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INTRODUCTION

Vietnam was a country initially under influence of its powerful neighbour to north. As
Chinese Influence started to wane the technically superior French quickly colonized the
Nguyễn imperial court of Vietnam. By 1884 AD most of Vietnam had become a part
the greater colonial union of French Colonial Indo-China. By 1930s the idea of
Communism became the dominant underground political movement in Vietnam under
the leadership of Ho Chi Minh. Minh was inspired by Lenin’s success in the October
revolution and went on to form the Indo-China Communist Party (ICP). The Viet Minh
was formed as the ICP cadres as its base to fight off the Japanese invasion during the
second World War.

The First Indo-China war officially started in 16th December 1946. As the war dragged
on the US started aiding the French but after their defeat in Dien Bien Phu an agreement
was reached which divided the country into Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in
the north and State of Vietnam in the south. The DRV was under communist rule while
the State of Vietnam went through a referendum to become a republic. In 1963 tensions
between the two states finally came to a head when Ngo Dinh Diem the erstwhile
president of South Vietnam was assassinated during a military coup d’état aided by the
CIA. This paved the way for the US invasion of Vietnam.

From the outset of war, Vietnamese Generals were certain a conventional victory
against the American juggernaut was impossible. But the huge rural population of South
Vietnam was already mostly under the sway of the DRV backed National Liberation
front of South Vietnam, more commonly known as the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong in
combination with the Army of Vietnam waged a successful series of campaigns against
the disorganized south Vietnamese until the large numbers of American troops began
arriving in 1965. Following the American involvement the conflict began to shift into a
war of attrition. The Vietnamese defence strategy revolved around their extensive
network of underground tunnels. Over 321Km of tunnel were dug during the war.
Extensive bombing campaign of the US army also had a hand in forcing the Viet Cong
guerrilla force to go under ground. The US army retaliated by declaring any villages

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with a suspected Viet Cong presence as a free fire zone. At the same time the success of
the Vietnamese propaganda machine was demonstrated following the Tet offensive of
1968 which caught US forces completely by surprise. Amidst the chaos Viet Cong
infiltrators launched an attack on the American embassy in Saigon. In 1975 a massive
campaign by the DRV known as the Ho Chi Minh campaign smashed through the
defenses in Saigon and decapitated the republic after almost 20 years of war.

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