:Vietnam War

Various names have been applied and shifted over time, though Vietnam War is the most commonly used in English. It has been called the Second Indochina War since it spread to Laos and Cambodia,{{Cite web |last=Factasy |title=The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War |url=http://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html |access-date=29 June 2013 |publisher=PRLog|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425152621/https://www.prlog.org/10118782-the-vietnam-war-or-second-indochina-war.html|archive-date=April 25, 2023}} the Vietnam Conflict,{{Cite web |date=15 August 2016 |title=The National Archives – Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File |url=https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics |access-date=8 December 2020 |archive-date=26 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526173917/https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Marlatt |first=Greta E. |title=Research Guides: Vietnam Conflict: Maps |url=https://libguides.nps.edu/vietnamwar/maps |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405200653/https://libguides.nps.edu/vietnamwar/maps |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |access-date=11 April 2021 |website=Libguides.nps.edu}} and colloquially 'Nam. In Vietnam it is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ ({{Literally|Resistance War against America}}).{{Cite book |last=Meaker |first=Scott S.F. |title=Unforgettable Vietnam War: The American War in Vietnam – War in the Jungle |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-312-93158-9}}{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=Robert |date=January 27, 2018 |title=Grim reminders of a war in Vietnam, a generation later |url=https://www.concordmonitor.com/Grim-reminders-of-a-war-in-Vietnam-a-generation-later-15159686 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180128005729/https://www.concordmonitor.com/Grim-reminders-of-a-war-in-Vietnam-a-generation-later-15159686 |archive-date=2018-01-28 |access-date=2019-02-28 |website=Concord Monitor |quote=It's been more than for 40-plus years, the war that Americans simply call Vietnam but the Vietnamese refer to as their Resistance War Against America.}} The Government of Vietnam officially refers to it as the Resistance War against America to Save the Nation.{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Edward |title=Vietnam War perspective: the unreconciled conflict |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/18/vietnam-war-perspective-unreconciled-conflict/962358001/ |access-date=2023-09-06 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US |archive-date=6 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906182356/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/18/vietnam-war-perspective-unreconciled-conflict/962358001/ |url-status=live }}

{{Main|French Indochina|Vietnamese nationalism|Communism in Vietnam}}

Vietnam had been under French control as part of French Indochina since the 1880s. Vietnamese independence movements, such as the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, faced suppression despite growing public support for diverse reformist and revolutionary nationalist causes.{{sfn|Tran|2022|pages=5–19}}{{sfn|Goscha|2016|pages=135–136, 170–181, 204}} Nguyen Sinh Cung established the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1930; the Marxist–Leninist party aimed to overthrow French rule and establish a communist state.{{Cite book |last=Umair Mirza |url=http://archive.org/details/thevietnamwarthedefinitiveillustratedhistory_202002 |title=The Vietnam War The Definitive Illustrated History |date=2017-04-01}}

Fractures between nationalists and communists emerged in the 1920s,{{cite conference |last=Reilly |first=Brett |title=Before the First Indochina War: Redefining the Origin of Vietnam's Civil War |format= |conference=Association for Asian Studies, Annual Conference |pages= |date=2017 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317376173 |location= }}
{{cite web |last1=Reilly |first1=Brett |title=The True Origin of the Term 'Viet Cong' |url=https://thediplomat.com/2018/01/the-true-origin-of-the-term-viet-cong/ |website=The Diplomat |date=31 January 2018 }} as the two groups differed in their visions for postcolonial Vietnam: republicanism for the revolutionary nationalists,{{cite book |last1=Tran |first1=Nu-Anh |last2=Vu |first2=Tuong |chapter=Introduction: Rethinking Vietnamese Republicanism |pages=1–25 |editor-last1=Tran |editor-first1=Nu-Anh |editor-last2=Vu |editor-first2=Tuong |title=Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920–1963 |date=2022 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |doi= |chapter-url= |isbn=9780824892111 }} and proletarian internationalism for the communists.{{Cite journal |last=Vu |first=Tuong |date=2019 |title=In the Service of World Revolution: Vietnamese Communists' Radical Ambitions through the Three Indochina Wars |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=21|issue=4 |pages=4–30 |doi=10.1162/jcws_a_00905 }} The communists’ radical push for centralized control led to a prolonged civil conflict marked by the suppression of rival nationalists,{{Cite journal |last=Asselin |first=Pierre |date=2023 |title=The Indochinese Communist Party's Unfinished Revolution of 1945 and the Origins of Vietnam's 30-Year Civil War |journal=Journal of Cold War Studies |volume=25|issue=1 |pages=4–45 |doi=10.1162/jcws_a_01120 }} with the ICP largely responsible for initiating systemic Vietnamese-on-Vietnamese violence.{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Martin |last2=Asselin |first2=Pierre |title=French Decolonisation and Civil War: The Dynamics of Violence in the Early Phases of Anticolonial War in Vietnam and Algeria, 1940–1956 |journal=Journal of Modern European History |year=2022 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=513–535 |doi=10.1177/16118944221130231 }}{{Rp|515}}

{{Main|French Indochina in World War II|1940–1946 in French Indochina}}

File:Flag of North Vietnam (1945–1955).svg flag, which later became the flag of North Vietnam, prototype of the national flag of contemporary Vietnam]]

In 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina, following France's capitulation to Germany. French influence was suppressed, and in 1941 Cung, now known as Ho Chi Minh, returned to establish the Viet Minh, an anti-Japanese resistance movement. From 1944, the US Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) provided the Viet Minh with weapons and training to fight the occupying Japanese and Vichy French.{{Cite web |date=2020-07-15 |title=The OSS in Vietnam, 1945: A War of Missed Opportunities by Dixee Bartholomew-Feis |url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/oss-vietnam-1945-dixee-bartholomew-feis |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans |language=en |archive-date=15 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315115133/https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/oss-vietnam-1945-dixee-bartholomew-feis |url-status=live }} US President Franklin D. Roosevelt continued to support Vietnamese resistance, and proposed Vietnam's independence be granted under an international trusteeship after the war.{{cite journal |last1=Hess |first1=Gary R. |title=Franklin Roosevelt and Indochina |journal=The Journal of American History |date=1972 |volume=59 |issue=2 |pages=353–368 |doi=10.2307/1890195 |jstor=1890195 }} The Viet Minh secured their advantage by relocating their operations from southern China into Vietnam and leveraging Allied support.{{sfn|Goscha|2016|pages=194–197}}

In March 1945, Japan, losing the war, overthrew the French government in Indochina, established the Empire of Vietnam and installed Vietnamese Emperor Bảo Đại as a figurehead.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Ralph B. |title=The Japanese Period in Indochina and the Coup of 9 March 1945 |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |date=September 1978 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=268–301 |doi=10.1017/S0022463400009784 }} Following the surrender of Japan, the Viet Minh launched the August Revolution, overthrowing the Japanese-backed state and seizing weapons from the surrendering Japanese forces. On 2 September, Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). However, British and French forces arrived in Indochina to oversee the Japanese surrender south of the 16th parallel, while Chinese Nationalist troops did so in the north. On September 23, the British supported a French coup that overthrew the DRV government in Saigon and reinstated French control.{{Cite web|url=https://indochine.uqam.ca/vi/t-in-chin-tranh/7-23-september-1945.html|title=UQAM | Guerre d'Indochine | 23 SEPTEMBER 1945}}{{cite journal |last1=Hughes |first1=Geraint |title=A 'Post-war' War: The British Occupation of French-Indochina, September 1945–March 1946 |journal=Small Wars & Insurgencies |date=September 2006 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=263–286 |doi=10.1080/09592310600671596 }}{{Cite web |title=Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part I.djvu/30 - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part_I.djvu/30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031133156/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3APentagon-Papers-Part_I.djvu/30 |archive-date=31 October 2023 |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=en.wikisource.org |language=en}} American support for the Viet Minh ended, and O.S.S. forces left as the French sought to reassert control.

{{Main|War in Vietnam (1945–1946)|First Indochina War}}

File:Bao Dai and Ho Chi Minh.jpg (right) as the "supreme advisor" to the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam led by president Hồ Chí Minh (left), September 1945.]]

File:William Chapman Foster, Nguyễn Văn Tâm and Donald Read Heath.jpg (right) with State of Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyễn Văn Tâm (center) and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Chapman Foster (left), 1952.]]

Beginning in August 1945, the Viet Minh sought to consolidate power by terrorizing and purging rival Vietnamese nationalist groups and Trotskyist activists.{{cite book |last=Guillemot |first=François |chapter=Au coeur de la fracture vietnamienne : l'élimination de l'opposition nationaliste et anticolonialiste dans le Nord du Vietnam (1945–1946) |pages=175–216 |editor-last1=Goscha |editor-first1=Christopher E. |editor-last2=de Tréglodé |editor-first2=Benoît |title=Naissance d'un État-Parti: Le Viêt Nam depuis 1945 |date=2004 |publisher=Les Indes savantes |location= Paris |url=https://www.lesindessavantes.com/ouvrage/naissance-dun-etat-parti/ |isbn=9782846540643}}{{sfn|Kort|2017|pages=62–63, 81–85}}{{sfn|Tran|2022|pages=24–30}}{{cite book |last1=Marr |first1=David G. |title=Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945–1946) |date=2013 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://www.ucpress.edu/ebook/9780520954977/vietnam |isbn=9780520954977 |pages= }}{{Rp|383–441}} In 1946, the Franco-Chinese and Ho–Sainteny Agreements facilitated a coexistence between the DRV and French that strengthened the Viet Minh while undermining the nationalists.{{sfn|Goscha|2016|pages=204–208}}{{sfn|Holcombe |2020|pages=35, 38–44}} That summer, the Viet Minh colluded with French forces to eliminate nationalists, targeted for their ardent anti-colonialism.{{sfn|Kort|2017|pages=83–84}}{{Rp|205–207}}{{cite thesis |last1=Reilly |first1=Brett |title=The Origins of the Vietnamese Civil War and the State of Vietnam |type=PhD |year=2018 |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison |url=https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/9913275159802121}}{{Rp|175–177}}{{cite journal |last1=Tran |first1=Nu-Anh |title=Denouncing the 'Việt Cộng': Tales of revolution and betrayal in the Republic of Vietnam |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |year=2023 |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=686–708 |doi=10.1017/S0022463422000790 }}{{Rp|699–700}}

With most of the nationalist partisans defeated,{{sfn|Kort|2017|page=85}}{{sfn|Tran|2022|page=27}} and negotiations broken down, tensions between the Viet Minh and French authorities erupted into full-scale war in December 1946,{{sfn|Asselin|2024|pages=73–81}} a conflict which became entwined with the Cold War. Surviving nationalist partisans and politico-religious groups rallied behind the exiled Bảo Đại to reopen negotiations with France in opposition to communist domination.{{sfn|Goscha|2016|pages= 238–241}}{{Rp|187–188}} The United States supported the decolonization of Vietnam but opposed the spread of communism, supporting France in cooperating with the nationalists and implementing the Bảo Đại Solution to provide a suitable political alternative to the Viet Minh. As the fall of China to the communists became apparent, the United States considered this solution with more urgency. In March 1949, France signed a treaty with Bảo Đại to establish the unified and partially independent State of Vietnam within the French Union.{{cite web |title=The Pentagon Papers, Gravel Edition, Chapter 2, "US Involvement in the Franco-Viet Minh War, 1950-1954 |website=mtholyoke.edu |date=June 6, 2011 |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent5.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806004651/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent5.htm |archive-date=August 6, 2011 |access-date=February 9, 2025}} On 8 December 1950, A French-Vietnamese military convention was signed, establishing a Vietnamese national army by transferring of certain units from French to Vietnamese control.[http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2006_Conference/presentations/sherman/RVNAF.pdf A Brief Overview of the Vietnam National Army and the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces(1952-1975)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327061040/http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2006_Conference/presentations/sherman/RVNAF.pdf |date=2009-03-27 }}, Stephen Sherman and Bill Laurie While the State of Vietnam, under Bảo Đại as Chief of State, aligned with the anticommunist Western Bloc, the French exploited it to extend their colonial presence and to bolster their standing within NATO.{{sfn|Goscha|2016|pages= 245–248}} By adhering to Marxist-Leninist principles, Vietnamese communists monopolized power through a series of radical campaigns.{{cite book |last=McHale |first=Shawn |chapter=Freedom, Violence, and the Struggle over the Public Arena in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1945–1958 |pages=81–99 |editor-last1=Goscha |editor-first1=Christopher E. |editor-last2=de Tréglodé |editor-first2=Benoît |title=Naissance d'un État-Parti: Le Viêt Nam depuis 1945 |date=2004 |publisher=Les Indes savantes |location= Paris |url= |isbn=9782846540643}}{{cite journal |last1=Vu |first1=Tuong |title='It's time for the Indochinese Revolution to show its true colours': The radical turn of Vietnamese politics in 1948 |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |year=2009 |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=519–542 |doi=10.1017/S0022463409990051 }}{{cite book |last=Hoang |first=Tuan |chapter=The Early South Vietnamese Critique of Communism |pages=17–32 |chapter-url= |doi=10.1057/9780230101999_2 |editor-last1=Vu |editor-first1=Tuong |editor-last2=Wongsurawat |editor-first2=Wasana |title=Dynamics of the Cold War in Asia: Ideology, Identity, and Culture |year=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |url= |isbn=9780230101999 }}

The anticommunist Truman Doctrine, first announced by president Harry S. Truman in March 1947, pledged United States support to nations resisting "attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures".{{Cite book |last=Administration |first=United States National Archives and Records |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqDA6OGvhmUC&pg=PA194 |title=Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives |date=2006-07-04 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-530959-1 |language=en |access-date=6 March 2024 |archive-date=30 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630110920/https://books.google.com/books?id=qqDA6OGvhmUC&pg=PA194 |url-status=live }} After communist China and the Soviet Union recognized the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the US recognized the French-backed State of Vietnam, based in Saigon, as the legitimate government in February 1950.{{Cite book |last1=McNamara |first1=Robert S. |url=https://archive.org/details/argumentwithoute00mcna |title=Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy |last2=Blight |first2=James G. |last3=Brigham |first3=Robert K. |last4=Biersteker |first4=Thomas J. |last5=Schandler |first5=Herbert |date=1999 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-891620-87-4 |location=New York |author-link=Robert McNamara |author-link4=Thomas J. Biersteker |url-access=registration}}{{Rp|377–379}}{{Rp|88}} The outbreak of the Korean War in June convinced Washington policymakers that the war in Indochina was another example of communist expansionism, directed by the Soviet Union.{{Rp|33–35}}

Military advisors from China began assisting the Viet Minh in July 1950.{{Cite book |last=Ang |first=Cheng Guan |title=The Vietnam War from the Other Side |publisher=Routledge |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-7007-1615-9}}{{Rp|14}} Chinese weapons, expertise, and laborers transformed the Viet Minh from a guerrilla force into an army.{{Rp|26}}{{Cite web |title=The History Place – Vietnam War 1945–1960 |url=http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html |access-date=11 June 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312070611/http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html|archive-date=March 12, 2023}} In September 1950, the US created the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) to screen French aid requests, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George C. |author-link= George C. Herring |title=America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975 (4th ed.) |date=2001 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-253618-8}}{{Rp|18}} By 1954, the US had spent $1 billion in support of the French effort, shouldering 80% of the war costs.{{Rp|35}}

{{Main|Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Operation Vulture}}

During the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, US carriers sailed to the Gulf of Tonkin and the US conducted reconnaissance flights. France and the US discussed the use of tactical nuclear weapons, though how seriously this was considered, and by whom, is unclear.{{Cite book |last=Maclear |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/tenthousanddaywa00mich/page/57 |title=The Ten Thousand Day War: Vietnam 1945–1975 |date=1981 |publisher=Thames |isbn=978-0-312-79094-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tenthousanddaywa00mich/page/57 57]}}{{Rp|75}} According to then-Vice President Richard Nixon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up plans to use nuclear weapons to support the French. Nixon, a so-called "hawk", suggested the US might have to "put American boys in".{{Rp|76}} President Dwight D. Eisenhower made American participation contingent on British support, but they were opposed.{{Rp|76}} Eisenhower, wary of involving the US in an Asian land war, decided against intervention.{{Rp|75–76}} US intelligence estimates remained skeptical of France's chance of success.{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 1 |pages=391–404}}

In May 1954, the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. This marked the end of French military involvement in Indochina. At the Geneva Conference, they negotiated a ceasefire with the Viet Minh, and independence of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam was recognized.{{cite web|url=http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview/doc2.html|title=The Final Declarations of the Geneva Conference July 21, 1954|work=The Wars for Viet Nam|publisher=Vassar College|access-date=20 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807062726/http://vietnam.vassar.edu/overview/doc2.html|archive-date=7 August 2011}}{{Cite web |title=Geneva Accords {{!}} history of Indochina {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Geneva-Accords |access-date=28 October 2022 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=28 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028002543/https://www.britannica.com/event/Geneva-Accords |url-status=live }}

{{Main|1954 Geneva Conference|Operation Passage to Freedom|Land reform in Vietnam|Land reform in North Vietnam|1954 in Vietnam}}

File:Gen-commons.jpg]]

At the Geneva Conference in July 1954, Vietnam was temporarily partitioned at the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh wished to continue war in the south, but was restrained by Chinese allies who convinced him he could win control by electoral means.{{Cite news |date=1 January 2001 |title=China Contributed Substantially to Vietnam War Victory, Claims Scholar |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar |access-date=20 May 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502013703/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/china-contributed-substantially-to-vietnam-war-victory-claims-scholar|archive-date=May 2, 2023}}{{Rp|87–88}} Civilians were allowed to move freely between the two states for 300 days. Elections were to be held in 1956 to establish a unified government.{{Rp|88–90}} However, the US, represented at the conference by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, objected to the resolution; Dulles' objection was supported only by the representative of Bảo Đại. One month before the Geneva Accords were signed between France and the Viet Minh, the State of Vietnam was granted full independence by France. By the terms of that June agreement, Vietnam assumed responsibility for international contracts previously made on its behalf by France; but, there having been no reference to subsequent contracts, it was technically free of the Geneva Agreements.[https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm The Pentagon Papers Gravel Edition Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954-1960" (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623032152/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent13.htm |date=2017-06-23 }} John Foster's brother, Allen Dulles, who was director of the Central Intelligence Agency, then initiated a psychological warfare campaign which exaggerated anti-Catholic sentiment among the Viet Minh and distributed propaganda attributed to Viet Minh threatening an American attack on Hanoi with atomic bombs.{{Cite book |last=Kinzer |first=Stephen |title=The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War |date=2013 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4299-5352-8 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=LVb4-1l1gF4C|q=lansdale.+attache|p=194}} 195–196]}}{{Cite thesis |last=Patrick |first=Johnson, David |title=Selling "Operation Passage to Freedom": Dr. Thomas Dooley and the Religious Overtones of Early American Involvement in Vietnam |date=2009 |publisher=University of New Orleans |url=https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/950/ |language=en|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174806/https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1931&context=td|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}{{Rp|96–97}}

During 300 days, up to one million northerners, mainly Catholics, moved south, fearing persecution by the Communists.{{Rp|96}}{{Cite web |last=Prados |first=John |date=January–February 2005 |title=The Numbers Game: How Many Vietnamese Fled South In 1954? |url=http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527190340/http://www.vva.org/TheVeteran/2005_01/feature_numbersGame.htm |archive-date=27 May 2006 |access-date=11 May 2017 |publisher=The VVA Veteran}} The exodus was coordinated by a U.S.-funded $93 million relocation program, which involved the French Navy and US Seventh Fleet to ferry refugees.{{Cite book |last=Murti |first=B.S.N. |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamdivided0000unse |title=Vietnam Divided |date=1964 |publisher=Asian Publishing House |url-access=registration}} The refugees gave the later Ngô Đình Diệm regime a strong anti-communist constituency.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=238}} Over 100,000 Viet Minh fighters went north for "regroupment", expecting to return south within two years.{{Rp|98}} The Viet Minh left roughly 5,000 to 10,000 cadres in the south as a base for insurgency.{{Rp|104}} After the Geneva Accords, the French wanted to hang on to a zone of influence in the south by keeping the Emperor Bảo Đại as Head of State, while the Americans wanted to push the French out by having Diệm create a republic.Demery, pp. 80–81. Diệm in the words of an American diplomat had developed "a blind hatred of the French" and the Americans believed that South Vietnam needed an anti-Communist leader who was not tainted with any associations with the French, which led them to back Diệm.Demery, p. 81. The last French soldiers left South Vietnam in 1956{{Rp|116}} and China withdrew from North Vietnam.{{Rp|14}}

File:903aafd6079a3ed1 landing.jpg national assembly, Saigon, 1955.]]

