Product Code Database
During the Cold War, the Indochina wars () were a series of wars which were waged in Indochina from 1945 to 1991, by Communism forces (mainly ones led by Vietnamese communists) against the opponents (mainly the Vietnamese nationalists, Trotskyists, the State of Vietnam, the South Vietnam, the French, American, Laotian royalist, Cambodian and Chinese communist forces). The term "Indochina" referred to former French Indochina, which included the current states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In current usage, it applies largely to a geographic region, rather than to a political area. The wars included:
Isolationist and chauvinist policy led the Vietnamese to refuse industrial modernization, so that they were not able to resist military power of a French invasion. In August 1858, Napoleon III ordered the landing of French forces at Tourane, (present-day Da Nang), beginning a colonial occupation that was to last almost a century. By 1884, the French had complete control over the country, which now formed the largest part of French Indochina. It took the Vietnamese people almost a century to expel the last colonial influence in their country.
Vietnamese independence movements were suppressed, and the French refused to honor what they had committed to in the protectorate treaty. Nguyen Sinh Cung established the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1930; the Marxist–Leninist party aimed to overthrow French rule and establish a communist state. Vietnam’s struggle for independence was also shaped by nationalist movements in two main strands: reformist and revolutionary, both embraced republicanism and anti-communism nationalism. Nationalist groups included the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, Vietnamese Revolutionary League, Đại Việt Nationalist Party, and religious communities such as Buddhist, Hòa Hảo, Caodaism, and Catholic.
Fractures between nationalists and communists emerged in the late 1920s.
Revolutionary nationalists accused communists of being factional and subservient to foreign influence, while communists contended nationalism was too narrow and republicanism not radical enough. (2025). 9780824892111, University of Hawaiʻi Press. ISBN 9780824892111 Vietnamese communists envisioned their revolution as proletarian and an integral part of world revolution, rather than solely a national movement. They believed class struggle and purges were essential to dismantle older social structures and pave the way for socialism. The Vietnamese communist revolution’s pursuit of centralized control fueled a protracted civil conflict, characterized by violence, ideological purges, and the suppression of competing nationalist movements. The Indochinese Communist Party was primarily responsible for starting widespread Vietnamese-on-Vietnamese violence.
Ho Chi Minh, returning to Vietnam from France, helped create the Viet Minh front in 1941, advocating for independence. Meanwhile, Vichy French and Japanese authorities encouraged nationalism in Indochina for their own purposes. Disillusioned Vietnamese nationalists redirected this sentiment toward self-determination. Despite Japanese and French efforts to manipulate identities, profound societal changes occurred in the early 1940s, and Vietnam’s right-wing nationalist groups, particularly the Đại Việt parties, promoted a strong national identity.
In March 1945, Japan, losing the war, overthrew the French government in Indochina, established the Empire of Vietnam. The Vietnamese famine that broke out in 1944–1945 caused about 2 million deaths. With the end of the war, the Viet Minh launched the August Revolution to seek control in Vietnam. Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated power to the Viet Minh, on August 25. In a popular move, Ho Chi Minh made Bảo Đại "supreme advisor" to the Viet Minh-led government in Hanoi, which claimed its independence on September 2 as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The 16th parallel was established by the Allies on August 2, 1945, following the Potsdam Conference, dividing Vietnam into two military zones: Chinese Nationalist forces occupied the north, and British forces the south, to disarm Japanese troops.
With most of the nationalist partisans defeated, and negotiations broken down, tensions between the Viet Minh and French authorities erupted into full-scale war in December 1946, a conflict which became entwined with the Cold War. Surviving nationalist partisans and politico-religious groups rallied behind the exiled Bảo Đại to reopen negotiations with France in opposition to communist domination. While the State of Vietnam, under Bảo Đại as Chief of State, aligned with the anticommunist Western Bloc, the French exploited it to extend their neo-colonial presence and to bolster their standing within NATO. By aligning with Marxist-Leninist principles, Vietnamese communists suppressed dissent and monopolized power through radical campaigns such as land reform, class struggle, ideological rectification, the eradication of judicial independence, and the suppression of the Nhân Văn– Giai Phẩm movement.
