Growing U.S. involvement in the war

Until 1960 the United States had supported the Saigon regime and its army only with military equipment, financial aid, and, as permitted by the Geneva Accords, 700 advisers for training the army. The number of advisers had increased to 17,000 by the end of 1963, and they were joined by an increasing number of American helicopter pilots. All of this assistance, however, proved insufficient to halt the advance of the Viet Cong, and in February 1965 U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the bombing of North Vietnam, hoping to prevent further infiltration of arms and troops into the south. Four weeks after the bombing began, the United States started sending troops into the south. By July the number of U.S. troops had reached 75,000; it continued to climb until it stood at more than 500,000 early in 1968. Fighting beside the Americans were some 600,000 regular South Vietnamese troops and regional and self-defense forces, as well as smaller contingents from South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.

Three years of intensive bombing of the north and fighting in the south, however, did not weaken the will and strength of the Viet Cong and their allies from the north. Infiltration of personnel and supplies down the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail continued at a high level, and regular troops from the north—now estimated at more than 100,000—played a growing role in the war. The continuing strength of the insurgent forces became evident in the so-called Tet Offensive that began in late January 1968, during which the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacked more than 100 cities and military bases, holding on to some for several weeks. After that, a growing conviction in the U.S. government that continuing the war at current levels was no longer politically acceptable led President Johnson to order a reduction of the bombing in the north. This decision opened the way for U.S. negotiations with Hanoi, which began in Paris in May 1968. After the bombing was halted over the entire north in November 1968, the Paris talks were enlarged to include representatives of the NLF and the Saigon regime.

The war continued under a new U.S. president, Richard M. Nixon, who began gradually to withdraw U.S. troops. Public opposition to the war, however, escalated after Nixon ordered attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and on Viet Cong sanctuaries inside Cambodia. In the meantime, the peace talks went on in Paris.

Withdrawal of U.S. troops

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Finally, in January 1973 a peace treaty was signed by the United States and all three Vietnamese parties (North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the Viet Cong). It provided for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops within 60 days and created a political process for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the south. Nothing was said, however, about the presence of more than 100,000 North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. The signing of the Paris Agreement did not bring an end to the fighting in Vietnam. The Saigon regime made a determined effort to eliminate the communist forces remaining in the south, while northern leaders continued to strengthen their military forces in preparation for a possible future confrontation. By late 1974 Hanoi had decided that victory could be achieved only through armed struggle, and early the next year North Vietnamese troops launched a major offensive against the south. Saigon’s forces retreated in panic and disorder, and President Thieu ordered the abandonment of several northern provinces. Thieu’s effort to stabilize the situation was too late, however, and on April 30, 1975, the communists entered Saigon in triumph. The Second Indochina War was finally at an end.

Reunification and early challenges

Following the communist victory, Vietnam remained theoretically divided (although reunified in concept) until July 2, 1976, when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was officially proclaimed, with its capital at Hanoi. Vietnam at peace faced formidable problems. In the south alone, millions of people had been made homeless by the war, and more than one-seventh of the population had been killed or wounded; the costs in the north were probably as high or higher. Plans to reconstruct the country called for the expansion of industry in the north and of agriculture in the south. Within two years of the communist victory, however, it became clear that Vietnam would face major difficulties in realizing its goals.

Hanoi had been at war for more than a generation—indeed, Ho Chi Minh had died in 1969—and the bureaucracy was poorly trained to deal with the problems of peacetime economic recovery. The government encountered considerable resistance to its policies, particularly in the huge metropolis of Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976), where members of the commercial sector—many of whom were ethnic Chinese—sought to avoid cooperating in the new socialist economic measures and resisted assignment to “new economic zones” in the countryside. During the late 1970s the country also suffered major floods and drought that severely reduced food production. When the regime suddenly announced a program calling for the socialization of industry and agriculture in the south in early 1978, hundreds of thousands of people (mainly ethnic Chinese) fled the country on foot or by boat.

These internal difficulties were compounded by problems in foreign affairs. Perhaps unrealistically, the regime decided to pursue plans to form a close alliance with new revolutionary governments in neighboring Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea). Such plans risked incurring not only the hostility of the United States but also that of China, which had its own interests in those countries. As Sino-Vietnamese relations soured, Hanoi turned to Moscow and signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union. In the meantime, relations with the revolutionary Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) government in Cambodia rapidly deteriorated when it refused Hanoi’s offer of a close relationship among the three countries that once formed French Indochina. Savage border fighting culminated in a Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1978. The Khmer Rouge were dislodged from power, and a pro-Vietnamese government was installed in Phnom Penh.

Khmer Rouge forces now took refuge in isolated areas of the country and began a guerrilla war of resistance against the new government, the latter backed by some 200,000 Vietnamese troops. In the meantime, China launched a brief but fierce punitive invasion along the Sino-Vietnamese border in early 1979 in response to Vietnamese actions in Cambodia. During the month-long war the Chinese destroyed major Vietnamese towns and inflicted heavy damage in the frontier zone, but they also suffered heavy casualties from the Vietnamese defenders.

Vietnam was now nearly isolated in the world. Apart from the protégé regime in Phnom Penh and the government of Laos, which also depended heavily on Vietnamese aid for its survival, the country was at odds with the rest of its regional neighbors. The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) opposed the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and joined with China in supporting guerrilla resistance forces represented by the Khmer Rouge and various noncommunist Cambodian groups. An economic trade embargo was imposed on Vietnam by the United States and most other Western countries. Only the Soviet Union and its allies in eastern Europe stood by Vietnam.

Under such severe external pressure, Vietnam suffered continuing economic difficulties. The cost of stationing troops in Cambodia and of maintaining a strong defensive position along the Chinese border was especially heavy. To make matters worse, the regime encountered continuing problems in integrating the southern provinces into a socialist economy. In the early 1980s the government announced a number of reforms to spur the economy. Then, following the death of veteran party chief Le Duan in 1986 (Le Duan had succeeded Ho Chi Minh as party chief in 1960) and his succession by the pro-reform Nguyen Van Linh, the party launched a program of sweeping economic and institutional renovation (doi moi). Actual implementation, however, did not begin until 1988, when a deepening economic crisis and declining support from the Soviet Union compelled the government to slash spending, court foreign investment, and liberalize trade. Other policies essentially legalized free market activities that the government had previously tried to limit or suppress.