Between 1953-56, the North government instituted agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform", which resulted in political oppression. During land reform, North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents: about 100,000 executions. As the campaign was mainly in the Red River Delta, 50,000 executions became accepted by scholars.{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |date=1975 |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8179-6431-3}}{{Rp|143}}{{Cite journal |last=Gittinger |first=J. Price |date=1959 |title=Communist Land Policy in North Viet Nam |journal=Far Eastern Survey |volume=28 |issue=8 |pages=113–126 |doi=10.2307/3024603 |jstor=3024603}}{{Cite book |last1=Courtois |first1=Stephane |title=The Black Book of Communism |title-link=The Black Book of Communism |last2=Werth |first2=Nicolas |last3=Panne |first3=Jean-Louis |last4=Paczkowski |first4=Andrzej |last5=Bartosek |first5=Karel |last6=Margolin |first6=Jean-Louis |date=1997 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-07608-2 |display-authors=1}}{{Rp|569}}{{Cite book |last=Dommen |first=Arthur J. |title=The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans |date=2001 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-33854-9 |page=340}} However, documents from Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate executions were much lower, though likely greater than 14,000.{{Cite web |last=Vu |first=Tuong |date=25 May 2007 |title=Newly released documents on the land reform |url=http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110420044800/http://www.lib.washington.edu/southeastasia/vsg/elist_2007/Newly%20released%20documents%20on%20the%20land%20reform%20.html |archive-date=20 April 2011 |access-date=15 July 2016 |website=Vietnam Studies Group |quote=There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954–1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954–1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953–1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper Moise (7–9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however).}}
cf. {{Cite journal |last=Szalontai |first=Balazs |date=November 2005 |title=Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56 |journal=Cold War History |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=395–426 |doi=10.1080/14682740500284630 }}
cf. {{Cite book |last=Vu |first=Tuong |title=Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-48901-0 |page=103 |quote=Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China.{{Nbsp}}... Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign{{Nbsp}}... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.}} In 1956, leaders in Hanoi admitted to "excesses" and restored much of the land to the original owners.{{Rp|99–100}}

The South, meanwhile, constituted the State of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as Emperor, and Ngô Đình Diệm as prime minister. Neither the US, nor Diệm's State of Vietnam, signed anything at the Geneva Conference. The non-communist Vietnamese delegation objected to any division of Vietnam, but lost when the French accepted the proposal of Viet Minh delegate Phạm Văn Đồng,{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 3 |date=1971 |publisher=Beacon Press}}{{Rp|134}} who proposed Vietnam be united by elections under the supervision of "local commissions".{{Rp|119}} The US countered with the "American Plan", with the support of South Vietnam and the UK.{{Rp|140}} It provided for unification elections under UN supervision, but was rejected by the Soviets.{{Rp|140}} The US said, "With respect to the statement made by the representative of the State of Vietnam, the United States reiterates its traditional position that peoples are entitled to determine their own future and that it will not join in any arrangement which would hinder this".{{Rp|570–571}}

Eisenhower wrote in 1954:

{{Blockquote|I have never talked or corresponded with a person knowledgeable in Indochinese affairs who did not agree that had elections been held as of the time of the fighting, possibly 80% of the population would have voted for the Communist Ho Chi Minh as their leader rather than Chief of State Bảo Đại. Indeed, the lack of leadership and drive on the part of Bảo Đại was a factor in the feeling prevalent among Vietnamese that they had nothing to fight for.{{Sfn|Eisenhower|1963|p=[https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise/page/372 372]}}}}

File:Ba Cut Trial.jpg, commander of the Hòa Hảo religious movement, in Can Tho Military Court 1956]]

According to the Pentagon Papers, Diệm would have been a more popular candidate than Bảo Đại against Hồ, stating that "It is almost certain that by 1956 the proportion which might have voted for Ho - in a free election against Diem - would have been much smaller than 80%."{{cite web |url=https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-5.pdf |title=Evolution of the War. Origins of the Insurgency |page=6 |date=January 15, 1969 |website=National Archives |access-date=October 8, 2023 |archive-date=12 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912155004/https://nara-media-001.s3.amazonaws.com/arcmedia/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-A-5.pdf |url-status=live }} In 1957, independent observers from India, Poland, and Canada representing the International Control Commission (ICC) stated that fair elections were impossible, reporting that neither South nor North had honored the armistice agreement.{{Harvnb|Woodruff|2005|p=6}} states: "The elections were not held. South Vietnam, which had not signed the Geneva Accords, did not believe the Communists in North Vietnam would allow a fair election. In January 1957, the International Control Commission (ICC), comprising observers from India, Poland, and Canada, agreed with this perception, reporting that neither South nor North Vietnam had honored the armistice agreement. With the French gone, a return to the traditional power struggle between north and south had begun again."

From April to June 1955, Diệm eliminated political opposition in the south by launching operations against religious groups: the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo of Ba Cụt. The campaign attacked the Bình Xuyên organized crime group, which was allied with members of the communist party secret police and had military elements. The group was defeated in April following a battle in Saigon. As broad opposition to his harsh tactics mounted, Diệm sought to blame the communists.

In a referendum on the future of the State of Vietnam in October 1955, Diệm rigged the poll supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu and was credited with 98%, including 133% in Saigon. His American advisors had recommended a more "modest" winning margin of "60-70%." Diệm, however, viewed the election as a test of authority.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=224}} He declared South Vietnam to be an independent state under the name Republic of Vietnam (ROV), with him as president. Likewise, Ho Chi Minh and other communists won 99% of the vote in North Vietnamese "elections".{{Rp|193–194, 202–203, 215–217}}

The domino theory, which argued that if a country fell to communism, surrounding countries would follow, was first proposed by the Eisenhower administration.{{Rp|19}} John F. Kennedy, then a senator, said: "Burma, Thailand, India, Japan, the Philippines and obviously Laos and Cambodia are among those whose security would be threatened if the Red Tide of Communism overflowed into Vietnam."{{Cite web |title=America's Stakes in Vietnam Speech to the American Friends of Vietnam, June 1956 |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626125802/http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/JFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Senator-John-F-Kennedy-at-the-Conference-on-Vietnam-Luncheon-in-the-Hotel-Willard-Washing.aspx |archive-date=26 June 2012 |access-date=26 June 2012 |publisher=JFK Library}}

{{Main|Ngo Dinh Diem|War in Vietnam (1954–1959)}}

File:Ngo Dinh Diem at Washington - ARC 542189.jpg and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam in Washington, 8 May 1957]]

A devout Catholic, Diệm was fervently anti-communist, nationalist, and socially conservative. "Diệm represented narrow and extremist nationalism coupled with autocracy and nepotism."{{Rp|200–201}} Most Vietnamese were Buddhist, and alarmed by Diệm's actions, like his dedication of the country to the Virgin Mary.

In 1955,{{Cite web |date=2025-01-13 |title=Some Clarifications on Lịch sử Nam bộ kháng chiến {{!}} Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/some-clarifications-lich-su-nam-bo-khang-chien |access-date=2025-01-11 |website=www.wilsoncenter.org |language=en}} Diệm launched the "Denounce the Communists" campaign, during which suspected communists and other anti-government elements were imprisoned, tortured, or executed. He instituted the death penalty in 1956 against activity deemed communist. The North Vietnamese government claimed that, by November 1957, over 65,000 were imprisoned and 2,148 killed.{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Robert F. |title=Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development |date=1975 |publisher=Hoover Institution Publications |isbn=978-0817964313 |pages=174–178}} 40,000 political prisoners were jailed by 1959.{{Rp|89}} In October 1956, Diệm launched a land reform program limiting the size of rice farms per owner. 1.8m acres of farm land became available for purchase by landless people. By 1960, the process had stalled because many of Diem's biggest supporters were large landowners.{{Cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/collisionofcultu00doyl |title=The Vietnam Experience, a Collision of Cultures |last2=Weiss |first2=Stephen |date=1984 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=978-0939526123 |url-access=registration}}{{Rp|14–16}}

In May 1957, Diệm undertook a 10-day state visit to the US. Eisenhower pledged his continued support, and a parade was held in Diệm's honor. But Secretary of State Dulles privately conceded Diệm had to be backed because they could find no better alternative.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=230}}

{{Main|Viet Cong|War in Vietnam (1959–1963)}}

Between 1954-57, the Diệm government succeeded in preventing large-scale unrest in the countryside. In April 1957, insurgents launched an assassination campaign, referred to as "extermination of traitors".{{Cite book |last1=McNamera |first1=Robert S. |title=Argument Without End |last2=Blight |first2=James G. |last3=Brigham |first3=Robert K. |date=1999 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=1-891620-22-3 |pages=35}} 17 people were killed in the Châu Đốc massacre at a bar in July. By early 1959, Diệm had come to regard the violence as an organized campaign and implemented Law 10/59, which made political violence punishable by death.{{Cite web |title=Excerpts from Law 10/59, 6 May 1959 |url=http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc6.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723163835/http://vietnam.vassar.edu/doc6.html |archive-date=23 July 2008}} There had been division among former Viet Minh, whose main goal was to hold elections promised in the Geneva Accords, leading to activities separate from the other communists and anti-GVN (Government of the Republic of Vietnam) activists. Douglas Pike estimated that insurgents carried out 2,000 abductions, and 1,700 assassinations of officials, village chiefs, hospital workers and teachers from 1957 to 1960.{{Rp|106}} Violence between insurgents and government forces increased from 180 clashes in January 1960, to 545 in September.{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Francis John |url=http://www.history.army.mil/BOOKS/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm |title=History of Special Forces in Vietnam, 1961–1971 |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |year=1989 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=4 |id=CMH Pub 90-23 |access-date=14 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212151656/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Vietnam/90-23/90-23C.htm |archive-date=12 February 2014 |url-status=dead |orig-year=1973}}

In September 1960, COSVN, North Vietnam's southern headquarters, ordered a coordinated uprising in South Vietnam and a third of the population was soon living in areas of communist control.{{Rp|106–107}} In December, North Vietnam formally created the Viet Cong (VC) with the intent of uniting all anti-GVN insurgents, including non-communists. It was formed in Memot, Cambodia, and directed through COSVN.{{Rp|55–58}} The VC placed "emphasis on the withdrawal of American advisors and influence, on land reform and liberalization of the GVN, on coalition government and the neutralization of Vietnam." Identities of the leaders were often kept secret.

Support for the VC was driven by resentment of Diem's reversal of Viet Minh land reforms. The Viet Minh had confiscated large private landholdings, reduced rents and debts, and leased communal lands to poorer peasants. Diem brought the landlords back, and people who had been farming land for years had to return it and pay years of back rent. "The divisions within villages reproduced those that had existed against the French: 75% support for the NLF{{clarify|date=May 2025}}, 20% trying to remain neutral and 5% firmly pro-government".{{Cite book |last=Young |first=Marilyn |url=https://archive.org/details/vietnamwars194510000youn |title=The Vietnam Wars: 1945–1990 |date=1991 |publisher=Harper Perennial |isbn=978-0-06-092107-1 |url-access=registration}}{{Rp|73}}

{{See also|North Vietnamese invasion of Laos|Ho Chi Minh trail}}

In March 1956, southern communist leader Lê Duẩn presented a plan to revive the insurgency entitled "The Road to the South", to the Politburo in Hanoi. However, as China and the Soviets opposed confrontation, his plan was rejected.{{Rp|58}} Despite this, the North Vietnamese leadership approved tentative measures to revive southern insurgency in December.{{Sfn|Olson|Roberts |2008|p=67}} Communist forces were under a single command structure set up in 1958.{{Sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=68}} In May 1958, North Vietnamese forces seized the transportation hub at Tchepone in Southern Laos near the demilitarized zone, between North and South Vietnam.{{Cite book |last=Prados |first=John |title=The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War |date=1999 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9780471254652}}{{RP|24}}

The North Vietnamese Communist Party approved a "people's war" on the South in January 1959,{{Rp|119–120}} and, in May, Group 559 was established to upgrade the Ho Chi Minh trail, then a six-month mountain trek through Laos. On 28 July, North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces invaded Laos, fighting the Royal Lao Army along the border.{{Cite book |last=Morrocco |first=John |title=Rain of Fire: Air War, 1969–1973 |date=1985 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=9780939526147 |series=Volume 14 of Vietnam Experience}}{{RP|26}} About 500 of the "regroupees" of 1954 were sent south on the trail during its first year of operation.{{Sfn|Military History Institute of Vietnam|2002|p=xi}} The first arms delivery was completed in August 1959.{{Cite book |last=Prados |first=John |title=Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land |date=2006 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-84603-020-8 |editor-last=Wiest |editor-first=Andrew |location=Oxford |pages=74–95 |chapter=The Road South: The Ho Chi Minh Trail |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/rollingthunderin00wies}} In April 1960, North Vietnam imposed military conscription for men. About 40,000 communist soldiers infiltrated the south between 1961-63.{{Rp|76}}

{{Main|War in Vietnam (1959–1963)|Strategic Hamlet Program}}

File:The President's News Conference, 23 March 1961.jpg

In the 1960 U.S. presidential election, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon. Although Eisenhower warned Kennedy about Laos and Vietnam, Europe and Latin America "loomed larger than Asia on his sights."{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=264}}

Kennedy remained committed to the Cold War foreign policy inherited from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. In 1961, the US had 50,000 troops based in South Korea, and Kennedy faced four crisis situations: the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion he had approved in April,{{Cite web |date=12 May 2015 |title=It's Time to Stop Saying that JFK Inherited the Bay of Pigs Operation from Ike |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188 |publisher=History News Network|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207045947/https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188|archive-date=February 7, 2023}} settlement negotiations between the pro-Western government of Laos and the Pathet Lao communist movement in May,{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=265}} construction of the Berlin Wall in August, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October. Kennedy believed another failure to stop communist expansion would irreparably damage US credibility. He was determined to "draw a line in the sand" and prevent a communist victory in Vietnam. He told The New York Times after the Vienna summit with Khrushchev, "Now we have a problem making our power credible and Vietnam looks like the place."{{cite journal |last1=Bostdorff |first1=Denise M. |last2=Goldzwig |first2=Steven R. |title=Idealism and Pragmatism in American Foreign Policy Rhetoric: The Case of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam |journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly |date=1994 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=515–530 |id={{ProQuest|215692085}} |jstor=27551281 }}{{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=Robert |title=A Grand Delusion: America's Descent Into Vietnam |date=2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-04369-9 }}{{pn|date=May 2025}}

Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam assumed Diệm and his forces had to defeat the guerrillas on their own. He was against the deployment of American combat troops and observed "to introduce U.S. forces in large numbers there today, while it might have an initially favorable military impact, would almost certainly lead to adverse political and, in the long run, adverse military consequences."{{Cite book |last=Vietnam Task Force |url=http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-4.pdf |title=Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force |date=1969 |publisher=Office of the Secretary of Defense |location=Washington, DC |pages=1–2 |chapter=IV. B. Evolution of the War 4. Phased Withdrawal of U.S. Forces in Vietnam, 1962–64 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150504231323/http://media.nara.gov/research/pentagon-papers/Pentagon-Papers-Part-IV-B-4.pdf |archive-date=4 May 2015 |url-status=dead}} The quality of the South Vietnamese military, however, remained poor. Poor leadership, corruption, and political promotions weakened the ARVN. The frequency of guerrilla attacks rose as the insurgency gathered steam. While Hanoi's support for the VC played a role, South Vietnamese governmental incompetence was at the core of the crisis.{{Rp|369}}

File:President meets with Secretary of Defense. President Kennedy, Secretary McNamara. White House, Cabinet Room - NARA - 194244.jpg, in June 1962]]

A major issue Kennedy raised was whether the Soviet space and missile programs had surpassed those of the US. Although Kennedy stressed long-range missile parity with the Soviets, he was interested in using special forces for counterinsurgency warfare in Third World countries threatened by communist insurgencies. Although they were intended for use behind front lines after a conventional Soviet invasion of Europe, Kennedy believed guerrilla tactics employed by special forces, would be effective in a "brush fire" war in Vietnam.

Kennedy advisors Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow recommended US troops be sent to South Vietnam disguised as flood relief workers.{{Cite news |last=Stavins |first=Ralph L. |date=22 July 1971 |title=A Special Supplement: Kennedy's Private War |work=The New York Review of Books |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1971/07/22/a-special-supplement-kennedys-private-war/ |access-date=2 December 2017 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406045200/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1971/07/22/a-special-supplement-kennedys-private-war/|archive-date=April 6, 2023}} Kennedy rejected the idea but increased military assistance. In April 1962, John Kenneth Galbraith warned Kennedy of the "danger we shall replace the French as a colonial force...and bleed as the French did."{{Cite book |last=Galbraith |first=John Kenneth |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 2 |date=1971 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |pages=669–671 |chapter=Memorandum to President Kennedy from John Kenneth Galbraith on Vietnam, 4 April 1962 |author-link=John Kenneth Galbraith}} Eisenhower put 900 advisors in Vietnam, and by November 1963, Kennedy had put 16,000.{{Rp|131}}

The Strategic Hamlet Program was initiated in late 1961. This joint U.S.–South Vietnamese program attempted to resettle the rural population into fortified villages. It was implemented in early 1962 and involved forced relocation and segregation of rural South Vietnamese, into new communities where the peasantry would be isolated from the VC. It was hoped these new communities would provide security for the peasants and strengthen the tie between them and central government. However, by November 1963 the program had waned, and it ended in 1964.{{Rp|1070}} In July 1962, 14 nations, including China, South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, North Vietnam, and the US, signed the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos.

{{Main|Arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm}}

{{See also|United States in the Vietnam War|Krulak–Mendenhall mission|McNamara–Taylor mission|1963 South Vietnamese coup d'état}}

The inept performance of the ARVN was exemplified by failed actions such as the Battle of Ap Bac in January 1963, in which the VC won a battle against a much larger and better-equipped South Vietnamese force, many of whose officers seemed reluctant to engage.{{Cite book |last=Sheehan |first=Neil |title=A Bright Shining Lie – John Paul Vann and the American War in Vietnam |date=1989 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-679-72414-8|url=https://archive.org/details/brightshininglie0000shee_r0g3}}{{Rp|201–206}} The ARVN lost 83 soldiers and 5 US helicopters, serving to ferry troops shot down by VC forces, while the VC lost only 18 soldiers. The ARVN forces were led by Diệm's most trusted general, Huỳnh Văn Cao. Cao was a Catholic, promoted due to religion and fidelity rather than skill, and his main role was to preserve his forces to stave off coups. Washington policymaker concluded Diệm was incapable of defeating the communists and might even make a deal with Ho Chi Minh. He seemed concerned only with fending off coups and had become paranoid after attempts in 1960 and 1962, which he partly attributed to US encouragement. Robert F. Kennedy noted, "Diệm wouldn't make even the slightest concessions. He was difficult to reason with{{Nbsp}}..."Live interview by John Bartlow Martin. Was Kennedy Planning to Pull out of Vietnam? New York City. John F. Kennedy Library, 1964, Tape V, Reel 1. Historian James Gibson summed up the situation:

{{Blockquote|Strategic hamlets had failed{{Nbsp}}... The South Vietnamese regime was incapable of winning the peasantry because of its class base among landlords. Indeed, there was no longer a 'regime' in the sense of a relatively stable political alliance and functioning bureaucracy. Instead, civil government and military operations had virtually ceased. The National Liberation Front had made great progress and was close to declaring provisional revolutionary governments in large areas.{{Cite news |last=Gibson |first=James |date=1986 |title=The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam |page=[https://archive.org/details/perfectwartechno0000gibs/page/88 88] |publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Press |url=https://archive.org/details/perfectwartechno0000gibs |url-access=registration}}}}

Discontent with Diệm's policies exploded in May 1963, following the Huế Phật Đản shootings of 9 Buddhists protesting the ban on displaying the Buddhist flag on Vesak. This resulted in mass protests—the Buddhist crisis—against discriminatory policies that gave privileges to Catholics over the Buddhist majority. Ngô Đình Thục, Diệm's elder brother and the Archbishop of Huế, held his anniversary celebrations shortly before Vesak; they were bankrolled by the government, and Catholic flags were prominently displayed. Diệm refused to make concessions to the Buddhists or take responsibility for the deaths. In August 1963, the ARVN Special Forces of Colonel Lê Quang Tung, loyal to Diệm's brother Ngô Đình Nhu, raided pagodas, causing destruction and hundreds of deaths. The Republic of Vietnam sought to harness religious nationalism by promoting spiritual values in opposition to communism's atheism; this approach amplified religious consciousness that challenged the state's authority.{{Cite journal |last=Nguyen |first=Phi-Vân |title=A Secular State for a Religious Nation: The Republic of Vietnam and Religious Nationalism, 1946–1963 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/secular-state-for-a-religious-nation-the-republic-of-vietnam-and-religious-nationalism-19461963/6686A381A12183648E76430BC646BC85 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |date=2018 |volume=77 |issue=3 |pages=741–771 |doi=10.1017/S0021911818000505 }}

File:Arvncapture.jpg

US officials began discussing regime change during 1963. The United States Department of State wanted to encourage a coup, while the Pentagon favored Diệm. Chief among the proposed changes was removal of Diệm's brother Nhu, who controlled the secret police and special forces, and was seen as being behind Buddhist repression and the Ngô family's rule. This proposal was conveyed to the US embassy in Saigon in Cable 243. The CIA contacted generals planning to remove Diệm, and told them the US would not oppose this, nor punish them by cutting off aid. Diệm was overthrown and executed, along with his brother, on 2 November 1963. When Kennedy was informed, Maxwell Taylor remembered he "rushed from the room with a look of shock and dismay on his face."{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=326}} Kennedy had not anticipated Diệm's murder. The U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, invited coup leaders to the embassy and congratulated them. Lodge informed Kennedy that "the prospects now are for a shorter war".{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=327}} Kennedy wrote to Lodge congratulating him for "a fine job".{{Cite book |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume IV, Vietnam, August–December 1963 |chapter=304. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Vietnam—Washington, November 6, 1963—7:50 p.m. |chapter-url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d304 |via=Office of the Historian|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404230151/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v04/d304|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}

Following the coup, chaos ensued. Hanoi took advantage and increased its support for the VC. South Vietnam entered political instability, as one military government toppled another. Each new regime was viewed by the communists as a puppet of the Americans; whatever the failings of Diệm, his credentials as a nationalist had been impeccable.{{Rp|328}} US advisors were embedded in the South Vietnamese armed forces. They were criticized for ignoring the political nature of the insurgency.{{Sfn|Demma|1989}} The Kennedy administration sought to refocus US efforts on pacification – which in this case was defined as countering the insurgency{{Cite web |date=April 2015 |title=Counterinsurgency in Vietnam: Lessons for Today |url=https://www.afsa.org/counterinsurgency-vietnam-lessons-today |website=The Foreign Service Journal|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114858/https://afsa.org/counterinsurgency-vietnam-lessons-today|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}{{Cite web |title=Pacification |url=http://www.vietnamgear.com/dictionary/pacification.aspx |website=Vietnam War Dictionary|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405065336/http://www.vietnamgear.com/dictionary.aspx?s=pacification|archive-date=April 5, 2023}} – and "winning the hearts and minds" of the population. Military leadership in Washington, however, was hostile to any role for U.S. advisors other than troop training.{{Cite book |last=Blaufarb |first=Douglas S. |title=The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance, 1950 to the Present |date=1977 |publisher=Free Press |isbn=978-0-02-903700-3 |page=119}} General Paul Harkins, the commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, confidently predicted victory by Christmas 1963.{{Rp|103}} The CIA was less optimistic, warning that "the Viet Cong by and large retain de facto control of much of the countryside and have steadily increased the overall intensity of the effort".{{Cite book |last=Schandler |first=Herbert Y. |url=https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha |title=America in Vietnam: The War That Couldn't Be Won |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7425-6697-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americainvietnam0000scha/page/36 36] |url-access=registration}}

