It became one of the largest local conflicts of the Cold War period. According to the Geneva Accords of 1954, which ended the Indochina War, Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel into northern and southern parts. On July 16, 1955, the Prime Minister of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, announced that he would not implement the Geneva Agreements, and an anti-communist state would be created in South Vietnam. In 1957, the first anti-Ziem underground units appeared in South Vietnam and began a guerrilla war against the government. In 1959, the North Vietnamese communists and their allies declared support for the South Vietnamese partisans, and in December 1960, all underground groups united into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLLF), which in Western countries was more often called the “Viet Cong.”
The weapons that the South Vietnamese partisans fought with were very diverse. It had to be obtained in battles, through the introduction of secret agents into the enemy camp, and also through supplies from communist countries through Laos and Cambodia. As a result, the Viet Cong was armed with many examples of both Western and Soviet weapons.
Echoes of the previous war
During the Indochina War, which lasted from 1946 to 1954, the French army, fighting to preserve French colonial possessions in Indochina, was supported by Great Britain and the United States, and the Viet Minh national liberation movement was supported by communist China. Thanks to this, the arsenal of the Vietnamese partisans in the early 60s was rich and varied in composition. The Viet Cong had submachine guns MAT-49 (France), STEN (Great Britain), PPSh-41 (China), PPS-43 (China), Mosin carbines and rifles (USSR), Kar98k carbines (Germany), MAS-rifles 36 (France), Browning machine guns (USA), DP-28 (USSR), MG-42 (Germany). The most popular small arms of the Viet Cong were the MAT-49, Kar98k, Mosin rifles and PPSh.
Viet Cong fighters with small arms
Source: vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net
American machine guns
Since the United States entered the conflict, American material support for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARV) has increased. Thompson and M3 submachine guns, M1 and BAR carbines began to arrive in the country. Some of these weapons immediately fell into the hands of the Viet Cong partisans, since many ARV soldiers were disloyal to the current government and willingly supplied their friends from small arms with small arms. « Viet Cong » . It is worth noting that after AK-47s fell into the hands of Vietnamese partisans, they happily abandoned American and British weapons, since Soviet machine guns were superior to enemy small arms. The only exception was the M3, which was very effective in close combat.
American soldier with an M3 assault rifle, Vietnam, 1967
Source: gunsbase.com
From the factory to the jungle
With the advent of the new American M-16 rifle in the ARV in 1967–68, it also appeared in service with the Viet Cong. The “Black Rifle” (as the soldiers dubbed it) showed low effectiveness during combat operations in the Vietnamese jungle. The barrel and bolt group of the Emka supplied to Vietnam were not chrome-plated, and there were no cleaning kits. All this led to the fact that the machine quickly became clogged with carbon deposits and failed. For this reason, the M16 was not particularly popular among the Viet Cong guerrillas. The new modification, the M16A1, was modified based on feedback received from soldiers who fought in Vietnam, and began entering service with the US Army in 1967. Unlike its predecessor, the M16A1 was readily used by both the Americans and the Viet Cong. The advantage of the modified “emka” was that it had a bayonet, but it was significantly inferior to the AK-47 in hand-to-hand combat, since its butt often split after impact, which did not happen with the butt of a Soviet machine gun.
Girl partisan with M-16
Source: historicalmoments2.com
Controversial symbol of the Viet Cong
The symbols of early guerrilla warfare in Vietnam are the M-1 carbine and the M3 submachine gun - this primarily refers to units of local forces that did not enjoy sufficient support from North Vietnam. The lightweight but powerful M-1 carbine was easy to operate and repair, and the M3 submachine gun was indispensable in close combat. You can find quite conflicting reviews about the M1 carbine. In Vietnamese museum exhibitions dedicated to guerrilla warfare in the jungle, it is presented as the main weapon of the Viet Cong at the initial stage of the war. At the same time, a number of experts indicate that the M1 is more correctly called the best among the weapons available to partisans, and with the advent of other types of small arms, the Vietnamese began to abandon the M1.
