In 1877, France colonized the land in southeast Asia now known as Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. With this occupation came Catholicism, Western Culture, and some economic growth and industrialization. It also brought about a movement of groups of the local population to seek a removal of these Western influences. Here is a timeline of pertinent events that occurred to that end.
The Paris Peace Accords of 1919: After the armistice that stopped the fighting in the First World War, the victorious powers convened in Paris to debate and negotiate what would become the peace agreement that ended the war. They hosted a large number of dignitaries from many parts of the world along with numerous other political chieftains who sought a stake in the outcome. One of these other politicians was Ho Chi Minh, who had traveled to Paris from his country, French Indochina, to try to gain independence from France. No official from France even bothered to respond to his request, and the only political party that would even listen to him were the Communists. They sent Ho to Russia to learn about communism and then to China to meet the leaders of the Chinese Communist movement. Ho was not necessarily looking for a communist political dogma, but he became a communist as a result of their support.
The Potsdam Agreements of 1945: At the end of World War II in Europe, the victorious powers met in Potsdam, Germany, to redraw the map of Europe and tie up loose ends from the war. One of those loose ends that found it’s way to the finish line at Potsdam was the partitioning of French Indochina along the sixteenth parallel. This permitted the Chinese Nationalists to accept the surrender of the occupying Japanese in the north, and the British to do the same in the south. The French, weakened by the occupation of France by the Germans and Indochina by the Japanese during the war, were able to re-establish their authority throughout the region. However, the partitioning of Indochina at Potsdam set the precedent of Chinese influence over the industrialized North, and Western influence over the agriculturally based South. In 1949, the Chinese Nationalist influence gave way to the Chinese Communists.
The Truman Doctrine: In 1947 U.S. President Harry S. Truman established what came to be known as the “Truman Doctrine” in a speech to Congress while seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, who were dealing with communist uprisings. The policy was composed of the principle that the U.S. should provide aid to any country faced with a communist takeover. Both Greece and Turkey were able to fend off the communist takeovers, but the doctrine remained in place and provoked communist countries into dragging the parts of the world into what became the “Cold War.”
The Fall of French Colonialism—Dien Bien Phu: Shortly after Japan’s surrender in World War II, Ho Chin Minh declared Vietnam’s independence from France with a document that had a serious resemblance to the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. The French rejected the idea and bolstered their military forces to defend against any revolution by the Vietnamese, abandoning any interest in the remainder of Indochina that included Laos, and Cambodia. Lacking a formidable military to oppose the French, Ho Chi Minh’s party and followers resorted to a protracted guerilla war based upon what he learned from the Chinese Communists. The fighting carried on for several years until it came to a head at the battle of Dien Bien Phu, with the French army’s surrender in May, 1954.
The 1954 Geneva Accords: The Geneva Conference in May of 1954, was convened to bring about settlements to both the Korean War, and the French Occupation of Indochina. In both places agreement was reached to extend the partitioning between north and south with the proviso that elections would be held to determine how both territories would become unified. It was the issue of how the elections would be conducted and under whose auspices that the various parties failed to agree upon. The partition in Vietnam was adjusted to the 17th parallel, and there was no partitioning for Laos or Cambodia. The State of Vietnam (South Vietnam) had Ngo Dinh Diem as Prime Minister, and he refused to allow elections in South Vietnam creating a major cause of the upcoming civil war.
The Coup That Ousted Ngo Dinh Diem: The rise of Ngo Dinh Diem to the helm in South Vietnam brought an anti-communist leader to oppose Ho Chi Minh. However, Ngo Dinh Diem was Catholic, and gave preferential treatment to Catholics in government, business, and economic matters. This caused a major migration of Catholics from the North to the South, and created an alienation with the Buddhist majority. Several Buddhist monks took out their frustration by setting themselves on fire in public. Ngo Dinh Diem further often employed the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) for his personal use and not necessarily to oppose the Viet Cong, or the military wing of Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh party. In early November, 1963, the ARVN overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem and assassinated him. In the ensuing two years, serious turmoil in the central government took place preventing an orderly succession into power.
The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: U.S. President John F. Kennedy favored moderate action to support South Vietnam in its war with the North. His aid included weapons and much in the way of war materiel, but did not include sending ground troops other than in an advisory (non-combat) capacity. His argument was that he would support South Vietnam, but it was their war to fight and not the U.S.’s. On November 22, 1963, just a few weeks after the assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, Kennedy himself was assassinated. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, was more supportive of the war effort in Vietnam, and showed willingness to expand U.S. involvement.