Paramilitary officers from the CIA's Special Activities Division trained and led Hmong tribesmen in Laos and into Vietnam. The indigenous forces were in the tens of thousands and conducted direct action missions, led by paramilitary officers, against the Communist Pathet Lao forces and their North Vietnamese supporters.{{Cite book |last1=Southworth |first1=Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/usspecialforcesg0000sout |title=U.S. Special Forces: A Guide to America's Special Operations Units: the World's Most Elite Fighting Force |last2=Tanner |first2=Stephen |date=2002 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-306-81165-4 |url-access=registration}} The CIA ran the Phoenix Program and participated in the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MAC-V SOG).{{Cite book |last=Warner |first=Roger |title=Shooting at the Moon The story of America's clandestine war in Laos |date=1996 |publisher=Steerforth Press |isbn=978-1-883642-36-5}}

{{Main|Joint warfare in South Vietnam, 1963–1969}}

{{Further|United States in the Vietnam War#Americanization|January 1964 South Vietnamese coup|September 1964 South Vietnamese coup attempt|December 1964 South Vietnamese coup|1965 South Vietnamese coup}}

Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had not been heavily involved with policy toward Vietnam;{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|pp=336–339}}. Johnson viewed many members he inherited from Kennedy's cabinet with distrust because he had never penetrated their circle during Kennedy's presidency; to Johnson's mind, those like W. Averell Harriman and Dean Acheson spoke a different language.{{Refn|group="A"|Shortly after the assassination of Kennedy, when McGeorge Bundy called Johnson on the phone, Johnson responded: "Goddammit, Bundy. I've told you that when I want you I'll call you."{{Cite book |last=VanDeMark |first=Brian |title=Into the Quagmire |date=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |page=13}}}} however he immediately focused on it. On 24 November, he said, "the battle against communism{{Nbsp}}... must be joined{{Nbsp}}... with strength and determination."{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|p=339}}. Before a small group, including Henry Cabot Lodge, Johnson also said, "We should stop playing cops and robbers [a reference to Diệm's failed leadership] and get back to{{Nbsp}}... winning the war{{Nbsp}}... tell the generals in Saigon that Lyndon Johnson intends to stand by our word{{Nbsp}}... [to] win the contest against the externally directed and supported Communist conspiracy." Johnson knew he had inherited a deteriorating situation,{{Harvnb|Karnow|1997|p=339}}: "At a place called Hoa Phu, for example, the strategic hamlet built during the previous summer now looked like it had been hit by a hurricane.{{Nbsp}}... Speaking through an interpreter, a local guard explained to me that a handful of Viet Cong agents had entered the hamlet one night and told the peasants to tear it down and return to their native villages. The peasants complied without question." but adhered to the widely accepted domino argument for defending the South: Should they retreat or appease, either action would imperil other nations.{{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Michael |title=The World Transformed – 1945 to the Present |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-937102-0 |location=New York |pages=169–171}} Findings from RAND's Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Project bolstered his confidence that an air war would weaken the insurgency. Some argue the policy of North Vietnam was not to topple other non-communist governments in South East Asia.{{Rp|48}}

The military revolutionary council, meeting in lieu of a strong South Vietnamese leader, had 12 members. It was headed by General Dương Văn Minh, whom journalist Stanley Karnow, recalled as "a model of lethargy".{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=340}} Lodge cabled home about Minh: "Will he be strong enough to get on top of things?" Minh's regime was overthrown in January 1964 by General Nguyễn Khánh.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=341}} There was persistent instability in the military: several coups—not all successful—occurred in a short period of time.

{{Main|Gulf of Tonkin incident}}

{{Further|Credibility gap}}

File:Bombing in Vietnam.jpg and four F-105 Thunderchiefs dropping bombs on North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder]]

On 2 August 1964, {{USS|Maddox|DD-731|6}}, on an intelligence mission along North Vietnam's coast, fired upon and damaged torpedo boats approaching it in the Gulf of Tonkin.{{Rp|124}} A second attack was reported two days later on {{USS|Turner Joy|DD-951|6}} and Maddox. The circumstances were murky.{{Rp|218–219}} Johnson commented to Undersecretary of State George Ball that "those sailors out there may have been shooting at flying fish."{{Cite book |last=Kutler |first=Stanley I. |title=Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War |date=1996 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |isbn=978-0-13-276932-7 |page=249}} An NSA publication declassified in 2005 revealed there was no attack on 4 August.{{Cite news |last=Shane |first=Scott |date=31 October 2005 |title=Vietnam Study, Casting Doubts, Remains Secret |work=The New York Times] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html |access-date=4 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211090222/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all |archive-date=11 December 2008 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}

The second "attack" led to retaliatory airstrikes, and prompted Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August.{{Cite book |last=Moïse |first=Edwin E. |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780807823002 |title=Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War |date=1996 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2300-2 |url-access=registration}}{{Rp|78}} This granted the president power "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression" and Johnson relied on this as giving him authority to expand the war.{{Rp|221}} Johnson pledged he was not "committing American boys to fighting a war that I think ought to be fought by the boys of Asia to help protect their own land".{{Rp|227}}

The National Security Council recommended an escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam. Following an attack on a U.S. Army base in February 1965,{{Cite web |last=Simon |first=Dennis M. |date=August 2002 |title=The War in Vietnam, 1965–1968 |url=http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426064833/http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Viet2.html |archive-date=26 April 2009 |access-date=7 May 2009}} airstrikes were initiated, while Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin was on a state visit to North Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Arc Light expanded aerial bombardment and ground support operations.{{Sfn|Nalty|1998|pp=97, 261}} The bombing campaign, which lasted three years, was intended to force North Vietnam to cease support for the VC by threatening to destroy North Vietnamese air defenses and infrastructure. It was additionally aimed at bolstering South Vietnamese morale.{{Cite book |last=Tilford |first=Earl L. |url=https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/07/2001728434/-1/-1/0/B_0040_TILFORD_SETUP.PDF |title=Setup: What the Air Force did in Vietnam and Why |date=1991 |publisher=Air University Press |page=89|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404230151/https://media.defense.gov/2017/Apr/07/2001728434/-1/-1/0/B_0040_TILFORD_SETUP.PDF|archive-date=April 4, 2023}} Between 1965-68, Rolling Thunder deluged the north with a million tons of missiles, rockets and bombs.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=468}} With the increasingly sophisticated air defenses over North Vietnam, the South Vietnamese Air Force was soon reduced to operating over only a small part of southern North Vietnam, with US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft conducting most operations.{{cite book|last=Van Staaveren|first=Jacob|title=Gradual Failure: The Air War over North Vietnam 1965–1966|publisher=Air Force History and Museums Program|year=2002|url=https://media.defense.gov/2010/May/26/2001330292/-1/-1/0/AFD-100526-034.pdf|isbn=9781508779094}}{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}{{PD-notice}}{{rp|314}}

{{Main|Laotian Civil War}}

Bombing was not restricted to North Vietnam. Aerial campaigns targeted different parts of the VC and PAVN infrastructure. These included the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia. The ostensibly neutral Laos had become the scene of a civil war, pitting the Laotian government backed by the US, against the Pathet Lao and its North Vietnamese allies.

Aerial bombardment against the Pathet Lao and PAVN forces was undertaken by the US to prevent the collapse of the government, and deny use of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Between 1964-73, the US dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, similar to the 2.1 million tons of bombs it dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history.{{Cite journal |last1=Kiernan |first1=Ben |author-link=Ben Kiernan |last2=Owen |first2=Taylor |date=26 April 2015 |title=Making More Enemies than We Kill? Calculating U.S. Bomb Tonnages Dropped on Laos and Cambodia, and Weighing Their Implications |url=http://apjjf.org/2015/13/16/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=13 |issue=17 |id=4313 |access-date=18 September 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326111723/https://apjjf.org/Ben-Kiernan/4313.html|archive-date=March 26, 2023}}

The objective of stopping North Vietnam and the VC was never reached. The Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force Curtis LeMay, however, had long advocated saturation bombing in Vietnam and wrote of the communists that "we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age".{{Rp|328}}

File:DongXoaiHuey-65a.JPG, June 1965]]

Following the Tonkin Resolution, Hanoi anticipated the arrival of US troops and expanded the VC, as well as sending PAVN personnel southwards. They were outfitting the VC forces and standardizing their equipment with AK-47 rifles and other supplies, as well as forming the 9th Division.{{Rp|223}}{{Cite book |title=Vietnam War After Action Reports |publisher=BACM Research |page=[{{GBurl|id=Dch3m7u2K5YC|p=84}} 84] |language=en}} "From a strength of approximately 5,000 at the start of 1959 the Viet Cong's ranks grew to about 100,000 at the end of 1964{{Nbsp}}... Between 1961-64 the Army's strength rose from about 850,000 to nearly a million men."{{Sfn|Demma|1989}} US troop numbers deployed were much lower: 2,000 in 1961, rising to 16,500 in 1964.{{Cite book |last1=Kahin |first1=George |title=The United States in Vietnam: An analysis in depth of the history of America's involvement in Vietnam |last2=Lewis |first2=John W. |author-link2=John Wilson Lewis |date=1967 |publisher=Delta Books}} The use of captured equipment decreased, while more ammunition and supplies were required to maintain regular units. Group 559 was tasked with expanding the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in light of US bombardment. The war had shifted into the final, conventional phase of Hanoi's three-stage protracted warfare model. The VC was tasked with destroying the ARVN, and capturing and holding areas; however, it was not yet strong enough to assault towns and cities.

In December 1964, ARVN forces suffered losses at the Battle of Bình Giã,{{Cite book |last=Moyar |first=Mark |title=Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-86911-9 |page=[{{GBurl|id=phJrZ87RwuAC|p=339}} 339]}} in a battle both sides viewed as a watershed. Previously, the VC had utilized hit-and-run guerrilla tactics. At Binh Gia, they defeated a strong ARVN force in a conventional battle and remained in the field for four days.{{Cite book |last=McNeill |first=Ian |title=To Long Tan: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1950–1966 |date=1993 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-1-86373-282-6}}{{Rp|58}} Tellingly, South Vietnamese forces were again defeated in June 1965 at the Battle of Đồng Xoài.{{Rp|94}}

{{See also|Buddhist Uprising}}

File:Vietcongsuspect.jpg, moves a suspected Viet Cong during a search and clear operation held by the battalion {{Convert|15|mi|km|0}} west of Da Nang Air Base, 1965.]]

On 8 March 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines were landed near Da Nang, South Vietnam.{{Rp|246–247}} This marked the beginning of America's ground war. US public opinion overwhelmingly supported the deployment.{{Cite web |date=17 October 2002 |title=Generations Divide Over Military Action in Iraq |url=http://www.people-press.org/2002/10/17/generations-divide-over-military-action-in-iraq |publisher=Pew Research Center|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121005317/https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2002/10/17/generations-divide-over-military-action-in-iraq/|archive-date=21 November 2022}} The Marines' initial assignment was defense of Da Nang Air Base. The first deployment was increased to nearly 200,000 by December.{{Rp|349–351}} US military had been schooled in offensive warfare. Regardless of policy, US commanders were institutionally and psychologically unsuited to defensive missions.{{Rp|349–351}}

General William Westmoreland informed Admiral U. S. Grant Sharp Jr., commander of US Pacific forces, that the situation was critical,{{Rp|349–351}} "I am convinced that U.S. troops with their energy, mobility, and firepower can successfully take the fight to the NLF (Viet Cong)".United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 4, p. 7. With this recommendation, Westmoreland advocated an aggressive departure from America's defensive posture and sidelining of the South Vietnamese. By ignoring ARVN units, the US commitment became open-ended.{{Rp|353}} Westmoreland outlined a three-point plan to win:

• Phase 1. Commitment of US and allied forces necessary to halt the losing trend by the end of 1965.
• Phase 2. US and allied forces mount major offensive actions to seize the initiative to destroy guerrilla and organized enemy forces. This phase would end when the enemy had been worn down and driven back from major populated areas.
• Phase 3. If the enemy persisted, a period of 12–18 months following Phase 2 would be required for final destruction of forces remaining in remote base areas.United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 5, pp. 8–9.

The plan was approved by Johnson and marked a profound departure from the insistence that South Vietnam was responsible for defeating the VC. Westmoreland predicted victory by December 1967.United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, vol. 4, pp. 117–19. and vol. 5, pp. 8–12. Johnson did not communicate this change to the media, instead he emphasized continuity.Public Papers of the Presidents, 1965. Washington, DC Government Printing Office, 1966, vol. 2, pp. 794–99. The change in policy depended on matching the North Vietnamese and VC in a contest of attrition and morale. The opponents were locked in an escalation cycle.{{Rp|353–354}} However Johnson ruled out invasion of North Vietnam due to fears of Chinese or Soviet intervention.{{cite book|last=Lind|first=Michael|title=Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict|publisher=Free Press|year=1999|isbn=0-684-84254-8|page=83-89|quote="Until recently, the lack of detailed information about the Sino-Vietnamese relationship in the 1960s made it impossible for historians to judge whether the Johnson administration had been realistic in its fears of possible Chinese intervention or whether, as critics claimed, those fears had been exaggerated. In the 1990s, however, new archival evidence from China and Vietnam made it clear that the Johnson administration's fears were justified. The possibility that Mao would have sent combat troops to fight the United States in Vietnam had been quite real. It is now known that in late 1964 and early 1965, China clarified its commitment to North Vietnam. If the United States did not merely bomb North Vietnam but invaded it, China would send combat troops as it had during the Korean War."}} Westmoreland and McNamara touted the body count system for gauging victory, a metric that proved flawed.{{Cite news |last=Mohr |first=Charles |date=16 May 1984 |title=McNamara on Record, Reluctantly, on Vietnam |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/us/mcnamara-on-record-reluctantly-on-vietnam.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185613/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/16/us/mcnamara-on-record-reluctantly-on-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 4, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}

File:Vietnamese villagers suspected of being communists by the US Army - 1966.jpg

The American buildup transformed the South Vietnamese economy and profoundly effected society. South Vietnam was inundated with manufactured goods. Washington encouraged its SEATO allies to contribute troops; Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and the Philippines{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=556}} agreed. South Korea asked to join the Many Flags program in return for economic compensation. Major allies, however, notably Canada and the UK, declined troop requests.{{Cite book |last=Church |first=Peter |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |date=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-82481-8 |page=193}}

The US and allies mounted complex search and destroy operations. In November 1965, the US engaged in its first major battle with the PAVN, the Battle of Ia Drang.{{Cite web |last=Galloway |first=Joseph |date=18 October 2010 |title=Ia Drang – The Battle That Convinced Ho Chi Minh He Could Win |url=http://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win.htm |access-date=2 May 2016 |publisher=Historynet|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322083652/https://www.historynet.com/ia-drang-where-battlefield-losses-convinced-ho-giap-and-mcnamara-the-u-s-could-never-win/?f|archive-date=March 22, 2023}} The operation was the first large scale helicopter air assault by the US, and first to employ Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers.{{Rp|284–285}} These tactics continued in 1966–67, however, the PAVN/VC insurgents remained elusive and demonstrated tactical flexibility. By 1967, the war had generated large-scale internal refugees, 2 million in South Vietnam, with 125,000 people evacuated and rendered homeless during Operation Masher alone,{{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Geoffrey C. |title=The Vietnam War: An Intimate History |last2=Burns |first2=Ken |date=5 September 2017 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-5247-3310-0 |page=[{{GBurl|id=i4KyDQAAQBAJ|q=125}} 125] |language=en |quote=By the end of the year, more than 125,000 civilians in the province had lost their homes{{Nbsp}}...}} the largest search and destroy operation to that point. Operation Masher had negligible impact however, as the PAVN/VC returned to the province just four months afterwards.{{Cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Geoffrey C. |title=The Vietnam War: An Intimate History |last2=Burns |first2=Ken |date=2017 |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-70025-4}}{{Rp|153–156}} Despite major operations, which the VC and PAVN would evade, the war was characterized by smaller-unit engagements.{{Cite book |title=The Pentagon Papers (Gravel Edition), Volume 4 |at=Section 4, pp. 277–604 |chapter=Chapter 2, US Ground Strategy and Force Deployments, 1965–1968 |access-date=12 June 2018 |chapter-url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent9.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626210700/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon4/pent9.htm |archive-date=26 June 2019 |url-status=dead |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College}} The VC and PAVN would initiate 90% of large firefights, and thus the PAVN/VC would retain strategic initiative despite overwhelming US force and firepower deployment. The PAVN and Viet Cong had developed strategies capable of countering US doctrines and tactics: see NLF and PAVN battle tactics.

Meanwhile, South Vietnamese politics began to stabilize with the arrival of prime minister Air Marshal Nguyễn Cao Kỳ and figurehead chief of state, General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, in mid-1965. In 1967, Thieu became president with Ky as his deputy, after rigged elections. Though nominally a civilian government, Kỳ was supposed to maintain real power through a behind-the-scenes military body. However, Thiệu outmanoeuvred and sidelined Kỳ. Thiệu was accused of murdering Kỳ loyalists through contrived military accidents. Thiệu remained president until 1975, having won a one-candidate election in 1971.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=706}}

Johnson employed a "policy of minimum candor"{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=18}} with the media. Military information officers sought to manage coverage by emphasizing stories that portrayed progress. This damaged public trust in official pronouncements. As coverage of the war and the Pentagon diverged, a credibility gap developed.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=18}} Despite Johnson and Westmoreland proclaiming victory and Westmoreland stating the "end is coming into view",{{Cite news |title=TWE Remembers: General Westmoreland Says the "End Begins to Come Into View" in Vietnam |language=en |work=Council on Foreign Relations |url=https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-general-westmoreland-says-end-begins-come-view-vietnam |access-date=12 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605025020/https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-general-westmoreland-says-end-begins-come-view-vietnam|archive-date=June 5, 2023}} internal reports in the Pentagon Papers indicate VC forces retained strategic initiative and controlled their losses. VC attacks against static US positions accounted for 30% of engagements, VC/PAVN ambushes and encirclements for 23%, American ambushes against VC/PAVN forces for 9%, and American forces attacking VC emplacements only 5%.

