A Brief History of a Long War

United States involvement in Vietnam began as early as 1950, when President Truman sent advisors to assist the French government as France sought to re-establish its colonial power in Vietnam after World War II. After Communist and nationalist forces in the north under Ho Chi Minh defeated the French at Dienbienphu in 1954, the U.S. sent advisors to train the South Vietnamese military in an effort to block the spread of communism by supporting the non-Communist south. By 1963, the U.S. had 15,000 advisors in South Vietnam. Following the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which North Vietnamese torpedo boats clashed with U.S. destroyers, Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson authority to take necessary steps to maintain peace, and a rapid buildup of U.S. forces followed. The Communists' 1968 Tet offensive marked the fiercest fighting of the war, and by early 1969 U.S. troop strength stood at 542,000. At home, opposition to the war escalated, leading to increasing protests and, in 1970, the shooting of four students at Kent State University in Ohio by National Guardsmen. As opposition grew, President Nixon began a gradual withdrawal of troops, leaving more of the fighting to the South Vietnamese. In 1973, the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed a ceasefire that allowed the U.S. to withdraw its last troops, but full-scale warfare among Vietnamese forces resumed in 1975. On April 30, the Communists captured Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, ending the war. The war's casualties included 58,000 U.S. deaths and 153,000 wounded; 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers killed and 600,000 wounded; 5,000 U.S. and South Vietnam allies killed; 900,000 North Vietnam and Viet Cong deaths and 2 million wounded; and civilian deaths in the hundreds of thousands.

Rutland, Vermont · United States