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Vietnam – 50 Years Since The End Of The War
The liberation/fall of Saigon on April 30 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam War. I was in my teens in those days and had followed the war by reading, in German, various weekly magazines. It found it fascinating and abhorrent. The reporting was not pro-American. But neither was it pro-Vietnam. It in fact often failed to depict the Vietnamese side of the war.
Today Vietnam marked the 50th anniversary of the 'Day of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification' with a parade (vid).
The Trump administration, in a very childish gesture, has ordered U.S. diplomats in Vietnam not to attend the ceremonies.
The iconic picture of the emergency evacuation of the last U.S. personnel from Saigon was shot on April 29 1975.
The war in Ukraine is the first drone war – the war in Vietnam was the first helicopter war. The U.S. deployed nearly 12,000 choppers. Some 5,000 were shot down. I remember that nearly every magazine story I had read was accompanied by a picture of helicopters – flying or crashed on the ground. The late Colonel Pat Lang had a remarkable story to tell about a failed operation in Vietnam. Helicopter played a large role in it.
An early frequent commenter at Moon of Alabama, anna missed – also known as Jack Chevalier, had been a U.S. soldier in Vietnam. When we were discussing the war in Iraq he often mentioned the reality on the ground, as he had experienced it. Jack was an artist. He has died four years ago.
Years before he had sent me one of his pictures. It is an oil painting on a thick piece of raw wood with small glass pellets sprinkled into it.
notebook #1
2008
9"x 16"x 1"
oil paint and glass pellets on wood
by anna missed
bigger
The slab with the chopper is now hanging in my living room. It is a daily reminder of the horrors of war. I myself, luckily, never had to experience them. Looking at the picture I would neither want to be (in) the helicopter nor the person on ground holding the hand up against(?) it.
War is always abhorrent. But for the Vietnamese it was necessary to wage it for the independence and unity of their country.
They paid a very high price but did win and for that I congratulate them.
French Involement in Indochina prior to WW2
The colonization of Vietnam by France was a gradual process beginning in the 1600’s with the establishment of the French East India Company. Over the next few hundred years the French gained more and more economic interest in all of Indochina which included Laos and Cambodia as well as Vietnam. By the start of the second World War France was making a very nice profit in Indochina, a profit that of course came at the expense of the native people.
Japanese in Vietnam during WW2
In 1940 the Japanese occupied Vietnam. The French had called most of their forces home due to the aggression of Hitler’s Germany. The Japanese relied on the French Vichy government to maintain control over the Vietnamese while they used Vietnam to strengthen their position in their attempt to conquer China.
When Japan’s defeat became inevitable in the spring of 1945, they became afraid that the French would turn against them. In March of 1945, Japanese troops and secret police wiped out all French resistance with the exception of a small number of French troops who managed to escape into China. All French administrators and civilians were executed or imprisoned as the Japanese took complete control.
In just a few hours, the French colonial regime was brought to an end: Japan immediately offered independence to the monarchies of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and Emperor Bao Dai declared Vietnam’s independence on March 11 by saying: ‘the government of Vietnam publicly proclaims that from today the protectorate treaty with France is abrogated and the country resumes its rights to independence’.
On 15 August 1945, the Japanese capitulated. The Viet Minh, a country wide coalition of organizations opposed to French rule, quickly| elected a National Liberation Committee to engineer a seizure of power. Bao Dai announced that he was prepared to turn over power to the Viet Minh if that was the people’s wish. He issued an edict of abdication on 25 August, which he then read to a large crowd during a formal ceremony held on 30 August. This edict lent legitimacy to Ho Chi Minh’s new regime, which was proclaimed on 2 September as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Together with his abdication edict, Bao Dai also issued an edict directed at the royal family, reminding them of his vow that he would rather be a citizen of a free country than the ruler of an enslaved one. He called on the members of the royal family to support the new government and preserve Vietnam’s independence. Both of these edicts made clear Bao Dai’s will to step aside on behalf of the superior interest of the nation. He also stated clearly that he was stepping down voluntarily. Before going abroad to live in exile, he briefly served as supreme advisor to the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
Situation at the end of WW2
BUT – At Potsdam it had been decided that the Chinese would take the Japanese surrender in the north and the British would take the Japanese surrender in the south. The British soon gave way to the French.