{{Main|Tet Offensive|United States news media and the Vietnam War}}

File:T4 Vietcong Tet Offensive.jpg

File:ARVN in action HD-SN-99-02062.JPEG]]

In late 1967, the PAVN lured American forces into the hinterlands at Đắk Tô and at the Marine Khe Sanh combat base, where the US fought The Hill Fights. These were part of a diversionary strategy to draw US forces towards the Central Highlands.{{Cite web |date=12 June 2006 |title=Interview with NVA General Tran Van Tra {{!}} HistoryNet |url=http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-nva-general-tran-van-tra.htm |access-date=1 June 2018 |website=www.historynet.com |language=en-US|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152943/https://www.historynet.com/interview-with-nva-general-tran-van-tra/?f|archive-date=April 9, 2023}} Preparations were underway for the Tet Offensive, with the intention of Văn Tiến Dũng forces to launch "direct attacks on the American and puppet nerve centers—Saigon, Huế, Danang, all the cities, towns and main bases{{Nbsp}}..."{{Cite news |date=20 October 2014 |title=The Urban Movement and the Planning and Execution of the Tet Offensive |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-urban-movement-and-the-planning-and-execution-the-tet-offensive |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152950/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-urban-movement-and-the-planning-and-execution-the-tet-offensive|archive-date=April 9, 2023}} Le Duan sought to placate critics of the stalemate by a decisive victory.{{Cite book |last=Nguyen |first=Lien-Hang T. |title=Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam |date=2012 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-2835-6}}{{Rp|90–94}} He reasoned this could be achieved through sparking an uprising in the towns and cities,{{Rp|148}} along with defections among ARVN units, who were on leave during the truce period.{{Cite news |last=Wiest |first=Andrew |date=1 March 2018 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Tet Offensive Was Not About Americans |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/tet-offensive-americans-vietnam.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416233243/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/opinion/tet-offensive-americans-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 16, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}

The Tet Offensive began in January 1968, as over 100 cities were attacked by over 85,000 VC/PAVN troops, including assaults on military installations, headquarters, and government buildings, including the US Embassy in Saigon.{{Rp|363–365}} US and South Vietnamese forces were shocked by the scale, intensity and deliberative planning, as infiltration of personnel and weapons into the cities was accomplished covertly; the offensive constituted an intelligence failure on the scale of Pearl Harbor.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=556}} Most cities were recaptured within weeks, except the former imperial capital Huế, which PAVN/VC troops held on for 26 days.{{sfn|Bowden|2017|p=495}} They executed approximately 2,800 unarmed Huế civilians and foreigners they considered spies.{{Cite book |last=Hosmer |first=Stephen T. |title=Viet Cong Repression and its Implications for the Future |date=1970 |publisher=Rand Corporation |pages=72–8}}{{sfn|Bowden|2017|p=495}} In the Battle of Huế American forces employed massive firepower that left 80% of the city in ruins.{{Rp|308–309}} At Quảng Trị City, the ARVN Airborne Division, the 1st Division and a US 1st Cavalry Division regiment held out and overcame an assault intended to capture the city.{{Cite book |last=Villard |first=Erik B. |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/vietnam/tet_battles/tet.pdf |title=The 1968 Tet Offensive Battles of Quang Tri City and Hue |date=2008 |publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History |isbn=978-1-5142-8522-0|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605173341/https://history.army.mil/html/books/vietnam/tet_battles/tet.pdf|archive-date=June 5, 2023}}{{Rp|}}{{Cite book |last=Ankony |first=Robert C. |title=Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-7618-3281-2}}{{Rp|104}} In Saigon, VC/PAVN fighters had captured areas in and around the city, attacking key installations before US and ARVN forces dislodged them.{{Rp|479}} Peter Arnett reported an infantry commander saying of the Battle of Bến Tre that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."{{Cite book |last=Keyes |first=Ralph |url=https://archive.org/details/quoteverifierwho00keye |title=The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When |date=2006 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-34004-9}}{{Cite news |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |date=8 February 1968 |title=Survivors Hunt Dead of Bentre, Turned to Rubble in Allied Raids |work=The New York Times |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0D1FFA3F541B7B93CAA91789D85F4C8685F9|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409014500/https://www.nytimes.com/1968/02/08/archives/survivors-hunt-dead-of-bentre-turned-to-rubble-in-allied-raids.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}

File:Cholon after Tet Offensive operations 1968.jpg

During the first month of Tet, 1,100 American and allied troops, 2,100 ARVN and 14,000 civilians were killed.{{Cite journal |last=Triều |first=Họ Trung |date=5 June 2017 |title=Lực lượng chính trị và đấu tranh chính trị ở thị xã Nha Trang trong cuộc Tổng tiến công và nổi dậy Tết Mậu Thân 1968 |journal=Hue University Journal of Science: Social Sciences and Humanities |volume=126 |issue=6 |doi=10.26459/hujos-ssh.v126i6.3770 |doi-broken-date=2 June 2025 |issn=2588-1213}} After two months, 5,000 ARVN and 4,000 US forces had been killed and 46,000 wounded. The US claimed 17,000 PAVN/VC had been killed and 15,000 wounded.{{Rp|104}}{{Rp|82}} A month later the May Offensive was launched; it demonstrated the VC were still capable of orchestrating nationwide offensives.{{Rp|488–489}} Two months later the Phase III offensive was launched. PAVN losses across the offensives was 45,267 killed and 111,179 total casualties.{{Cite news |title=Tết Mậu Thân 1968 qua những số liệu |language=vi-VN |url=http://www.nhandan.com.vn/chinhtri/item/7976502-.html |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407184326/https://nhandan.vn/tet-mau-than-1968-qua-nhung-so-lieu-post484868.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}{{Cite journal |last=Eyraud |first=Henri |date=March 1987 |title=Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience. By Kolko Gabriel. [New York: Pantheon Books, 1985. 628 pp.] |journal=The China Quarterly |volume=109 |page=135 |doi=10.1017/s0305741000017653 }} It had become the bloodiest year up to then. The failure to spark a general uprising and lack of defections among the ARVN units meant Hanoi's goals had failed at enormous cost.{{Rp|148–149}}

Prior to Tet, in November 1967, Westmoreland had spearheaded a public relations drive for the Johnson administration to bolster flagging public support.{{Cite book |last=Witz |title=The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War |date=1994 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-8209-0 |pages=1–2}} In a speech to the National Press Club he said "the end comes into view."{{Cite book |last=Berman |first=Larry |title=Lyndon Johnson's War |date=1991 |publisher=W.W. Norton |page=116}} Thus, the public was shocked and confused by the Tet Offensive. Public approval of his performance dropped from 48% to 36%, and endorsement for the war fell from 40% to 26%."{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=546}} The public turned against Johnson as the offensives contradicted claims of progress.

During 1968, Westmoreland considered the use of nuclear weapons in a contingency plan codenamed Fracture Jaw, which was abandoned when it became known to the White House.{{Cite news |last=Sanger |first=David E. |date=6 October 2018 |title=U.S. General Considered Nuclear Response in Vietnam War, Cables Show |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/world/asia/vietnam-war-nuclear-weapons.html |access-date=8 October 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314213812/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/06/world/asia/vietnam-war-nuclear-weapons.html|archive-date=March 14, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} Westmoreland requested 200,000 additional troops, which was leaked to the media, and the fallout combined with intelligence failures caused him to be removed in March 1968, succeeded by his deputy Creighton Abrams.{{Cite book |last=Sorley |first=Lewis |title=A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam |date=1999 |publisher=Harvest |isbn=0-15-601309-6 |pages=11–6}}

On 10 May 1968, peace talks began between the US and North Vietnam in Paris. Negotiations stagnated for five months, until Johnson halted the bombing of North Vietnam. Hanoi realized it could not achieve a "total victory" and employed a strategy known as "talking while fighting, fighting while talking", in which offensives occurred concurrently with negotiations.{{Cite news |date=16 April 2012 |title=North Vietnam's "Talk-Fight" Strategy and the 1968 Peace Negotiations with the United States |language=en |work=Wilson Center |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/north-vietnams-talk-fight-strategy-and-the-1968-peace-negotiations-the-united-states |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174807/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/north-vietnams-talk-fight-strategy-and-the-1968-peace-negotiations-the-united-states|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}

Johnson declined to run for re-election as his approval rating slumped from 48% to 36%.{{Rp|486}} His escalation of the war divided Americans, cost 30,000 American lives by that point and was regarded to have destroyed his presidency.{{Rp|486}} Refusal to send more troops was seen as Johnson's admission the war was lost.Command Magazine Issue 18, p. 15. As McNamara said, "the dangerous illusion of victory by the United States was therefore dead."{{Rp|367}} Vietnam was a major issue during the United States presidential election in 1968. The election was won by Republican Richard Nixon who claimed to have a secret plan to end the war.{{Rp|515}}{{Cite book |last=Johns |first=Andrew |title=Vietnam's Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War |date=2010 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-7369-6 |pages=198 |language=en}}

Nixon began troop withdrawals in 1969. His plan to build up the ARVN so it could take over defense of South Vietnam became known as "Vietnamization". As the PAVN/VC recovered from their 1968 losses and avoided contact, Abrams conducted operations aimed at disrupting logistics, with better use of firepower and more cooperation with the ARVN.{{Rp|517}} In October 1969, Nixon had ordered B-52s with nuclear weapons to race to the border of Soviet airspace to convince the Soviets, in accordance with the madman theory, he was capable of anything to end the war.{{Cite journal |last1=Sagan |first1=Scott Douglas |last2=Suri |first2=Jeremi |date=16 June 2003 |title=The Madman Nuclear Alert: Secrecy, Signaling, and Safety in October 1969 |id={{Project MUSE|43692}} |journal=International Security |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=150–183 |doi=10.1162/016228803321951126 }}{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Michael |title=Nixon's Nuclear Ploy |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm |access-date=8 February 2018 |website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114836/https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/index2.htm|archive-date=April 7, 2023}} Nixon had sought détente with the Soviet Union and rapprochement with China, which decreased tensions and led to nuclear arms reductions. However, the Soviets continued to supply North Vietnam.{{Cite web |title=Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972 |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm |access-date=4 July 2021 |website=Foreign Relations, 1969-1976, Volume I |publisher=U.S. Department of State|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513100856/https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/nixon/i/21100.htm|archive-date=May 13, 2023}}{{Cite journal |last=Van Ness |first=Peter |date=December 1986 |title=Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and the American Accommodation with China: A Review Article |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=231–245 |jstor=25797906}}

File:Vietnampropaganda.png and North Vietnamese to the side of the Republic of Vietnam]]

On 2 September 1969, Ho Chi Minh died.{{Cite news |date=4 September 1969 |title=Ho Chi Minh Dies of Heart Attack in Hanoi |page=1 |work=The Times}} The failure of the Tet Offensive to spark an uprising in the south caused a shift in Hanoi's war strategy, and the Giáp-Chinh "Northern-First" faction regained control over military affairs from the Lê Duẩn-Hoàng Văn Thái "Southern-First" faction.{{Cite book |last=Currey |first=Cecil B. |title=Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap |date=2005 |publisher=Potomac Books, Inc. |isbn=978-1-57488-742-6 |page=[{{GBurl|id=jm-jh1_D0I4C|p=272}} 272]}}{{Rp|272–274}} An unconventional victory was sidelined in favor of conventional through conquest.{{Rp|196–205}} Large-scale offensives were rolled back in favor of small-unit and sapper attacks as well as targeting the pacification and Vietnamization strategy. Following Tet, the PAVN had transformed from a light-infantry, limited mobility force into high-mobility and mechanized combined arms.{{Rp|189}}

The anti-war movement was gaining strength in the US. Nixon appealed to the "silent majority" who he said supported the war. But revelations of the 1968 My Lai massacre,{{Rp|518–521}} in which a US Army unit raped and killed civilians, and the 1969 "Green Beret Affair", where Special Forces soldiers, were arrested for the murder{{Cite book |last=Stein |first=Jeff |url=https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei |title=A Murder in Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War |date=1992 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-312-07037-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/murderinwartimeu00stei/page/60 60–2] |url-access=registration}} of a suspected double agent,{{Cite web |last=Bob Seals |date=2007 |title=The "Green Beret Affair": A Brief Introduction |url=http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509150017/http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/20thCentury/articles/greenberets.aspx|archive-date=May 9, 2008}} provoked outrage.

In 1971, the Pentagon Papers were leaked to The New York Times. The secret history of US involvement, commissioned by the Department of Defense, detailed public deceptions by the government. The Supreme Court ruled publication legal.{{Cite journal |last=USA.gov |date=February 1997 |title=The Pentagon Papers Case |url=http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |url-status=dead |journal=eJournal USA |volume=2 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112095748/http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itdhr/0297/ijde/goodsb1.htm |archive-date=12 January 2008 |access-date=27 April 2010}}

{{Further|G.I. movement}}

Following Tet and decreasing public support, US forces began a period of morale collapse, and disobedience.{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=Richard |url=https://history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm |title=American Military History, Volume II, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917–2003 |date=2005 |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |isbn=978-0-16-072541-8 |access-date=22 June 2018 |archive-date=14 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214153119/http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/chapter11.htm |url-status=dead }}{{Rp|349–350}}{{Cite book |last=Daddis |first=Gregory A. |title=Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-069110-3 |page=[{{GBurl|id=a3QzDwAAQBAJ|pg=PT172}} 172]}}{{Rp|166–175}} At home, desertion rates quadrupled from 1966 levels.{{Cite journal |last=Heinl |first=Robert D. Jr. |date=7 June 1971 |title=The Collapse of the Armed Forces |url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf |journal=Armed Forces Journal |access-date=14 June 2018 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060044/https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/Vietnam/heinl.pdf |url-status=live }} Among the enlisted, only 2.5% chose infantry in 1969–70. ROTC enrollment decreased from 191,749 in 1966 to 72,459 by 1971,{{Cite book |last=Sevy |first=Grace |title=The American Experience in Vietnam: A Reader |date=1991 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2390-5 |page=[{{GBurl|id=dZg3emyCL6EC|p=172}} 172]}} and a low of 33,220 in 1974,{{Cite news |last=Richard Halloran |date=12 August 1984 |title=R.O.T.C. Booming as Memories of Vietnam Fade |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html |access-date=14 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415124225/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/12/us/rotc-booming-as-memories-of-vietnam-fade.html|archive-date=April 15, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} depriving the US of much-needed military leadership.

Refusal to engage in patrols or carry out orders emerged, with a case of an entire company refusing orders.{{Cite news |date=23 March 1971 |title=General Won't Punish G.I.'s for Refusing Orders |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html |access-date=13 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409031624/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/23/archives/general-wont-punish-gis-for-refusing-orders-53-defiant-gis-escape.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Unit cohesion began to dissipate and focused on minimizing contact with the PAVN/VC.{{Rp|}} A practice known as "sand-bagging" started, where units ordered to patrol would go into the country-side, find a site out of view from superiors and radio in false coordinates and reports.{{Rp|407–411}} Drug usage increased, 30% regularly used marijuana,{{Rp|407}} while a House subcommittee found 10% used heroin.{{Rp|526}} From 1969, search-and-destroy operations became referred to as "search and avoid", falsifying battle reports while avoiding guerrillas.{{cite journal |last1=Graham |first1=Robert J. |title=Vietnam: An Infantryman's View of Our Failure |journal=Military Affairs |date=1984 |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=133–139 |doi=10.2307/1987487 |jstor=1987487 }} 900 fragging (killing a fellow office, usually superior) and suspected fragging incidents were investigated, most occurring between 1969-71.{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1963–1973 |date=2007 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-41734-3}}{{Rp|331}}{{Rp|407}} In 1969, field-performance was characterized by low morale and poor leadership.{{Rp|331}} The decline in morale was demonstrated by the Battle of FSB Mary Ann in 1971, in which a sapper attack inflicted serious losses on US defenders.{{Rp|357}} Westmoreland, no longer in command but tasked with investigation of the failure, cited dereliction of duty, lax defensive postures and lack of officers in charge.{{Rp|357}}

On the collapse of morale, Shelby Stanton wrote:

{{Blockquote|In the last years of the Army's retreat, its remaining forces were relegated to static security. The American Army's decline was readily apparent...Racial incidents, drug abuse, combat disobedience, and crime reflected growing idleness, resentment... the fatal handicaps of faulty campaign strategy, incomplete wartime preparation, and the tardy, superficial attempts at Vietnamization. An entire American army was sacrificed on the battlefield of Vietnam.{{Rp|366–368}}}}

File:ARVN and US Special Forces.jpg

Beginning in 1969, American troops were withdrawn from border areas where most of the fighting took place and redeployed along the coast and interior. US casualties in 1970 were less than half of 1969, after being relegated to less active combat.{{Cite web |title=Vietnamization: 1970 Year in Review |url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2/#title |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831125343/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2 |archive-date=31 August 2011 |website=UPI.com}} While US forces were redeployed, the ARVN took over combat operations, with casualties double US ones in 1969, and triple in 1970.{{Cite book |last=Wiest |first=Andrew |title=Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN |date=2007 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-9451-7 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=r3dez4JhXUQC|p=124}} 124]–140}} Post-Tet, membership in the South Vietnamese Regional Forces and Popular Force militias grew, and they could now provide village security, which the Americans had not accomplished.

In 1970, Nixon announced the withdrawal of an additional 150,000 American troops, reducing US numbers to 265,500. By 1970, VC forces were no longer southern-majority, nearly 70% were northerners.{{Cite book |last=Porter |first=Gareth |title=Vietnam: The Politics of Bureaucratic Socialism |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-8014-2168-6 |page=26|publisher=Cornell University Press }} Between 1969-71 the VC and some PAVN units had reverted to small unit tactics, instead of nationwide offensives.{{Rp|}} In 1971, Australia and New Zealand withdrew their soldiers and US troops were reduced to 196,700, with a deadline to remove another 45,000 troops by February 1972. The US reduced support troops, and in March 1971 the 5th Special Forces Group, the first American unit deployed, withdrew.{{Cite book |last=Stanton |first=Shelby L. |title=Vietnam order of battle |date=2003 |publisher=Stackpole Books |isbn=978-0-8117-0071-9}}{{Rp|240}}{{Refn|On 8 March 1965 the first American combat troops, the Third Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division, began landing in Vietnam to protect the Da Nang Air Base.{{Sfn|Willbanks|2009|p=110}}{{Cite web |date=2010 |title=Facts about the Vietnam Veterans memorial collection |url=http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528032742/http://www.nps.gov/mrc/reader/vvmcr.htm |archive-date=28 May 2010 |access-date=26 April 2010 |publisher=National Park Service}}|group="A"}}

{{Main|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|5=Cambodian Civil War}}

File:Vietconginterrogation.jpg

Prince Norodom Sihanouk had proclaimed Cambodia neutral since 1955,{{cite journal |last1=Sihanouk |first1=Norodom |title=Cambodia Neutral: The Dictate of Necessity |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=1958 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=582–586 |id={{ProQuest|198176909}} |doi=10.2307/20029312 |jstor=20029312 }} but permitted the PAVN/VC to use the port of Sihanoukville and Sihanouk Trail. In March 1969 Nixon launched a secret bombing campaign, called Operation Menu, against communist sanctuaries along the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Only five congressional officials were informed.{{Refn|group="A"|They were: Senators John C. Stennis (MS) and Richard B. Russell Jr. (GA) and Representatives Lucius Mendel Rivers (SC), Gerald R. Ford (MI) and Leslie C. Arends (IL). Arends and Ford were leaders of the Republican minority and the other three were Democrats on either the Armed Services or Appropriations committees.}}

In March 1970, Sihanouk was deposed by his pro-American prime minister Lon Nol, who demanded North Vietnamese troops leave Cambodia or face military action.{{Cite book |last=Sutsakhan |first=S. |url=https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |title=The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse |date=1987 |publisher=United States Army Center of Military History |page=42 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060055/https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |url-status=dead}} Nol began rounding up Vietnamese civilians in Cambodia and massacring them, provoking reactions from the North and South Vietnamese governments.{{Cite book |last1=Lipsman |first1=Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 |title=The Vietnam Experience Fighting for time |last2=Doyle |first2=Edward |date=1983 |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-939526-07-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fightingfortime00lips/page/145 145]}} In April–May 1970, North Vietnam invaded Cambodia at the request of the Khmer Rouge, following negotiations with deputy leader Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: "Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days."{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203790847 |title=Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda |date=2017 |isbn=978-0-203-79084-7 |editor-first1=Susan E. |editor-last1=Cook |page=54 }} US and ARVN forces launched the Cambodian campaign in May to attack PAVN/VC bases. A counter-offensive in 1971, as part of Operation Chenla II by the PAVN, recaptured most border areas and decimated Nol's forces.

The US incursion into Cambodia sparked U.S. protests as Nixon had promised to deescalate involvement. Students were killed by National Guardsmen in May 1970 at a Kent State University protest, which provoked further outrage. The administration's reaction was seen as callous, reinvigorating the anti-war movement.{{Rp|128–129}} The US continued to bomb Cambodia as part of Operation Freedom Deal.

{{Main|3=Operation Commando Hunt|4=Laotian Civil War|6=Operation Lam Son 719}}

Building on the success of ARVN units in Cambodia, and further testing the Vietnamization program, the ARVN was tasked with Operation Lam Son 719 in February 1971, the first major ground operation to attack the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This was the first time the PAVN would field-test its combined arms force.{{Rp|}} The first few days were a success, but momentum slowed after fierce resistance. Thiệu had halted the general advance, leaving PAVN armored divisions able to surround them.{{Sfn|Willbanks|2014|p=89}}

Thieu ordered air assault troops to capture the Tchepone crossroad and withdraw, despite facing four-times larger numbers. During the withdrawal, the PAVN counterattack had forced a panicked rout. Half of the ARVN troops were either captured or killed, half the ARVN/US support helicopters were downed and the operation was a fiasco, demonstrating operational deficiencies within the ARVN.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|pp=644–645}} Nixon and Thieu had sought a showcase victory simply by capturing Tchepone, and it was spun off as an "operational success".{{Sfn|Willbanks|2014|p=118}}{{Rp|576–582}}

File:USS Newport News (CA-148) firing on North Vietnamese positions on Cồn Cỏ Island on 27 June 1972 (USN 1151898).jpg, a feint attack, 27 June 1972]]

File:СВС у обломков сбитого Б-52 в окрестностях Ханоя 23.12.1972 (1).jpg

Vietnamization was again tested by the Easter Offensive of 1972, a conventional PAVN invasion of South Vietnam. The PAVN overran the northern provinces and attacked from Cambodia, threatening to cut the country in half. US troop withdrawals continued, but American airpower responded, beginning Operation Linebacker, and the offensive was halted.{{Rp|606–637}} In particular, with strong US firepower support, the ARVN successfully recaptured Quang Tri and held An Loc and Kontum.{{cite web|url=https://www.historynet.com/how-south-vietnamese-fighters-beat-back-a-communist-offensive-in-the-vietnam-wars-longest-battle/|title=How South Vietnam won the Vietnam War's longest battle|publisher=Vietnam Magazine|author=John D. Howard|date=8 April 2022|accessdate=24 October 2022}}{{cite book|last=Sheehan|first=Neil|title=A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam|publisher=Random House|year=1988|isbn=9780679724148|page=754}}{{cite book|last=Thi|first=Lam Quang|title=Hell in An Loc: The 1972 Easter Invasion and the Battle that Saved South Vietnam|publisher=University of North Texas Press|year=2009|isbn=9781574412765}} The US Navy initiated Operation Pocket Money in May, an aerial mining campaign in Haiphong Harbor that prevented North Vietnam's allies from resupplying it with weapons.{{Cite web |last=magazine |first=Marcelo Ribeiro da Silva, Vietnam |date=2020-01-14 |title=Inside America's daring plan to mine Haiphong Harbor |url=https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/01/14/inside-americas-daring-plan-to-mine-haiphong-harbor/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Navy Times |language=en}}

The war was central to the 1972 U.S. presidential election as Nixon's opponent, George McGovern, campaigned on immediate withdrawal. Nixon's Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, had continued secret negotiations with North Vietnam's Lê Đức Thọ and in October 1972 reached an agreement. Thiệu demanded changes to the peace accord upon its discovery, and when North Vietnam went public with the details, the Nixon administration claimed they were attempting to embarrass the president. The negotiations became deadlocked when Hanoi demanded changes. To show his support for South Vietnam and force Hanoi back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II, a bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in December.{{Rp|649–663}} Nixon pressured Thiệu to accept the agreement or face military action.{{Cite book |last=Beschloss |first=Michael |title=Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from 1807 to Modern Times |date=2018 |publisher=Crown |isbn=978-0-307-40960-7 |location=New York |page=579}}

On 15 January 1973, all US combat activities were suspended. Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger, along with the PRG Foreign Minister Nguyễn Thị Bình and a reluctant Thiệu, signed the Paris Peace Accords on 27 January.{{Rp|508–513}} This ended direct U.S. involvement in the war, created a ceasefire between North Vietnam/PRG and South Vietnam, guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam under the Geneva Conference, called for elections or a political settlement between the PRG and South Vietnam, allowed 200,000 communist troops to remain in the south, and agreed to a POW exchange. There was a 60-day period for the withdrawal of US forces. "This article proved{{Nbsp}}... to be the only one...which was fully carried out."{{Cite book |last=Church |first=Peter |title=A Short History of South-East Asia |date=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-82181-7 |pages=193–194}} All US forces personnel were withdrawn by March.{{Rp|260}}

File:Hanoi-taxi-march1973.jpg

In the lead-up to the ceasefire on 28 January, both sides attempted to maximize land and population under their control in a campaign known as the War of the flags. Fighting continued after the ceasefire, without US participation, and throughout the year.{{Rp|508–513}} North Vietnam was allowed to continue supplying troops in the South, but only to replace expended material. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Kissinger and Thọ, but Thọ declined saying peace did not yet exist.

