The middle of the 20th century is characterized by a series of ongoing military conflicts. One of the most dramatic pages in world history was the Vietnam War - long, costly and controversial. The communist government of North Vietnam opposed South Vietnam and its main ally, the United States. The confrontation between the USA and the USSR intensified. More than 3 million people (including more than 58,000 Americans) were killed during the Vietnam War, and more than half of those killed were Vietnamese civilians. Protests against the United States war divided Americans, even despite President Richard Nixon's decision to withdraw U.S. troops in 1973. In 1975, North Vietnam ended the war by capturing South Vietnam, and a year later it was already one country - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Causes of the Vietnam War

Vietnam is located in southeast Asia, on the Indochina Peninsula. It has been a French colony since the 19th century. During the Japanese invasion of Vietnam. To fight off both Japanese occupation and dependence on France, the Vietnamese Independence League, or Viet Minh, was formed under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, inspired by the communist line of China and the USSR.

In 1945, Japan, having lost the war, withdrew its troops from Vietnam, leaving it under the control of Bao Dai, the French-educated emperor. Seeing an opportunity to seize power, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces immediately rose up, capturing the northern city of Hanoi and renaming Vietnam the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), with Ho installed as president. France, withIn an effort to regain control of the region, she supported Emperor Bao and reconquered the southern part of the country, founding the state of Vietnam in July 1949 with its capital in Saigon.

Both sides wanted the same thing: a unified Vietnam. But while Ho and his supporters wanted a state modeled on other communist countries, Bao and many others wanted Vietnam to have close economic and cultural ties with the West.

According to a Veterans Administration survey, about 500,000 of the 3 million military personnel who served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and rates of divorce, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction were also significantly higher among veterans.

When did the Vietnam War start?

The Vietnam conflict and the active participation of the United States in it began in 1954, dragging on for several decades.

Ho's communist forces seized power in the north, and armed conflict between northerners and southerners continued until the decisive Battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 ended in victory for the northern Viet Minh forces. Thus ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina.

In July 1954, at the Geneva Conference, a treaty was signed to divide Vietnam in half along the 17th parallel (17 degrees north latitude). Ho Chi Minh received power in the northern half, and Bao in the southern. The treaty also called for national elections for reunification in 1956.

However, in 1955, radical anti-communist Ngo Dinh Diem became president of the Republic of Vietnam, often called South Vietnam at the time, deposing Bao.

Viet Cong

As the Cold War intensified around the world, the United States tightened its policy toward any allies of the Soviets, and by 1955, President Eisenhower had firmly pledged support to Diem and South Vietnam.

Trained and equipped by the US military and the CIA, Diem's ​​security forces cracked down on communist sympathizers in the north, derisively calling them the Viet Cong (or Vietnamese communists). About 100 thousand people were arrested, many of whom were brutally tortured and executed.

By 1957, the Viet Cong and other opponents of Diem's ​​repressive regime began attacking government officials, and by 1959 they began engaging the South Vietnamese Army in firefights.

In December 1960, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NSLF) was formed in South Vietnam to organize resistance to the regime. It included opponents of Diem. Although the NLF claimed to be autonomous and most of its members were not communists, many in Washington believed that the National Front was a puppet of Hanoi.

Domino theory

The team sent by President Kennedy in 1961 to investigate the situation in South Vietnam recommended increasing American assistance - military, technical and economic - to help Diem counter the Viet Cong threat.

Guided by the “domino theory” (if one Southeast Asian country establishes a communist regime, all others will follow), Kennedy increased US aid but did not undertake large-scale military intervention.

By 1962, there were approximately 9 thousand US military personnel in South Vietnam (in the 50s, less than 800 people).

Gulf of Tonkin

In November 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem's ​​own generals plotted and killed him and his brother Ngo Dinh Nu - three weeks later Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas.

The subsequent political instability in South Vietnam was so significant that Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara were forced to increase US support.

In August 1964, two US destroyers were attacked by DRV torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson ordered retaliatory bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Congress soon passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave Johnson extensive combat capabilities. The following year, Operation Rolling Thunder was carried out: US planes bombed rice fields, villages, and many civilian objects.

In March 1965, Johnson made the decision - with the consent of the American public - to send US soldiers to Vietnam. By June there were 82,000 combat troops there, and by the end of 1965 the Army leadership demanded another 175,000 to support the South Vietnamese Army's fight.

Some of the president's advisers were concerned about both escalation and military action, especially in the face of a growing anti-war movement, but Johnson nevertheless authorized the immediate deployment of 100,000 troops in late July 1965 and another 100,000 in 1966. South Korea, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand committed to fight in South Vietnam alongside the United States, albeit on a much smaller scale.

As a counterbalance to the air attacks, General Westmoreland undertook ground military action by a combined US-South Vietnamese force in coordination with the government of General Nguyen Van Thieu in Saigon.

Westmoreland adopted a strategy of war of attrition, seeking to destroy as many enemy soldiers as possible rather than trying to maintain captured territory. By 1966, large areas of South Vietnam were declared "free fire zones": this meant that all civilians had to be evacuated from the area, and any object located there was considered hostile. Heavy bombing by B-52s made these areas uninhabitable as refugees were taken to camps in designated safe areas near Saigon and other cities.

Although the size of the army of the South Vietnamese side was constantly increasing (although from time to time the authorities of the southern side exaggerated its number), the DRV and Viet Cong troops refused to stop fighting. This was explained by the fact that they had established supplies of people and supplies along the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.” Help came from Cambodia and Laos. In addition, North Vietnam strengthened its air defense, accepting assistance from the PRC and the USSR.

