Vietnam War 1965-1975

The war in Vietnam was transformed on February 7, 1965, when insurgents of the National Liberation Front (NLF or, colloquially, Viet Cong) attacked a US advisory force at Camp Holloway in South Vietnam and the American government ordered a retaliatory airstrike on North Vietnam. This engagement marked the beginning of direct combat operations by the United States in Vietnam. While North Vietnam had openly supported the Viet Cong in their war against the South Vietnamese regime since about 1960, its regular armed forces (the People’s Army of Vietnam or NVA) had rarely engaged in combat against South Vietnamese forces. American involvement marked the escalation of the war into an international war in which NVA troops fought alongside NLF insurgents against the forces of South Vietnam and the USA (and contingents of several American allies). As the war progressed, the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia became secondary theaters of war, as the North Vietnamese infiltration of South Vietnam along the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail straddling the borders became a battleground and the governments, faced with nascent insurgencies too, were pressured to resist.

Deployment of American combat troops proceeded apace, reaching about 500,000 troops by 1968 – all justified by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964 which gave the US administration blanket authorization. The armed forces of South Vietnam (ARVN) became increasingly passive as the ever expanding American military machine took over the conduct of the war. Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam grew as well and NVA regulars increasingly reinforced the NLF. American forces inflicted lop-sided casualties on the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces through a combination of overwhelming air power and artillery fire supporting ground troops engaged in small unit combat. A strategic bombing campaign brought the war to North Vietnam too.

Although Laos was officially neutral and no foreign troops were supposed to be there, North Vietnam maintained substantial military forces in Laos and supported the communist Pathet Lao faction. A significant part of the main infiltration route into South Vietnam was situated along the eastern side of the Laotian panhandle and adherence to Laotian neutrality would have effectively cut off the provision of supplies and troops to fight in the south as US troops contested those parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail inside South Vietnam. Covert American military assistance to the Rightist and Neutralist factions in Laos aimed to counter North Vietnamese presence, as did air support for the Laotian army (and tribal irregulars) as well as interdiction bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Fighting in Laos escalated after a North Vietnamese force, with Pathet Lao support, defeated Royal Lao Army at Nam Bac on January 15, 1968 and after this date Laos became a de facto secondary theater of the war in Vietnam; the fate of Laos now depended on the outcome of the war in Vietnam.

In principle, the United States was winning the undeclared war in Vietnam by 1968 even though doubts were being expressed by some administration officials by the end of 1966. Although antiwar protests and demonstrations did occur by this time, most Americans still supported the war and held the impression that victory was in sight. In this context, the Tet Offensive launched by the Viet Cong at the end of January 1968 dramatically shifted public opinion in the United States. NLF insurgents stormed 36 provincial capitals expecting to produce a general uprising by the South Vietnamese population and bring about a final victory. Militarily, the campaign was an unmitigated disaster for the Viet Cong: there was no uprising; they sustained casualties which left the insurgents a minority of the Communist forces in South Vietnam for the rest of the war; and their territorial gains were wiped out. However, American resolve was broken. After the Tet Offensive, the United States government as much as the public came to view Vietnam as a bottomless pit for American moral, military and material resources. The United States and North Vietnam initiated peace talks in May; strategic bombing of North Vietnam was halted in November in an effort to encourage North Vietnamese concession in the Paris negotiations although the interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in Laos, intensified as the freed up US aircraft were redirected. The fighting in South Vietnam continued, casualties mounted, and a stalemate ensued.

In 1969 the new American administration announced a policy of Vietnamization by which the armed forces of South Vietnam would gradually take on full responsibility for ground combat operations and US forces would continue to provide air support. From July onward, American ground combat troops began to be withdrawn from South Vietnam. The ARVN troops were lavished with American supplied weapons during this period but casualties increased too as they took up the fight from US troops. American battle deaths decreased in 1969 as did those of the NVA and Viet Cong. In Laos, tribal irregulars supported by US Special Forces teams, and massive American airstrikes, achieved significant victories over Pathet Lao fighters during the summer although this success proved fleeting but it did compel North Vietnam to divert more troops to Laos to fend off the increased threat to the strategically important Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The ground war expanded into Cambodia after a military coup on March 18, 1970, precipitated an intervention by North Vietnamese forces stationed in the east, bordering South Vietnam, which had long been part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Cambodian neutrality up to this point was based on tolerating both NVA/NLF infiltration and American interdiction along the border with South Vietnam but the new pro-American government intended to end this balancing. On April 29, 1970, American and South Vietnamese forces began a series of offensives into eastern Cambodia with the goal of destroying the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong bases. The NVA responded by retreating further into Cambodian, attacking government forces and occupying about a third of the country before turning it over to their Khmer Rouge allies after July 2, 1971.