On 15 March 1973, Nixon implied the US would intervene militarily if the North launched a full offensive, and Defense Secretary Schlesinger re-affirmed this during his confirmation hearings. Public and congressional reaction was unfavorable, prompting the Senate to pass the Case–Church Amendment to prohibit intervention.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|pp=670–672}}

Northern leaders expected the ceasefire terms would favor their side, but Saigon, bolstered by a surge of US aid just before the ceasefire, began to roll them back. The North responded with a new strategy developed in March 1973, according to Trần Văn Trà.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|pp=672–674}} With US bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other logistical structures could proceed. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–76 dry season. Trà calculated this would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike, before Saigon's army could be fully trained.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|pp=672–674}} The PAVN resumed offensive operations when the dry season began in 1973, and by January 1974 had recaptured territory lost during the previous dry season.

File:Victory Central Highlands.jpg campaign, depicting a Montagnard of the Central Highlands, a NVA soldier and a T-54 tank]]

In South Vietnam, the US departure, and recession after the 1973 oil crisis, hurt an economy dependent on US support and troop presence. After clashes that left 55 ARVN soldiers dead, Thiệu announced in January 1974, that the war had restarted and the Peace Accords were no longer in effect. There were over 25,000 South Vietnamese casualties during the ceasefire period.{{Cite web|title=This Day in History 1974: Thieu announces war has resumed|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thieu-announces-war-has-resumed|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120114757/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thieu-announces-war-has-resumed |archive-date=20 January 2013|access-date=17 October 2009|publisher=History.com}}{{Rp|683}} Gerald Ford took over as US president in August 1974, and Congress cut financial aid to South Vietnam from $1 billion a year to $700 million. Congress voted funding restrictions to be phased in through 1975 and total cutoff in 1976.{{Rp|686}}

The success of the 1973–74 dry season offensive inspired Trà to return to Hanoi in October 1974 and plead for a larger offensive the next dry season. This time, Trà could travel on a drivable highway with fueling stops, a vast change from when the Ho Chi Minh Trail was a dangerous mountain trek.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=676}} Giáp, the North Vietnamese defense minister, was reluctant to approve Trà's plan since a large offensive might provoke US reaction and interfere with the big push planned for 1976. Trà appealed to Giáp's superior, Lê Duẩn, who approved it. Trà's plan called for a limited offensive from Cambodia into Phước Long province. The strike was designed to solve logistical problems, gauge the reaction of South Vietnamese forces, and determine whether the US would return.{{Rp|685–690}} On 13 December 1974, PAVN forces attacked Phước Long. Phuoc Binh fell on 6 January 1975. Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun.{{Cite news |title=Ford asks for additional aid |work=history.com |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-asks-for-additional-aid |url-status=dead |access-date=11 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811232207/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ford-asks-for-additional-aid |archive-date=11 August 2018}} Congress refused. The fall of Phuoc Binh and lack of American response left the South Vietnamese elite demoralized.

The speed of this success led the Politburo to reassess. It decided operations in the Central Highlands would be turned over to General Văn Tiến Dũng and Pleiku should be seized, if possible. Dũng said to Lê Duẩn: "Never have we had military and political conditions so perfect or a strategic advantage as great as we have now."{{Cite book |last1=Dougan |first1=Clark |title=The Vietnam Experience The Fall of the South |last2=Fulgham |first2=David |publisher=Boston Publishing Company |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-939526-16-1 |page=22}} At the start of 1975, the South Vietnamese had three times as much artillery and twice as many tanks and armored vehicles as the PAVN. However, heightened oil prices meant many assets could not be used. Moreover, the rushed nature of Vietnamization, intended to cover US retreat, resulted in lack of spare parts, ground-crew, and maintenance personnel, which rendered most of it inoperable.{{Rp|362–366}}

{{See also|1975 spring offensive|Battle of Ban Me Thuot|Hue–Da Nang Campaign}}

File:PAVN Captures Hue, Vietnam.jpg

On 10 March 1975, Dũng launched Campaign 275, a limited offensive into the Central Highlands, supported by tanks and heavy artillery. The target was Ban Ma Thuột; if the town could be taken, the provincial capital Pleiku and the road to the coast, would be exposed for a campaign in 1976. The ARVN proved incapable of resisting, its forces collapsed. Again, Hanoi was surprised by the speed of its success. Dung urged the Politburo to allow him to seize Pleiku immediately and turn his attention to Kon Tum. He argued that with two months of good weather until the monsoon, it would be irresponsible not to take advantage.{{Rp|}}

Thiệu ordered the abandonment of the Central Highlands and less defensible positions in a rushed policy described as "light at the top, heavy at the bottom". While most ARVN forces attempted to flee, isolated units fought desperately. ARVN general Phu abandoned Pleiku and Kon Tum and retreated toward the coast, in the "convoy of tears".{{Rp|693–694}} On 20 March, Thiệu reversed himself and ordered Huế, Vietnam's third-largest city, held at all costs, and then changed policy several times. As the PAVN attacked, panic set in, and ARVN resistance withered. On 22 March, the PAVN attacked Huế. Civilians flooded the airport and docks hoping to escape. As resistance in Huế collapsed, PAVN rockets rained down on Da Nang and its airport. By 28 March 35,000 PAVN troops were poised to attack the suburbs. By 30 March 100,000 leaderless ARVN troops surrendered as the PAVN marched through Da Nang. With the fall of the city, the defense of the Central Highlands and Northern provinces ended.{{Rp|699–700}}

{{Further|topic=the final North Vietnamese offensive|Ho Chi Minh Campaign}}

{{See also|Battle of Xuân Lộc}}

File:18thARVNsoldiersatxuanloc by Dirck Halstead.jpg, April 1975]]

With the north half of the country under their control, the Politburo ordered Dũng to launch the final offensive. The operational plan for the Ho Chi Minh Campaign called for Saigon's capture before 1 May. Hanoi wished to avoid the monsoon and prevent redeployment of ARVN forces defending the capital. PAVN forces, their morale boosted by recent victories, rolled on, taking Nha Trang, Cam Ranh and Da Lat.{{Rp|702–704}}

On 7 April, three PAVN divisions attacked Xuân Lộc, {{Convert|40|mi}} northeast of Saigon. Fighting raged as the ARVN defenders made a last stand to block PAVN advance. On 21 April however, the exhausted garrison was ordered to withdraw towards Saigon.{{Rp|704–707}} An embittered and tearful Thiệu resigned, declaring that the US had betrayed South Vietnam. He suggested Kissinger had tricked him into signing the Paris Accords, promising military aid that failed to materialize. Having transferred power to Trần Văn Hương on 21 April, he left for Taiwan.{{Rp|714}} After having appealed unsuccessfully to Congress for $722 million in emergency aid for South Vietnam, Ford gave a televised speech on 23 April, declaring an end to the War and US aid.{{Cite web |last=Finney |first=John W. |date=12 April 1975 |title=Congress Resists U.S. Aid In Evacuating Vietnamese |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/12/archives/congress-resists-us-aid-in-evacuating-vietnamese-congress-resists.html |access-date=4 July 2021 |website=The New York Times|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409033130/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/12/archives/congress-resists-us-aid-in-evacuating-vietnamese-congress-resists.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |title=Transcript of speech by President Gerald R. Ford - April 23, 1975 |url=https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A75293 |access-date=4 July 2021 |publisher=Tulane University|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409183152/https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane:75293|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}

By the end of April, the ARVN had collapsed except in the Mekong Delta. Refugees streamed southward, ahead of the PAVN onslaught. By 27 April, 100,000 PAVN troops encircled Saigon. The city was defended by about 30,000 ARVN troops. To hasten a collapse and foment panic, the PAVN shelled Tan Son Nhut Airport and forced its closure. Large numbers of civilians had no way out.{{Rp|716}}

{{Main|Fall of Saigon|Operation Frequent Wind}}

File:NVA pose for picture in Presidential Palace at end of Vietnam war.jpg

Chaos and panic broke out as South Vietnamese officials and civilians scrambled to leave. Martial law was declared. American helicopters began evacuating South Vietnamese, US and foreign nationals from Tan Son Nhut and the embassy compound. Operation Frequent Wind had been delayed until the last possible moment, because of Ambassador Graham Martin's belief Saigon could be held and a political settlement reached. Frequent Wind was the largest helicopter evacuation in history. It began on 29 April, in an atmosphere of desperation, as hysterical crowds of Vietnamese vied for limited space. Frequent Wind continued round the clock, as PAVN tanks breached defenses near Saigon. In the morning of 30 April, the last US Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped the perimeter and poured into the grounds.{{Rp|718–720}}

PAVN troops entered Saigon and overcame all resistance, capturing key buildings and installations.{{Cite report |url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/paris.htm |title=The Paris Agreement on Vietnam: Twenty-five Years Later |date=April 1998 |publisher=The Nixon Center |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=5 September 2012 |type=Conference Transcript |via=International Relations Department, Mount Holyoke College |archive-date=1 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901153020/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/paris.htm |url-status=dead }} At 10:24, President Dương Văn Minh, who had succeeded Huong two days earlier, announced an unconditional surrender. He ordered all ARVN troops "to cease hostilities in calm and to stay where they are", while inviting the Provisional Revolutionary Government to engage in "a ceremony of orderly transfer of power so as to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed in the population".{{cite web |last=Oliver |first=Myrna |title=Duong Van Minh; Last President of S. Vietnam |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-aug-08-me-31712-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=8 August 2001 |access-date=11 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004163738/http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/08/local/me-31712 |archive-date=4 October 2012 |url-status=live}} Tanks from the 2nd Corps crashed through the gates of the Independence Palace and the VC flag was raised above it.{{Citation |last=Thai Binh Department of Information and Communications |title=Soldier from Thai Binh who put flag on the roof of Independence Palace |date=30 July 2020 |url=https://thaibinh.gov.vn/english130nam/dat-va-nguoi-thai-binh/soldier-from-thai-binh-who-put-flag-on-the-roof-of-independe.html |work=Thai Binh Provincial Portal |publication-place=Thai Binh |access-date=15 January 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409174812/https://thaibinh.gov.vn/english130nam/dat-va-nguoi-thai-binh/soldier-from-thai-binh-who-put-flag-on-the-roof-of-independe.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}} Minh surrendered to Lieutenant colonel Bùi Văn Tùng, political commissar of the 203rd Tank Brigade.{{Cite web |date=28 April 2020 |title=Reunion of the Veterans organization of Tank Amour force in the South Vietnam |url=https://independencepalace.gov.vn/news/a-reunion-of-the-veterans-organization-of-tank-amour-force-in-the-south-vietnam-was-held-at-independence-palace-historical-site/ |access-date=14 January 2022 |website=Dinh Độc Lập official website|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404035108/https://independencepalace.gov.vn/news/a-reunion-of-the-veterans-organization-of-tank-amour-force-in-the-south-vietnam-was-held-at-independence-palace-historical-site/|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}{{Citation |last=Leong, Ernest |title=Vietnam Tries to Create New Image 30 Years After End of War |date=31 October 2009 |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2005-04-27-voa67/397223.html |work=Voice of America |access-date=14 January 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404085333/https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2005-04-27-voa67/397223.html|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}{{Cite book |last=Terzani |first=Tiziano |title=Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon |publisher=Angus & Robertson (U.K.) Ltd |year=1976 |isbn=0207957126 |pages=92–96}}{{Rp|95–96}} He was escorted to Radio Saigon to announce the surrender again.{{Cite book |last=Bui |first=Tin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NUl_nVpW-gC |title=Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel |date=1999 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824822330 |pages=84–86 |access-date=25 July 2023 |archive-date=30 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430010702/https://books.google.com/books?id=2NUl_nVpW-gC |url-status=live }}{{Rp|85}} The statement was on air at 2:30 pm.

{{Main|Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|Protests of 1968}}

{{See also|Russell Tribunal|Fulbright hearings|Chicago Seven}}

File:vietnamdem.jpg, an anti-war demonstration organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]]

During the war a large segment of Americans became opposed to US involvement. In January 1967, 32% of Americans thought the US had made a mistake in sending troops.{{Cite news |date=28 January 2018 |title=CBS News Poll: U.S. involvement in Vietnam |work=CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-u-s-involvement-in-vietnam/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201070627/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-u-s-involvement-in-vietnam/|archive-date=February 1, 2023}} Opinion steadily turned following 1967 and by 1970 60% believed the US had made a mistake.Lunch, W. & Sperlich, P. (1979). The Western Political Quarterly. 32(1). pp. 21–44{{Cite book |last=Hagopain |first=Patrick |title=The Vietnam War in American Memory |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55849-693-4 |pages=13–4}}

Early opposition drew its inspiration from the Geneva Conference. American support of Diệm in refusing elections was seen as thwarting the democracy America claimed to support. Kennedy, while senator, opposed involvement. Many young people protested because they were being drafted, others because the anti-war movement grew popular among the counterculture. Some within the peace movement advocated unilateral withdrawal. Opposition to the war tended to unite groups opposed to US anti-communism and imperialism,{{Cite book |last=Zimmer |first=Louis B. |title=The Vietnam War Debate |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7391-3769-7 |pages=54–5}} and for those involved with the New Left. Others, such as Stephen Spiro, opposed the war based on the theory of Just War. Some wanted to show solidarity with the Vietnamese, such as Norman Morrison emulating Thích Quảng Đức.

High-profile opposition increasingly turned to mass protests to shift opinion. Riots broke out at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.{{Rp|514}} After reports of American military abuses brought attention and support to the anti-war movement, some veterans joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In October 1969, the Vietnam Moratorium attracted millions.{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/15/newsid_2533000/2533131.stm|title=BBC ON THIS DAY | 15 | 1969: Millions march in US Vietnam Moratorium|date=30 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330072002/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/15/newsid_2533000/2533131.stm |archive-date=30 March 2023 }} The fatal shooting of students at Kent State University in 1970 led to nationwide university protests.{{Cite book |last=Bob Fink |url=http://www.greenwych.ca/vietnam.htm |title=Vietnam – A View from the Walls: a History of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement |publisher=Greenwich Publishing |access-date=18 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130111005135/http://www.greenwych.ca/vietnam.htm |archive-date=11 January 2013 |url-status=dead}} Anti-war protests declined after the Paris Peace Accords and the end of the draft in 1973, and the withdrawal of troops.

{{main|International participation in the Vietnam War}}

{{See also|China in the Vietnam War}}

China provided significant support for North Vietnam when the US started to intervene, including finance and hundreds of thousands of military support personnel. China said its military and economic aid to North Vietnam totaled $160 billion (adjusted for 2022 prices);{{Rp|}} included were 5 million tons of food (equivalent to a year's production), accounting for 10–15% of the North's food supply by the 1970s.{{Rp|}}

In summer 1962, Mao Zedong agreed to supply Hanoi with 90,000 rifles and guns free of charge, and starting in 1965, China began sending anti-aircraft units and engineering battalions, to repair damage caused by American bombing. They helped man anti-aircraft batteries, rebuild roads and railroads, transport supplies, and perform other engineering works. This freed PAVN units for combat. China sent 320,000 troops and annual arms shipments worth $180 million.{{Cite book |last=Qiang |first=Zhai |title=China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8078-4842-5}}{{Rp|135}} China claims to have caused 38% of American air losses.{{Rp|}} China began financing the Khmer Rouge as a counterweight to North Vietnam. China "armed and trained" the Khmer Rouge during the civil war, and continued to aid them afterward.{{Cite news |last=Bezlova, Antoaneta |date=21 February 2009 |title=China haunted by Khmer Rouge links |work=Asia Times |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223174332/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KB21Ad01.html |archive-date=23 February 2009}}

{{Hatnote|For further reading, see Bibliography of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union}}

File:Учителя и ученики. Фото, сделанное весной 1965 г. в зенитно-ракетном учебном центре во Вьетнаме.jpg instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an air defense training center in Vietnam]]

The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam with medical supplies, arms, tanks, planes, helicopters, artillery, anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment. Soviet crews fired Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles at US aircraft in 1965.{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Russians Acknowledge a Combat Role in Vietnam|date=14 April 1989|page=13|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/world/russians-acknowledge-a-combat-role-in-vietnam.html#:~:text=Soviet%20soldiers%20sent%20to%20the,Soviet%20Army%20newspaper%20reported%20today|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114837/https://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/14/world/russians-acknowledge-a-combat-role-in-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia acknowledged that the USSR had stationed up to 3,000 troops in Vietnam.{{Cite news |title=Soviet Involvement in the Vietnam War |publisher=historicaltextarchive.com |agency=Associated Press |url=http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222024941/http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=180|archive-date=February 22, 2012}} 16 Soviet military personnel were killed in action during the war.{{cite book |last1=Dunnigan |first1=James F. |last2=Nofi |first2=Albert A. |title=Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War |date=1999 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=0312198574 |page=284 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780613656528/page/284/mode/2up?q=16 |access-date=7 April 2025}}

Between 1953-91, the hardware donated by the Soviet Union included: 2,000 tanks; 1,700 APCs; 7,000 artillery guns; over 5,000 anti-aircraft guns; 158 surface-to-air missile launchers; and 120 helicopters. The Soviets sent North Vietnam annual arms shipments worth $450 million.{{Cite book |last1=Sarin |first1=Oleg |url=https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari |title=Alien Wars: The Soviet Union's Aggressions Against the World, 1919 to 1989 |last2=Dvoretsky |first2=Lev |publisher=Presidio Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89141-421-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/alienwarssovietu00sari/page/93 93–4] |url-access=registration}}{{Rp|364–371}} From 1965 to 1974, fighting in Vietnam was observed by 11,000 military personnel of the Soviet Armed Forces.{{Cite web |title=Soviet rocketeer: After our arrival in Vietnam, American pilots refused to fly |url=http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117082418/http://rus.ruvr.ru/2010/01/29/3985810.html |archive-date=17 January 2013 |access-date=26 May 2010 |publisher=rus.ruvr |language=ru}} The KGB helped develop the signals intelligence capabilities of the North Vietnamese.{{Cite web |last=Pribbenow |first=Merle |date=December 2014 |title=The Soviet-Vietnamese Intelligence Relationship during the Vietnam War: Cooperation and Conflict |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412060039/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/CWIHP_Working_Paper_73_Soviet-Vietnamese_Intelligence_Relationship_Vietnam_War_0.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |access-date=1 June 2018}}

{{See also|Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|Many Flags}}

File:Free World Military Forces headquarters in 1971.jpg headquarters in Saigon, 1971]]

As South Vietnam was formally part of a military alliance with the US, Australia, New Zealand, France, the UK, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, the alliance was invoked during the war. The UK, France and Pakistan declined to participate, and South Korea, Taiwan, and Spain were non-treaty participants.

