The Vietnam War: History in an Hour. Neil Smith
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THE VIETNAM WAR
History in an Hour
Neil Smith
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
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First published by HarperPress in 2012
Copyright © Neil Smith 2012
Series editor: Rupert Colley
IN AN HOUR ® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Cover image © Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
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Ebook Edition © MAY 2013 ISBN: 9780007485178
Version: 2017-03-08
History in an Hour is a series of ebooks to help the reader learn the basic facts of a given subject area. Everything you need to know is presented in a straightforward narrative and in chronological order. No embedded links to divert your attention, nor a daunting book of 600 pages with a 35-page introduction. Just straight in, to the point, sixty minutes, done. Then, having absorbed the basics, you may feel inspired to explore further. Give yourself sixty minutes and see what you can learn . . .
To find out more visit www.historyinanhour.com or follow us on twitter: twitter.com/historyinanhour
Contents
About History in an Hour
Introduction
The First Indochina War and the End of French Rule
Eisenhower and Vietnam
Building South Vietnam, 1954–63
JFK and US Escalation
Lyndon Johnson: From Assassination to Americanization
The Tet Offensive
Nixon: Peace with Honour?
US Military Strategy
Domestic Opposition to the War
North Vietnam and the Viet Cong
Appendix 1: Key Players
Appendix 2: Timeline of the Vietnam War
Copyright
Got Another Hour?
The Vietnam War was the most traumatic military experience which the United States has been involved in – in spite of the ongoing engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. Vietnam was a conflict which cost the US almost 60,000 lives and destroyed two presidencies. It provoked such unrest at home that anti-war protestors were killed on university campuses, and Congress was forced to limit the executive branch from taking future military action without approval from the legislature. The impact on South East Asia was even greater. While the actual number of Vietnamese deaths is disputed, up to four million Vietnamese died during the conflict, and the resulting political and military upheaval triggered communist revolutions in Laos and Cambodia. Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand all provided troops to support the US war effort.
Vietnam is a narrow, ‘S-shaped’ country running for 2,000 km between China and the Gulf of Tonkin in the north, to the South China Sea in the south; Laos and Cambodia lie to the west. Most of Vietnam is mountainous, with a long chain of forested mountains running down the centre and western side. Large areas of flat and fertile land lies in the south, centred around the capital city Hanoi and in the Mekong Delta in the south. The latter is the food bowl of the nation, producing three rice crops a year.
Map of Vietnam
US National Archives and Records Administration, (NARA)
French Indochina was formed initially from modern-day Vietnam and Cambodia; Laos was added in 1893. Life under French rule was largely grim, with brutal treatment meted out to any groups attempting to assert Vietnamese independence, and an eclectic range of opposition groups emerged. The Vietnamese Communist Party was formed in February 1930, and although it had suffered periods of repression and exile, by the start of the Second World War, it had assumed a place at the forefront of resistance to Imperial rule in Indochina.
During the Second World War, the country was occupied by the Japanese. They allowed the French to maintain control of their colony, thus inflicting what the nationalist Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh later described as a double yoke of Imperialism on the people. At the end of the war, Ho Chi Minh declared the creation of an independent Vietnamese state; something which the French, with British and US support would not tolerate. Between 1946–54 the First Indochina War was fought between Ho’s ‘Viet Minh’ (League for the Independence of Vietnam) and the French. After the French defeat at Dien bien phu in 1954, the country was partitioned and an anti-communist State was formed in the south. Propped up by the US, whose involvement grew steadily during 1954–65, to the point where it assumed responsibility for the war against the communist insurgents. In spite of an immense military campaign, the US withdrew its forces from Vietnam in 1973, having failed to defeat the Communists, and having failed to create a strong, stable State in the South. Within two years, Vietnam would be once again unified, but under the control of Hanoi.
This, in an hour, is the history of the Vietnam War.