An outline, era by era

Vietnam

independence wars, Vietnam War (to 1975)

20th Century · 1914 – 2000

Vietnam is a country on the eastern coast of mainland Southeast Asia. In the late nineteenth century France conquered it and ruled it as part of French Indochina. In the twentieth century Vietnamese nationalists and communists fought to end colonial rule. This led first to the war of independence against France (1946 to 1954) and then to the Vietnam War, in which North Vietnam and its southern allies fought South Vietnam and the United States until 1975.

The 1954 Geneva Accords divided the country at the 17th parallel, and the planned national elections never took place. The war that followed killed vast numbers of people, mostly Vietnamese, and drew in the United States, China and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It ended when North Vietnamese forces took Saigon on 30 April 1975, and the country was formally reunified in 1976. The conflict reshaped Vietnam, American politics and the way many people think about war.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. French conquest and colonial rule

    Event

    What happened

    French forces attack Da Nang in 1858 and gradually take control of Vietnam. The Treaty of Saigon in 1862 gives France three southern provinces, and the Treaty of Hue in 1884 makes the rest a protectorate. In 1887 France joins Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin, and Cambodia into French Indochina, and Laos is added in 1893.

    The rest is history

    Colonial rule produced plantations, taxes and a small educated class, and it provoked resistance of many kinds. Scholar-led movements gave way to modern nationalist parties in the early twentieth century. These movements shaped the independence struggle that followed. French rule lasted, in some form, until 1954.

    Sources

    1. BookTucker, Spencer C., ed. The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011.
    2. BookMarr, David G. Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

  2. Nationalist and communist movements form

    Event

    What happened

    In the 1920s and 1930s Vietnamese nationalists organise against French rule. In 1925 Nguyen Ai Quoc, later known as Ho Chi Minh, founds a revolutionary youth league in Guangzhou. In 1930 the Indochinese Communist Party is founded, and in 1930 and 1931 uprisings and peasant protests in central Vietnam are put down by the French. The Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD) also launches a failed uprising at Yen Bai in 1930.

    The rest is history

    The French crushed much of the early movement, but the communists survived underground and in exile. Their organisation became the core of the later independence struggle. Rival nationalist groups were weakened, which helped the communists to lead the national movement after 1941.

    Sources

    1. BookDuiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh: A Life. New York: Hyperion, 2000.
    2. BookMarr, David G. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

  3. Japanese occupation and the August Revolution

    Event

    What happened

    Japan moves troops into Indochina in 1940 and 1941, leaving the French administration in place until March 1945, when it removes it. In 1941 the Viet Minh front is founded under Ho Chi Minh. In August 1945, after Japan's surrender, Viet Minh forces seize power in Hanoi and elsewhere. On 2 September 1945 Ho Chi Minh proclaims the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi.

    The rest is history

    A severe famine in the north in 1944 and 1945 killed hundreds of thousands of people, and it fed support for the Viet Minh. France did not accept the new republic and sent forces to regain control. Negotiations failed, and fighting began in Hanoi in December 1946.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryDeclaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Proclamation by Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi, 2 September 1945.
    2. BookMarr, David G. Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

  4. The First Indochina War

    Event

    What happened

    From December 1946 the Viet Minh fight French forces and their Vietnamese allies. After the communist victory in China in 1949, the Viet Minh receive Chinese aid, while the United States increasingly pays for the French war effort. In 1953 and 1954 the French establish a base at Dien Bien Phu in the northwest. Viet Minh forces under General Vo Nguyen Giap besiege it and force its surrender on 7 May 1954.

    The rest is history

    The defeat ended French will to continue the war. A conference at Geneva then produced agreements signed in July 1954. These ended the fighting, and France withdrew from Indochina.

    Sources

    1. BookLogevall, Fredrik. Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam. New York: Random House, 2012.
    2. BookWindrow, Martin. The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2004.

  5. The Geneva Accords and the division of Vietnam

    Event

    What happened

    The agreements signed at Geneva in July 1954 set a temporary military demarcation line at the 17th parallel. Viet Minh forces regroup north of it and French Union forces south of it. The final declaration calls for national elections in 1956. The State of Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem, and the United States do not sign the declaration.

