The Vietnam Story
Part II
After 1965 U.S. involvement in the war escalated rapidly in response both to
the growing strength of the Viet Cong (who had 35,000 troops in South Vietnam by
1964) and to the incapacity of the ARVN to suppress the Viet Cong on its own,
even with a total force of 400,000 men. The United States became more involved
in the war not only to maintain the independence of South Vietnam but also to
retain the United States' credibility with other allied nations who depended on
its help to resist communist aggression or subversion.
On the night of Feb. 7, 1965, the Viet Cong attacked the U.S. base at Pleiku,
killing 8 soldiers and wounding 126 more. Johnson in response ordered another
reprisal bombing of North Vietnam. Three days later the Viet Cong raided another
U.S. military installation at Qui Nhon, and Johnson ordered more aerial attacks
against Hanoi. On March 6, two battalions of Marines landed on the beaches near
Da Nang to relieve that beleaguered city. By June 50,000 U.S. troops had arrived
to fight with the ARVN. Small contingents of the North Vietnamese army began
fighting with the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, which they reached via the Ho Chi
Minh Trail west of the Cambodian border.
The government in Saigon was now headed by Air Vice-Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky,
but he was unable to check the rapidly deteriorating military situation. NLF
forces were gaining control of more and more areas of the countryside, and a
communist victory seemed imminent. President Johnson's response was to pledge
the United States to defend South Vietnam and to send more troops. By the end of
1965, 180,000 Americans were serving in South Vietnam under the command of
General William C. Westmoreland.
After mid-1966 the United States and the ARVN initiated a series of new
tactics in their intensifying counterinsurgency effort, but their efforts to
drive the Viet Cong from the countryside and separate them from their civilian
supporters were only partly successful. The U.S. troops depended heavily on
superior firepower and on helicopters for rapid deployment into targeted rural
areas. The Viet Cong depended on stealth, concealment, and surprise attacks and
ambushes.
U.S. troop strength in South Vietnam rose to 389,000 men in 1967, but,
despite their sophisticated weapons, the Americans could not eradicate the
skillful and determined insurgents. More North Vietnamese troops arrived to
bolster the NLF forces in the South. A presidential election, in which all
candidates who favoured negotiating with the NLF were banned, was held in South
Vietnam in September, and General Nguyen Van Thieu became president, with Ky as
vice president.
On Jan. 30, 1968, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched a massive
surprise offensive during the Tet (lunar new year) Vietnamese festival. They
attacked 36 major South Vietnamese cities and towns. The fighting at this time
was especially fierce in Saigon and in the city of Hue, which the NLF held for
several weeks. The NLF suffered heavy losses (33,000 killed) in the Tet
Offensive, and the ranks of the Viet Cong were so decimated by the fighting
that, from 1968 on, the majority of the insurgents in South Vietnam were
actually North Vietnamese soldiers who had infiltrated into the South. Although
the general uprising that the NLF had expected in support had not materialized,
the offensive had an important strategic effect, because it convinced a number
of Americans that, contrary to their government's claims, the insurgency in
South Vietnam could not be crushed and the war would continue for years to come.
In the United States, sentiment against U.S. participation in the war mounted
steadily from 1967 on and expressed itself in peace marches, demonstrations, and
acts of civil disobedience. Growing numbers of politicians and ordinary citizens
began to question whether the U.S. war effort could succeed and even whether it
was morally justifiable in a conflict that some interpreted as a Vietnamese
civil war.
General Westmoreland requested more troops in order to widen the war after
the Tet Offensive, but the shifting balance of American public opinion now
favoured "de-escalation" of the conflict. On March 31, 1968, President
Johnson announced in a television address that bombing north of the 20th
parallel would be stopped and that he would not seek reelection to the
presidency in the fall. Hanoi responded to the decreased bombing by
de-escalating its insurgency efforts, and in October Johnson ordered a total
bombing halt. During the interim the United States and Hanoi had agreed to begin
preliminary peace talks in Paris, and General Creighton Abrams became the new
commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam.
During 1969, action in South Vietnam tended to be scattered and limited, and
the infiltration of North Vietnamese decreased markedly until late fall. In June
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and President Thieu announced the first
withdrawal of 25,000 U.S. troops from South Vietnam. At that time there were
more than 540,000 U.S. military personnel in Vietnam. The United States
instituted a program of "Vietnamization," whereby the South Vietnamese
would gradually assume all military responsibilities for their defense while
being copiously supplied with U.S. arms, equipment, air support, and economic
aid. U.S. commanders in the field were instructed to keep casualties to "an
absolute minimum," and losses decreased appreciably. In Paris the peace
talks dragged on, but South Vietnam did eventually agree to negotiate directly
with the NLF and the North Vietnamese.
The war in Southeast Asia expanded during the spring of 1970 when U.S. and
ARVN troops invaded border sectors of Cambodia in order to destroy North
Vietnamese sanctuaries and staging areas. U.S. planes bombed northern Laos,
where sizable North Vietnamese forces were fighting with the pro-communist
Pathet Lao ("Lao Country") against the U.S.-supported Vientiane
government troops. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was the constant target of B-52
bombers. The expansion of the fighting into Cambodia sparked a new wave of
antiwar demonstrations and protests in the United States. By late 1970 the
number of U.S. military personnel in South Vietnam had been reduced to 335,000.
The gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam proceeded as announced,
but the peace talks remained stalemated. By the end of 1971 the South Vietnamese
had accepted responsibility for all fighting on the ground, although they still
depended on U.S. air support. The number of U.S. military personnel in South
Vietnam had dropped to 160,000.
In March 1972 the North Vietnamese invaded the DMZ and captured Quang Tri
province. President Nixon responded by ordering the mining of Haiphong and other
North Vietnamese ports and an intense bombing of the North. Peace talks resumed
in July, but the talks broke down in mid-December with each side accusing the
other of bargaining in bad faith. Hanoi and other North Vietnamese cities were
then subjected to 11 days of intensive U.S. bombing.
The talks started again in Paris and resulted on Jan. 27, 1973, in an
agreement between the South Vietnamese communist forces, North Vietnam, South
Vietnam, and the United States. A cease-fire would go into effect the following
morning throughout North and South Vietnam, all U.S. forces would be withdrawn
and all its bases dismantled, all prisoners of war would be released, an
international force would keep the peace, the South Vietnamese would have the
right to determine their own future, and North Vietnamese troops could remain in
the South but would not be reinforced. The 17th parallel would remain the
dividing line until the country could be reunited by "peaceful means."
This pact was augmented by a second 14-point accord signed in June. In August
the U.S. Congress proscribed any further U.S. military activity in Indochina. By
the end of 1973 there were few U.S. military personnel left in South Vietnam.