The twentieth century was harsh and merciless towards many countries and peoples. But even against this sad and bleak background, Vietnam can certainly be recognized as one of the states most affected by foreign aggression.
From Vietnam to Viet Cong
As soon as World War II ended, France, which suddenly found itself among the victorious powers, embarked on a new adventure. It was decided to support the shaken authority in Indochina, where the colonies conquered in the middle of the 19th century (modern Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) decided from now on to decide their fate independently.
The victory in Vietnam by the communists led by Ho Chi Minh City became an additional irritating factor.
Back in 1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt called Ho Chi Minh a patriot and freedom fighter. He promised assistance to the Vietnam Minh movement, created in 1941 on Chinese territory, while the Vichy government of Pétain at that time provided Japan with full access to the strategic resources of Vietnam, provided that the administrative apparatus of France remained in this colony. Now the Americans calmly watched the landing of the French expeditionary in South Vietnam in 1946, and from 1950 they began to actively support the French aggression against Vietnam.
The result of the 1st Indochina War, which ended only in 1954, was the division of the previously unified state into northern and southern parts - along the 17th parallel. According to the Geneva agreements concluded in July of that year, general elections were scheduled for 1956, the results of which were to determine the future of the country. However, the pro-French administration of South Vietnam refused to fulfill its part of the obligations, and already in 1957 a guerrilla war began in the South of Vietnam. In 1959, the leadership of North Vietnam decided to support the South Vietnamese partisans.
Escalating conflict
On December 20, 1960, the famous National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, better known as the Viet Cong, was created. I have heard a very offensive version of the decoding of this abbreviation - "Vietnamese monkeys" (apparently, by analogy with the movie "King Kong"). However, in fact, this is an abbreviation of the phrase "vietnam kong shan" - a vietnamese communist. The Americans then did not have any associations with monkeys, most often they called the South Vietnamese rebels "Charlie" - from the abbreviation VC ("Victor Charlie" in full).
On February 15, 1961, the National Liberation Army of South Vietnam was created. It consisted of three parts: the irregular "People's Forces" ("peasant by day, partisan by night"), detachments of regions and regions, and the Main Forces - regular troops, the number of which sometimes reached tens of thousands of people.
In 1961, the first US military formations arrived in South Vietnam (two helicopter companies and military advisers - 760 people). Since then, the number of American troops in South Vietnam has grown steadily. In 1962, their number exceeded 10,000 and reached 11,300, while the number of North Vietnamese soldiers in South Vietnam was only 4601. In 1964, there were already 23,400 American soldiers and officers in this country. And the rebels this year already controlled about 70% of the territory of South Vietnam.
In 1965 g. The United States and North Vietnam have already become full-fledged participants in the conflict, the civil war in South Vietnam has turned into a real war between the United States and the South Vietnamese army against local guerrillas and North Vietnam.
By 1968, the number of US combat units of their allies in Vietnam reached 540,000 people (including Australian, New Zealand and South Korean units). The number of South Vietnamese ground forces alone this year stood at 370,000. They were opposed by about 160,000 Viet Cong regular troops (this is the maximum number - at the height of the Viet Cong power), who were supported by up to 300,000 rebels who were part of the People's and Regional Forces.
The Soviet Union sent military advisers to Vietnam, whose main task was to familiarize local servicemen with military equipment, their training and education. The total number of Soviet specialists for all the years of the war was: 6359 officers (there were generals) and more than 4.5 thousand soldiers and sergeants.
Cuba, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria also provided a small number of instructors. China sent auxiliary troops numbering from 30 to 50 thousand people (in different years), which did not take part in hostilities, being engaged in the construction and restoration of facilities of strategic importance.
Despite such a clear superiority both in the number of troops and in their weapons, the armies of the United States and South Vietnam could not achieve victory. But the commander of the American forces, General William Westmoreland, was optimistic, believing that his subordinates were killing the rebels faster than they could replenish their ranks. At the end of 1967, Westmoreland even declared that he "sees the light at the end of the tunnel."
However, in reality, neither large-scale barbaric bombing, nor constant, no less barbaric, "cleansing" of areas suspected of helping the partisans yielded no results. Often, on the contrary, they had negative consequences, angering until then the relatively loyal local population.
The Viet Cong's morale was not broken. The leaders of North Vietnam, relying on the assistance of the USSR and the PRC, did not reckon with losses, and were ready to continue the struggle for the unity of the country.