Probably based on the success of operations in Cambodia at keeping communist military activity in South Vietnam at a low level throughout 1970, a ground offensive was launched into Laos with the aim of blocking the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On February 8, 1971, South Vietnamese troops with substantial American air and ground support entered Laos in force. The offensive was quickly stalled by determined NVA resistance and counter-attacks against the South Vietnamese line of communication produced a collapse and panicked retreat, ending the campaign by March 24th. While this debacle did not portend well for the future of South Vietnam American casualties by 1971 were lower than 1965; Vietnamization had been completed. Meanwhile, significant military forces from Thailand had deployed to Laos in support of the government in its struggle against the NVA and Pathet Lao.

And then, on March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese launched an open and conventional military invasion of South Vietnam that resembled the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950. The South Vietnamese were on their own, other than US military advisors. Remaining American ground forces were limited to a purely defensive role. South Vietnamese forces were unable to stop the NVA offensive. American airpower proved decisive in breaking the advance and strategic bombing of North Vietnam resumed. The ARVN grew more resolute and launched a counter-offensive in June that managed to recover some of the lost territory by September. In Paris, the four-year-old talks seemed to be nearing a breakthrough on October 26th and the US strategic bombing was put on hold the next day. Bombing resumed and intensified on December 18th due to a lack of progress. On January 27, 1973, a cease-fire was proclaimed and signed by North and South Vietnam, the NLF and the United States. A similar cease-fire agreement followed among the factions in Laos on February 22, 1973. The war did not end but American involvement did end; by the end of March the remaining US troops were withdrawn from South Vietnam.

For the remainder of 1973 and 1974, the war was fought at a relatively reduced level as the North Vietnamese resupplied and reinforced their troops in South Vietnam. An intensive American bombing campaign of Cambodia ended on August 15, 1973, leaving behind a bitter rural population willing to support the Khmer Rouge in its fight against the government; less than two years later, on April 17, 1975, Cambodia fell to the Khmer Rouge. Throughout this period, the South Vietnamese armed forces grew steadily weaker as American support dwindled and desertions mounted. On January 1, 1975, the NVA launched what would be its final offensive of the Vietnam War. This time, there were to be no American troops or even air support to aid the ARVN. Within a week the first provincial capital fell. The South Vietnamese government ordered a withdrawal from some of the provinces with the intention of defending the major cities but the order demoralized the ARVN even more and the force quickly neared collapse. By April the outcome was clear and the Americans began evacuating US citizens and some South Vietnamese. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnam accepted the surrender of Saigon, ending the long and costly war in Indochina. The military victories in Cambodia and Vietnam created conditions for an inevitable, though generally nonviolent, takeover of Laos by the Pathet Lao on December 2, 1975.

Notes

[1] Correlates of War (CoW) separates this war into three inter-state wars: the Vietnam War, Phase 2 (163: February 7, 1965 to April 30, 1975), concerning warfare in Vietnam; Second Laotian War, Phase 2 (170: January 13, 1968 to April 17, 1973), concerning warfare in Laos; Communist Coalition (176: March 23, 1970 to July 2, 1971), concerning warfare in Cambodia; and one intra-state war: Khmer Rouge (785: July 3, 1971 to April 17, 1975), concerning warfare in Cambodia up to the Khmer Rouge victory. The difficulty with doing so is the fact of the same states ending up engaging in multiple wars with each other at the same time. This fails to recognize the connection that all these war have through the Ho Chi Minh Trail that overlapped their territories. The case for separating the Cambodian civil war (785) is somewhat stronger but for the continued NVA presence and American bombing. The fate of all three Indochina states was tied together.

[2] High estimates of Vietnamese battle deaths are about double what is presented here. Based on Hirschman et al, it seems reasonable to argue about 800,000 military and civilian war related deaths with 500,000 military and 300,000 civilian. The division between North and South is based on the known South Vietnamese casualties with an extrapolated share of civilian battle deaths. All numbers are rounded to one significant digit given the very high variance found in the sources available.

[3] This estimate is based on CoW 176 and 785, inclusive of Cambodia and Khmer Rouge.

[4] This estimate is based on CoW 170.

References

Cambodia - A Country Study; Clodfelter, 1127-31; 1134-8, 1230-324; COW163, 170, 176, 785; Hirschman et al, 783-812; Kohn, 93, 267, 525-6; Laos - A Country Study; Vietnam - A Country Study.

Charles Hirschman, Samuel Preston, Vu Manh Loi. Vietnamese Casualties During the American War: A New Estimate. Population and Development Review, 21(4). 1995.

Category

Inter-State War^[1]

Region

East Asia

Belligerents

North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, Laos, Pathet Lao, Australia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, USA

Dispute

Territory, Governance, Interests

Initiation Date

February 7, 1965

Termination Date

April 30, 1975

Duration

10 years, 2 months, 24 days
(3735 days)

Outcome

Imposed Settlement
(North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, Khmer Rouge, Pathet Lao victory)

Fatalities

Total: 966,000
North Vietnam: 500,000^[2]
South Vietnam: 300,000^[2]
Cambodia: 90,000^[3]
USA: 58,000
Laos: 11,000^[4]
South Korea: 4,687
Philippines: 1,000
Australia: 494
Thailand: 351

Magnitude

6.0