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VIETNAM WAR
Instructor: Taraq Waheed

5, 2016
SUBMITTED BY: SAADIA SYED
1517115
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Table of Contents
Vietnam War...............................................................................................................................................1
Also Known As:......................................................................................................................................2
Dates....................................................................................................................................................2
Result.......................................................................................................................................................2
Troop Strength.........................................................................................................................................2
Casualties................................................................................................................................................3
The First Indochina War..............................................................................................................................3
Ho Chi Minh Comes Home.........................................................................................................................4
Divided Vietnam.........................................................................................................................................4
France Steps Out, U.S. Steps In...................................................................................................................5
Role of USSR and China.............................................................................................................................6
Reason of Conflict.......................................................................................................................................8
End of the War............................................................................................................................................8
References.................................................................................................................................................10

Vietnam War
The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954–1973. It was
a war that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955to the fall of Saigon
on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between

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North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The North Vietnamese army was
supported by the Soviet Union, China, North Korea and other communist allies and the South
Vietnamese army was supported by the United States, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, New
Zealand, Philippines and other anti-communist allies and the war is therefore considered a Cold
War-era proxy war. This conflict between communist and capitalist countries was part of the
Cold War.

Also Known As: American War in Vietnam, Vietnam Conflict, Second Indochina War, War
against the Americans to Save the Nat
Dates
1954-1975

Location
South Vietnam
North Vietnam
Cambodia
Laos
Result
North Vietnamese
Troop Strength
South Vietnam: 850, 000
United States: 540,000

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South Korea: 50,000
Others: 80,000 plus

Casualties

Allied military deaths 282,000

NVA/VC military deaths 444,000

Civilian deaths (North and South

627,000
Vietnam)

Total deaths 1,353,000

The First Indochina War

During World War II, when France was occupied by Nazi Germany, it lost its foothold in
Vietnam, and Japan took control of the country. The Viet Minh resisted these Japanese
oppressors and extended its power base throughout Vietnam. Japan surrendered at the end of
World War II in 1945.

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Ho Chi Minh Comes Home

Figure: HO CHI MINH

It was in 1941, when Vietnam had two foreign powers occupying them, that communist
Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh arrived back in Vietnam after spending 30 years
traveling the world. Once Ho was back in Vietnam, he established a headquarters in a cave in
northern Vietnam and established the Viet Minh, whose goal was to rid Vietnam of the French
and Japanese occupiers.Ho Chi Minh’s forces took the capital of Hanoi and declared Vietnam to
be an independent country, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
France refused to recognize Ho’s declaration and returned to Vietnam, driving Ho’s Communist
forces into northern Vietnam. The French, however, were not willing to give up their colony so
easily and fought back. For years, Ho had tried to court the United States to support him against
the French. But U.S aided the French instead. Fighting between Ho’s forces and the French
continued in this First Indochina War until 1954, when a humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu
prompted France to seek a peace settlement

Divided Vietnam
The Geneva Accords of 1954 declared a cease-fire and divided Vietnam officially into North
Vietnam (under Ho and his Communist forces) and South Vietnam (under a French-backed
emperor). The dividing line was set at the 17th parallel and was surrounded by a demilitarized
zone, or DMZ. The Geneva Accords stipulated that the divide was temporary and that Vietnam
was to be reunified under free elections to be held in 1956

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figure: Geneva Accords of 1954

France Steps Out, U.S. Steps In

At the Geneva Conference of 1954, a number of nations met to determine how the French could
peacefully withdraw. The agreement that came out of the conference (called the Geneva
Accords) stipulated a cease fire for the peaceful withdrawal of French forces and the temporary
division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel (which split the country into communist North
Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam).
The United States was fully dedicated to their Cold War foreign policy of containment, which
meant preventing the spread of Communism. This fear of the spread of Communism was
heightened by the U.S. "domino theory," which stated that if one country in Southeast Asia fell
to Communism then surrounding countries would also soon fall. In addition, a general
democratic election was to be held in 1956 that would reunite the country under one government.
The United States refused to agree to the election, fearing the communists might win.