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: To send U.S. troops to Vietnam, President Johnson would need the support of Congress, but he did not want a Declaration of War, as the idea would not set well with Congress without some sort of causative factor. On August 2, 1964, the destroyer USS Maddox was attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, by Vietnamese motor torpedo boats. Two days later there was another similar attack. The damage to the Maddox was very slight and there were no casualties, but this gave Johnson the causative factor he was looking for. On August 7, Johnson addressed both houses of Congress with the complaint that U.S. warships had been attacked in international waters. He failed however to mention that the Maddox was in fact in disputed territorial waters supporting a covert espionage mission by U.S. torpedo boats. The resolution passed giving Johnson essentially a blank check to retaliate against North Vietnam. This “retaliation” eventually included sending an army of over 500,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of warplanes to virtually take over the fighting of the South’s civil war with the North.
The 1968 Tet Offensive: The fighting in Vietnam seemed to be getting nowhere, and as the death toll rose for U.S. troops the protests and demonstrations against the war increased in U.S. cities, and particularly on college campuses. The Johnson government reassured the public about the prescribed outcome being near at hand until January 30, 1968, when combined Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces launched a series of surprise attacks against ARVN, U.S., and other allied forces. Known simply as the “Tet Offensive,” the attacks took place in the southern portion of Vietnam, especially in and around Saigon. After a time, the attacking forces were repelled in what turned out to be a major military setback. However, the extent of the attack, and the fact that it was a complete surprise to the U.S. high command rendered a major loss of confidence of the overall war effort on the part of the American public. Commanding General William Westmoreland’s response in the final analysis was to bring over more troops—as many as 200,000 more, and this upset large portions of the American public even more.
Lyndon Johnson Refuses Re-election: As the military situation in Vietnam worsened, President Johnson declined to run for re-election. After a tumultuous political campaign, Richard Nixon became the next president and sought out ways to end the war. The Nixon Administration began to turn responsibility for the ground fighting over to the South Vietnamese Government and the ARVN in a process known as “Vietnamization.” Within a short time after taking office, Nixon began winding down the U.S. involvement by pulling troops out of the area. The fighting continued, but there were very few clashes that took place on the same scale as the fighting from 1965 to 1968. Peace negotiations also dragged on, as it appeared that the North Vietnamese would be unwilling to negotiate something that they believed they would gain in its entirety by holding out. Eventually, a shaky peace was achieved permitting a pullout of all U.S. combat troops, an end to strategic bombing, and a return of U.S. prisoners in 1973.
The Fall of Saigon: As U.S. forces withdrew, the pressure rose on the ARVN to perform well and preserve the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Through many official circles in the U.S. there was privately a great concern if the ARVN could stand up by itself to the insurgency of the north. After many years of training and supplying the ARVN to fight, a two-year wait took place with relative calm. Then in January, 1975, the North Vietnamese forces made their final move. Expecting a two-year campaign, they discovered that the ARVN collapsed with relatively little resistance. Top South Vietnamese military leaders and government officials began evacuating in front of the now rapidly advancing NVA. This evacuation became more chaotic until April 30, 1975, when NVA troops reached Saigon, and the South Vietnamese government collapsed.
Conclusions: I have always believed that Ho Chi Minh was basically a nationalist that only wanted to remove foreign occupation from his country. He became a communist because they were the only ones who would even listen to him in Paris in 1919. Perhaps as many as 3,500,000 Vietnamese were killed in the war that lasted with some intervals for 10,000 days, or over twenty-seven years. It makes me wonder if Ho had found some political support in Paris other than communism, would most of those deaths, and nearly 60,000 U.S. fatalities, been avoided.
Sources: History.com, Vietnam War Timeline, September 13, 2017 to December
12, 2022.
History.com, 6 Events That Laid the Groundwork for the Vietnam War,
Jessica Pearce Rotondi, August 20, 2022.
Wikipedia, Vietnam.
Very interesting article Dave – I especially like the wide variety of topics you cover.
Thanks, Russ. A lot of people who lived during the era don’t realize that the effort by Vietnamese to gain independence began way back in 1919.