Girl partisan with an M-1 carbine
Source: pinterest.com
"Red" weapon
The third stage of development of the Viet Cong weapons base occurred during the Tet Offensive of 1968. During the offensive, the guerrillas suffered heavy losses, and to make up for them, the People's Army of North Vietnam sent some of its soldiers with weapons to the south. North Vietnamese soldiers were armed with the new SKS carbines, AK-47 assault rifles and RPD machine guns produced in China. The disadvantage of this weapon was its high sighting range (for the AK-47 it was 800 meters, for the RPD and SKS - 1 kilometer) - excessive in the conditions of Vietnam, where most of the shots were fired at point-blank range or from a very short distance. At the same time, the SKS performed excellently when firing from unprepared positions, which was very important for the Viet Cong fighters. The RPD used in Vietnam was significantly lighter than its predecessors, making it easy to carry. And the most effective small arms of the Vietnam War, based on the totality of its characteristics, was the AK-47.
Vietnamese partisan with an SKS carbine. Wax figure at the Vietnam Guerrilla Museum
Source: ru.wikipedia.org
Guerrilla air defense
The main weapon of the Vietnamese partisan air defense was the DShK heavy machine gun, which was extremely weak in its task of shooting down American aircraft. The partisans' air defense worked more effectively against helicopters, but this effectiveness was achieved rather thanks to good camouflage. The Viet Cong machine gunners managed, while remaining unnoticed, to bring the American helicopter within close range and fire the first burst. After this, the partisans lost their advantage and became a good target for helicopter pilots.
North Vietnamese soldiers with DShK. With the same machine guns supplied to South Vietnam, Viet Cong partisans tried to shoot down American helicopters
American troops began arriving in Vietnam in 1965. But even before this time, American military intelligence officers were present in the country. The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon. We invite you to look at some photographs of that time, which still haunt many.
(Total 23 photos)
1. Buddhist monk Quan Duc burns himself on the streets of Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government on June 11, 1963. (AP Photo/Malcolm Browne)
2. A South Vietnamese soldier beats a peasant with the hilt of a dagger for allegedly providing government troops with false information about the movements of guerrillas in a village west of Saigon. Photo taken January 9, 1964. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
3. South Vietnamese Army soldiers look at a father holding the body of his child near an armored personnel carrier near the Vietnamese border with. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
4. Helicopters fire at a forested area to cover the advance of South Vietnamese troops attacking a Viet Cong camp, 28 km north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon. Photo taken in March 1965. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
5. In this September 25, 1965 photo, paratroopers from the U.S. 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade carry their weapons over water as they cross a river in the rain while searching for Viet Cong soldiers in the jungles of Ben Cata, South Vietnam. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
6. An unidentified American soldier with the words “War is Hell” on his helmet, photographed in 1965. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
7. Women and children hide in a muddy canal as troops exchange fire about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Saigon. Photo taken January 1, 1966 (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
8. 1st Armored Cavalry Division medic Thomas Cole (with a bandaged eye) treats wounded Sergeant Harrison Pell during a firefight between American troops and Viet Cong forces in the highlands of Vietnam. Photo taken in January 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
9. In this photo, September 21, 1966, they leave the muddy rifle trenches at dawn, after the third night of firefights with the Vietnamese 324 B Division. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
10. A South Vietnamese woman cries next to the body of her husband, found among 47 bodies at a mass burial site near Hue. Photo taken in April 1969. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
11. American infantrymen sit in a muddy trench, searching the trees for Viet Cong snipers shooting at them during a firefight in Phuoc Ving. Photo taken June 15, 1967. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
12. The body of an American paratrooper killed in action near the Cambodian border is lifted into an evacuation helicopter in Military Area C, in 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
13. Private Lacey Skinner crawls through a muddy rice field, trying not to come under fire from Viet Cong soldiers. The firefight between the US 1st Armored Cavalry Division and Viet Cong soldiers continued for 24 hours. Photo taken in 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