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With help from the United States, South Vietnam carried out the election only in South Vietnam
rather than countrywide. After eliminating most of his rivals, Ngo Dinh Diem was elected. His
leadership, however, proved so horrible that he was killed in 1963 during a coup supported by
the United States.

Figure: NgoDinh Diem

Since Diem had alienated many South Vietnamese during his tenure, communist sympathizers in
South Vietnam established the National Liberation Front (NLF), also known as the Viet Cong, in
1960 to use guerrilla warfare against the South Vietnamese.

Role of USSR and China

As the United States poured men and money into South Vietnam, Chinese and Soviet
involvement in Vietnam also increased. As the world’s largest communist powers, both the
Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China also lent moral, logistic and military support to
North Vietnam. Both Moscow and Beijing hoped to consolidate and expand communism in the
Asian hemisphere. Not only would the rise of Asian communism help tip the balance against the
West in the Cold War, it would also serve Russian and Chinese national interests. Neither the
Soviet Union nor China were frank or open about the nature of the support they provided to
North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front (NLF). To this day there is much speculation
about exactly what was given and by whom. What can safely be assumed is that Soviet and
Chinese support was vital to Hanoi and contributed to the successes of its operations in South
Vietnam.

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The Soviet leadership was not an ambitious band eager to send the North Vietnamese into battle
against the Americans - that was China's role. Rather, they nervously tried to head off the war's
escalation in 1964 and a direct U.S. combat role. Soviet leaders, however, were too much a
prisoner of their competition with the Chinese and of their preconceptions of their U.S. rival to
act boldly to stop what they never wanted in the first place or to end a conflict when and how it
suited their interests rather than those of their difficult clients in Hanoi. An age-old story, but one
from which great powers never seem to learn. Soviet expertise played a vital part in training
Vietnamese forces and Soviet anti-aircraft missiles to inflict heavy damage on American planes
during the conflict the Americans lost more than 2,000 aircraft; the Vietnamese lost just 131
planes. Russia military supplies completely transformed the nature of the war.

A Soviet told Russian Radio:

“After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly.”

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(The Russian magazine EkoPlanety – Echo of the Planet – says.)

Reason of Conflict
At the heart of the conflict was the desire of North Vietnam, which had defeated the French
colonial administration of Vietnam in 1954, to unify the entire country under a single communist
regime modeled after those of the Soviet Union and China. The South Vietnamese government,
on the other hand, fought to preserve a Vietnam more closely aligned with the West. U.S.
military advisers, present in small numbers throughout the 1950s, were introduced on a large
scale beginning in 1961, and active combat units were introduced in 1965. By 1969 more than
500,000 U.S. military personnel were stationed in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and
China poured weapons, supplies, and advisers into the North, which in turn provided support,
political direction, and regular combat troops for the campaign in the South. The costs and
casualties of the growing war proved too much for the United States to bear, and U.S. combat
units were withdrawn by 1973. In 1975 South Vietnam fell to a full-scale invasion by the North.

End of the War

Fighting between South Vietnamese and Communists continued despite the peace agreement
until North Vietnam launched an offensive in early 1975. South Vietnam's requests for aid were
denied by the U.S. Congress, and after Thieu abandoned the northern half of the country to the
advancing Communists, a panic ensued. South Vietnamese resistance collapsed, and North
Vietnamese troops marched into Saigon Apr. 30, 1975. Vietnam was formally reunified in July,
1976, and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City

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Fig: Theiu

.
Fig:The guardian newspaper

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Fig: The Raleigh newspaper

Fig: Daily news (New York newspaper)

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Did You Know?
According to a survey by the Veterans Administration, some 500,000 of the 3 million troops who
served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and rates of divorce, suicide, and
alcoholism and drug addiction were markedly higher among veterans

References
http://www.ducksters.com/history/cold_war/vietnam_war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/vietnamwar/summary.html
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/vietnam-war-end-war.html
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vietnam-war/the-causes-of-the-vietnam-war/
https://in.rbth.com/blogs/2015/04/30/vietnam_war_the_critical_role_of_russian_weapons_42917
http://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/chinese-and-soviet-involvement/
https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties

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