The war for the Vietnamese

Vietnam was always a united country and can't be divided to two parts. In the Geneva Convention, where the country was temporarily divided, parties agreed that a referendum must be held in two years time about the union of the country, but it didn't take place thank to the American. That had meant an unanimous victory for Ho Chi Minh and Washington didn't want a communist reign in Southeast Asia. With Ngo Dinh Diem, they formed a rebellious government that wanted to secede from Vietnam. Since that point, the US and the Southern government violated the Geneva Convention. After 1956, nothing had happened so the patriotic South Vietnamese founded the National Independent Liberation Front, that was named as Vietcong in South Vietnam.

In 1959, the Dong Khoi movement started. That was a mass insurrection and a political fight against the American's servant, the Diem regime. The mutinous suppressed the peaceful demonstrators with armor that lead to some armed clash. North Vietnam managed to win over the major part of Southern inhabitants, which was a base of the strategy. There was something in the wind that time: "The US is a warlike country, setting South free may result in a war. We must win that war." - claimed the Communist Party of Vietnam. With the assist of the countrymen, they could easily hide the soldiers. Under some houses, there were secret tunnels. The freedom-fighters, who sacrifice even their life, their destiny for their mother country. They mingled with the inhabitants, they lived their life as if they were home while they do the intelligence service. Some of them got higher positions as well.

In the same year (1959), the built of the Ho Chi Minh trail started that was aimed to transport supply for the guerillas in South and to keep the military positions. That was the spine of North, the other main point of their strategy. Since the armament wasn't significant neither in quantity, nor in quality, there wouldn't have been chance if they had crashed directly, contrary to the guerilla warfare. The jungle dragging along the peninsula gave guerillas a great hiding-place, they attacked whenever they wanted or whenever the enemy was unaware. Meanwhile, they weakened the South Vietnamese soldiers with girls and drugs. The undisciplined habits in the American and South Vietnamese troops made another factor of the further Northern victory.

According to the American Stanley-Taylor (ST) plan, the South Vietnamese were moved to strategic villages, so their freedom of movement was limited. People collecting to a place are easier to supervise than the sporadic homes, small villages, so the guerilla attacks are easier to defend. The Southern leadership forced people to leave their homes, moreover, to build their own future accommodation, even with arms. They succeeded compelling 10 million people to go to 16000 strategic villages, but this lead to dissatisfaction. With the help of North Vietnamese soldiers, they destroyed half of them.

The greatest battle happened in Ap Bac, a main base of the liberators. The enemy was in superiority in number 10 times and in armament too, but lost against the guerillas supported by North Vietnamese ground troops. A demonstration may helped the Vietnamese victory in the near. The local residents defended their home as a living shield, South Vietnamese families demanded their members. "They came up with such demands that made the enemy hesitating that increased the chances of Ap Bac." The victory became a ideal for everybody.

The other part of the ST plan was the military reinforcement of South Vietnam. The US sent a lot of money, arms, advisors and soldiers to Vietnam. This was the only point that was implemented since strengthening South Vietnam to a great power to 1965 failed.

The Johnson-McNamara plan replaced the unsuccessful ST plan. This plan essentially resemble to the ST plan, thus the US continue the military support to the South Vietnamese government. The additional part of the plan was the destroying air campaign against North Vietnam that deter the support for the South Vietnamese guerillas. "I think the warfare like bombing Hanoi strengthen the Vietnamese souls." - claim an American soldier and that was true. The increased bombardment increased the anti-Americanism and encouraged people to withstand strongerly. Guerillas are still successful and cause serious damages for the enemy, therefore air strikes got a more important role.

Washington had to find a pretext to enter the area of North Vietnam legally. In August, 1964 the American destroyer, Maddox was attacked by Vietnamese torpedo boats on international area. That served a good pretext for President Johnson to escalate the war to North Vietnam. The US started its first destroying warfare against Hanoi that Johnson ended up to have more chance at the presidential campaign in 1968.