14. Medic James E. Callahan treats an infantryman who was wounded in the head during a three-hour firefight in military zone D, 80 km northeast of Saigon. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
15. US Army helicopters fly to a military base 80 km northeast of Saigon in 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
16. Medic James E. Callahan performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on a seriously wounded soldier north of Saigon in June 1967. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
17. South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, head of the national police, shoots suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lemm in the head on the streets of Saigon on February 1, 1968. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams)
18. 9-year-old Kim Phuc (center) runs with her siblings along Highway 1, near Trang Bang, after an air strike on June 8, 1972. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
19. People try to climb over the 4-meter wall of the American embassy in Saigon to reach rescue helicopters during the last attempt to leave Vietnam on April 29, 1975. (AP Photo/Neal Ulevich)
20. US troops aboard the USS Blue Ridge push a helicopter into the sea off the coast of Vietnam to make way for evacuees from Saigon. Photo taken April 29, 1975. (AP Photo)
23. Joyful relatives run to hug the released military prisoner - Lt. Col. Robert L. Sterm - at an air base in Fairfield, California. The lieutenant colonel returned home safe and sound on March 17, 1973. (AP Photo/Sal Veder)
Photos lie, but people believe them...
The Saigon Execution has become one of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War. The author received several awards for it, including the Pulitzer Prize, and World Press Photo recognized it as the best photograph of 1968.
(Total 10 photos)
During his career, he covered 13 armed conflicts, working for the Associated Press, Time, Newsweek, and Parade magazines. He became the author of the most famous photographs of many US presidents - from Nixon to Bush Jr., the Pope, Fidel Castro, Mikhail Gorbachev, Indira Gandhi, as well as the most famous stars of show business posed for him. His work has graced the covers of fashion magazines, and his photo essays have been published in newspapers around the world. But it was this shot that brought him worldwide fame.
3. Adams took his most famous photograph, “Execution in Saigon,” on February 1, 1968. On this day he was in Saigon, where guerrillas and North Vietnamese troops began a large-scale offensive on the capital. They were opposed by American troops and the South Vietnamese army.
4. Adams went to the city's Chinatown, where the battle for the Buddhist pagoda had just ended. His attention was drawn to two Vietnamese marines escorting a man in a plaid shirt and black shorts. Adams watched as they reported to Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan that the prisoner had shot the police and their families. Without saying a word, Loan pulled out a revolver, extended his right hand, almost touching the prisoner's head with the barrel, and pulled the trigger. Photographer Eddie Adams also pulled the shutter. Both clicks occurred almost simultaneously.
5. Adams himself, who initially told other journalists in Saigon: “I got what I came to Vietnam for,” later deeply regretted his photo, refusing the Pulitzer Prize awarded to him. “I got money for showing a murder. Two lives were destroyed, and I was paid for it.”
6. Eddie Adams wrote in Times Magazine: “The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Photos are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them; but photographs lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths."
7. General Adams killed, of course, not in the literal sense of the word. In early May 1968, during the Second Battle of Saigon, Nguyen Ngoc Loan was wounded in the leg while personally leading an attack on an enemy-controlled bridge. He was sent to Australia for treatment, but his arrival there caused such a public outcry that he was denied treatment. The general was transported to a military hospital in the United States. But due to delay, Loan's right leg had to be amputated, after which he was dismissed.
8. Loan himself, after being wounded and retiring, devoted most of his time to distributing gifts to homeless children in homeless homes. In 1975, before the fall of Saigon, he asked the Americans to help him leave the country, but was refused. He still managed to escape with his family abroad, and subsequently moved to the United States. In America, Loan settled in Virginia, where he opened a pizzeria. When his identity became known to neighbors on the block in 1991, Loan was offered to be deported from the country as a war criminal. This did not happen, but the former general's business fell into decline. On the wall of his pizzeria, unknown people wrote: “We know who you are.”
