Long term causes of the Vietnam War include the long period of French colonial rule, the Japanese occupation of French Indochina during WWII, the Indochina Wars, and the division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel.
The French established the colony of French Indochina beginning in 1862. During World War II, after the fall of France, part of French Indochina was ruled by Germany and part by the Vichy French puppet government. In 1940, the Japanese occupied French Indochina.
After the defeat of the Japanese, Ho Chi Minh led an uprising and, on September 2, 1945 declared the independence of Vietnam. However, the French held Southern Vietnam (Cochinchina). From 1946 to 1954, the French fought the Communist forces trying to regain full control of their former colony; thus the Vietnam war is connected with a war of decolonization. During this time, up to 80% of the funding for the French came from the United States. Support for Ho Chi Minh’s rebels came from the USSR.
After the victory of the Chinese communists in China in 1949, the Chinese also began to provide support for the Vietnamese, while Soviet support continued. The war ended with the victory of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, following which the Geneva Accords divided the country of Vietnam at the 17th parallel. The north became the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), while the south became the Republic of Vietnam.
Short term causes of the Vietnam War (1954-75) were the failure of the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, the Cold War anti-communist stance of the United States, the “domino theory” promoted by President Eisenhower after the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu, and the Gulf of Tonkin incidents.
Ngo Dinh Diem favored Catholics over Buddhists, failed to make promised land reforms, and did not allow free elections. He also treated political opponents brutally. His government, consequently, was unpopular. The US nevertheless provided strong support for South Vietnam. By 1959, there were regular clashes between the Viet Cong (VC) and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), and Ho Chi Minh declared the DRV would use armed force to overthrow the government of Ngo Dinh Diem.
Throughout South Vietnam, Viet Cong supporters could be found forming guerrilla units in villages and even within the ARVN itself. Some of these were South Vietnamese who were among the million who had fled to North Vietnam when the country was partitioned, so they blended in easily.
The VC used guerilla tactics, which proved difficult for the ARVN to deal with as the US weapons and transports the ARVN used were not adapted to jungle combat. Also, in the late 50s, VC assassinations killed thousands of government leaders in the South. Ho Chi Minh supplied the VC, sending troops and equipment down the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos.
During the continuing struggle, the Soviets continued to provide significant support to the N. Vietnamese, sending weapons, ammunition, aircraft, radar, medicine, surface-to-air missiles and other supplies. The USSR also sent troops to Vietnam and provided training for N. Vietnamese pilots. Soviet aid may have been worth as much as $8 billion. China protested against the amount of aid that DRV was receiving from the Soviets, but also supplied weapons and material to the Vietnamese, though at a lower level than that provided by the USSR.
It was not until 1973, when ports of the DRV had been mined, that Chinese support exceeded that provided by the USSR. As many as 300,000 Chinese technical and military personnel served in Vietnam, and the Chinese investment in the war may have totalled $2 billion. The US began to escalate its involvement in 1960 and 1961 as it seemed possible that the government of South Vietnam might collapse. By 1962, there were about 9,000 US military advisors in Vietnam.
When President Johnson took office, he immediately began to increase US involvement, and advisors pushed him to make a more public commitment to the safety of South Vietnam. The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incidents provided a pretext for that involvement. The US launched an air campaign known as Rolling Thunder against the DRV. On the ground, US troops flooded into the country; by 1965 there were 200,000. To counteract the guerilla tactics of the Vietcong, the US used napalm and Agent Orange, a defoliant. Helicopters were also used extensively in combat.
The 1968 Tet Offensive by the DRV was a deviation from the usual Viet Cong tactics of engaging their enemies in short, sharp battles; it was a widespread, coordinated attack on cities and air bases throughout South Vietnam. One of the most important outcomes of the attack was the realization by the American public that the US government’s claim that the US was winning the war and the war would quickly end was untrue. However, ultimately the Tet Offensive was defeated.
In 1969, the US public learned of the My Lai Massacre (1968) in which US soldiers murdered over 500 South Vietnamese villagers; many of the women were also raped. This helped turn even more of the US populace against the war. The US began to use the draft in 1969, and the unpopularity of the war escalated. When Nixon assumed office, he secretly began bombing Cambodia. He also mined N. Vietnamese ports to reduce the flow of Soviet aid.
However, Nixon also began the process of Vietnamization — handing the war over to the South Vietnamese and withdrawing US troops. The last soldiers drafted entered the war in 1973, and that same year a peace accord was drawn up and the last US troops left Vietnam. The government of South Vietnam surrendered to the North in 1975, and the war was over; Vietnam had been reunified as a Communist country. A wave of 2 million refugees left Vietnam, some of whom found shelter in the United States.
Effects of the war for Vietnam included the deaths of 2 million civilians and about 1.35 million soldiers. Both men and women fought for the Viet Cong. The US lost 58,000 soldiers and at its peak had over 500,000 troops deployed in Vietnam. Vietnam also suffered enormous damage from the war, including the toxic legacy of the use of Agent Orange which led to many serious birth defects.
In the United States, returning Vietnam veterans were received without celebration. Some came home with serious drug and alcohol problems. The US public emerged from the Vietnam war more cynical and divided. In the US, the War Powers Act was passed to try to reduce the power of the President to engage the US in war. Over half a million young men had evaded the draft for Vietnam. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential pardon to these “draft dodgers.”
