The Vietnam War
 French
Indochina was captured by the Japanese during WWII. After 1945 the
French tried unsuccessfully to restore their rule in Vietnam, and in
1954 they were defeated by the Vietnamese (led by the Communist Ho Chi
Minh) and had to withdraw. Vietnam was divided into the
Communist-ruled North supported by the Soviet Union, and the South
supported by the USA.
In March 1965, US President Lyndon B Johnson ordered the first
American Marines into South Vietnam. The troops began 'Search &
Destroy' missions into areas under guerrilla control. They also
started bombing North Vietnam in the hope of forcing Hanoi to stop
promoting the war in the South.
The US gradually stepped up its military presence in South Vietnam
and its bombing raids on the North. By 1968 over half a million US
soldiers were deployed and US casualties ran at over 1,000 a week.
Despite this huge commitment, no clear-cut victory was in sight.
 From
the first landing of American troops in Vietnam, US involvement had
come under strong criticism at home. Although President Johnson was
able to maintain the support of most Americans by repeatedly assuring
them that the enemy was being steadily defeated, the huge Communist
offensive in 1968 burst the bubble.
In January 1968, Communist forces unleashed a huge round of attacks
on more than 100 cities and military bases in South Vietnam during
their Tet offensive. The operation shattered the cease-fire which had
been declared for Tet - the Vietnamese New Year. The world was amazed
by media images of a Third World peasant army inflicting grave damage
on the US military machine, but the Americans and South Vietnamese hit
back hard in February, recapturing the port of Hue.
US Commander General Westmoreland called for 206,000 reinforcements
from the US, but as the war continued to cost more lives, more and
more Americans began to question their country's continuing role in
Vietnam.
In April 1972 the North Vietnamese Army mounted an all-out invasion
of South Vietnam. South Vietnamese troops resisted on the ground, well
supported by US airpower. In the second half of 1972, America made the
heaviest air attacks of the war on North Vietnam. Also in 1972, US
movie star Jane Fonda visited Hanoi in protest at the war. She posed
for pictures with a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun - a move which
alienated her from many American citizens and GIs, and prompted a
bumper sticker in the States that read "Boycott Jane Fonda -
America's Traitor Bitch".
 Almost 58,000 American troops died in Vietnam. Closer to a quarter
of a million South Vietnamese government troops were killed. The
Communist losses were even heavier with an estimated 660,000 Viet Cong
guerrillas and North Vietnamese soldiers killed in combat.
The Viet Cong came from the peasant areas of Vietnam and, in Mao's
words, could live among civilians "like fish in the sea". To
eliminate these guerrillas, the US resorted to destroying villages,
defoliating vast areas of jungle and clearing populations from
"fire free zones".
Viet Cong units subjected US soldiers to booby-traps, mines and
ambushes, as well as fire-fights. Although the American troops were
able to exploit the mobility of helicopters and the firepower of
artillery, the lightly-armed Communists -proved a skilful and elusive
enemy.
In the USA and Australia, the divisions between the anti and
pro-war factions grew ever wider. Anti-war demonstrations became a
part of daily life in virtually every college and university.
Graduating students wore peace signs on their gowns and mortarboards.
Violent protests broke out between the political left and right, and
the issue of draft evasion became a political stance with people from
all walks of life, including movie and music stars, threw their hat
firmly into one camp or another.
Despite sporadic fighting, Vietnam remained divided from the 1973
ceasefire until March 1975. Then the North invaded the South. Without
US military support, South Vietnam collapsed. The last US personnel
fled in April 1975 as Saigon fell under Communist rule.
In 1981 in Washington DC, a competition to design a Vietnam War
Memorial was won by Maya Yand Lin, a 21-year old Yale architectural
student. The low granite V was inscribed with the names of the US war
dead, and while it received mixed reviews from the American public,
most Vietnam War veterans were pleased to finally receive a monument
of their own.
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