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France occupied all of Vietnam by 1884. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when communist forces under Ho Chi Minh, who took control over the north, defeated them. Eisenhower's advisers believed that Ho Chi Minh's powerful communist-nationalist appeal might set off a geographical chain reaction. As Ho Chi Minh's government established itself in North Vietnam, Eisenhower supported a noncommunist government in South Vietnam and ordered covert operations and economic programs to prevent Ho Chi Minh from being elected the leader of a unified Vietnam. The Vietnam War was a military struggle fought in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975. It was started by the Communist guerrillas (the so-called Vietcong) in the South, whom were backed by Communist North Vietnam, in an attempt to overthrow the South Vietnam government.
Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown and killed in a coup d'etat in 1963 by his own generals causing political confusion in South Vietnam. By 1965 the Vietcong was strong enough to form main force units to fight pitched battles with the South Vietnamese army in the countryside, although not in the urban areas which stayed under Saigon government control. The security in South Vietnam continued to deteriorate putting the Communists in reach of a victory. By 1965, the US president Lyndon Johnson approved regular bombing of North Vietnam to prevent the total collapse of the Saigon regime by the dispatch of troops and marking their overt entry into the war.
United States forces landed at Da Nang and began fighting in Vietnam. On March 2 1965 the first of four phases of the air wars in Vietnam happened, along with the first sustained bombing of the United States bomb campaign against North Vietnam accord. This air was war was called Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder had three objectives; reduce the infiltration; boost South Vietnamese morale and to inform Hanoi of the ever increasing expense of a continued insurgence in the South. In Hanoi, Rolling Thunder was seen as another obstacle to overcome in the struggle to unite the North and the South under the Vietnamese rule of Ho Chi Minh followers. They would find a way to withstand the American air assault, making it too expensive for Washington to maintain.
On March 2 1965, the United States Air Force participated in Rolling Thunder for the first time, and inflicted heavy damage by large numbers of aircrafts, available at Thai bases, that accompanied b- 57 s to an ammunition depot Xom Bong. Two F- 100 D Super Sabres and three F- 105 D Thunderchiefs were destroyed. Rolling Thunder was criticized from the start that it was not too thunderous. The planning of air strikes was complex. Decisions, including low level choices, were taken thousands of miles from fighting in the Situation Room in Washington. There President Johnson could retain firm control over what attacks should be made.
The US intervention caused problems for the Communists, forcing them to continually send North Vietnamese armies to the South, but this did not deter them from the struggle. This situation was challenged in January 1968 when the Vietcong staged the bloody Tet Offensive. On the Tet holiday, the Vietcong forces went into action and launched coordinated fierce attacks on more than a 100 cities and towns over the length and breadth of South Vietnam. Despite this idea of Gay to devastate South Vietnam, and his hope that the campaign would be decisive, it failed. The Vietcong failed to capture any towns or cities and were ultimately driven back from most of the positions they had gained. In the fighting, North Vietnam lost 85, 000 of its best troops and many political officers and secret organizers for the guerillas.
Many more had been wounded or captured, and this fighting had created more than half a million civilian refugees. Tet was nothing less than a catastrophe. The Americans lost 2, 500 men in the Tet Offensive. In spite of this US victory, however, by the early spring of 1968 much of the American public had concluded that the war would not be a victory for America. The Johnson administration decided to pursue a negotiated settlement. After Ho Chi Minh died in 1969 and was succeeded by Le Duan, the new US President Nixon continued the policy of ex President Johnson and gradually withdrew US troops.
By April 1, 1975 the North Vietnamese were advancing through South Vietnam and the Americans realized Saigon would fall next. On April 1 st an Evacuation control Center was ready to evacuate American personnel and South Vietnam inhabitants. This plan was coded "Talon Vice" or "frequent Wind." The sealing was from Saigon via Van Tau. Vietnamese orphans were evacuated first by C- 141 star lifters and C- 5 Galaxies. Four days into "Baby lift" disaster hit a C- 5 flying 16 km out to sea. The C- 5 had a structural failure in its rear cargo door, which cut all the controls to the tail.
Captain Denis Tailor crash-landed the C- 5 into a paddy field where 173 survived. C- 5 fighters were suspended and C- 141 and C- 130 Hercules took over the operations. US navy task force 76 came with 3 aircraft carriers and 50 ships to help in the contingency plan of "Frequent Wind." Their efforts were unsuccessful as many aircrafts left Vietnam empty due to processing difficulties with evacuees. On April 21 st the airlift was increased. 21 C- 141 fighters and C- 130 's evacuated many people. The orphan evacuation resulted into 2 Boeing 727 's flying 470 orphans out of Vietnam. On April 29 th the defence Attache Office began the final airlift of 10, 000 passengers in 60 aircrafts.
The 2 nd aircraft just completed its landing run when rockets attacked the airfield. The 3 rd aircraft was attacked by the enemy and exploded. The 2 nd plane was the last aircraft to leave Vietnam. Due to the attack on the airfield helicopters became the only option to evacuate people. Fighters were launched as well as antiaircraft guns to protect the helicopters. On April 30 th the final evacuation began in the American embassy. 19, 000 sorties were flown during April 1975.
Only three aircrafts were lost. Those helicopters that brought US troops into Vietnam at the start of the war were the same ones that carried the last soldiers out of Vietnam 10 years later. In 1973 the United States ended its military involvement in the Vietnam War and in 1975 South Vietnam surrendered to northern forces. Thousands of Vietnamese began fleeing the country. Finally in 1976 North and South Vietnam were unified under a Communist government and Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. As a result of the more than eight years of guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, it is estimated that more than 2 million Vietnamese were killed, 3 million wounded, and hundreds of thousands of children orphaned.
Furthermore, it has been estimated that about 12 million people became refugees. Approximately 1, 218, 000 were resettled in more than 16 countries during the time period between April 1975 and July 1982. About 500, 000 people tried to flee by sea. It has been estimated that 10 to 15 percent of the people died, and those who survived faced extreme hardships and eventually immigration barriers. In the U.
S. casualties totaled 57, 685 killed and about 153, 303 wounded and at the time of the cease-fire agreement, there were 587 U. S. military and civilian prisoners of war, all of whom were subsequently released. A current unofficial estimate puts the number still unaccounted for in the neighborhood of 2, 500.
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Research essay sample on Ho Chi Minh Tet Offensive