In fact, why did the American stay in Tonkin Gulf? Whatever the answer is going to be, the action was unambiguous: they weren't their for good purpose, violating Vietnam's maritime areas was violating the maritime law. Why did the US want to enter an unfair war, why did the US poke its nose into Vietnam's internal politics? They had to keep up with the arms race and new weapons needed a real test place. Vietnam seemed to be an excellent site but they regretted it later. The North Vietnamese shot hundreds of aircraft and American casualties were serious too. The other reason for the war was the expanding the economic domination. Values were taken to the mother country, the manpower was taken advantage of and the country was robbed. That's comprehensible that the fights took place not only in Vietnam, but spread over entire Southeast Asia.

The smaller conflicts, the failure of the air strike, the corruptness and lack of organization of the South Vietnamese government resulted a consecutive coup d'état and cabinet crises. Some people think that all these things were on the powerthirsty South Vietnamese statesmen account, who had a great influence in the army, while the others see the USA's action in it. Since South Vietnam was regarded as a servant of the States, they needed such a leader who could be controlled, and the interest of the leaders was on the contrary to the conquerors' concern. The 'horse change on the way' escorted the history of the war, mainly when the army was weak.

After many years of organizing, in 1968 on the day of the Lunar New Year the Tet-offensive started, where North Vietnam launched a larger attack against South, exploiting the celebration of the South Vietnamese. The Northern army was welcomed by many insurrectionists, strengthening the liberation. Considerable attacks were taken place in the former royal town, in Hue and in Saigon. Unfortunately the freedom-fighters were not strong enough to overthrow both the Americans and the South Vietnamese government. The region were recaptured and they revenged those, who supported the expedition. The offensive was the first test that showed the lacks of the defense of South Vietnam, forming an image about the following possibilities. In 1968, the first peace-negotiations started. In the USA and on the other part of the Earth, demonstrations were organized against the American massacre and reached the top point when the photos shooting the slaughter in My Lai.

The public opinion pressed the American government to withdraw, who didn't want to lose. Therefore the vietnamizing of the war started with training the South Vietnamese and reinforcing their army. That was the so-called Honorable Armistice. "Vietnamizing the war was a pretext for the USA to betray the South Vietnamese people." - said later Nguyen Van Thieu, the president of South Vietnam at that time.

The first showdown of the vietnamizing was the Laotian operation. Its aim was to cut the supply line for the guerillas. The plan became known, so the invaders were accepted with a heavy fire. After 43-day-long combat the South Vietnamese army withdrew with a great casualties and damages. It became clear that South Vietnam can't win the war alone.

A year later, in 1972, Nixon ordered an air strike against North Vietnam, but interrupted in since the peace-negotiations were taken place. The talks are unsuccessful, so Washington continue the bombardment of North Vietnam from the 20th longitude. However, the carpet bombing through 12 days didn't give the US a great achievement: 81 aircraft were shot down, including 34 B-52 and 5 F-111. 9 warship sunk and 44 pilots were detained. That was the 'Dien Bien Phu in air' (Dien Bien Phu was the place where the Vietnamese troops gained a decisive victory over French colonizers in April, 1954). Finally, the US was compelled to withdraw from Vietnam, leaving billions of dollars, killing thousands of lives without any success.

The activity of the American government in Vietnam was inhuman and unjust. The destroying bombardment of North Vietnam and the massacre of the South Vietnamese were cruelty, a fascist act. Washington only relied on its military power and its air force, but didn't take the patriotism, the determination and the unity of the Vietnamese people in consideration, thus they lost the war that served a wrong goal.

The weakened South Vietnam and the Thieu-regime meant the last obstacle to the union of Vietnam. The liberation started in 1975. Northern soldiers were ready to attack at the bases of the Ho Chi Minh trail. Firstly, the strategically important plateau was relieved and attacks were launched from there. The South Vietnamese army hadn't any chance to resist and was overcome by fear, they took their heels. Soldiers concealed their belongings that referred to their being South Vietnamese. Some denied the commands, rose up against their superiors and even changed side to the liberators. The elite didn't keep its head, either. Presidents resigns consecutively, those, who were wealthy, escaped as they could. Saigon was a pandemonium. In early May, the country was freed. Vietnam gain a victory after 20 years of struggle and pain.