9. When Nguyen Ngoc Loan lived in the United States, Adams apologized to Loan and his family for the photo that changed their lives. After the general's death, he wrote: “This guy was a hero. America should be crying. It's terrible for me to see that he's gone and no one knows anything about him."
10. He wanted not this, but another photograph, taken eleven years later, to bring him fame. Adams then photographed refugees from communist Vietnam sailing to Thailand, whose boat the authorities refused to accept into their country. These images forced President Carter and Congress to allow Vietnamese refugees to immigrate to the United States.
“I would prefer to be remembered for a series of photographs about forty-eight Vietnamese refugees who managed to reach Thailand in a nine-meter boat only to be towed back to the open sea by Thai sailors,” he said. - This photo report helped convince President Carter to help these people. My photographs have brought real benefits."
The Vietnam War is one of the largest military conflicts of the second half of the 20th century, which left a noticeable mark on culture and occupies a significant place in the modern history of the United States and Vietnam. The war began as a civil war in South Vietnam; Subsequently, North Vietnam and the United States intervened in it with the support of a number of other countries. Thus, on the one hand, the war was fought for the reunification of the two parts of Vietnam and the creation of a single state, and on the other, for the preservation of the independence of South Vietnam. As events unfolded, the Vietnam War became intertwined with the parallel civil wars in Laos and Cambodia.
U.S. Army helicopters rain machine-gun fire on a line of South Vietnamese ground troops during an assault on a Viet Cong camp 18 miles north of Tay Ninh, northwest of Saigon near the Cambodian border, in Vietnam in March 1965. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
A track from those times to get into the atmosphere. Click on play and look further at the photos.
A US Marine helicopter descends into flames after being hit by an enemy during Operation Hastings, located south of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam on July 15, 1966. The helicopter crashed and exploded on a hill, killing one crew member and 12 paratroopers. Three crew members survived but were seriously burned. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
A recruit waits on the beach during the landing, Da Nang, Vietnam, August 3, 1965. (US Marine Corps)
A fireball of burning napalm next to a U.S. troop patrol in South Vietnam in 1966 during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo)
A Vietnamese scavenger wears a mask to block out the smell of the decomposing corpses of Vietnamese soldiers killed in action against the Viet Cong at the Michelin rubber plantation, about 45 km northeast of Saigon, on November 27, 1965. More than 100 bodies were discovered after the partisan attack. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
Sergeant Ronald A. Payne, of Atlanta, Georgia, a squad leader of the 25th Infantry Division, checks a tunnel entrance with a flashlight and pistol during Operation Cedar Falls at Ho Bo Woods, 25 miles north of Saigon on January 24. 1967. (US Department of Defense/SP5 Robert C. Lafoon, US Army Sp Photo Det Pac)
A helicopter bombs a dense jungle area in the Mekong Delta. (US Department of Defense/Brian K. Grigsby, SPC5)
Self-immolation of Buddhist nun Thich Quang Thanh against the Catholic regime government in Hue, South Vietnam, May 29, 1966. (AP Photo)
Landing of the 2nd Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade crossing a water barrier in the rain while searching for Viet Cong positions in the jungle, Ben Cat area, South Vietnam September 25, 1965. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
A South Vietnamese national police chief fires a pistol into the head of suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem on the streets of Saigon, February 1, 1968. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams)
A burned Viet Cong camp near Tho, Vietnam on April 5, 1968. In the foreground is Private First Class Raymond Rumpa, St. Paul, Minnesota (U.S. Department of Defense)
An aircraft fires a salvo of 2.75-inch rockets at a hideout of enemy forces in South Vietnam, January 1, 1967. (US Department of Defense)
Women and children take refuge in a muddy canal from intense Viet Cong fire. Bao Trai, about 20 km west of Saigon, Vietnam on January 1, 1966. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)