Anti-war protests

By November 1967, the number of US troops in Vietnam was approaching 500 thousand, the losses of the American side were 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded. As the war dragged on, distrust of the government grew among the soldiers. They were outraged by the reasons why the war had to continue and by Washington's repeated claims that the war had already been won.

The physical and psychological condition of American soldiers, both volunteers and conscripts, was deteriorating - the number of drug users, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was increasing, mutinies and attacks by soldiers on officers and junior officers began.

Between July 1966 and December 1973, more than 503,000 U.S. military personnel left the country, and a powerful anti-war movement among the U.S. military spawned violent protests, assassinations, and mass arrests of personnel stationed in both Vietnam and the United States.

In the United States itself, Americans, crushed by the horrific reports of the war on television, also protested against the war: in October 1967, about 35 thousand demonstrators organized a mass protest in front of the Pentagon. Opponents of the war argued that the main victims were civilians, not soldiers, and that the United States was supporting a corrupt dictatorship in Saigon.

Tet Offensive

By the end of 1967, Hanoi's Communist leadership had become increasingly impatient and sought to deliver a decisive blow of such force that the wealthier United States would abandon hope of success.

On January 31, 1968, some 70,000 DRV soldiers led by General Vo Nguyen Giap launched the Tet Offensive (named after the Asian New Year holiday of Tet), a coordinated series of brutal attacks on more than 100 cities in South Vietnam.

Taken by surprise, the southerners, however, were able to quickly strike back, and within a couple of days the northerners were blocked.

Reports of the Tet attack increased tension among U.S. citizens, especially after news reports said Westmoreland had requested 200,000 more troops despite repeated assurances that victory in the Vietnam War was imminent. Johnson's approval rating was falling, and this was in an election year. The President had to stop bombing in most of North Vietnam (although it still continued in the southern part). He vowed to devote the rest of his term to seeking peace rather than seeking re-election.

Johnson's new approach, outlined in a speech in March 1968, met with a positive response in Hanoi, and peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam opened in Paris in May. Although representatives from South Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) were later included in the negotiations, the dialogue soon stalled, and after the brutal 1968 elections marred by violence, Republican Richard Nixon assumed the presidency.

Vietnamization

Nixon sought to extinguish the anti-war movement by appealing to the "silent majority" of Americans who, in his opinion, were not being heard but supported the war effort. In an effort to limit the number of American casualties, he announced the "Vietnamization" program, the main goal of which was to remove US troops from Vietnam, and in return increase the supply of military equipment for air control and improve the training of South Vietnamese soldiers, re-equipping their army with modern weapons for effective ground warfare. war.

In addition to this Vietnam policy, Nixon continued public peace talks with them in Paris. And in the spring of 1968, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger began more significant secret negotiations.

The North Vietnamese continued to insist on a complete and unconditional US withdrawal and the departure of the new South Vietnamese president, General Nguyen Van Thieu, a US protege, as a condition for peace, and as a result, peace negotiations stalled.

Massacres in My Lai Village

Over the next few years, news of even more bloody crimes began to emerge, including the horrific news that US soldiers mercilessly tortured and killed more than 400 unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai in March 1968.

After the My Lai massacre, anti-war protests continued to flare up and multiply. In 1968 and 1969, hundreds of demonstrations and meetings took place throughout the country.

On November 15, 1969, the largest peaceful anti-war demonstration in American history took place in Washington, D.C., with more than 250,000 Americans gathering to demand the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

The anti-war movement, which was especially strong on college campuses, divided Americans. For some young people, the war symbolized a form of unchecked power, and they came to express their outrage at it. Other Americans considered opposing the government an act of unpatriotism and perceived it as treason.

As the withdrawal of US troops began, those American soldiers who remained became increasingly embittered, and the problem of army morale and discipline became increasingly worse. Tens of thousands of soldiers deserted, and about 500,000 American men became draft dodgers from 1965 to 1973, many of them moving to Canada to avoid the draft. Nixon eliminated the draft in 1972 and replaced it with voluntary enlistment the following year.

In 1970, a joint group of South Vietnamese and US troops invaded Cambodia with the goal of destroying the DRV supply bases there. The South Vietnamese then invaded Laos but were driven out by North Vietnam.

The invasions, which violated international law, sparked a new wave of student protests on college campuses across America. During one, on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen killed four students. Ten days later, two students were killed by police at Jackson University in Mississippi.

However, after the failed offensive against South Vietnam, towards the end of June 1972, Hanoi was finally ready to compromise. Kissinger and North Vietnamese officials drafted a peace agreement by early fall, but leaders in Saigon rejected it, and in December Nixon authorized a series of bombings on Hanoi and Haiphong. The attack was met with international condemnation and was nicknamed the "Christmas Bombings".

End of the Vietnam War

In January 1973, the United States and North Vietnam entered into a final peace agreement, ending open hostilities between the two countries. However, the war between North and South Vietnam continued until April 30, 1975, when DRV forces captured Saigon, renaming it Ho Chi Minh (Ho himself died in 1969).

More than two decades of severe conflict had devastating consequences for the people of Vietnam: after many years of war, 2 million Vietnamese were killed, 3 million were wounded, and another 12 million became refugees. The war completely destroyed the country's infrastructure and economy, and recovery was slow.

In 1976, Vietnam was unified and became the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, although violence continued sporadically over the next 15 years, including conflicts with neighboring China and Cambodia. Under free market policies put in place in 1986, the economy began to improve, boosted by oil export revenues and the influx of foreign capital. Trade and diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States resumed in the 1990s.

