconditional pardon to all Vietnam-era draft dodgers with Proclamation 4483. In 1998, after a high level review by the. [339] In 2012, the United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical on part of Danang International Airport, marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam. Forces Ambushes Moving VC/PAVN Units. [201] By 1970, Viet Cong forces were no longer southern-majority, as nearly 70% of units were northerners. [199] A total of 900 fragging and suspected fragging incidents were investigated, most occurring between 1969 and 1971. Living in a male-dominated environment created tensions between the sexes. The National Liberation Front had made great progress and was close to declaring provisional revolutionary governments in large areas.[126]. [249]:78 Torture was conducted by the South Vietnamese government in collusion with the CIA.[250][251]. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles at U.S. aircraft in 1965. In the 1960 U.S. presidential election, Senator John F. Kennedy defeated incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon. [40]:3335, Military advisors from China began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950. 32(1). The Vietnam War (1955-1975) was fought between communist North Vietnam, backed by the Soviet Union and China, and South Vietnam, supported by the United States. In Vietnam, one notable film set during Operation Linebacker II was the film Girl from Hanoi (1974) depicting war-time life in Hanoi. [165]:9094 He reasoned that this could be achieved through sparking a general uprising within the towns and cities,[165]:148 along with mass defections among ARVN units, who were on holiday leave during the truce period. Between the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the U.S. presidential election in November 1964, the situation in Vietnam had changed for the worse. [23], The PRC also began financing the Khmer Rouge as a counterweight to North Vietnam at this time. 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