    The rest is history

    The elections were never held. Diem, backed by the United States, declared the Republic of Vietnam in 1955 after a disputed referendum. The line became a de facto border between two states, which set the stage for a second war.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryFinal Declaration of the Geneva Conference on the Problem of Restoring Peace in Indochina. Geneva, 21 July 1954.
    2. BookLogevall, Fredrik. Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam. New York: Random House, 2012.

  6. Diem's South Vietnam and the rise of insurgency

    Event

    What happened

    Ngo Dinh Diem consolidates power in the south in 1955 and 1956, with American financial and military support. His government arrests former Viet Minh members and suppresses opponents. In 1959 North Vietnam's leadership authorises armed struggle in the south. In December 1960 the National Liberation Front is formed, and its fighters are called the Viet Cong by their opponents.

    The rest is history

    The insurgency grew, and the United States raised its number of advisers from several hundred to over ten thousand by 1963. Buddhist protests in 1963 weakened Diem's standing. A military coup overthrew and killed him on 2 November 1963, and political instability followed in Saigon.

    Sources

    1. BookMoyar, Mark. Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
    2. BookElliott, David W. P. The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta, 1930-1975. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2003.

  7. Gulf of Tonkin and American escalation

    Event

    What happened

    On 2 August 1964 North Vietnamese torpedo boats attack the American destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. A second reported attack on 4 August is later widely judged not to have happened. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on 7 August, giving President Johnson wide powers. In 1965 sustained bombing of the north begins, and the first American combat troops land at Da Nang in March.

    The rest is history

    American troop numbers rose to more than 500,000 by 1968. The war became a large conventional and guerrilla conflict. The Tet Offensive of January 1968 shocked American opinion, even though it was a military defeat for the communist forces, and it helped push Johnson not to seek re-election.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryGulf of Tonkin Resolution (Southeast Asia Resolution). Joint resolution of the United States Congress, 7 August 1964.
    2. BookLogevall, Fredrik. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

  8. Paris Agreement and the fall of Saigon

    Event

    What happened

    Peace talks in Paris lead to the Paris Peace Accords, signed on 27 January 1973. American forces withdraw, and American prisoners of war are returned. Fighting between North and South continues. In spring 1975 a North Vietnamese offensive overwhelms South Vietnam's army, and tanks enter Saigon on 30 April 1975.

    The rest is history

    Vietnam was formally reunified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in July 1976. Many thousands of people were sent to re-education camps, and hundreds of thousands left the country by sea and land in the following years. The war's death toll is debated, but it is commonly put in the millions, including civilians.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryAgreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet-Nam. Signed in Paris, 27 January 1973.
    2. BookAsselin, Pierre. A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

  9. The Domino Theory

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The story goes that the United States fought in Vietnam because of the domino theory. If one Southeast Asian country fell to communism, its neighbours would fall one after another like a row of dominoes.

    The rest is history

    The image was real. President Eisenhower used the word dominoes at a press conference on 7 April 1954, and later officials repeated the idea. But it was one argument among several, alongside credibility, alliance commitments and domestic politics. After 1975 Laos and Cambodia became communist states, but Thailand, Malaysia and the others did not, so critics and defenders still disagree about whether the theory was right. Vietnam and Cambodia also fought each other in 1978 and 1979, and China invaded Vietnam in 1979.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryEisenhower, Dwight D. Press conference, 7 April 1954. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States.
    2. BookLogevall, Fredrik. Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam. New York: Random House, 2012.

  10. The Tonkin attack that never happened

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Many people believe that the war began because North Vietnam twice attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, and that the second attack was invented to justify war.

    The rest is history

    The first attack on 2 August 1964 did happen, and the Maddox was hit by a machine-gun bullet and fought off the boats. The second reported attack on 4 August almost certainly did not. Sonar and radar readings in bad weather were misread, and the crews' reports were uncertain at the time. The National Security Agency's later internal study found errors in how the signals were reported. Historians still debate how far officials knowingly misled Congress, and how far they acted on confused information in a crisis. The war was also driven by long-term policy, not by this one incident.

    Sources

    1. ArticleHanyok, Robert J. "Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964." Cryptologic Quarterly 19, no. 4 / 20, no. 1 (2001): 1-55.
    2. BookMoise, Edwin E. Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

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