In the United States, the echoes of the Vietnam War continued long after the last troops returned home in 1973. The country spent more than $120 billion during the war from 1965 to 1973; these huge costs led to inflation, worsened by the global oil crisis in 1973 and soaring fuel prices.

The psychological consequences were even worse. The war dispelled the myth of US invincibility and divided the nation. Many veterans faced backlash from both opponents of the war, who viewed them as murderers of innocent civilians, and supporters, who blamed them for the defeat of the war. All this against the backdrop of physical damage: the consequences of exposure to the toxic herbicide agent Orange, millions of gallons of which were dropped by American planes on the dense forests of Vietnam, were very severe.

In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened in Washington, DC. Inscribed on it were the names of 57,939 American men and women killed or missing in action during the war; More names were later added, bringing the total number of war casualties to 58,200.

Vietnam War

Between 1861 and 1867 France installed in Indochina its colonial power. This was part of the pan-European imperialist policy of that time. In Indochina ( Laos, Cambodia, And Vietnam) the French introduced Catholicism to the local population, and among the converts from the upper class who spoke French, they chose allies who helped them rule the colonies.

In 1940, Japanese troops occupied Indochina. In 1941 Ho Chi Minh created a communist organization for national liberation - Viet Minh , which throughout World War II waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. During this period, Ho Chi Minh collaborated widely with foreign ministries USA, who helped the Viet Minh with weapons and ammunition. Ho Chi Minh viewed the United States as a model of a state liberated from colonial oppression. In September 1945, he declared the independence of Vietnam and wrote to the President Truman letter asking for support. But at the end of the war, the political situation changed, France was an ally of the United States, and this appeal was ignored. But French forces, in an attempt to re-establish colonial power, returned to Indochina. Ho Chi Minh started a war with them.

There were several reasons why the United States did not recognize Vietnam's independence. Firstly, this is of course the strategic importance of the region, protecting from the southwest Philippines And Japanese islands. The State Department believed that it would be much easier to control these territories if they were under the colonial rule of the French allies than to negotiate with the national governments of independent states. Especially considering that Ho Chi Minh was considered a communist. This was the second important reason. At that time, after the victory in 1949 of the communist Mao Zedong V China over American protégé Chiang Kai Shek, and the latter's flight to the island Taiwan, the threats of “Asian communism” were feared like fire, regardless of their faces and past merits. It should also be said about the moral support of the allies. France suffered national humiliation in World War II; a small victorious campaign was needed to restore a sense of pride. Taking all this into account, the United States recognized the puppet government of the emperor Bao Dai, and helped the French with weapons, military advisers and heavy equipment. During the 4 years of war from 1950 to 1954, the US government spent more than $2 billion on military aid.

In 1954, the French fortified area Dien Bien Phu fell Administration Eisenhower I was deciding what to do. Chairman of the Joint Staff Committee and Vice President Richard Nixon they advised to use massive bombing, with tactical nuclear charges, if necessary. Secretary of State John Foster Dallas offered to enlist support United Kingdom, but the British government was reluctant to intervene for a variety of reasons. Congress would not support unilateral US intervention. Eisenhower was very careful, he remembered that in Korea managed to achieve only a draw result. The French no longer wanted to fight.

In 1954, the Geneva Agreements were signed. The Soviet Union, Taiwan, Great Britain, France, China, Laos, Cambodia, Bao Dai and Ho Chi Minh signed an agreement recognizing the independence of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel; general elections were scheduled for 1956, which were to be held under international supervision and decide the issue of unifying the country. Military forces were to be disbanded, joining military alliances and organizing military bases of other states was prohibited for both sides. An international commission, consisting of India, Poland and Canada, was supposed to monitor the implementation of the agreement. The US did not attend the conference because it refused to recognize the Chinese government.

Division along the demilitarized zone has become a political fact. Those close to the French colonial regime and opponents of Ho Chi Minh settled south of this line, while sympathizers moved to the north.

The United States provided significant assistance South Vietnam. The Central Intelligence Agency sent its agents there to conduct secret operations, including sabotage, directed against the northern troops.

The US supported the government Ngo Dinh Diema, representing an aristocratic minority professing Catholicism. In 1954, he held a national referendum on the territory of South Vietnam; according to official data, 98% of the votes were cast in favor of declaring an independent Republic of Vietnam. However, the Diem government understood that in the event of general elections Ho Chi Minh would win, so in 1955, with the support of the US State Department, it tore up the Geneva Agreements. Help from the United States was not limited to political statements; in the period 1955-1961 it amounted to over a billion dollars. Military advisers trained army units and police, humanitarian aid was delivered, and new agricultural technologies were introduced. In fear of losing local support, Ngo Dinh Diem canceled local elections, preferring to appoint city and provincial heads personally. Those who openly opposed his regime were thrown into prison, and opposition publications and newspapers were banned.

In response, rebel groups formed in 1957 and began terrorist activities. The movement grew, and in 1959 it established contact with the northerners, who began supplying weapons to the southern communists. In 1960, on the territory of South Vietnam, the National Liberation Front was formed - Viet Cong. All this created pressure on the United States, forcing the State Department to decide how far it could go in supporting an undemocratic and unpopular regime.