Evacuation by helicopter from a combat zone of the body of an American soldier killed in a jungle battle near the Cambodian border of Vietnam in 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
US Marines at dawn after the third night of fighting against a sustained North Vietnamese attack. September 21, 1966. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)
A Marine helps his wounded comrade escape from fire. Leatherneck Square south of the Demilitarized Zone in South Vietnam. May 15, 1967 (AP Photo/John Schneider)
Terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc (center left), escape after a napalm air attack on a village where Viet Cong were hiding on June 8, 1972. Behind them are soldiers of the 25th Division. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Television surrounded 9-year-old Kim Phuc after her village was burned in a misguided napalm air attack on June 8, 1972. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Side view of a machine gunner's position during a rescue operation (USAF Photo: Ken Hackman)
Dr. Howe examines the wounds of Private First Class D. Crum (New Brighton, Pennsylvania), during surgery near the city of Hue on February 6, 1968. (US Department of Defense)
A South Vietnamese photographer took this photo of South Vietnamese soldiers in Hai Van, south of Hue, on November 20, 1972. The camera caught the shell explosion. (AP Photo)
A Viet Cong prisoner awaits interrogation. Vietnam, (25 km west of Da Nang), January 23, 1967. (AFP PHOTO/National Archives)
North Vietnam, 122mm shell explodes on direct impact with bunker. September 1967. (AP Photo)
A wounded U.S. paratrooper writhes in pain while awaiting medical evacuation at a base camp near the Laotian border in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. May 19, 1969. (AP Photo/Hugh Van Es)
Transporting a refugee with a child in a combat helicopter. 235 km northeast of Saigon on March 22, 1975. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
Crowds of Vietnamese people storm the walls of the US Embassy in Saigon, shortly before the end of the Vietnam War on April 29, 1975. (AP Photo/Neil Ulevich)
A North Vietnamese tank drives through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signaling the fall of the South Vietnamese regime on April 30, 1975. (AP Photo)
On this day 37 years ago, North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong guerrillas occupied the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon. This meant the end of the most brutal and bloody war since 1945, the onset of the long-awaited peace and the unification of the country. For the Americans, the “evacuation of Saigon” became a symbol of the biggest geopolitical defeat in the entire history of this state. Actually, American troops were withdrawn from Vietnam back in January 1973; on April 29, 1975, US Embassy personnel and other American citizens were taken out of Saigon via an “air bridge”. In total, 1,737 US citizens and 5,595 foreign citizens (mostly Vietnamese) were evacuated to ships of the 7th Fleet during Operation Gustty Wind.
Unloaded helicopters were immediately thrown overboard to free up space on the deck:
And North Vietnamese tanks were already entering Saigon: 
In April 1975, the Vietnamese communists launched a decisive offensive against the last stronghold of the South Vietnamese regime and by the end of the month they managed to overcome the desperate resistance of the enemy. Panic broke out in Saigon, thousands of people rushed to the US Embassy to seek safety:
The walls of the representative office were stormed: 
The distraught people were no longer stopped by the fear of being shot by the guards: 
The footage of people climbing to one of the last helicopters on the roof of the Agency for International Development (previously mistakenly believed to be the roof of the US Embassy) has gone down in history: 
Others tried to escape by water: 
How can one not remember Wrangel’s evacuation from Sevastopol in November 1920...
Still others tried to escape from the city by land: 
Since the fate of Saigon was decided on the outskirts of the city, there were no special battles on its streets, only isolated skirmishes with the last defenders.
Here the Viet Cong attack the deserted presidential palace: 
Despite how remote (or even inappropriate) the analogy is, for some reason the image of the Reichstag pops up: 
They came here for 10 long years of war: 
At that moment it was probably the most combat-ready army in all of Asia: 
Women fought equally with men: 
Young Viet Cong guerrilla on the street of Saigon: 
The joy of the winners: 
