Summary of The Vietnam War
Summary of The Vietnam War
Summary of The Vietnam War
Causes:
The Vietnam War first began in 1959, five years after the division of the country by
the Geneva Accords. Vietnam had been split into two, with a communist
government in the north under Ho Chi Minh and a democratic government in the
south under Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho launched a guerilla campaign in South Vietnam, led
by Viet Cong units, with the goal of uniting the country under communist rule. The
United States, seeking to stop the spread of communism, trained the Army of the
Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and provided military advisors to help combat the
guerillas.
Following these defeats, the North Vietnamese avoided fighting conventional battles
and focused on engaging US troops in small unit actions in the sweltering jungles of
South Vietnam. In January 1968, the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong launched
the massive Tet Offensive. Beginning with an assault on US Marines at Khe Sanh,
the offensive included attacks by the Viet Cong on cities throughout South Vietnam.
Though the North Vietnamese were beaten back with heavy casualties, Tet shook
the confidence of the American people and media who had thought the war was
going well.
Vietnamization:
As a result of Tet, President Lyndon Johnson opted not to run for reelection and was
succeeded by Richard Nixon. Nixon's plan for ending US involvement was to build
up the ARVN so that they could fight the war themselves. As this process of
Vietnamization began, US troops started to return home. The mistrust of the
government that had begun after Tet worsened with the release of news about US
soldiers massacring civilians at My Lai (1969), the invasion of Cambodia (1970), and
the leaking of the Pentagon Papers (1971). Vietnamization of the Vietnam War
Casualties:
United States: 58,119 killed, 153,303 wounded, 1,948 missing in action
South Vietnam 230,000 killed and 1,169,763 wounded (estimated)
North Vietnam 1,100,000 killed in action (estimated) and an unknown number of
wounded