The president Kennedy decides not to abandon Ngo Dinh Diem and sends more and more military advisers and special units. Economic assistance is also growing. In 1963, the number of American troops in South Vietnam reached 16,700 people, whose direct duties did not include participation in hostilities, although this could not stop some of them. The United States and South Vietnam jointly developed a strategic program to combat the guerrilla movement by destroying villages believed to support them. Diem also launched operations against actively protesting Buddhists, who made up the majority of the country's population, but were discriminated against by the Catholic elite. This led to the self-immolation of several monks who tried to attract public attention in this way. The political and public outcry around the world was so serious that the United States began to doubt the advisability of further supporting the Diem regime. At the same time, fears that in response he might negotiate with the northerners predetermined the non-intervention of the United States in the military coup organized by the South Vietnamese generals, which resulted in the overthrow and execution of Ngo Dinh Diem.

Lyndon Johnson, who became US President after Kennedy's assassination, further increased economic and military aid to South Vietnam. He believed that the honor of the United States was at stake. At the beginning of 1964, the Viet Cong controlled almost half of the country's agricultural areas. The United States launched a secret bombing campaign against Laos, through which the Viet Cong communicated with the North. On August 2, 1964, an American destroyer was attacked by North Vietnamese boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Maddox , which, apparently, violated the territorial waters of the northerners. President Johnson hid the whole truth and reported to Congress that Maddox became a victim of the unjustified aggression of North Vietnam. On August 7, the indignant Congress voted 466 votes in favor and none against and adopted Tonkin resolution, giving the president the right to respond to this attack using any means. This legalized the start of the war. However, when Congress repealed the resolution in 1970, the United States continued to fight.

In February 1965, the Viet Cong attacked a military airfield. Pleiku, which resulted in the deaths of American citizens. In response, the US Air Force launched its first bombing attack on North Vietnam. Subsequently, these attacks became permanent. During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped more bombs on Indochina than were dropped during the entire Second World War by all participating countries combined.

The South Vietnamese army suffered massive defections to the Viet Cong and could not provide serious support, so Johnson constantly increased the American contingent in Vietnam. At the end of 1965, there were 184,000 American troops there, in 1966 there were already 385,000, and the peak occurred in 1969, at that time there were 543,000 American troops in Vietnam.

The war led to great losses. A difficult test was the feeling that the most developed state in the world, using the latest technologies, large masses of soldiers, massive bombings under the slogan “let’s bomb them down to stone age levels”, defoliants that have destroyed vegetation on a significant part of the country, despite all this, it is still losing the war. Moreover, he is losing it to the “savages” who failed to even build an industrial society. Vietnam was considered a small war by the US government, so no additional ages were drafted, and young recruits, averaging 19 years old, were sent to the war. The law set a maximum of one year for service in Vietnam, which led to soldiers counting down days to avoid risky missions in order to return home. Interracial conflicts, which escalated at that time in the United States itself, had a much lower degree of intensity in the armed forces. But the availability of opium and heroin led to a massive spread of drug addiction among military personnel. In case of injury, the chances of survival for American soldiers were the highest in the entire military history, thanks to the use of helicopters to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield, but this did not help, the morale of the troops was rapidly declining.

In early 1966, Democratic Senator William Fulbright began holding special hearings dedicated to the war. Over the course of these hearings, the senator uncovered truths hidden from the rest of the public, and eventually became a vocal critic of the war.

President Johnson realized that the United States needed to begin peace negotiations, and in late 1968 Averil Harriman led the American mission aimed at ending the conflict peacefully. At the same time, Johnson announced that he would not stand as a candidate in the next elections, thus his personal position would not interfere with the negotiations.

In November 1968, North Vietnam responded to the start of the Paris negotiations by withdrawing 22 of its 25 military units from the northern provinces of South Vietnam. However, the US Air Force continued massive bombing, despite the negotiations, and the withdrawal of troops ceased. South Vietnam tried to disrupt the negotiations, fearing that without US support it would not be able to achieve even a draw. Its delegates arrived only 5 weeks after the start of negotiations, when representatives of North Vietnam and the United States already had a package of agreements, and immediately put forward impossible demands that canceled out all the work done.

Meanwhile, new presidential elections were held in the United States, which were won by a Republican Richard Nixon. In July 1969, he announced that the United States' policies around the world would change dramatically, no longer claiming to be the world's overseer and trying to solve problems in every corner of the planet. He also claimed to have a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. This was well received by the American public, who were tired of the war and believed that America was trying to do too much at once, spreading its efforts and not solving its problems at home. However, already in 1971, Nixon warned of the dangers of “insufficient intervention” and clarified that his doctrine concerned mainly the Asian part of the world.

Nixon's secret plan was to shift the brunt of the fight to the South Vietnamese military, which would have to fight its own civil war. Process Vietnamization The war led to a reduction in the American contingent in Vietnam from 543,000 in 1969 to 60,000 in 1972. This made it possible to reduce losses of American forces. Such a small contingent also required fewer young recruits, which had a positive effect on sentiment within the United States.

However, in fact, Nixon significantly expanded military operations. He took advantage of military advice that his predecessor had rejected. The Prince of Cambodia was overthrown in 1970. Sihanuk, probably as a result of a CIA sting operation. This led to the power of right-wing radicals led by General Lon Nolom, which began to fight North Vietnamese troops moving through its territory. On April 30, 1970, Nixon gave the secret order to invade Cambodia. Although this war was considered a state secret, it was not for anyone, and immediately caused a wave of anti-war protests throughout the United States. For a whole year, activists of the anti-war movements did not take action, satisfied with the decrease in the US share of participation in the war, but after the invasion of Cambodia they declared themselves with renewed vigor. In April and May 1970, more than one and a half million students across the country began protesting. State governors called in the National Guard to maintain order, but this only worsened the situation, and several students were shot dead as a result of the clashes. The shooting of students in the center of the United States, at home, as many believed, divided the nation into sympathizers and those who thought it served them right. The intensity of passions only increased, threatening to develop into something more terrible. At this time, concerned about the situation, Congress raised the question of the legality of the invasion of Cambodia, and also repealed the Tonkin Resolution, thus depriving the White House administration of legal grounds for continuing the war.