Ho Chi Minh and the Vietminh realized that with the defeat of Japan there would be a power vaccuum. It would be an ideal time to act.
The Vietminh were not just communists. It was a collection of organizations and had broad support throughout the entire country. They were strongest in the north. In the south they had wide support but there were more smaller interest groups there than in the north. But country-wide it is estimated that they were supported by upwards of 80% of the people and it was independence that was the driving force rather than Communism
On Sep 2, 1945 Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The opening lines of the declaration are very interesting:
“All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.
The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: ‘All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights’.
Those are undeniable truths.”
French War
The French were not willing to let their former colony be independent. They landed large military forces in Saigon and eliminated all of the DRV government south of the 16th parallel. But the strength of the DRV forces backed by help from Chiang Kai Shek prevented the French from further advance.
But Chiang Kai Shek had his hands full with Mao Tse Tung and soon had to withdraw. In doing so he was able to negotiate with the French for them to completely give up their territorial rights in China. That deal gave the French a free hand to reconquer the north of Vietnam.
– French made little claim of fighting Communism – they were openly interested in Vietnam as a colony from which they could extract wealth.
– It soon became apparent that the French were in for a big fight and they needed help. After all they were in a weak position at home after the war. Enter the Americans.
The US, alarmed by the rapid advance of Mao in China, began to provide most of the support for the French in their bid to retake their colony.
However, even with that aid, the French were defeated. The final blow came at a place called Dien Bien Phu in NW Vietnam and a cease-fire was signed on July 20, 1954.
Geneva Conference
Still the battle was not over. The American Sec. of State, John Foster Dulles, threatened the use of nuclear weapons. This resulted in the Geneva Conference on the Korean conflict being expanded to consider Indochina as well. The result of this conference was that Vietnam would be divided into 2 zones at the 17th parallel and elections would be held within 2 years to determine who would rule a unified Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh and his government would control the north. But, during a break in the conference Dulles arranged for a man named Ngo Dinh Diem to be given control over the south. President Eisenhower promised Diem full American support both militarily and economically.
The promise of an election was not kept. It was obvious that if they were held that Ho Chi Minh’s government would win in a landslide.* That was not acceptable to the United States.
American War
– The U.S. made much of the anti-communism issue. They began to talk of the domino theory, that if communism took hold in one country then it would soon take hold in another and so on like dominoes set up on edge falling into one another.
At this time in history, the power of the British Empire had passed over the Atlantic to the U.S. The doctrine of world domination soon became American foreign policy. And of course communism did not fit that policy. So it was natural that the US would try to keep Indochina as a source of wealth.
But only a select few of the upper classes of the people there wanted the US interference. Diem’s regime was totally corrupt and as a Catholic he alienated the Buddhists and other religious groups. He repressed any who did not fall in line with his policies, including those who tried to remain neutral. His rule was totalitarian in nature and nothing close to a Democracy.
Enter the National Liberation Front, better known as the Viet Cong. The VC began to effectively resist Diem. The National Liberation Front was a coalition of various groups in the south. They had their own army which fought against both the Americans and the military of the government of the south.
Realizing the resistance to Diem and his ineffectiveness in uniting the people, the American CIA arranged for Diem’s assassination in 1963 and replaced him with a long line of what were effectively warlords. None of these American installed ‘puppets’ had the support of the people. This led to a huge increase of aid which proved ineffective and that led to more and more American troops being sent to Vietnam.
The Americans had no chance. Their military leaders could not handle the unconventional resistance of the people. They used overwheming force, dropping 3 times the total bombs dropped in WW2. They committed war crime after war crime, bombed Cambodia, Laos and the north of Vietnam and at one point they had over 500,000 troops in Vietnam. And even though they had me it still wasn’t enough.
*“It was generally conceded that had an election been held, Ho Chi Minh would have been elected Premier.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower – The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953–1956: A Personal Account – (pp. 337-38)
Posted by: waynorinorway | May 1 2025 12:18 utc | 205
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