Vietnam War (1954–1975)

Conflict in Southeast Asia that became the longest war in U.S. history, which took the lives of 58,000 Americans and ended with the unification of Vietnam in 1975. The Vietnam War grew out of a long conflict with France over its colonial rule of Vietnam and Cold War tensions following the Korean War (1951–1953).

Background

After the Vietnamese nationalist guerillas known as the Vietminh defeated French colonial forces at Diem Bien Phu in 1954, the French sued for peace. The Geneva Peace Accord, signed by Vietnam and France in the summer of 1954, temporarily divided the Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam in half at the 17th parallel. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) was led by Ho Chi Minh, whose forces had defeated the French. Ngo Dinh Diem was the president of the Republic of South Vietnam.

The Geneva Accord provided that elections be held in 1956 for the unification of the country. However, Diem canceled the elections when it became apparent that the communists would win. In so doing, Diem ensured the continued division of the country. However, approximately 10,000 communist troops remained in hiding in the South. These insurgents, called the Vietcong, became masters of guerilla warfare, which escalated after the cancellation of the elections. By 1960, despite U.S. aid and advisers sent by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Vietcong had established a political organization in the South called the National Liberation Front.

In 1961, concerned about South Vietnam falling under a communist regime and still stinging from the Korean War, the United States signed a military and economic aid agreement with Diem's government. The first U.S. support troops landed in South Vietnam later that year, and the U.S. Military Assistance Command was established in 1962.

Meanwhile, Diem faced stiff opposition in the South. He used the CIA to identify his enemies and he arrested thousands of people. Diem convinced the United States to support his counterrevolutionary government by claiming that the North Vietnamese communists wanted to invade the South. In 1959, Diem passed Law 10/59, which made it legal to hold suspected communists in jail without bringing charges. Students, intellectuals, Buddhists, and others opposed Diem's repressive policies and joined the National Liberation Front. Diem represented his government to be a peace-loving democracy, whereas the communists sought to reunite the country through elections.

In November 1963, following years of growing dissatisfaction with his corrupt and ineffectual government, Diem was executed following a successful coup by elements of the South Vietnamese military led by Duong Van Minh. The leadership of South Vietnam remained in flux for the next few years as U.S. aid increased.

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Early in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his military advisers developed a detailed plan to launch major attacks on North Vietnam, which supported and supplied the Vietcong insurgents in the South. [Page 793]Johnson and his advisers feared they lacked public support for expanding the war and were concerned about provoking North Vietnam's communist allies, the Soviet Union and China.

On August 2, 1964, after South Vietnamese gun-boats carried out a raid on the coast of North Vietnam, the USS Maddox (which was conducting electronic espionage in the area) was fired on by North Korean torpedo boats. Two days later, the Maddox and another destroyer reported that they were under attack—reports that later proved inaccurate.

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