Under such circumstances, Nixon's plan to invade Laos was rejected by Congress, and American troops were withdrawn from Cambodia. South Vietnamese troops tried to achieve victory in Cambodia and Laos on their own, but even the powerful support of the American Air Force could not save them from defeat.

The withdrawal of American troops forced Nixon to look for a solution in the massive use of aviation and navy. In 1970 alone, American bombers dropped more than 3.3 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. This was more than the last 5 years combined. Nixon believed he could bomb the Viet Cong bases and supply lines, while simultaneously destroying North Vietnamese industry and cutting off access to their ports. This was supposed to weaken the armed forces and make it impossible for them to continue the fight. But when the Viet Cong responded to the all-out bombing with a new offensive in the spring of 1972, Nixon realized that the war was lost.

Throughout 1969-1971, Henry Kissinger conducted secret negotiations with representatives of North Vietnam. The United States offered a ceasefire in exchange for political guarantees and the preservation of the regime of the South Vietnamese president Thieu. Nixon considered Thieu one of the five greatest politicians in the world, and supported him tooth and nail, even in the 1971 presidential election, which was so fraudulent that all other candidates withdrew.

In 1972, shortly before the US presidential election, Nixon announced a ceasefire had been reached. The war ended in 1973. Nixon resigned in 1974 and was unable to influence developments in South Vietnam, where the North Army took full control of the country in 1975.

This war was very costly. More than one and a half million people died, including 58,000 American citizens. Millions were left crippled. More than 500,000 people became refugees. Between 1965 and 1971, the US spent $120 billion on direct military spending alone. Related expenses exceeded 400 billion. An even higher price was paid by the American military, who considered themselves invincible, and, with difficulty, realized the fact that this was not so. And the consequences of a deep wound in American psychology cannot be assessed.

It was a long war, but not as long as the war on drugs, or the war on terrorism, which promises to be eternal.

The Vietnam War lasted 20 long years. It became the most brutal and bloody military conflict of the Cold War, involving several countries of the world. Over the entire period of the armed confrontation, the small country lost almost four million civilians and about one and a half million soldiers on both sides.

Prerequisites for the conflict

If we talk briefly about the Vietnam War, this conflict is called the Second Indochina War. At some point, the internal confrontation between North and South grew into a confrontation between the Western bloc SEATO, which supported the southerners, and the USSR and the PRC, which supported North Vietnam. The Vietnamese situation also affected neighboring countries - Cambodia and Laos did not escape civil war.

First, the civil war began in southern Vietnam. The prerequisites and reasons for the war in Vietnam can be called the reluctance of the country's population to live under the influence of the French. In the second half of the 19th century, Vietnam belonged to the French colonial empire.

When the First World War ended, the country experienced a growth in national self-awareness of the population, which was manifested in the organization of a large number of underground circles that championed the independence of Vietnam. At that time, several armed uprisings occurred throughout the country.

In China, the League for the Independence of Vietnam - Viet Minh - was created, uniting all those who sympathized with the idea of ​​​​liberation. Then the Viet Minh were led by Ho Chi Minh, and the League acquired a clear communist orientation.

Briefly speaking about the reasons for the war in Vietnam, they were as follows. After the end of World War II in 1954, the entire Vietnamese territory was divided along the length of the 17th parallel. At the same time, North Vietnam was controlled by the Viet Minh, and South Vietnam was under the control of the French.

The victory of the Communists in China (PRC) made the United States nervous and begin its intervention in the internal politics of Vietnam on the side of the French-controlled South. The US government, which regarded the PRC as a threat, believed that Red China would soon want to increase its influence in Vietnam, but the US could not allow this.

It was assumed that in 1956 Vietnam would unite into a single state, but the French South did not want to become under the control of the communist North, which was the main reason for the war in Vietnam.

Beginning of the war and early period

So, it was not possible to unify the country painlessly. The war in Vietnam was inevitable. The communist North decided to take over the southern part of the country by force.

The Vietnam War began with several terrorist attacks against Southern officials. And 1960 was the year of the creation of the world-famous organization Viet Cong, or the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NSLF), which united all the numerous groups fighting against the South.

While briefly describing the causes and results of the Vietnam War, it is impossible to omit some of the most significant events of this brutal confrontation. In 1961, the American army did not take part in the clashes, but the successful and daring actions of the Viet Cong strained the United States, which transferred the first regular army units to South Vietnam. Here they train South Vietnamese soldiers and assist them in planning attacks.

The first serious military clash occurred only in 1963, when the Viet Cong partisans defeated the South Vietnamese army at the Battle of Ap Bac. After this defeat, a political coup occurred in which the ruler of the South, Diem, was killed.

The Viet Cong strengthened their positions by transferring a significant part of their guerrillas to the southern territories. The number of American soldiers also grew. If in 1959 there were 800 soldiers, then in 1964 the war in Vietnam continued with the size of the American army in the South reaching 25,000 troops.

United States intervention

The Vietnam War continued. The fierce resistance of the North Vietnamese guerrillas was aided by the country's geographic and climatic features. Dense jungles, mountainous terrain, alternating seasons of rain and incredible heat significantly complicated the actions of American soldiers and made it easier for the Viet Cong guerrillas, for whom these natural disasters were familiar.

