Costly legacy of Vietnam War continues 40 years later
August 15,
2013, marked the 40th anniversary of the final bombing mission that
the United States conducted during the Vietnam War. Although the Vietnam War officially concluded
on April 30, 1975, the legacy of the bitter conflict continues to the
present-day. On April 30, 1975 the North
Vietnamese Army (NVA) seized control of Saigon, the South Vietnamese
capital. This event brought a
thirty-year struggle to unite the country to a conclusion. American military/political involvement in
the war lasted from 1954 – 1975. At the
time, the Vietnam War was the longest conflict in American history. It cost the U.S. $150 billion to fight the
war.
Also known as
the Second Indochina War, the conflict resulted in the deaths of about 1 million
North Vietnamese/NLF troops and ¼ of a million South Vietnamese troops. Over 58,000 U.S. service members died in the
conflict.
The Vietnam War
presented several unique occurrences in the history of warfare. The Vietnam War was an undeclared war, a war
full of ironies. The U.S. never
officially declared war against North Vietnam.
The war was also the first televised war and the first war to utilize
computers to control supply distribution.
Over the course of the thirty years of the conflict, soldiers from
Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, and the
United States fought in ferocious battles against a guerrilla force called the
National Liberation Front (NLF) and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).
Legacy of the U.S. bombing campaign
Unexploded ordnance
and Agent Orange contamination are two of the enduring legacies of the War in
Vietnam. During the war, the U.S.
dropped nearly 8 million tons of bombs on Vietnam which was more than the
amount of bombs dropped on Germany and Japan combined during World War II. The U.S. also fired off an equal amount of
ordnance from Navy vessels from the sea and artillery shells from Army and
Marine Corps long-range guns. An estimated
800,000 tons of ordnance did not detonate, contaminating about 20 percent of
the country. According to the Vietnamese
government, more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured since 1975 attempting
to retrieve unexploded ordnance. Curious
children picking up small munitions have also suffered from the unexploded
ordnance. In 2012, there were over 500
casualties in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos from unexploded bombs and other
ordnance. According to Vietnamese
officials it will take 100 years and $100 billion to remove the unexploded ordnance
from the country. Since 1998, the United
States has spent over $65 million trying to remove unexploded ordnance from
Vietnam. Humanitarian agencies working
on removing ordnance are developing realistic plans to keep Vietnamese
civilians safe from unexploded ordnance.
Between 1961
and 1971 the U.S. also sprayed 12 million gallons of the defoliant Agent Orange
on Vietnam. The U.S. sprayed the
defoliant to destroy trees and vegetation in South Vietnam in order to expose
attacking NLF guerilla units. Agent
Orange contained a deadly chemical called dioxin. The U.S. Department of Agriculture had banned
dioxin in the U.S. in 1968, however spraying of Agent Orange continued until
1971. 1/7th of South
Vietnam’s vegetation was destroyed from the spraying of herbicides during the
war. By the summer of 1971, 6 million
acres of land in Vietnam had been destroyed.
Vietnamese officials say that more than 3 million people have suffered
the effects of Agent Orange, of which about 400,000 have died. American soldiers who served in Vietnam have
suffered from the effects of Agent Orange as well.
French colonization of south east Asia
In 1858
France began its colonization efforts of Vietnam. In addition to colonizing Vietnam, France
colonized Cambodia and Laos. After World
War II, Communist forces fought against France during the First Indochina
War. During this conflict, which lasted
from 1945-1954, 75,000 French troops were killed.
During the
latter part of the First Indochina War the United States began providing France
with equipment and weaponry to fight against the Communist forces of North
Vietnam. Despite backing from the U.S.,
French forces were unable to defeat North Vietnamese forces. In the summer of 1954 the Geneva Peace Accords
were signed by France and North Vietnam.
The treaty for the First Indochina War stipulated that there would be
elections held in 1956 to decide who would be the freely-elected leader of
Vietnam. As part of the terms of the
Geneva deal, the war-torn nation would be divided at the Seventeenth
parallel. Chinese and Russian officials
had pressured Vietnamese leaders to agree to this partitioning of the country
to broker a deal that would not anger France’s ally the United States. This agreement was similar to the cease-fire
treaty for the Korean War. The
partitioning of Vietnam did not have any cultural significance and was supposed
to vanish after the elections.