{{Main|United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races|FULRO insurgency}}

The ethnic minorities of South Vietnam, like the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, the Hindu and Muslim Cham, and the Buddhist Khmer Krom, were actively recruited in the war. There was a strategy of recruitment and favorable treatment of Montagnard tribes by the VC, as they were pivotal for control of infiltration routes.{{Cite book |last1=Kaminsky |first1=Arnold P. |title=Nationalism and Imperialism in South and Southeast Asia: Essays Presented to Damodar R.SarDesai |last2=Long |first2=Roger D. |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-351-99742-3}} Some groups split off and formed the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO) to fight for autonomy or independence. FULRO fought against the South Vietnamese and VC, later fighting against the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam, after the fall of South Vietnam.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

South Vietnam president Diem began a program to settle ethnic Vietnamese Kinh on Montagnard lands in the Central Highlands region. This provoked a backlash from the Montagnards, with some joining the VC. The Cambodians under pro-China Sihanouk and pro-American Lon Nol, supported their fellow Khmer Krom in South Vietnam, following an anti-ethnic Vietnamese policy. Following Vietnamization, many Montagnard groups and fighters were incorporated into the Vietnamese Rangers as border sentries.{{Citation needed|date=May 2025}}

{{Main|List of war crimes#1955–1975: Vietnam War|List of massacres in Vietnam}}

War crimes took place, by both sides, including: rape, massacres of civilians, bombings of civilian targets, terrorism, torture, and murder of prisoners of war. Common crimes included theft, arson, and the destruction of property not warranted by military necessity.{{Cite book |last=Solis |first=Gary D. |title=The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law in War |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-139-48711-5 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=6FKf0ocxEPAC|p=301}} 301]–303}}

{{See also|United States war crimes#Vietnam War|Winter Soldier Investigation|Vietnam War Crimes Working Group|Tiger Force}}

File:My Lai massacre.jpg]]

In 1966, the Russell Tribunal was organized by public figures opposed to the war led by Bertrand Russell, to apply the precepts of international law. The tribunal found the US and allies guilty of acts of aggression, use of weapons forbidden by the laws of war, bombardment of targets of a purely civilian character, mistreatment of prisoners, and genocide. Though the tribunal's lack of juridical authority meant findings were ignored by the US and other governments, the hearings contributed to growing evidence which established the factual basis for a counter-narrative to US justifications for the war and inspired hearings, tribunals and legal investigations.{{Cite journal|last=Tulli|first=Umberto|date=2021-06-01|title=Wielding the human rights weapon against the American empire: the second Russell Tribunal and human rights in transatlantic relations|journal=Journal of Transatlantic Studies|language=en|volume=19|issue=2|pages=215–237|doi=10.1057/s42738-021-00071-4 |doi-access=free|hdl=11572/312131|hdl-access=free}}

In 1968, the Vietnam War Crimes Working Group (VWCWG) was established by the Pentagon task force set up in the wake of the My Lai massacre, to ascertain the veracity of claims of US war crimes. Of the crimes reported to military authorities, sworn statements by witnesses and status reports indicated 320 incidents had a factual basis.{{Cite web |last1=Nick Turse |last2=Deborah Nelson |date=6 August 2006 |title=Civilian Killings Went Unpunished |url=https://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,7018171,full.story |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215021044/http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,7018171,full.story |archive-date=15 December 2012 |access-date=14 September 2013 |website=latimes.com}} The substantiated cases included seven massacres between 1967-71 in which at least 137 civilians were killed; 78 further attacks targeting non-combatants resulting in at 57 deaths and 15 sexually assaulted; and 141 cases of US soldiers torturing civilian detainees, or prisoners of war, with fists, sticks, bats, water or electric shock. Journalists have documented uninvestigated war crimes, involving every active army division, including atrocities committed by Tiger Force.{{Cite book |last=Sallah |first=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/tigerforcetruest00sall |title=Tiger Force: a true story of men and war |publisher=Little, Brown |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-316-15997-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/tigerforcetruest00sall/page/306 306] |url-access=registration}} R. J. Rummel estimated that American forces committed around 5,500 democidal killings between 1960-72.{{Rp|}}

US forces established free-fire zones to prevent VC fighters from sheltering in South Vietnamese villages.{{Cite news |title=Free Fire Zone – The Vietnam War |language=en-US |work=The Vietnam War |url=https://thevietnamwar.info/free-fire-zone/ |access-date=20 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205052554/https://thevietnamwar.info/free-fire-zone/|archive-date=February 5, 2023}} Such practice, which involved the assumption that anyone appearing in the designated zones was an enemy that could be freely targeted, was regarded as "a severe violation of the laws of war".{{Cite web |last=Lewis M. Simons |title=Free Fire Zones |url=http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/free-fire-zones/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019162449/http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/free-fire-zones/ |archive-date=19 October 2016 |access-date=5 October 2016 |publisher=Crimes of War}} Nick Turse argues that a drive toward higher body counts, widespread use of free-fire zones, rules of engagement where civilians who ran from soldiers or helicopters could be viewed as VC and disdain for civilians, led to massive civilian casualties and war crimes.{{Cite book |last=Turse |first=Nick |title=Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam |publisher=Metropolitan Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8050-8691-1}}{{Rp|251}} An example cited by Turse is Operation Speedy Express, described by John Paul Vann as "many Mỹ Lais".{{Rp|251}} A report by Newsweek suggested at least 5,000 civilians may have been killed during the operation, and an official US military body count of 10,889 enemy combatants killed.{{Cite magazine |last=Kevin Buckley |date=19 June 1972 |title=Pacification's Deadly Price |url=http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/buckley.html |magazine=Newsweek |pages=42–43 |access-date=30 October 2015 |archive-date=10 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510130004/http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/Vietnam/buckley.html |url-status=live }}

File:The_Terror_of_War.jpg, which won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, showing a nine-year-old girl running down a road after being severely burned by napalm.]]

Rummel estimated 39,000 were killed by South Vietnam during the Diem-era in democide; for 1964–75, Rummel estimated 50,000 people were killed in democide. Thus, the total for 1954-75 is about 80,000 deaths caused by South Vietnam.{{Rp|}} Benjamin Valentino estimates 110,000–310,000 deaths as a "possible case" of "counter-guerrilla mass killings" by US and South Vietnamese forces.{{Cite book |last=Valentino |first=Benjamin |title=Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8014-7273-2 |page=84}} The Phoenix Program, coordinated by the CIA, was aimed at destroying the political infrastructure of the VC. The program killed 26,000-41,000 people, an unknown number were innocent civilians.{{Rp|341–343}}{{Cite book |last=Otterman |first=Michael |title=American Torture: From the Cold War to Abu Ghraib and Beyond |publisher=Melbourne University Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-522-85333-9 |page=[{{GBurl|id=wiVqrgS68NoC|p=62}} 62]}}{{Cite magazine |last=Hersh |first=Seymour |author-link=Seymour Hersh |date=15 December 2003 |title=Moving Targets |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/12/15/031215fa_fact?currentPage=all |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=20 November 2013 |archive-date=12 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112102432/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/12/15/031215fa_fact?currentPage=all |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=McCoy |first=Alfred |title=A question of torture: CIA interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror |publisher=Macmillan |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8050-8041-4 |page=[{{GBurl|id=FVwUYSBwtKcC|p=68}} 68]}}

Torture and ill-treatment were frequently applied by the South Vietnamese to POWs, as well as civilian prisoners.{{Cite book |last=Greiner |first=Bernd |title=War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-09-953259-0}}{{Rp|77}} During their visit to the Con Son Prison in 1970, congressmen Augustus Hawkins and William R. Anderson witnessed detainees either confined in minute "tiger cages" or chained to their cells, and provided with poor-quality food. American doctors found inmates suffering symptoms resulting from torture.{{Rp|77}} During their visits to US detention facilities, the International Red Cross recorded many cases of torture and inhumane treatment.{{Rp|78}} Torture was conducted by the South Vietnamese in collusion with the CIA.{{Cite news |date=15 December 2014 |title=Torture: What the Vietcong Learned and the CIA Didn't |language=en |work=Newsweek |url=http://www.newsweek.com/cia-torture-report-vietcong-vietnam-war-292041 |access-date=20 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409031604/https://www.newsweek.com/cia-torture-report-vietcong-vietnam-war-292041|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}{{Cite web |title=The Man in the Snow White Cell |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no1/article06.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613112835/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no1/article06.html |archive-date=13 June 2007 |access-date=20 June 2018 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency}} Unlike massacres such as My Lai, media reports of torture of POWs by South Vietnamese and US forces did not generate significant public outcry in the US.{{cite journal |last1=Berni |first1=Marcel |title=Unheard voices: foreign journalists' coverage of Vietnamese prisoners during the American War in Vietnam |journal=Small Wars & Insurgencies |date=2 October 2024 |volume=35 |issue=7 |pages=1260–1284 |doi=10.1080/09592318.2024.2361973 |hdl=20.500.11850/679805 |hdl-access=free }}

South Korean forces were accused of war crimes. One event was the 1968 Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất massacre where the 2nd Marine Brigade reportedly killed about 70 civilians.{{Cite news |last=Go Gyeong-tae |date=15 November 2000 |script-title=ko:잠자던 진실, 30년만에 깨어나다 "한국군은 베트남에서 무엇을 했는가"{{Nbsp}}... 미국 국립문서보관소 비밀해제 보고서·사진 최초공개 |language=ko |work=Hankyoreh |url=http://h21.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2000/021003000200011150334040.html |access-date=8 September 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407205452/https://h21.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2000/021003000200011150334040.html|archive-date=April 7, 2023}} South Korean forces are accused of perpetrating the Bình Hòa massacre, Binh Tai massacre and Hà My massacre.

{{Main|Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam use of terror in the Vietnam War}}

{{See also|Cambodian Civil War#War Crimes}}

File:Hue Massacre Interment.jpg]]

"The overall volume and lethality of Viet Cong terrorism rivals or exceeds all but a handful of terrorist campaigns waged over the last third of the twentieth century", based on the definition of terrorists as a non-state actor, and examining targeted killings and civilian deaths which are estimated at over 18,000 from 1966 to 1969.{{Cite book |last=Pedahzur |first=Ami |title=Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism: The Globalization of Martyrdom |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-77029-3 |page=116 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LIGTAgAAQBAJ |access-date=25 July 2023 |archive-date=13 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230513214523/https://books.google.com/books?id=LIGTAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} The Pentagon estimates the VC/PAVN conducted 36,000 murders and 58,000 kidnappings from 1967 to 1972, {{Circa|1973}}.{{Cite book |last1=Lanning |first1=Michael |title=Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces |last2=Cragg |first2=Dan |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-60344-059-2 |pages=186–188 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/2746 |access-date=12 June 2023 |archive-date=4 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210504134343/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/2746 |url-status=live }} Benjamin Valentino attributes 45,000–80,000 "terrorist mass killings" to the VC. Statistics for 1968–72 suggest "about 80 percent of the terrorist victims were ordinary civilians and only about 20 percent were government officials, policemen, members of the self-defence forces or pacification cadres."{{Rp|273}} VC tactics included frequent mortaring of civilians in refugee camps, and placing of mines on highways frequented by villagers taking goods to urban markets. Some mines were set only to go off after heavy vehicle passage, causing slaughter aboard packed buses.{{Rp|270–279}}

Notable VC atrocities include the massacre of over 3,000 unarmed civilians at Huế{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |title=Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-062730-0 |page=444 |author-link=Ben Kiernan}} and killing 252 civilians during the Đắk Sơn massacre.{{Cite book |last=Pike |first=Douglas |url=https://archive.org/details/pavnpeoplesarmyo00pike |title=PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam |publisher=Presidio Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-89141-243-4 |url-access=registration}} 155,000 refugees fleeing the North Vietnamese Spring Offensive were reported to have been killed, or abducted, on the road to Tuy Hòa in 1975.{{Cite book |last=Wiesner |first=Louis |title=Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954–1975 |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-313-26306-4 |pages=318–319}} PAVN/VC troops killed 164,000 civilians in democide between 1954-75 in South Vietnam.{{Rp|}} North Vietnam was known for its abusive treatment of American POWs, most notably in Hỏa Lò Prison (the Hanoi Hilton), where torture was employed to extract confessions.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=655}}

{{main|Women in the Vietnam War}}

File:Second Lieutenant Kathleen M. Sullivan treats a Vietnamese child during Operation MED CAP, a U.S. Air Force civic... - NARA - 542331.jpg

Women were active in a variety of roles, making significant impacts and the war having significant impacts on them.{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/from-hidden-resistance-to-peace-talks-women-in-the-vietnam-war/6907610|title = From hidden resistance to peace talks: Women in the Vietnam War|website = Australian Broadcasting Corporation|date = 4 November 2015}}{{Cite web|url = http://www.thanhniennews.com/arts-culture/exhibition-honors-vietnamese-female-soldiers-in-vietnam-war-40860.html|title = Exhibition honors Vietnamese female soldiers in Vietnam War|date = 8 April 2015|access-date = 8 August 2024|archive-date = 24 May 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220524125544/http://www.thanhniennews.com/arts-culture/exhibition-honors-vietnamese-female-soldiers-in-vietnam-war-40860.html|url-status = dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://femmes-guerres.ens-lyon.fr/spip.php?rubrique90|title = Vietnamese women in wartime – Press Photos – Femmes et guerres}} Several million Vietnamese women served in the military and militias, particularly in the VC, with the slogan "when war comes, even the women must fight" widely used.{{Cite journal|url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/alr/vol1/iss53/5|title=Women in the Vietnam War|first=Elizabeth|last=Windschuttle|date=February 15, 1976|journal=Australian Left Review|volume=1|issue=53|pages=17–25|via=ro.uow.edu.au}} These women made vital contributions on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, espionage, medical care, logistical and administrative work, and direct combat.{{cite web|last=|first=|url=https://progressive.international/wire/2021-03-09-portraits-of-vietnamese-women-at-war/en|title=Portraits of Vietnamese Women At War|date=2021-03-09|website=Progressive International}}{{cite web|last=Springer|first=James|url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3085401/world-war-ii-anti-nazi-greek-resistance-viet-cong-syrian-kurdish-militia|title=Women in combat, from World War II anti-Nazi Greek resistance to Viet Cong to Syrian Kurdish militia |date=2020-05-22|website=South China Morning Post}} Women took on more roles in the economy and Vietnam saw an increase in women's rights.{{cite journal | last1 = Werner | first1 = Jayne | year = 1981 | title = Women, Socialism, and the Economy of Wartime North Vietnam | journal = Studies in Comparative Communism | volume = 16 | pages = 165–90 | doi = 10.1016/0039-3592(81)90005-3 }} Women emerged as leaders of anti-war campaigns and made significant contributions to war journalism.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/vietnam-women-reporters-becker/2021/03/26/79477986-8e32-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html|title=Three groundbreaking journalists saw the Vietnam War differently. It's no coincidence they were women.|newspaper=Washington Post|date=March 28, 2021|author=Margaret Sullivan}}

Women still faced discrimination, and were targets of sexual violence and war crimes.{{cite web|last=Turse|first=Nick|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/rape-wartime-vietnam/|title=Rape Was Rampant During the Vietnam War. Why Doesn't US History Remember This?|date=2013-03-19|website=Mother Jones}} Post-war, Vietnamese women veterans faced difficulty reintegrating into society and having their contributions recognised, as well as advances in rights failing to be sustained.{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-10-fg-vietnam10-story.html|title=Vietnam's Women of War|website=Los Angeles Times|date=10 January 2003}}{{cite journal |last1=Healy |first1=Dana |title=Laments of warriors' wives: Re-gendering the war in Vietnamese cinema |journal=South East Asia Research |date=2006 |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=231–259 |jstor=23750856 |doi=10.5367/000000006778008149 }} Portrayals of the war have been criticised for their depictions of women, for overlooking the role women played and reducing Vietnamese women to racist stereotypes.{{cite journal |last1=Ly |first1=Lynn |title=(Im)possible Futures: Liberal Capitalism, Vietnamese Sniper Women, and Queer Asian Possibility |journal=Feminist Formations |date=2017 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=136–160 |doi=10.1353/ff.2017.0006 |doi-access=free }}{{cite web|url=https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1180&context=graddis|title=Racism at the Movies: Vietnam War Films, 1968-2002|date=2008|author=Sara Pike|publisher=University of Vermont}} Women are at the forefront of campaigns to deal with the war's aftermath, such as the effect of Agent Orange use and the Lai Đại Hàn.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/magazine/laos-agent-orange-vietnam-war.html|title=The Victims of Agent Orange the U.S. Has Never Acknowledged|newspaper=The New York Times|date=16 March 2021|last1=Black|first1=George|last2=Anderson|first2=Christopher |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite magazine|url = http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2071021,00.html|magazine = Time|date = 13 May 2011|last1 = Cain|first1 = Geoffrey|title = Is Time Running Out to Find Soldiers' Remains in Vietnam?|access-date = 25 May 2024|archive-date = 18 October 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221018061109/http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2071021,00.html|url-status = dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/en/vietnamese-woman-sues-seoul-for-wartime-massacre/a-53258186|title=Vietnamese woman sues Seoul for 'wartime massacre' |date= 27 April 2020|website=DW.COM}}

{{Main|Military history of African Americans in the Vietnam War}}

File:Haeberlewounded.jpg soldier being carried away, 1968]]

The experience of African-American military personnel has received significant attention.{{Cite web |title=Fully Integrated |url=http://www.aavw.org/served/homepage_wetoo_integrated.html |access-date=11 May 2017 |website=African-American Involvement in the Vietnam War (aavw.org) |archive-date=25 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525181243/http://www.aavw.org/served/homepage_wetoo_integrated.html |url-status=live }} Wallace Terry's work includes observations about the impacts on black servicemen. He notes the higher proportion of combat casualties among African-American servicemen, the shift toward and different attitudes of black military volunteers and conscripts, the discrimination encountered "on the battlefield, in decorations, promotion and duty assignments", as well as having to endure "the racial insults, cross-burnings and Confederate flags of their white comrades"—and the experiences faced by black soldiers stateside, during the war and afterwards.{{Sfn|Terry|1984|loc=Epigraph, pp. xv–xvii}}

Civil rights leaders protested the disproportionate casualties and overrepresentation in hazardous duty, experienced by black servicemen, prompting reforms implemented from 1967. As a result, by the war's completion, black casualties had declined to 13% of combat deaths, about equal to the share of draft-eligible black men, though slightly higher than the 10% who served.{{Cite book |last=Appy |first=Christian |title=Working-class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8078-6011-3}}

{{Main|List of weapons of the Vietnam War}}

File:HoChiMinhTrail003.jpg

Nearly all US-allied forces were armed with US weapons including the M1 Garand, M1 carbine, M14 rifle, and M16 rifle. The Australian and New Zealand forces employed the 7.62 mm L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle,{{sfn|Tucker|2011|p=975}} with occasional use of the M16 rifle.

The PAVN/VC, although having inherited US, French, and Japanese weapons from World War II and the First Indochina War, were largely armed and supplied by China, the Soviet Union, and its Warsaw Pact allies. Some weapons—notably anti-personnel explosives, the K-50M, and "home-made" versions of the RPG-2—were manufactured in North Vietnam. By 1969 the US Army had identified 40 rifle/carbine types, 22 machine gun types, 17 types of mortar, 20 recoilless rifle or rocket launcher types, nine types of antitank weapons, and 14 anti-aircraft artillery weapons used by ground troops on all sides. Also in use, mostly by anti-communist forces, were 24 types of armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery, and 26 types of field artillery and rocket launchers.

{{Main|Vietnam War casualties}}

{{See also|Vietnam War body count controversy}}

Casualty estimates vary, with one source suggesting up to 3.8 million violent war deaths in Vietnam between 1955-2002.{{Cite news |date=23 April 2008 |title=fifty years of violent war deaths: data analysis from the world health survey program: BMJ |url=http://www.bmj.com/content/336/7659/1482 |access-date=5 January 2013}} From 1955 to 2002, data from the surveys indicated an estimated 5.4 million violent war deaths{{Nbsp}}... 3.8 million in Vietnam.{{Cite news |last=Lind |first=Michael |year=1999 |title=Vietnam, The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lind-vietnam.html |access-date=17 January 2014 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307092630/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/lind-vietnam.html |archive-date=March 7, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}{{Cite web |last=Friedman |first=Herbert |title=Allies of the Republic of Vietnam |url=http://www.psywarrior.com/AlliesRepublicVietnam.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307112918/http://www.psywarrior.com/AlliesRepublicVietnam.html |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |access-date=1 May 2019}} A demographic study calculated 791,000–1,141,000 war-related deaths for all Vietnam, military and civilians. Between 195,000-430,000 South Vietnamese civilians died.{{Rp|450–453}}{{sfn|Thayer|1985|p={{pn|date=May 2025}}}} Guenter Lewy estimated 65,000 North Vietnamese civilians died.{{Rp|450–453}} Estimates of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam range from 30,000{{Rp|176,617}} to 182,000. A 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated 1.4 million South Vietnamese civilians casualties, including 415,000 deaths.{{Rp|12}} The military of South Vietnam suffered an estimated 254,000 killed between 1960-74, and additional deaths between 1954-59, and in 1975.{{Rp|275}} Other estimates point to higher figures of 313,000 casualties.

The US Department of Defense figure for PAVN/VC killed from 1965 to 1974 was 950,765. Officials believed these need to be deflated by 30 percent. Lewy asserts that one-third of the reported "enemy" killed may have been civilians, concluding the figure was closer to 440,000.{{Rp|450–453}}

According to Vietnamese government figures, there were 849,018 confirmed military deaths on the PAVN/VC side, for the more lengthy period of 1955-75. This includes battle deaths of Vietnamese soldiers in the Laotian and Cambodian Civil Wars, in which the PAVN was a participant. Non-combat deaths account for 30-40%. However, the figures exclude deaths of South Vietnamese and allied soldiers, and the estimated 300,000–500,000 PAVN/VC missing in action. Vietnamese government figures estimate 1.1 million dead and 300,000 missing from 1945 to 1979, with approximately 849,000 dead and 232,000 missing from 1960 to 1975.

US reports of "enemy KIA", referred to as body count, were subject to "falsification and glorification", and a true estimate of PAVN/VC combat deaths is difficult to assess, as US victories were assessed by having a "greater kill ratio".{{Cite news |last=Kempster |first=Norman |date=31 January 1991 |title=In This War, Body Count Is Ruled Out: Casualties: Gen. Schwarzkopf makes it clear he's not repeating a blunder made in Vietnam. |language=en-US |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-01-31-mn-442-story.html |access-date=3 June 2018 }}{{Cite journal |last=Aman |first=Mohammed M. |date=April 1993 |title=General H. Norman Schwarzkopf: The Autobiography: It Doesn't Take a Hero; H. Norman Schwarzkopf with Peter Petre |journal=Digest of Middle East Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=90–94 |doi=10.1111/j.1949-3606.1993.tb00951.x }} It was difficult to distinguish between civilians and military personnel in the VC, as many were part-time guerrillas or impressed laborers who did not wear uniforms{{Sfn|Willbanks|2008|p=32}}Rand Corporation [http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a032189.pdf "Some Impressions of Viet Cong Vulnerabilities, an Interim Report"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216061330/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a032189.pdf |date=16 February 2017}} 1965 and civilians killed were sometimes written off as enemy killed, because high enemy casualties was directly tied to promotions and commendation.{{Rp|649–650}}{{Cite book |last1=Kelman |first1=H.C |url=https://archive.org/details/crimesofobedienc0000unse/page/1 |chapter=The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience |last2=Hamilton |first2=V. |title=Crimes of Obedience: Towards a Social Psychology of Authority and Responsibility |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-300-04813-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/crimesofobedienc0000unse/page/1 1–12]}}{{Cite web |title=Declassification of the BDM Study, "The Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam" |url=http://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a096431.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190412100450/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a096431.pdf |archive-date=12 April 2019 |publisher=Defense Technical Center |pages=225–234}}

Between 275,000-310,000 Cambodians died, including 50,000–150,000 combatants and civilians from US bombings.{{Cite book |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |url=https://archive.org/details/howpolpotcametop00kier_0 |title=How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-300-10262-8 |page=xxiii |author-link=Ben Kiernan |url-access=registration}} 20,000–62,000 Laotians died, and 58,281 U.S. military personnel were killed, of which 1,584 are still listed missing {{as of|2021|lc=yes}}.{{Cite web |date=1 March 2021 |title=Vietnam-era unaccounted for statistical report |url=https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Statistics%20as%20of%20March%201.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114839/https://www.dpaa.mil/Portals/85/Statistics%20as%20of%20March%201.pdf|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}

{{Further|Re-education camp (Vietnam)|Mayaguez incident}}

File:B52 CRASH WRECKAGE AT HUU TIEP LAKE HA NOI FEB 2012 (6887035292).jpg, its remains have been turned into a war monument.]]