The anticommunist Truman Doctrine pledged United States support to nations resisting communism. After communist China and the Soviet Union recognized the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the US recognized the State of Vietnam, based in Saigon, as the legitimate government in February 1950. The US provided substantial aid to the SVN through France, while China and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union aided the DRV. The war ended with the French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and French withdrawal from North Vietnam after the Geneva Accords, signed between the Viet Minh and France. After the accords, Vietnam was partitioned into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
During the War, the North Vietnamese transported most of their supplies via the Ho Chi Minh Trail (known to the Vietnamese as the Truong Son Trail, after the Truong Son mountains), which ran through Laos and Cambodia. As a result, the areas of these nations bordering Vietnam would see heavy combat during the war.
For the United States, the political and combat goals were ambiguous: success and progress were ill-defined and, along with the large numbers of casualties, the Vietnam War raised moral issues that made the war increasingly unpopular at home. U.S. news reports of the 1968 Tet Offensive, especially from CBS, were unfavorable in regard to the lack of progress in ending the war. Although the 1968 Tet Offensive resulted in a military victory for South Vietnam and the United States, with virtually complete destruction of the NLF forces combat capability, it was, by the intensity of the combats, the contradiction it implied with recent reports of withdrawals of US troops and status of the war, also a turning point in American voter opposition to U.S. support for their Cold War Vietnamese allies. The Battle of Khe Sanh lasted 77 days during that period, making it one of the biggest single battles at that point in the war.
The United States began withdrawing troops from Vietnam in 1970, with the last troops returning in January, 1973. The Paris Peace Accords called for a cease-fire, and prohibited the North Vietnamese from sending more troops into South Vietnam - although the North Vietnamese were permitted to continue to occupy those regions of South Vietnam they had conquered in the 1972 Easter Offensive.
The North Vietnamese never intended to abide by the agreement. Fighting continued sporadically through 1973 and 1974, while the North Vietnamese planned a major offensive, tentatively scheduled for 1976. The North Vietnamese Army in South Vietnam had been ravaged during the Easter offensive in 1973, and it was projected that it would take until 1976 to rebuild their logistical capabilities.
The withdrawal had catastrophic effects on the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). Shortly after the Paris Peace Accords, the United States Congress made major budget cuts in military aid to the South Vietnamese. The ARVN, which had been trained by American troops to use American tactics, quickly fell into disarray. Although it remained an effective fighting force throughout 1973 and 1974, by January 1975 it had disintegrated. The North Vietnamese hurriedly attacked the much weakened South, and were met with little resistance.
Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, was taken by the PAVN on April 30, 1975, and the Second Indochina War ended.
The fighting that took place between North and South Vietnam following United States withdrawal is sometimes called the Third Indochina War; this term usually refers to a later 1979 conflict, however (see below).
In August 1975, Vietnam returned the island of Koh Wai to Kampuchea and both governments started making peaceful noises, but behind the scenes tensions were mounting. On 30 April 1977, Kampuchea started attacking Vietnamese villages. In September, six divisions crossed the border, advancing 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) into Tay Ninh Province. Angered by the scale of the attacks, the Vietnam People's Army assembled eight divisions to launch a retaliatory strike against Kampuchea.
In December, in an effort to force the Kampuchean government to negotiate, the Vietnamese forces invaded Kampuchea, easily defeating the Kampuchean army. On 6 January 1978, Vietnamese forces were only 38 kilometers (24 mi) from Phnom Penh; however, the Kampuchean government remained defiant and the Vietnamese leadership realised they would not secure their political objective and decided to withdraw their troops.
As Kampuchean forces soon resumed their attacks across the border, the Vietnamese launched another limited counter-attack in June, forcing the Kampucheans to retreat. Again the Vietnamese withdrew and the Kampucheans resumed their attacks. The Vietnamese had had enough; in December 1978, Vietnam launched a full-scale invasion. Phnom Penh was captured in January 1979, the ruling Khmer Rouge were driven from power and a pro-Vietnamese government was installed.
In 1984, Vietnam unveiled a plan for the disengagement of its army from Kampuchea. In 1988, the Vietnamese Government began withdrawing forces in earnest; the last men left in September 1989.
The Third Indochina War also refers to the Sino-Vietnamese War, which was fought in February–March 1979 between the China and the Vietnam. Shortly after the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, the China, who were the Khmer Rouge's political ally, launched a punitive invasion of Vietnam. Fighting was short but intense. The Chinese advanced about forty kilometers into Vietnam, occupying the city of Lang Son on 6 March. There, they claimed the gate to Hanoi was open, declared their punitive mission achieved, and withdrew.
On 23 October 1991, the Cambodian-Vietnamese War was officially declared over as a result of negotiations and the signing of 1991 Paris Peace Agreements.
|
|