Vietnam War 1965-1974 was already carried out with the full-scale intervention of the US Army. At the beginning of 1965, in February, the Viet Cong attacked American military installations. After this brazen act, American President Lyndon Johnson announced his readiness to launch a retaliatory strike, which was carried out during Operation Burning Spear - a brutal carpet bombing of Vietnamese territory by American aircraft.

Later, in March 1965, the US Army carried out another bombing operation, the largest since World War II, called “Rolling Thunder.” At this time, the size of the American army grew to 180,000 troops. But this is not the limit. Over the next three years there were already about 540,000.

But the first battle in which US Army soldiers entered took place in August 1965. Operation Starlight ended in complete victory for the Americans, who killed approximately 600 Viet Cong.

After this, the American army decided to use the “search and destroy” strategy, when US soldiers considered their main task to be the detection of partisans and their complete destruction.

Frequent forced military clashes with the Viet Cong in the mountainous territories of South Vietnam exhausted American soldiers. In 1967, at the Battle of Dacto, the US Marines and the 173rd Airborne Brigade suffered terrible losses, although they managed to hold off the guerrillas and prevent the capture of the city.

Between 1953 and 1975, the United States spent a staggering amount of money on the Vietnam War—$168 million. This has led to America's massive federal budget deficit.

Tet battle

During the Vietnam War, American troops were recruited entirely through volunteers and a limited draft. President L. Johnson refused the partial mobilization and call-up of reservists, so by 1967 the human reserves of the American army were exhausted.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam War continued. In mid-1967, the military leadership of North Vietnam began planning a large-scale offensive in the south in order to turn the tide of hostilities. The Viet Cong wanted to create the preconditions for the Americans to begin to withdraw their troops from Vietnam and overthrow the government of Nguyen Van Thieu.

The United States was aware of these preparations, but the Viet Cong offensive came as a complete surprise to them. The northern army and guerrillas went on the offensive on Tet Day (Vietnamese New Year), when any military action is prohibited.

On January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese army launched massive attacks throughout the South, including major cities. Many attacks were repulsed, but the South lost the city of Hue. Only in March was this offensive stopped.

During the 45 days of the North's offensive, the Americans lost 150,000 soldiers, more than 2,000 helicopters and airplanes, more than 5,000 pieces of military equipment and about 200 ships.

At the same time, America was waging an air war against the DRV (Democratic Republic of Vietnam). About a thousand aircraft took part in the carpet bombings, which during the period from 1964 to 1973. flew more than 2 million combat missions and dropped approximately 8 million bombs in Vietnam.

But the American soldiers miscalculated here too. North Vietnam evacuated its population from all major cities, hiding people in the mountains and jungles. The Soviet Union supplied the northerners with supersonic fighters, air defense systems, radio equipment and helped them master it all. Thanks to this, the Vietnamese managed to destroy about 4,000 US aircraft throughout the years of the conflict.

The battle of Hue, when the South Vietnamese army wanted to recapture the city, was the bloodiest in the entire history of this war.

The Tet Offensive caused a wave of protests among the US population against the Vietnam War. Then many began to consider it senseless and cruel. No one expected that the Vietnamese communist army would be able to organize an operation of such a scale.

US troop withdrawal

In November 1968, after the newly elected US President R. Nixon took office, who during the election race promised America would end the war with Vietnam, there was hope that the Americans would eventually remove their troops from Indochina.

The US war in Vietnam was a shameful stain on America's reputation. In 1969, at the People's Congress of South Vietnam, the proclamation of a republic (RSV) was announced. The guerrillas became the People's Armed Forces (PAFSE). This outcome forced the US government to sit down at the negotiating table and stop the bombing.

America, under the Nixon presidency, gradually reduced its presence in the Vietnam War, and when 1971 began, more than 200,000 troops were withdrawn from South Vietnam. Saigon's army, on the contrary, was increased to 1,100 thousand soldiers. Almost all of the Americans' more or less heavy weapons were left in South Vietnam.

At the beginning of 1973, namely on January 27, the Paris Agreement was concluded to end the war in Vietnam. The United States ordered the complete removal of its military bases from the designated territories and the withdrawal of both troops and military personnel. In addition, a complete exchange of prisoners of war was to take place.

The final stage of the war

For the United States, the result of the Vietnam War after the Paris Agreement was the 10,000 advisers left to the southerners and 4 billion US dollars in financial support provided throughout 1974 and 1975.

Between 1973 and 1974 The Popular Liberation Front resumed hostilities with renewed vigor. The southerners, who had suffered serious losses in the spring of 1975, could only defend Saigon. It was all over in April 1975 after Operation Ho Chi Minh. Deprived of American support, the army of the South was defeated. In 1976, both parts of Vietnam were united to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Participation in the conflict between the USSR and China

Military, political and economic assistance from the USSR to North Vietnam played a significant role in the outcome of the war. Supplies from the Soviet Union took place through the port of Haiphong, which transported equipment and ammunition, tanks and heavy weapons to the Viet Cong. Experienced Soviet military specialists who trained the Viet Cong were actively involved as consultants.

China was also interested and helped the northerners by supplying food, weapons, and trucks. In addition, Chinese troops numbering up to 50 thousand people were sent to North Vietnam to restore roads, both automobile and railway.

Consequences of the Vietnam War

The years of bloody war in Vietnam claimed millions of lives, most of which were civilians in North and South Vietnam. The environment has also suffered greatly. The south of the country was thickly flooded with American defoliants, as a result many trees died. The North, after many years of US bombing, was in ruins, and napalm burned out a significant part of the Vietnamese jungle.