In July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.{{Cite book |last=Robbers |first=Gerhard |title=Encyclopedia of world constitutions |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8160-6078-8 |page=[{{GBurl|id=M3A-xgf1yM4C|p=1021}} 1021]}} Relations between Vietnam and China deteriorated when Vietnam became pro-Soviet due to the Sino-Soviet split since 1961.{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Frances Yaping |title=The Art of State Persuasion: China's Strategic Use of Media in Interstate Disputes |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2024 |isbn=9780197757512}} Despite speculation the victorious North Vietnamese would, in Nixon's words, "massacre the civilians there [South Vietnam] by the millions," no mass executions happened.{{Cite book |last=Elliot |first=Duong Van Mai |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=499, 512–513 |chapter=The End of the War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9o8fAo2R6wC&pg=PA499}}{{Refn|group="A"|A study by Jacqueline Desbarats and Karl D. Jackson estimated that 65,000 South Vietnamese were executed for political reasons between 1975 and 1983, based on a survey of 615 Vietnamese refugees who claimed to have personally witnessed 47 executions. However, "their methodology was reviewed and criticized as invalid by authors Gareth Porter and James Roberts." Sixteen of the 47 names used to extrapolate this "bloodbath" were duplicates; this extremely high duplication rate (34%) strongly suggests Desbarats and Jackson were drawing from a small number of total executions. Rather than arguing that this duplication rate proves there were very few executions in post-war Vietnam, Porter and Roberts suggest it is an artifact of the self-selected nature of the participants in the Desbarats-Jackson study, as the authors followed subjects' recommendations on other refugees to interview.{{Cite book |last=Elliot |first=Duong Van Mai |title=RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era |publisher=RAND Corporation |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8330-4754-0 |pages=512–513 |chapter=The End of the War |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g9o8fAo2R6wC&pg=PA512 }}
cf. {{Cite journal |last1=Porter |first1=Gareth |last2=Roberts |first2=James |date=Summer 1988 |title=Creating a Bloodbath by Statistical Manipulation: A Review of A Methodology for Estimating Political Executions in Vietnam, 1975–1983, Jacqueline Desbarats; Karl D. Jackson. |journal=Pacific Affairs |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=303–310 |doi=10.2307/2759306 |jstor=2759306}} Nevertheless, there exist unverified reports of mass executions.see Nguyen Cong Hoan' testimony in {{Cite report |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002939991 |title=Human Rights in Vietnam: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations: House of Representatives, Ninety-Fifth Congress, First Session |date=26 July 1977 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=149, 153 |access-date=2 September 2016 |archive-date=17 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117043107/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002939991 |url-status=live }};
see also {{Cite journal |last1=Desbarats |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Jackson |first2=Karl D. |date=September 1985 |title=Vietnam 1975–1982: The Cruel Peace |journal=The Washington Quarterly |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=169–182 |doi=10.1080/01636608509477343 |pmid=11618274}}}}

File:35 Vietnamese boat people 2.JPEG

However many South Vietnamese were sent to re-education camps where they endured torture, starvation, and disease while forced to perform hard labor.{{Cite web |last1=Sagan |first1=Ginetta |last2=Denney |first2=Stephen |date=October–November 1982 |title=Re-education in Unliberated Vietnam: Loneliness, Suffering and Death |url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982 |access-date=1 September 2016 |website=The Indochina Newsletter |archive-date=28 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428231519/https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/Vietnam-Reeducation-Camps-1982 |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=Nghia |first=M. Vo |title=The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam |publisher=McFarland |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7864-1714-8}} The number involved varied depending on different observers: "...{{Nbsp}}"50,000 to 80,000" (Le Monde, 1978), "150,000 to 200,000" (The Washington Post, 1978), and "300,000" (Agence France Presse from Hanoi, 1978)."{{Cite web |year=1979 |title=Amnesty International Report, 1979 |url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/POL100011979ENGLISH.PDF |access-date=26 March 2018 |publisher=Amnesty International |page=116|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323142937/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol10/001/1979/en/|archive-date=March 23, 2023}} Such variations are because "Some estimates may include not only detainees but also people sent from the cities to the countryside." According to a native observer, 443,360 people had to register for a period in re-education camps in Saigon alone, and while some were released after a few days, others stayed for more than a decade.Huy, Đức. Bên Thắng Cuộc. OsinBook. Between 1975-80, more than 1 million northerners migrated south, to regions formerly in the Republic of Vietnam, while, as part of the New Economic Zones program, around 750,000 to over 1 million southerners were moved to mountainous forested areas.{{Cite book |last=Desbarats |first=Jacqueline |title=Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocation |series=Indochina report ; no. 11 |publisher=Executive Publications |location=Singapore |date=1987}}{{Cite news |last=Chapman |first=William |date=17 August 1979 |title=Hanoi Rebuts Refugees on 'Economic Zones' |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/ |access-date=30 June 2021|archive-date=June 14, 2023|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20230614164256/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/08/17/hanoi-rebuts-refugees-on-economic-zones/a26c10ab-3791-4d76-9c4a-db4f7d48be32/}} Gabriel García Márquez described South Vietnam as a "False paradise" when he visited in 1980:

{{Blockquote|The cost of this delirium was stupefying: 360,000 people mutilated, a million widows, 500,000 prostitutes, 500,000 drug addicts, a million tuberculous and more than a million soldiers of the old regime, impossible to rehabilitate into a new society. Ten percent of the population of Ho Chi Minh City was suffering from serious venereal diseases when the war ended, and there were 4 million illiterates throughout the South.{{Cite magazine |title=Read Gabriel García Márquez's Moving Vietnam Piece |magazine=Rolling Stone |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-vietnam-wars-19800529 |access-date=25 April 2018 |archive-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617093009/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-vietnam-wars-19800529 |url-status=live }}}}

The US used its security council veto to block Vietnam's UN recognition three times, an obstacle to it receiving aid.{{Cite news |date=21 September 1977 |title=Vietnam Is Admitted to the U.N. As 32d General Assembly Opens |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html |access-date=27 April 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409052642/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/09/21/archives/vietnam-is-admitted-to-the-un-as-32d-general-assembly-opens.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Following the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese leaders told several members of U.S. Congress visiting North Vietnam in late December 1975 that former President Nixon sent them a memorandum early in January 1973 that they said promised $3.25 billion in American aid after the signing of the Paris agreement to end the war in Vietnam.{{cite news |last1=Gelb |first1=Leslie H. |title=HANOI SAYS NIXON PLEDGED 3 B1LUON AS POSTWAR AID |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/02/archives/hanoi-says-nixon-pledged-3-billion-as-postwar-aid-visiting.html |access-date=11 August 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=2 February 1976}} However, the U.S. and Vietnam maintained no economic relation for more than two decades.{{cite web|last=Martin|first=Michael F.|title=U.S.-Vietnam Economic and Trade Relations: Issues for the 111 Congress|url=http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R40755.pdf|work=CRS Report for Congress|publisher=Congressional Research Service|accessdate=4 March 2012}} Washington extended President Richard Nixon’s 1964 trade embargo to all of Vietnam{{cite web|url=http://www.usvtc.org/Chronology%20of%20US-VN%20Normalization%209Nov10.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209025125/http://www.usvtc.org/Chronology%20of%20US-VN%20Normalization%209Nov10.pdf|url-status=usurped|archive-date=December 9, 2014|title=Chronology of Key Events in U.S. - Vietnam Normalization |last=U.S. Vietnam Trade Council |accessdate=4 March 2012}} and all bilateral trade activities were prohibited.

By 1975, the North Vietnamese had lost influence over the Khmer Rouge.{{Rp|708}} Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, fell to the Khmer Rouge. Under Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge would kill 1–3 million Cambodians from a population of 8 million, in one of the bloodiest genocides ever.{{Rp|}}{{Cite web |last=Sharp |first=Bruce |date=1 April 2005 |title=Counting Hell: The Death Toll of the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia |url=http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm |access-date=15 July 2016 |quote=The range based on the figures above extends from a minimum of 1.747 million, to a maximum of 2.495 million. |archive-date=15 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115041409/http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/deaths.htm |url-status=live }}The Documentation Center of Cambodia has mapped some 23,745 mass graves containing approximately 1.3 million suspected victims of execution; execution is believed to account for roughly 60% of the full death toll. See: {{Cite book |last1=Seybolt |first1=Taylor B. |title=Counting Civilian Casualties: An Introduction to Recording and Estimating Nonmilitary Deaths in Conflict |last2=Aronson |first2=Jay D. |last3=Fischoff |first3=Baruch |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-997731-4 |page=238}}Ben Kiernan cites a range of 1.671 to 1.871 million excess deaths under the Khmer Rouge. See {{Cite journal |last=Kiernan |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Kiernan |date=December 2003 |title=The Demography of Genocide in Southeast Asia: The Death Tolls in Cambodia, 1975–79, and East Timor, 1975–80 |journal=Critical Asian Studies |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=585–597 |doi=10.1080/1467271032000147041 }}

The relationship between Vietnam and Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) deteriorated. In response to the Khmer Rouge taking Phu Quoc and Tho Chu, and the belief they were responsible for the disappearance of 500 Vietnamese natives on Tho Chu, Vietnam launched a counterattack to recover the islands.{{Cite book |last=Farrell |first=Epsey Cooke |title=The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the law of the sea: an analysis of Vietnamese behavior within the emerging international oceans regime |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |year=1998 |isbn=90-411-0473-9}} After failed attempts to negotiate, Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea in 1978, leading to the Cambodian–Vietnamese War and Third Indochina War. They ousted the Khmer Rouge in January 1979. In response, China invaded Vietnam the following month. The Vietnamese stayed in Cambodia to assist the new government in dealing with the remnants of the old regime, but were later bogged down and forced to withdraw.McCargo, p. 199Thayer, p. 18 From 1978 to 1979, some 450,000 ethnic Chinese left Vietnam by boat as refugees, or were deported.

The Pathet Lao overthrew the monarchy of Laos in 1975, establishing the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The change in regime was "quite peaceful, a sort of Asiatic 'velvet revolution'"—although 30,000 former officials were sent to reeducation camps, often enduring harsh conditions.{{Rp|575–576}}

{{See also|Operation Rolling Thunder|Operation Menu|Operation Freedom Deal|CIA activities in Laos}}

The US dropped over 7 million tons of bombs on Indochina during the war, more than triple the 2.1 million tons it dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II, and ten times the amount during the Korean War. 500 thousand tons were dropped on Cambodia, 1 million tons on North Vietnam, and 4 million tons on South Vietnam. On a per person basis, the 2 million tons dropped on Laos make it the most heavily bombed country in history, "nearly a ton for every person in Laos." Due to the particularly heavy impact of cluster bombs, Laos was a strong advocate of the Convention on Cluster Munitions to ban them, and host to its first meeting in 2010.{{Cite web |date=November 2011 |title=Disarmament |url=http://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(httpPages)/B3F3E37A2838630FC125772E0050F4F7?OpenDocument |access-date=20 September 2013 |website=The United Nations Office at Geneva |publisher=United Nations |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921060643/http://www.unog.ch/80256EE600585943/(httpPages)/B3F3E37A2838630FC125772E0050F4F7?OpenDocument |url-status=live }}

Former US Air Force official Earl Tilford recounted "repeated bombing runs of a lake in central Cambodia. The B-52s literally dropped their payloads in the lake." The Air Force ran many missions like this to secure additional funding during budget negotiations, so the tonnage expended does not directly correlate with the resulting damage.{{Cite web |last=Greenberg |first=Jon |date=11 September 2014 |title=Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War |url=http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/sep/11/henry-kissinger/kissinger-drones-have-killed-more-civilians-bombin/ |access-date=18 September 2016 |website=Politifact.com}}

Unexploded ordnance, mostly from US bombing, continues to kill, and has rendered much land hazardous and impossible to cultivate. Ordnance has killed 42,000 people since the war.{{Cite web |date=3 December 2012 |title=Vietnam War Bomb Explodes Killing Four Children |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/03/vietname-war-bomb-explodes_n_2229727.html |website=The Huffington Post |access-date=21 March 2014 |archive-date=19 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219040016/http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/03/vietname-war-bomb-explodes_n_2229727.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/vietnam-war-shell-explodes-kills-two-fishermen/story-fn3dxix6-1226046291270|title=Vietnam war shell explodes, kills two fishermen}} In Laos, 80 million unexploded bombs remain. Unexploded ordnance has killed or injured over 20,000 Laotians and about 50 people are killed or maimed annually.{{Cite news |last=Wright |first=Rebecca |date=6 September 2016 |title='My friends were afraid of me': What 80 million unexploded US bombs did to Laos |work=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/05/asia/united-states-laos-secret-war/ |access-date=18 September 2016 |archive-date=17 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117203916/https://www.cnn.com/2016/09/05/asia/united-states-laos-secret-war/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Lao PDR - Casualties and Victim Assistance |url=http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/lao-pdr/casualties-and-victim-assistance.aspx |access-date=17 July 2022 |website=Landmine and Clustering Munition Monitor |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114839/http://www.the-monitor.org/en-gb/reports/2016/lao-pdr/casualties-and-victim-assistance.aspx |url-status=live }} It is estimated the explosives will not be removed entirely for centuries.{{Rp|317}}

{{Main|Indochina refugee crisis|Vietnamese boat people}}

Over 3 million people left Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the Indochina refugee crisis after 1975. Most Asian countries were unwilling to accept them, many led by boat and were known as boat people.{{Cite web |last1=Stephen Castles |last2=Mark J. Miller |date=10 July 2009 |title=Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region |url=http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-asia-pacific-region |publisher=Migration Policy Institute |access-date=11 August 2014 |archive-date=14 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614072213/https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migration-asia-pacific-region |url-status=live }} Between 1975-98, an estimated 1.2 million refugees from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries resettled in the US, while Canada, Australia, and France resettled over 500,000, China accepted 250,000.{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=William |title=Terms of refuge: the Indochinese exodus & the international response |publisher=Zed Books |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85649-610-0 |page=[{{GBurl|id=_rjiOXMRd4sC|p=127}} 127]}} Laos experienced the largest flight proportionally, 300,000 out of a population of 3 million crossed the border into Thailand. Included among them were "about 90%" of Laos' "intellectuals, technicians, and officials."{{Rp|575}} According to author Nghia M. Vo and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), between 200,000 and 250,000 boat people died at sea.{{cite book|last=Vo|first=Nghia M.|title=The Vietnamese Boat People, 1954 and 1975-1992|publisher=McFarland & Company|year=2015|page=167|isbn=978-0786482498|quote=No one knew the exact number of people who died trying to escape by boat. Between the corrupt Vietnamese patrols, the violent tropical storms, the cruel pirates, the lack of food and water, and the heartless push backs, a large number of boat people perished at sea. It is estimated that the death rate was about 10 to 15 percent of the total number of people arriving at the camps or roughly 200,000 to 220,000.}}{{cite web |last=Henningfeld |first=Diane A. |title=Indo-Chinese Boat People Begin Fleeing Vietnam |url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/indo-chinese-boat-people-begin-fleeing-vietnam |website=ebsco.com |year=2023|quote=The UNHCR has estimated that 250,000 boat people died at sea and that 929,600 reached a place of asylum.}}

{{Main|United States in the Vietnam War}}

File:Marine da nang.jpg private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, Da Nang, 3 August 1965]]

Failure of US goals is placed at different institutions and levels. Some have suggested it was due to failure of leadership.{{Cite news |last=Lippman |first=Thomas W. |date=9 April 1995 |title=McNamara Writes Vietnam Mea Culpa |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |access-date=28 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228230351/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/04/09/mcnamara-writes-vietnam-mea-culpa/a85cc058-54fe-4074-bda3-b374885ede8f/ |archive-date=28 December 2019 |quote=As recounted by McNamara{{Nbsp}}... the war could and should have been avoided and should have been halted at several key junctures, one as early as 1963. According to McNamara, he and other senior advisers to President Lyndon B. Johnson failed to head it off through ignorance, inattention, flawed thinking, political expediency and lack of courage.}} Others point to military doctrine. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara stated that "the achievement of a military victory by U.S. forces...was indeed a dangerous illusion."{{Rp|368}} The inability to bring Hanoi to the bargaining table by bombing illustrated another US miscalculation, and the limitations of military abilities in achieving political goals.{{sfn|Karnow|1997|p=17}} Army Chief of Staff Harold Keith Johnson noted, "if anything came out of Vietnam, it was that air power couldn't do the job."{{Cite web |last=Buzzanco |first=Bob |date=17 April 2000 |title=25 Years After End of Vietnam War, Myths Keep Us from Coming to Terms with Vietnam |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605195117/http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm |archive-date=5 June 2008 |access-date=11 June 2008 |website=The Baltimore Sun}} General William Westmoreland admitted bombing had been ineffective, saying he doubted "that the North Vietnamese would have relented." Kissinger wrote to President Ford that "in terms of military tactics ... our armed forces are not suited to this kind of war. Even the Special Forces who had been designed for it could not prevail."{{Sfn|Kissinger|1975}} Hanoi persistently sought unification, and the effects of US bombing had negligible impact on North Vietnam's goals.{{Rp|1–10}} US bombing mobilized people throughout North Vietnam and internationally, due to a superpower attempting to bomb a society into submission.{{Rp|48–52}}

Americans struggled to absorb the lessons of the military intervention. President Ronald Reagan coined the term "Vietnam syndrome" to describe the reluctance of the public and politicians to support military interventions abroad. US polling in 1978 revealed nearly 72% of Americans believed the war was "fundamentally wrong and immoral."{{Rp|10}} Six months after the beginning of Operation Rolling Thunder, Gallup, Inc. found 60% did not believe sending troops was a mistake in September 1965, and only 24% believed it was. Polling did not find a plurality believed it was a mistake until October 1967, and did not find a majority believing it was until August 1968, during the third phase of the Tet Offensive. Thereafter, Gallup found majorities believing it was a mistake through the signing of the Peace Accords in 1973, when 60% believed it was a mistake, and polls between 1990-2000, found 70% of Americans believed it was a mistake.{{cite web|last1=Newport|first1=Frank|last2=Carroll|first2=Joseph|date=August 24, 2005|title=Iraq Versus Vietnam: A Comparison of Public Opinion|publisher=Gallup, Inc.|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/18097/iraq-versus-vietnam-comparison-public-opinion.aspx|access-date=May 8, 2024|archive-date=9 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509004839/https://news.gallup.com/poll/18097/Iraq-Versus-Vietnam-Comparison-Public-Opinion.aspx|url-status=live}} The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue, concerning the fate of US service personnel missing in action, persisted. The costs loom large in American consciousness; a 1990 poll showed the public incorrectly believed more Americans died in Vietnam than World War II.{{Cite web |date=8 May 2001 |title=Victory in Europe 56 Years Ago |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/1552/Victory-Europe-Years-Ago.aspx |publisher=Gallup News Service |access-date=2 January 2015 |archive-date=4 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104162059/http://www.gallup.com/poll/1552/Victory-Europe-Years-Ago.aspx |url-status=live }}

Between 1953-75, the US was estimated to have spent $168 billion on the war (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|0.168|1964|r=1}} trillion in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{Cite news |date=22 January 2014 |title=How Much Did The Vietnam War Cost? |language=en-US |work=The Vietnam War |url=https://thevietnamwar.info/how-much-vietnam-war-cost/ |access-date=17 May 2018}} This resulted in a large budget deficit. Other figures point to $139 billion from 1965 to 1974 (not inflation-adjusted), 10 times education spending, and 50 times more than housing and community development.{{Cite web |title=CQ Almanac Online Edition |url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1213988#H2_1 |access-date=14 June 2018 |website=library.cqpress.com}} It was stated that war-spending could have paid every mortgage in the US, with money leftover. {{As of|2013}}, the US government pays Vietnam veterans and their families more than $22 billion annually in war-related claims.{{Cite news |date=20 March 2013 |title=US still making payments to relatives of Civil War veterans, analysis finds |work=Fox News |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-still-making-payments-to-relatives-of-civil-war-veterans-analysis-finds}}{{Cite news |last=Jim Lobe |date=30 March 2013 |title=Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Will Cost U.S. 4–6 Trillion Dollars: Report |agency=Inter Press Service |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/iraq-afghanistan-wars-will-cost-u-s-4-6-trillion-dollars-report/}}

{{See also|Vietnam War resisters in Canada|Vietnam War resisters in Sweden}}

File:OperationHueCity1967wounded.jpg

More than 3 million Americans served, 1.5 million saw combat.{{Cite web |title=Echoes of Combat: The Vietnam War in American Memory |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node/7 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=29 May 2011 |archive-date=8 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508201447/http://www.stanford.edu/group/fredturner/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node%2F7 |url-status=dead }} "At the height of American involvement in 1968, for example, 543,000 American military personnel were stationed in Vietnam, but only 80,000 were...combat troops."{{Sfn|Westheider|2007|p=78}} Conscription existed since World War II, but ended in 1973.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rjoTAAAAIBAJ&pg=6104%2C3785258 |newspaper=The Bulletin |location=Bend, Oregon |agency=UPI |title=Military draft system stopped |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_6ojAAAAIBAJ&pg=5837%2C1959488 |newspaper=The Times-News |location=Hendersonville, North Carolina |agency=Associated Press |title=Military draft ended by Laird |date=January 27, 1973 |page=1 }}

