the
war of Viêt Nam
The war of Viêt Nam opposed, between 1959
and 1975, Viêt liberal Nam-of-South (and its principal ally,
the United States) in communist Viêt Nam-of-North
(supported by China and the USSR). This conflict lies within
the scope of the cold war between
the United States and the USSR.
ORIGINS OF THE WAR
A country divided into two
Old French colony under the name of
Indo-China, Viêt Nam obtained its independence in 1954, at the end of a
violent war of decolonization against France (1946-1954). According to
agreements' of peace signed in Geneva in July 1954, the country is
divided into two zones, north and south, with the height of the 17 E parallel
(a line of geographical latitude). This division is supposed temporary
being, the reunification having to be done after elections
planned for the year 1956.
A zone of international tensions
However, the fracture between north and
the south are deeper. Viêt Nam-of-North, directed by communist
president Hô Chí Minh, is
supported by the great communist powers (China and the USSR). The government
of Viêt
Nam-of-South, anticommunist, for its part is supported by the Western powers (in
particular by the United States).
In 1956, the South Vietnamese president (Ngô Ðinh Diêm) refuses to give his capacity
to the ballot boxes: he is opposed to the organization elections,
principal clause of the agreements of Geneva. To reverse this dictator and to
restore the unit of the country, the Communists of the South who fought for
independence ( the Vietcong) take
the weapons in February 1959. They receive the support of the government
north-Vietnamese in their guerrilla.
UNFOLDING OF THE WAR
The support of the United States
In full cold war against the
communist world, the United States supports Viêt Nam-of-South firmly. They are
committed helping the South Vietnamese government, by providing him military
money and advisers: in December 1961, 400 Americans
unload in Viêt Nam; they are more than 11 000 the following year.
In Viêt Nam-of-South, the intolerance
and the
violence of the president-dictator gradually make pass in the opposition most of
the population (even peaceful buddhist monks). The demonstrations multiply. The
dictator is finally reversed by a coup d'etat, in December 1963. During one
year and half, political instability reigns in the South. The United States
concludes that only a direct and massive intervention of the American army can
still save the situation.
The American intervention
In August 1964, American president Lyndon
Johnson announces that the Communists of Viêt Nam-of-North have just torpedoed
two American ships posted in the gulf of Tonkin, off the coasts Vietnameses.
Although distorts (or at least exaggerated), the advertisement of the president
makes the effect of a bomb in the United States. Immediately, the Congress
(American parliament) vote the intensification of American
engagement in Viêt Nam. At the end
of the year 1965, 200 000 soldiers is deployed in Viêt Nam-of-South; at the
height of American engagement (in 1969), they are 541 000.
A conflict without mercy
In spite of their number and their
technological equipment, the American soldiers do not manage to assert
themselves on Viêt Nam. The enemy is invisible; the Vietcong
know their country perfectly. Dominating the jungle and the villages, they
receive their supply of Viêt Nam-of-North by a network of paths, called the
track Hô Chí Minh.
The Americans start a strategy of terror then:
they excavate with violence the villages in the Vietcong search of combatants
and of weapons, the tracks and the north-Vietnameses cities bombard, release
napalm (a thick gasoline which causes malformations) in the rural zones, etc.
This strategy, instead of reaching moral Vietnameses, brings a number of
villagers persecuted to help the communist combatants.
At the beginning of the year 1968, the
troops north-Vietnameses and viêt-công launch an offensive surprised on more
than one hundred of South Vietnamese cities; this operation is called the offensive of the Small fireclay cup.
They take the control of the military and administrative buildings, where they
are cut off. It is at the end of several weeks of keen combat that the
Americans take again the South Vietnamese cities.
Protests against the war
Parallel to enlisement of the American
soldiers in Viêt Nam, in the United States, the population discovers with
television the extent of the suffering which its army inflicts to the
Vietnamese people. A pacifist movement develops
and, soon, of the thousands of people start to express against this ashamed war, in
the United States and in the whole world.
Vis-a-vis this growing opposition,
president Johnson decides not to represent himself with the elections. The
dispute still develops after the arrival with the capacity of Richard Nixon, in
1969. The world learns with horror that 500 civil disarmed of the village of My Lai
was massacred by the American
soldiers the previous year. However, the new president still hardens the
American strategy in Viêt Nam: in 1970, it extends the bombardments to
Kampuchea, frontier country being used as a basis to the combatants
north-Vietnamese.
END OF THE WAR
While intensifying the bombardments on
Viêt Nam-of-North, president Nixon decides "vietnamiser" the
conflict: he starts to repatriate his troops (to save the life of its soldiers) and lets
the South Vietnamese forces play a role growing on the ground. Deprived of the
American support since 1973, Viêt Nam-of-South can nothing face the enemy
offensive. The troops of north invade the south in 1974 and obtain the final victory in April
1975. Saigon (the old capital of the South) is famous Hô Chí
Minh-City. In 1976, Viêt Nam is reunified with, at its head, a
communist mode.
Vietnamese side, the war of Viêt Nam made
2 million died (including one great number of civil) and 3 million casualties.
The final victory of the Communists caused the escape of 12 million people,
including approximately 1 million by the sea on boats of fortune: they are
called the boat people. American
side, the war made 57 000 killed and 153 300 wounded.
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