During the war, chemical weapons were used, which could not but affect the environmental situation. After the withdrawal of US troops, American veterans of this terrible war suffered from mental disorders and many different diseases that were caused by the use of dioxin, which is part of Agent orange. There were a huge number of suicides among American veterans, although official data on this was never published.

Speaking about the causes and results of the war in Vietnam, it is necessary to note another sad fact. Many representatives of the American political elite participated in this conflict, but this fact only causes negative emotions among the population of the United States.

Research conducted by political scientists at that time showed that a participant in the Vietnam conflict had no chance of becoming president of the United States, since the average voter of those times was strongly opposed to the Vietnam War.

War crimes

Results of the Vietnam War 1965-1974. disappointing. The cruelty of this worldwide massacre is undeniable. Among the war crimes of the Vietnam conflict are the following:

• The use of reagent orange (“orange”), which is a mixture of defoliants and herbicides to destroy tropical forests.
• Incident at Hill 192. A young Vietnamese girl named Phan Thi Mao was kidnapped, raped, and then killed by a group of American soldiers. After the trial of these soldiers, the incident became known immediately.
• The Binh Hoa massacre by South Korean troops. The victims were old people, children and women.
• The Dac Son massacre occurred in 1967, when Montagnard refugees were attacked by communist guerrillas for refusing to return to their former place of residence and unwillingness to provide recruits for the war, their spontaneous rebellion was brutally suppressed with flamethrowers. Then 252 civilians died.
• Operation Ranch Hand, during which vegetation was destroyed over a long period of time in South Vietnam and Laos in order to detect guerrillas.
• The US environmental war against Vietnam using chemical agents, which claimed millions of civilian lives and caused irreparable damage to the country's ecology. In addition to the 72 million liters of Orange sprayed over Vietnam, the US Army used 44 million liters of a substance containing tatrachlorodibenzodioxine. When this substance enters the human body, it is persistent and causes severe diseases of the blood, liver and other organs.
• Massacres in Song My, Hami, Hue.
• Torture of US prisoners of war.

Among others, there were other reasons for the Vietnam War of 1965-1974. The initiator of the war was the United States with its desire to subjugate the world. During the conflict, about 14 million tons of various explosives were detonated on Vietnamese territory - more than during the two previous world wars.

The first of the main reasons was to prevent the spread of communist ideology in the world. And the second is, of course, money. Several large corporations in the United States made a good fortune from the sale of weapons, but for ordinary citizens the official reason given for America's involvement in the war in Indochina was the need to spread global democracy.

Strategic acquisitions

Below is a brief summary of the results of the Vietnam War from the point of view of strategic acquisitions. During the long war, the Americans had to create a powerful structure for the maintenance and repair of military equipment. Repair complexes were located in South Korea, Taiwan, Okinawa and Honshu. The Sagama tank repair plant alone saved the US treasury approximately $18 million.

All this could allow the American army to enter into any military conflict in the Asia-Pacific region without worrying about the safety of military equipment, which could be restored and used again in battle in a short time.

Vietnam-China War

Some historians believe that this war was started by the Chinese in order to remove parts of the Vietnamese army from Chinese-controlled Kampuchea, while simultaneously punishing the Vietnamese for interfering in Chinese politics in Southeast Asia. In addition, China, which was in confrontation with the Union, needed a reason to abandon the 1950 agreement on cooperation with the USSR, signed in 1950. And they succeeded. In April 1979, the agreement was terminated.

The war between China and Vietnam began in 1979 and lasted only a month. On March 2, the Soviet leadership announced its readiness to intervene in the conflict on the side of Vietnam, having previously demonstrated military power in exercises near the Chinese border. At this time, the Chinese embassy was expelled from Moscow and sent home by train. During this trip, Chinese diplomats witnessed the transfer of Soviet troops towards the Far East and Mongolia.

The USSR openly supported Vietnam, and China, led by Deng Xiaoping, sharply curtailed the war, never deciding on a full-scale conflict with Vietnam, behind which stood the Soviet Union.

Speaking briefly about the causes and results of the Vietnam War, we can conclude that no goals can justify the senseless bloodshed of innocents, especially if the war was designed for a handful of rich people who want to line their pockets even tighter.

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

The topic 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 remembered much less often. In the United States, the Vietnam War is treated as a “dark spot” in its history, but for the Vietnamese it became a tragic and heroic stage on the path to their sovereignty. For Vietnam, this war was both a struggle against external occupation and civil confrontation between various political forces.

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

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

France sent an expeditionary force into the country in December 1946. Thus began the First Indochina War. But the French were unable to cope with the partisans and, starting in 1950, the United States began to help them. The main reason for their involvement in this war was the importance of Vietnam in the strategic plan. This was the region that covered the Philippines and Japan from the southwest. And since the French had by that time become allies of the United States, they decided that it was better for them to control the territory of Vietnam.

Thus ended the First Indochina War, but it was only a prelude to even greater carnage. After 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 the support of the United States, 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.

By 1960, all guerrillas and underground organizations in the southern part of the country organized the National Liberation Front. In Western countries it was dubbed the Viet Cong. In 1961, the first regular US Army units 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 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 out the so-called supply route for the partisans in South Vietnam. Despite significantly worse equipment than US soldiers, the partisans successfully used various weapons and carried out sabotage activities.