Offensive "Tet"
For 1968, the leadership of North Vietnam planned a large-scale offensive in the South. The leaders of the moderate wing, supported by the USSR, were against this operation, they tended to conclude peace in order to try to build socialism in the north of the country under their control. However, the pro-Chinese-minded members of the DRV leadership insisted on the implementation of a plan called "General offensive - general uprising." The South Vietnamese rebels during this operation were to be supported by the troops of North Vietnam. At the suggestion of the Minister of War of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Vo Nguyen Giap, it was decided to strike at the US bases and military facilities of its allies during the celebration of the Vietnamese New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan - "First Morning Holiday") - from January 20 to February 19 according to the European calendar. The calculation was that many servicemen of the South Vietnamese army would go on short-term vacations at this time. In addition, the political component of this offensive was taken into account - on the eve of the next presidential elections in the United States. But the main hopes, of course, were associated with the general uprising of the population of the South of the country and the demoralization of the government army, which, according to the plan of the DRV leadership, was to partly scatter, partly to go over to the side of the winners.
General Nguyen Ti Thanh suggested attacking the Americans "with sabers bald" - literally sweeping all their strongholds off the ground, throwing the proud and arrogant "Yankees" into the sea. But Vo Nguyen Giap did not want to involve the regular troops of North Vietnam in a direct and open confrontation with the US army, rightly believing that the Americans would inflict catastrophic defeats on them with air strikes. He was a supporter of the "infiltration" of the South with relatively small military "units" that would act in close contact with the local rebels. Ziap's point of view prevailed.
Ziap had every reason to suspect that preparations for such a large-scale operation would not go unnoticed by the enemy. And therefore, at the beginning, on January 21, DRV troops attacked the American Marines base in Khe Sanh, drawing on a significant amount of US reserves. And on January 30, attacks were carried out on government targets in 6 provincial cities. The Americans and the leaders of South Vietnam, who really received information about the impending offensive from their agents in the Viet Cong leadership, easily repulsed the attacks in these cities, and, as they say, sighed with relief, deciding that it was all over.
However, there is another point of view, according to which the commanders of these units were simply not warned about the postponement of the operation to another date, as a result of which the attackers suffered heavy losses.
One way or another, on January 31, 1968, rebels and soldiers of the regular army of the DRV (the total number of attackers in various sources is estimated from 70 to 84 thousand people) struck targets in 54 capitals of districts, 36 capitals of provinces and 5 (out of 6) cities of central subordination … At the same time, mortars, artillery, and even light tanks were actively used.
In the center of Saigon, up to 4,000 partisans operated, one of the targets of their attack was the US Embassy: the battle for it lasted 6 hours. The leadership of the attackers clearly underestimated the political effect of the seizure of the American embassy, and only 20 fighters were sent to storm it, which were opposed by 7 guards.
As a result, the Americans managed to fight back with the help of the reserve units that arrived in time. However, even this unsuccessful attack made a very strong impression on everyone in the United States.
Stubborn fighting in the provinces continued until February 21, and ended in the defeat of the Viet Cong and the troops of the DRV. The rebels in a number of cities fought to the end, without even trying to retreat, as a result, many of their units were practically destroyed. The Americans even decided to attack the central regions of Saigon from the air. Only in the city of Hue (the former capital of Vietnam), where the partisans were massively supported by local residents, the fighting continued until March 2.
In the battles for this city, the Americans actively used aviation, and even the destroyer McCormick, which supported their units with its artillery. The casualties of the attackers amounted to at least 5,000 people.
But the result of the battle for the American Khesan Marine Corps Base can be considered a victory for the regular army of the DRV. Several divisions of North Vietnam besieged Khe Sanh and continuously attacked it for six months. They failed to capture the base, but the Americans themselves left it, having previously destroyed the warehouses and defensive positions.