58,220 American soldiers were killed, 150,000 wounded, and at least 21,000 permanently disabled.{{Cite web |title=The War's Costs |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080505035502/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=513 |archive-date=5 May 2008 |access-date=3 November 2019 |publisher=Digital History}} The average age of troops killed was 23.Combat Area Casualty File, November 1993. (The CACF is the basis for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, i.e. The Wall), Center for Electronic Records, National Archives, Washington, DC{{Cite book |last=Kueter |first=Dale |title=Vietnam Sons: For Some, the War Never Ended |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4259-6931-8}} Approximately 830,000 veterans, 15%, suffered posttraumatic stress disorder.{{Cite magazine |date=8 April 2016 |title=The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier: During the Vietnam War, the U.S. Military Plied Its Servicemen with Speed, Steroids, and Painkillers to Help Them Handle Extended Combat |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/ |magazine=The Atlantic|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520145751/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/the-drugs-that-built-a-super-soldier/477183/|archive-date=May 20, 2023}} Drug use, racial tensions, and fragging—attempts to kill officers—created problems for the military and impacted its capability.{{Cite book |last=Lepre |first=George |title=Fragging: Why U.S. Soldiers Assaulted their Officers in Vietnam |publisher=Texas Tech University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-89672-715-1}}{{Rp|44–47}} 125,000 Americans left for Canada to avoid the draft,{{Cite news |date=19 November 2005 |title=War Resisters Remain in Canada with No Regrets |work=ABC News |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339 |access-date=26 February 2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312063551/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1325339|archive-date=March 12, 2023}} and approximately 50,000 servicemen deserted.{{Cite web |date=28 June 2005 |title=Vietnam War Resisters in Canada Open Arms to U.S. Military Deserters |url=http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812205654/http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=24009b4dc8fe8dadcfa96c37bce9dea6 |archive-date=12 August 2014 |access-date=12 August 2014 |publisher=Pacific News Service}} In 1977, President Jimmy Carter granted an unconditional pardon to Vietnam draft evaders with Proclamation 4483.{{Cite web |date=21 January 1977 |title=Proclamation 4483: Granting Pardon for Violations of the Selective Service Act, August 4, 1964 To March 38, 1973 |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/carter_proclamation.htm |access-date=11 June 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185642/https://www.justice.gov/pardon/proclamation-4483-granting-pardon-violations-selective-service-act|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}

The war called into question army doctrine. Marine general Victor H. Krulak criticized Westmoreland's attrition strategy, calling it "wasteful of American lives{{Nbsp}}... with small likelihood of a successful outcome." Doubts surfaced about the military's ability to train foreign forces. There was found to be considerable flaws and dishonesty by commanders, due to promotions being tied to the body count system touted by Westmoreland and McNamara. Secretary of Defense McNamara wrote to President Johnson: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."{{Cite magazine |last=Scheer |first=Robert |date=8 July 2009 |title=McNamara's Evil Lives On |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/ |magazine=The Nation |access-date=28 February 2020|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404185636/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mcnamaras-evil-lives/|archive-date=April 4, 2023}}

{{Further|Environmental impact of the Vietnam War}}

File:Defoliation agent spraying.jpgs in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, 1969]]

Another controversial aspect of the US effort, was use of chemical defoliants between 1961-71. 20 million gallons of toxic herbicides, like Agent Orange, were sprayed on 6 million acres of forests and crops.{{cite book |title=Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam |date=1994 |publisher=National Academies Press (US) |chapter-url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236347/ |chapter=The U.S. Military and the Herbicide Program in Vietnam }} They were used to defoliate parts of the countryside to prevent the VC from hiding weaponry and encampments, and deprive them of food. Defoliation was used to clear sensitive areas, including base perimeters and ambush sites along roads and canals.{{Rp|263}} The chemicals used continue to change the landscape, cause diseases and birth defects, and poison the foodchain,{{Harvnb|Palmer|2007}}; {{Harvnb|Stone|2007}}.{{Cite news |first=Lynne |last=Peeples |date=10 July 2013 |title=Veterans Sick From Agent Orange-Poisoned Planes Still Seek Justice |work=The Huffington Post |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/agent-orange-vietnam-veterans_n_3572598.html |access-date=4 September 2013}} including suppressing the growth of some plants and crops and proceeding into the sediment, affecting fish and other species.{{cite web |url=https://aces.illinois.edu/news/toxic-byproducts-agent-orange-continue-pollute-vietnam-environment-study-says#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAfter%20President%20Nixon%20ordered%20the,Sciences%20at%20Iowa%20State%20University. | title=Toxic byproducts of Agent Orange continue to pollute Vietnam environment, study says | College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences | Illinois }} US records have listed figures including the destruction of 20% of the jungles of South Vietnam and 20-36% of the mangrove forests.{{cite book |last=Fox |first=Diane N. |url=http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/dnfox/pdf/chemical_politics.pdf |chapter=Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Warfare: Agent Orange |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727144516/http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/dnfox/pdf/chemical_politics.pdf|archive-date=2010-07-27 |title=Synthetic Planet: Chemical Politics and the Hazards of Modern Life |editor-last=Monica |editor-first=Casper |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge Press}} The environmental destruction caused was described by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, lawyers, and academics as an ecocide.{{Cite book |last=Zierler |first=David |title=The invention of ecocide: agent orange, Vietnam, and the scientists who changed the way we think about the environment |date=2011 |publisher=Univ. of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-3827-9 |location=Athens, Georgia}}{{Cite web |date=2022-12-18 |title=How Imperative Is It To Consider Ecocide As An International Crime? |url=https://www.ijllr.com/post/how-imperative-is-it-to-consider-ecocide-as-an-international-crime |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=IJLLR}}{{Cite journal |last=Falk |first=Richard A. |date=1973 |title=Environmental Warfare and Ecocide — Facts, Appraisal, and Proposals |journal=Bulletin of Peace Proposals |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=80–96 |doi=10.1177/096701067300400105 |jstor=44480206 }}{{Cite web |date=17 February 2022 |last=Cassandra |first=Bianca |title=Industrial disasters from Bhopal to present day: why the proposal to make 'ecocide' an international offence is persuasive |url=https://theleaflet.in/industrial-disasters-from-bhopal-to-present-day-why-the-proposal-to-make-ecocide-an-international-offence-is-persuasive/ |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=The Leaflet |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |first=Giovanni |last=Chiarini |date=1 April 2022 |title=Ecocide: From the Vietnam War to International Criminal Jurisdiction? Procedural Issues In-Between Environmental Science, Climate Change, and Law |ssrn=4072727 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4072727 |journal=Cork Online Law Review}}{{Cite web |date=2021-04-07 |title='Ecocide' movement pushes for a new international crime: Environmental destruction |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/ecocide-movement-pushes-new-international-crime-environmental-destruction-n1263142 |access-date=2023-06-21 |website=NBC News}}

The chemicals in Agent Orange{{cite web |title=Facts About Herbicides |url=https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/basics.asp |website=US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration |quote=The two active ingredients in the Agent Orange herbicide combination were equal amounts of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), which contained traces of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). }} pose health hazards, such as immune system disorders, developmental abnormalities, and issues with the reproductive system.{{cite book |doi=10.1016/B978-0-323-43044-9.00025-X |chapter=Nonmetallic Toxic Chemical Assessment |title=Textbook of Natural Medicine |date=2020 |last1=Shaw |first1=William |pages=215–222.e2 |isbn=978-0-323-52342-4 |quote=[2, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid (2, 4-D)] is a known endocrine disruptor and can block hormone distribution and cause glandular breakdown. It is linked to immune system damage, birth defects, and reproductive issues, possibly due to its frequent contamination with dioxins. }} Agent Orange and similar substances have caused many health issues for Vietnamese people and the US crews that handled them. Reports concluded that refugees exposed to sprays continued to experience pain in the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal upsets. In one study, 92% of participants suffered incessant fatigue; others reported monstrous births.{{cite journal |last1=Rose |first1=Hilary A. |last2=Rose |first2=Steven P. R. |title=Chemical Spraying as Reported by Refugees from South Vietnam |journal=Science |date=25 August 1972 |volume=177 |issue=4050 |pages=710–712 |doi=10.1126/science.177.4050.710 |pmid=5054148 |bibcode=1972Sci...177..710R }} Analysis has found significant correlation between having a parent who was exposed to Agent Orange with the likelihood of possessing or acting as a carrier of birth defects.{{Cite journal |last1=Ngo Anh |first1=D. |first2=Richard |last2=Taylor |first3=Christine L. |last3=Roberts |first4=Tuan V. |last4=Nguyen |date=13 February 2006 |title=Association between Agent Orange and Birth Defects: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=35 |issue=5 |pages=1220–1230 |doi=10.1093/ije/dyl038 |pmid=16543362 |doi-access=free}} The most common deformity appears to be spina bifida. There is substantial evidence defects carry on for three generations or more.{{Cite web |first1=Charles |last1=Ornstein |first2=Hannah |last2=Fresques |first3=Mike |last3=Hixenbaugh |date=16 December 2016 |title=The Children of Agent Orange |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/the-children-of-agent-orange |access-date=23 February 2018 |website=ProPublica}} In 2012, the US and Vietnam cooperated in cleaning toxic chemicals on Da Nang International Airport, marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam.{{Cite news |date=9 August 2012 |title=U.S. starts its first Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-usa-agentorange-idUSBRE87803K20120809}} In 2018, Vietnam treated 150,000 cubic meters of contaminated soil.{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/50-years-later-vietnams-environment-still-bears-the-scars-of-war-and-signals-a-dark-future-for-gaza-and-ukraine-254971#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9Cecocide%E2%80%9D%20had%20been,term%20harm%20have%20been%20limited. | title=50 years later, Vietnam's environment still bears the scars of war – and signals a dark future for Gaza and Ukraine | date=28 April 2025 }}

File:A vietnamese Professor is pictured with a group of handicapped children.jpg, 2004]]

Vietnamese victims attempted a class action lawsuit against Dow Chemical and other US chemical manufacturers, but a US District Court dismissed their case.{{Harvnb|Roberts|2005|p=380}}
In his 234-page judgment, the judge observed: "Despite the fact that Congress and the President were fully advised of a substantial belief that the herbicide spraying in Vietnam was a violation of international law, they acted on their view that it was not a violation at the time."{{Harvnb|Crook|2008}} {{As of|2006}}, the Vietnamese government estimated there were over 4,000,000 victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam, while the Vietnamese Red Cross estimates up to one million people have health problems or disabilities as a result of Agent Orange.{{cite news |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/vietnam-us-agent-orange/ |title=U.S. in first effort to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam |first=Jessica |last=King |date=2012-08-10 |access-date=2012-08-11 |work=CNN |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303060725/http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/vietnam-us-agent-orange |archive-date=2013-03-03 |url-status=live}} The US has described these figures as unreliable, and denied conclusive scientific links between Agent Orange and Vietnamese victims of dioxin poisoning. In parts of southern Vietnam, dioxin levels remain at over 100 times the accepted international standard.{{Cite news |first=Anthony |last=Faiola |date=13 November 2006 |title=In Vietnam, Old Foes Take Aim at War's Toxic Legacy |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html |access-date=8 September 2013|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711142514/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111201065.html|archive-date=July 11, 2007}}

The US Veterans Administration has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type 2 diabetes, B-cell lymphomas, soft-tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy as, "presumptive diseases associated with exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service."{{Cite web |last=Administration |first=US Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health |title=VA.gov {{!}} Veterans Affairs |url=https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/index.asp |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=www.publichealth.va.gov |language=en}} Spina bifida is the sole birth defect in children of veterans recognized as caused by exposure to Agent Orange.{{Cite web |title=Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange |url=http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509191150/http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp |archive-date=9 May 2010 |access-date=4 September 2013 |publisher=United States Department of Veterans Affairs}}

{{Main|List of Vietnam War films}}

File:Thuong Tiec.jpg. The original statue was demolished in April 1975]]

The war has featured extensively in television, film, video games, music and literature. In Vietnam, the Girl from Hanoi (1974) was a film set during Operation Linebacker II, depicting wartime life. Another notable work was the diary of Đặng Thùy Trâm, a doctor who enlisted in the Southern battlefield, and was killed aged 27 by US forces. Her diaries were published in Vietnam as Đặng Thùy Trâm's Diary (Last Night I Dreamed of Peace), where it became a bestseller and was made into a film Don't Burn. The diary has been compared to The Diary of Anne Frank, and used in education.{{Cite news |date=10 December 2014 |title=Amsterdam Mayor visits Hanoi-Amsterdam High School |work=VOV Online Newspaper |url=http://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov |url-status=dead |access-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428231359/https://english.vov.vn/society/amsterdam-mayor-visits-hanoiamsterdam-high-school-284797.vov |archive-date=28 April 2019}}

The first major film on the war was John Wayne's pro-war The Green Berets (1968). Further films were released, the most noteworthy examples being Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Other films include Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Casualties of War (1989), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), The Thin Red Line (1998).{{Rp|}}

The war influenced a generation of musicians and songwriters, pro/anti-war and pro/anti-communist. The Vietnam War Song Project has identified 5,000+ songs referencing the conflict.{{Cite web |last=Brummer |first=Justin |title=The Vietnam War: A History in Song |url=https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/vietnam-war-history-song |access-date=6 August 2021 |website=History Today}} Country Joe and the Fish recorded The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag in 1965, and it became one of the most influential protest anthems.{{Rp|}}

====Myths====

{{See also|Myth of the spat-on Vietnam veteran|Vietnam stab-in-the-back myth}}

Myths play a role in the historiography of the war, and have become part of the culture of the United States. Discussion of myth has focused on US experiences, but changing myths have played a role in Vietnamese and Australian historiography. Scholarship has focused on "myth-busting",{{Cite book |last=Milam |first=Ron |title=Not A Gentleman's War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8078-3712-2}}{{Rp|373}} attacking orthodox and revisionist schools of historiography, and challenging myths about American society and soldiery in the war.{{Rp|373}}

Kuzmarov in The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs challenges the popular and Hollywood narrative that US soldiers were heavy drug users,{{Cite book |last=Kuzmarov |first=Jeremy |title=The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs |publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-55849-705-4 |pages=[{{GBurl|id=qDbtvEIxWigC|dq=nixon+%22tide+of+drug+abuse%22|p=3}} 3–4]}} in particular the notion that the My Lai massacre was caused by drug use.{{Rp|373}} According to Kuzmarov, Nixon is primarily responsible for creating the drug myth.{{Rp|374}} Michael Allen accuses Nixon of mythmaking, by exploiting the plight of the National League of POW/MIA Families to allow the government to appear caring, as the war was increasingly considered lost.{{Rp|376}} Allen's analysis ties the position of potential missing Americans, or prisoners into post-war politics and presidential elections, including the Swift boat controversy.{{Rp|376–377}}

{{Portal|Vietnam|1960s|1970s}}

• List of conflicts in Asia
• Soviet–Afghan War
• Third Indochina War
• United States Army during the Vietnam War

{{Reflist|group="A"}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}

• {{Cite book |last1=Asselin |first1=Pierre |title=Vietnam's American War: A New History |date=2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/vietnams-american-war/034EEB484F83DC3976982F33AB5B8C51 |isbn=9781009229302 }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Bowden |first1=Mark |title=Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam |date=2017 |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-0-8021-8924-0 }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Crook |first=John R. |year=2008 |title=Court of Appeals Affirms Dismissal of Agent Orange Litigation |journal=American Journal of International Law |volume=102 |pages=662–664 |doi=10.2307/20456664 |jstor=20456664 |number=3 }}
• {{Cite book |last=Demma |first=Vincent H. |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/amh-toc.htm |title=American Military History |publisher=US Army Center of Military History |year=1989 |location=Washington, DC |pages=619–694 |chapter=The U.S. Army in Vietnam |access-date=13 September 2013 |chapter-url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/AMH-28.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120024852/https://history.army.mil/books/AMH/amh-toc.htm |archive-date=20 January 2020 |url-status=dead}}
• {{Cite book |last=Eisenhower |first=Dwight D. |url=https://archive.org/details/mandateforchange00eise |title=Mandate for Change |publisher=Doubleday & Company |year=1963 |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book |author-link=Christopher Goscha |last1=Goscha |first1=Christopher |title=Vietnam: A New History |date=2016 |publisher=Basic Books |url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/christopher-goscha/vietnam/9780465094370/ |isbn=9780465094370 }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Holcombe |first1=Alec |title=Mass Mobilization in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1945–1960 |date=2020 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/mass-mobilization-in-the-democratic-republic-of-vietnam-1945-1960/ |isbn=9780824884475 |doi= |jstor=j.ctv105bb0z |jstor-access=free }}
• {{Cite book |last=Karnow |first=Stanley |title=Vietnam: A History |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-14-026547-7 |edition=2nd |location=New York |author-link=Stanley Karnow}}
• {{Cite report |url=http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/vietnam/750512a.htm |title="Lessons of Vietnam" by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, ca. May 12, 1975 |last=Kissinger |access-date=11 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509064916/http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/exhibits/vietnam/750512a.htm |archive-date=9 May 2008 |url-status=dead |type=memo |year=1975}}
• {{cite book |doi=10.1017/9781107110199 |title=The Vietnam War Reexamined |date=2017 |last1=Kort |first1=Michael G. |isbn=978-1-107-11019-9 |author-link=Michael Kort }}
• {{Cite book |last=Military History Institute of Vietnam |title=Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975 |publisher=University of Kansas Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-7006-1175-4 |translator-last=Merle Pribbenow|jstor=j.ctt1dgn5kb|url={{GBurl|id=_WluAAAAMAAJ}}}}
• {{Cite book |last=Nalty |first=Bernard |title=The Vietnam War |publisher=Barnes and Noble |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-7607-1697-7 |location=New York}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Olson |first1=James S. |title=Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam 1945–1995 |last2=Roberts |first2=Randy |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4051-8222-5 |edition=5th |location=Malden, MA}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=Michael G. |year=2007 |title=The Case of Agent Orange |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=29 |pages=172–195 |jstor=25798819 |number=1}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Roberts |first=Anthea |year=2005 |title=The Agent Orange Case: Vietnam Ass'n for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin v. Dow Chemical Co |journal=ASIL Proceedings |volume=99 |pages=380–385 |jstor=25660031 |number=1}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Richard |year=2007 |title=Agent Orange's Bitter Harvest |journal=Science |volume=315 |issue=5809 |pages=176–179 |doi=10.1126/science.315.5809.176 |jstor=20035179 |pmid=17218503 }}
• {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodsoralhistor00terr |title=Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans |publisher=Random House |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-394-53028-4 |editor-last=Terry |editor-first=Wallace |editor-link=Wallace Terry |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book |last=Thayer |first=Thomas C. |title=War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam |publisher=Westview Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-8133-7132-0}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Tran |first1=Nu-Anh |title=Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam |date=2022 |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |url=https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/disunion-anticommunist-nationalism-and-the-making-of-the-republic-of-vietnam/ |isbn=9780824887865}}
• {{Cite book |last=Westheider |first=James E. |title=The Vietnam War |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33755-0 |location=Westport, CN}}
• {{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |title=The Tet Offensive: A Concise History |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-231-12841-4}}
• {{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |title=Vietnam War almanac |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8160-7102-9}}
• {{Cite book |last=Willbanks |first=James H. |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/28613 |title=A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-62349-117-8}}
• {{Cite book |last=Woodruff |first=Mark |title=Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of The Viet Cong and The North Vietnamese |publisher=Presidio Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-89141-866-5 |location=Arlington, VA}}

{{Refend}}

{{main|Bibliography of the Vietnam War}}

{{Sister project links|d=Q8740|n=no|species=no|voy=no|s=no|b=Modern History/Vietnam War}}

• [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm Documents Relating to American Foreign Policy–Vietnam] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813005227/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/vietnam.htm |date=13 August 2012}} primary sources on U.S. involvement
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510024439/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552505 Fallout of the War] from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160115205405/https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552494 Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20230527121849/http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Glossary/Sixties_Term_Gloss_K_P.html Glossary of Military Terms & Slang from the Vietnam War]
• [http://content.library.ccsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/VHP&CISOPTR=5558&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 Impressions of Vietnam and descriptions of the daily life of a soldier from the oral history of Elliott Gardner, U.S. Army] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430050258/http://content.library.ccsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2FVHP&CISOPTR=5558&CISOBOX=1&REC=1 |date=30 April 2011}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121024150216/http://www.gettysburg.edu/special_collections/collections/manuscripts/collections/ms044.dot Stephen H. Warner Southeast Asia Photograph Collection at Gettysburg College]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110501134722/http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=vietnam Timeline US – Vietnam (1947–2001)] in Open-Content project
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20230405190739/http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/academic/history/marshall/military/vietnam/short.history/chap_28.txt The U.S. Army in Vietnam] the official history of the United States Army
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20230604154359/https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war The Vietnam War] at The History Channel
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150127045516/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet/ UC Berkeley Library Social Activism Sound Recording Project: Anti-Vietnam War Protests]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403230616/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/timeline/ Vietnam war timeline] comprehensive timeline of the Vietnam War
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20230605064225/https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/ Virtual Vietnam Archive] – Texas Tech University
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20230331213719/https://mashable.com/archive/another-vietnam-photography 1965–1975 Another Vietnam; Unseen images of the war from the winning side] – Mashable
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20221112035456/https://openarchives.umb.edu/digital/collection/p15774coll8/search/searchterm/Vietnam%20War/field/subjec/mode/exact/conn/and/order/date Archival collections about the Vietnam War], University Archives and Special Collections, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston

{{Vietnam War|state=expanded}}

{{Vietnam War graphical timeline}}

{{Vietnam in the 20th century}}

{{Cold War}}

{{Authority control}}

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