Another reason was that the US leadership by sending troops demonstrated its determination to the Soviet Union to destroy communism in Indochina. The American authorities could not lose South Vietnam, since this would lead to the loss of Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. And this put Australia at risk. In November 1963, the security services organized a coup, as a result of which Diem and his brother (the head of the secret police) were killed. The reason here is clear - they have 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 provocative actions by the destroyers Turner Joy and Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, they were fired upon by the North Vietnamese military. A few days later, there was a report that the Maddox had been fired upon again, which was later denied by the ship's crew. But intelligence reported the interception of a message where the Vietnamese allegedly admitted that they had attacked the ship.

The secrets of the Vietnam War were hidden by the American leadership for a long time. As it turned out today, NSA officers made a mistake when decrypting the message. But the NSA leadership, knowing about the error, presented the data in a light favorable to themselves. And this became the cause of 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 Indochina.

Causes of the Vietnam War

It can be said unequivocally that the war was started by American politicians. At one time, the inhabitants of the USSR cited 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.

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

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, to US politicians, communist Vietnam was like a “thorn in one place.” And the owners of military enterprises wanted to increase their fortunes from deaths. The latter, by the way, did not need victory. They needed a massacre that would last as long as possible.

On April 30, 1975, the Vietnam War ended. The Americans called it “a hellish jungle disco.” Many films have been made about it and hundreds of books have been written, but the truth about that war will remain only in the memory of those who lived through it.

Domino theory

The Vietnam War became the longest local war of modern times. It lasted almost 20 years and was very costly for the United States. Between 1965 and 1975 alone, $111 billion was spent. In total, over 2.7 million US military personnel took part in hostilities. Vietnam veterans make up almost 10% of their generation. 2/3 of the Americans who fought in Vietnam were volunteers.

The need for war was explained by the “domino theory.” The United States seriously feared that the “communist infection” could spread to the entire Asian region. Therefore, it was decided to make a preemptive strike.

Guerrilla warfare

The Americans were ill-prepared for the conditions of guerrilla warfare. For the Vietnamese, this was already the third war in a row and they had perfectly mastered the experience of the previous two. The Viet Cong successfully compensated for the lack of military supplies with ingenuity and hard work. In the impenetrable jungle, they set bamboo traps and land mines filled with American gunpowder from unexploded shells, and installed “Vietnamese souvenirs.”
The war also went on underground. Vietnamese partisans dug up a whole network of underground communications in which they successfully hid. To combat them, in 1966, the Americans created special units called “tunnel rats.”

It was an extremely difficult task to drive the Viet Cong out of the ground. In addition to fire and traps, the “tunnel rats” could also be waiting for snakes and scorpions, which the partisans deliberately baited. Such methods led to a very high mortality rate among “tunnel rats”. Only half of the train returned from their holes.

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

Military experiments

The Vietnam War was a testing ground for the United States for new types of weapons. In addition to the well-known napalm, which destroyed entire villages, the Americans also tested chemical and even climate weapons. The most famous use of the latter is Operation Popeye, when US transport workers sprayed silver iodite over strategic areas of Vietnam. As a result, the amount of precipitation tripled, roads were washed away, fields and villages were flooded, and communications were destroyed.

The American military also acted radically with the jungle. Bulldozers uprooted trees and topsoil, and herbicides and defoliants (Agent Orange) were sprayed from above onto the rebel stronghold. This severely disrupted the ecosystem and in the long term led to widespread illness and infant mortality.

"Turntables"

On average, an American soldier spent 240 days a year in combat. That's a lot. This “productivity” was provided by helicopters. The Iroquois helicopter (UH-1) became one of the symbols of this war. Helicopter pilots often rescued soldiers from encirclement; sometimes the pilots had to perform maneuvers right in the jungle, lifting the plane using the lawnmower system, breaking rudders and propellers.

The number of American helicopters grew at an unprecedented rate. Already in the spring of 1965, there were about 300 Iroquois vehicles alone. By the end of the 60s, there were more American helicopters in Indochina than were in service with the armies of all states. There were 2500 Iroquois alone.

There were many “Iroquois”, but they were not always a salvation. Low payload and low speed made helicopters easy prey for machine gunners and rocket launchers. Accidents also occurred for almost random reasons. There were cases when the pilots made mistakes, the helicopter “swiped” and it crashed.

According to M. V. Nikolsky’s calculations, during the 11 years of the war in Southeast Asia, American helicopters made 36 million sorties, flying 13.5 million hours, 31,000 helicopters were damaged by anti-aircraft fire, but only 3,500 of them (10%) were shot down or made an emergency landing.

Such a low ratio of losses to the number of sorties is unique for aircraft in conditions of intense combat - 1:18,000.

Russians in Vietnam

American films like "Rambo" portray the Soviet special forces soldier as almost the main enemy of American soldiers, but this is not so. The USSR did not send special forces to Vietnam. Moreover, Soviet officers did not even officially take part in the clashes. Firstly, there was no order for this, and secondly, Soviet military specialists were too valuable to be “thrown away.”
From the USSR, a little over six thousand officers and about 4,000 privates arrived in Vietnam. These figures clearly show that a “Soviet special forces soldier” could not be the “main enemy” for the half-million-strong US army.

In addition to military specialists, the USSR sent 2,000 tanks, 700 light and maneuverable aircraft, 7,000 mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters and much more to Vietnam. Almost the entire air defense system of the country, impeccable and impenetrable to fighters, was built by Soviet specialists using Soviet funds. “On-site training” also took place. Military schools and academies of the USSR trained Vietnamese military personnel.

The Russians also fought on the other side of the barricades. These were emigrants conscripted into the US and Australian armies. Thus, in the Brussels magazine “Sentry” in 1968, among the obituaries, you can read the following laconic lines: “Captain of the Australian Service Anatoly Danilenko († 1968, Vietnam, died a brave death in battles with the communists).”