Military results of operation "Tet"
Thus, as predicted by the leaders of the moderate wing of the DRV, the offensive operation in South Vietnam ended in almost disaster: the most combat-ready Viet Cong formations were defeated, the regular units of the North Vietnamese army suffered huge losses: according to the United States, the number of Viet Cong deaths exceeded 30,000, about 5 000 were taken prisoner. In 1969, Nguyen Vo Giap, in an interview with the journalist Oriana Fallaci, admitted that these figures are close to reality. Many top leaders of the Viet Cong were also killed, which now, left without recognized leaders, has come under the full control of the Politburo of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
In the course of this campaign, the Americans lost 9,078 people killed, 1,530 missing and captured, the servicemen of South Vietnam - 11,000. But the South Vietnamese army did not flee from its positions and did not crumble under the blows, there was no mass civil uprising. Moreover, the repressions against local residents who collaborated with the government of South Vietnam (almost three thousand people were shot in Hue alone) undermined the authority and position of the Viet Cong. However, the American servicemen and soldiers of the government units of South Vietnam treated the citizens suspected of sympathizing with the "communists" at least no less cruelly. It was then, on March 16, 1968, that the soldiers of the American company "Charlie" burned down the notorious village of Songmi, killing 173 children, 183 women (17 of them were pregnant) and 149 men, mostly old people (502 in total) in it and in the surrounding villages.).
Unexpected victory of the Viet Cong and the DRV army in the USA
However, after losing in South Vietnam, the rebels and the FER army unexpectedly won a strategic victory in the United States. The Americans were shocked by both the losses and, all of a sudden, the very sad prospects of a further war. The footage of the storming of the American embassy, the words of one of the officers that the Vietnamese city of Benche “had to be destroyed to save it,” numerous photographs of the executions of civilians literally blew up the civil society of the United States.
South Vietnamese police general Nguyen Ngoc Loan shoots a Vietcong prisoner. Eddie Adams, who took this photo, later said, "The general killed the Vietcong, and I killed the general with my camera." Nguyen Ngoc Loan immigrated to the United States after the defeat of South Vietnam, where he opened a diner in Virginia. Eddie Adams turned down the Pulitzer Prize after learning that the shot Nguyen Van Lem had previously killed several dozen police officers in Saigon.
The evidence that US combat losses in Vietnam by April 1968 exceeded those suffered in Korea was like a cold soul. And some journalists compared the losses during the Vietnamese offensive "Tet" to the Pearl Harbor disaster. To further exacerbate the situation, Westmoreland's demand to send 206,000 new soldiers to Vietnam to continue the war (108,000 of them not later than May 1, 1968), and to call up 400,000 reservists into the army (February 24, 1968 was approved by General Earl D. Wheeler, head of the Joint Command). As a result, Westmoreland did not wait for replenishments, instead it was recalled from Vietnam on March 22 of the same year.
It was then that protests against the Vietnam War became widespread - especially among youths of military age. A total of 125,000 young Americans immigrated to Canada to avoid serving in the US Army. As a result, President Lyndon Johnson announced an end to the bombing of North Vietnam and refused to re-run for election. US Secretary of War Robert McNamara was forced to resign.
On May 10, 1968, negotiations on a ceasefire in South Vietnam began in Paris, which ended only on January 27, 1973. The unabated anti-war protests in the United States and other countries were an alarming background for them. For example, on August 28, 1968, in Chicago during the congress of the US Democratic Party, mass clashes between antiwar demonstrators and the police took place.
On November 5, Richard Nixon was elected the new president, who declared the conclusion of an "honorable peace in Vietnam" as one of his main goals. Keeping his promises, he embarked on a course of "Vietnamizing" the war (replacing American combat units with South Vietnamese ones and reducing the US military presence in this country).
In March 1969, "hypanuli" John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who for 7 days posed for journalists, lying on a bed in room 1472 of the Montreal Queen Elizabeth Hotel. Later they repeated their "anti-war feat" in Amsterdam. On October 15, 1969, Lennon's song Give Peace a Chance was sung simultaneously by over half a million people at a demonstration in Washington.
But withdrawing troops is much more difficult than bringing them in. And therefore, the Vietnam War of the United States continued for several more years. Only in 1973 did the last American soldier leave Vietnam.
But the US continued to support the South Vietnamese government until April 30, 1975, when Saigon fell.
Moreover, the Vietnam War also spread to Laos and Cambodia, the territory of which North Vietnam used for the transfer of "humanitarian aid" and military units to the south. In 1970, Americans who wanted an "honorable peace" with the DRV also entered Cambodia, which in the long term led to the establishment of the dictatorship of Pol Pot and the "Khmer Rouge" in this country. The unified Vietnam had to overthrow Pol Pot in 1978-1979.
