The Vietnam War: causes, impacts, and historical significance

¶ … Vietnam War which was a legacy of the inability of the French to suppress the nationalist movement in Indochina. The article contains five references.

The Vietnam War was a legacy of the inability of the French to suppress the nationalist movement in Indochina and the colonial power had been struggling to restore its dominion after the Second World War. In 1954, France was ousted from Indochina after a communist-dominated revolutionary movement led by Ho Chi Minh frustrated the French attempts to maintain their presence in Indochina. Vietnam was divided into two parts. North Vietnam had a communist government led by Ho Chi Minh while South Vietnam had an anti-communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

The involvement of the United States in Vietnam was a result of the desire to contain communism and to contain China after its intervention against the United Nations in Korea. The war of liberation from France in Vietnam was fought with Chinese and Soviet arms and using Chinese doctrine of revolutionary warfare indicating that there were Chinese advisors and support in Vietnam. In order to suppress the spread of communism, the United States of America sided with South Vietnam and its anti-communist government. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

South Vietnam faced a major communist threat consisting of an internal communist led military insurgency within its borders and the military of the North Vietnam across its borders. United States engaged in a major military conflict in Asia in order to prop up the government of South Vietnam against communist threats and the major action started after there were limited attacks on American warships visiting Vietnam carried out by the North Vietnamese. [FAS 2003]

The United States faced the PAVN or the Peoples Army of Vietnam which was the world's third largest after the armies of Soviet Union and China. The PAVN differed from the other armies as it had a political party within itself and was formed as a result of the efforts of a 32-year-old Hanoi teacher who was later to emerge as General Vo Nguyen Giap and other middle class Vietnamese calling themselves the Armed Propaganda Team, hidden in the China Vietnam Border Mountains in the last days of the Second World War. [FAS 2003]

The Vietnam War lasted a long time and its major time frames can be listed as shown:

Early 1958 to late 1960 Revolutionary War Preparation

1961 to late 1964 Revolutionary Guerrilla War

Early 1965 to mid-1968 Regular Force Strategy

Late 1968 to Easter 1972 Neo-Revolutionary Guerilla War

Summer 1972 to end of war High Technology Regular Force Strategy

The military strategy practiced against the Americans by the Army of North Vietnam beginning in 1965 is called the Regular Force Strategy and was an attempt to bypass the advantages that the Americans enjoyed in terms of massive men and massive firepower. [FAS 2003]

The North Vietnamese tactics consisted of "independent fighting method" consisting of mounting dozens of small-scale actions, no single one being important but raising anxiety and destroying self-confidence. These small scale actions also included an occasional block buster called "coordinated fighting" against important targets. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

The strategy of the United States in the war was to attempt to break down the enemy by massive use of air power, naval power and bombing combined with use of armor and helicopter gun ships. Agent Orange and PTSD were also widely used in the war. A total army of 500,000 men was fielded against the North Vietnamese. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

In spite of all this, the United States and its military allies South Vietnam and Australia suffered a defeat and Saigon fell to the Northern forces. The Vietnam War was one in which the United States Army was constrained from winning because of the disregard for the established rules of warfare and a desire by the top leadership not to go all out to win. The American forces were not permitted to operate against some targets in North Vietnam and the enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia and Laos. [FAS 2003]

As the United States commitment to the region escalated, so did the commitment of Communist China to prop up the regime in North Vietnam and the United States did not want a direct conflict as the Chinese had already demonstrated their resolve to take on the United Nations Forces by their involvement in North Korea. [Vietnam War Internet Project 2003]

There were diplomatic efforts by President Lyndon B. Johnson to stop the war and Ho Chi Minh was asked to negotiate terms of cease fire when the anti-war movement in the United States gained momentum. The Northern conditions for an end to war were firm that they wanted the Americans out of Vietnam and the whole Vietnam to be one. [Summers 1995]