However,
these elections were never held. The U.S.
government placed Ngo Dinh Diem as president of South Vietnam. The United States began a nation-building
effort to create a new nation called South Vietnam. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
(SEATO) – a series of agreements was used by the Eisenhower administration to
create the new nation.
Backed by the
Americans, South Vietnamese officials refused to hold the elections that were
promised after the signing of the Geneva Peace Accords. The North Vietnamese were led by president Ho
Chi Minh. U.S. and South Vietnamese
officials knew that if elections were held, Ho Chi Minh would be ushered into
office because of his popularity among the Vietnamese people, both North and
South alike. From 1956 – 1960, the
Communist Party of Vietnam attempted to unite the country through political
negotiations. These negotiations could
not unite the country so the party turned to violence to achieve their goal.
In late 1961,
President John F. Kennedy authorized 3,000 American military advisors and
support personnel to be sent to South Vietnam.
These advisors were sent to assist the South Vietnamese government
against the NLF. After the Bay of Pigs
fiasco in Cuba, Kennedy did not want to appear soft on Communism.
The seeds of
the war were planted long before the first American advisors were sent to
Vietnam. American involvement began
during World War II but intensified when France was fighting against North
Vietnamese forces (Viet Minh) during the First Indochina War. In 1954, the U.S. paid ¾ of the cost of the
war, approximately $1 billion. Despite substantial
American assistance, the French were failing to defeat the Viet Minh. For President Eisenhower and for U.S. foreign
policy leaders becoming involved in the conflict was about more than assisting
their French allies. The concern for
Eisenhower was the threat of Communist/Soviet advancement (domino effect) in
south east Asia. American strategists
surmised that if the Communists controlled all of Vietnam, vital communication,
economic, and trade lines in the Indian Ocean would be threatened.
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
By 1964,
American military forces in Vietnam had been significantly increased. On the night of August 4, 1964, the captain
of the navy vessel U.S.S. Maddox reported that North Vietnamese navy boats
attacked the Maddox. Consequently,
President Lyndon B. Johnson took action and requested Congressional approval to
retaliate against the North Vietnamese.
Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – which gave Johnson the
authority to take any action necessary to defend America’s South Vietnamese
ally. Later it was discovered that the
North Vietnamese did not fire on the Maddox, rather the captain of the vessel
confused North Vietnamese fire with foggy weather conditions.
Ironically,
President Johnson never wanted to fight a war in south east Asia. He wanted to focus on his Great Society
program which was aimed at improving education, reducing poverty, and urban
renewal. For Johnson, sending American
troops to Vietnam was an uneasy compromise.
American political leaders wanted to limit the impact of the war on the
American people. The National Guard and
the Reserves would not be called up to fight.
Johnson feared an increased conflict with China and Russia if the
American military campaign was too intense against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese Army received military
advisors, equipment, weapons, and aid from their Chinese and Russian
allies.
The war was
intended to be limited, but it turned out to occupy a tremendous amount of
attention by the American military and the public at home. By late 1967, nearly 500,000 American
military personnel were in South Vietnam.
Only 1 in 7 American troops in Vietnam were combat personnel. Most troops worked in support roles. At the height of the war in the late 1960s,
the American military was using 45 thousand tons of ammunition per month and 60
million gallons of fuel per month.
During the
earlier stages of the American War, the South Vietnamese Army was poorly
fed. Desertion in the Army was
rife. Military officers were appointed
through political connections and loyalties to South Vietnamese President Diem. Some South Vietnamese Army units suffered
from corrupt officers and obsolete equipment.
Invasions of Cambodia and Laos
After Johnson
opted not to seek re-election, Richard M. Nixon was elected as president. Under Nixon’s administration, U.S. aircraft
bombed Laos and Cambodia – where North Vietnamese forces were storing weapons
and had training bases. During this expansion
of the war, U.S. aircrafts dropped ¾ of a million tons of bombs on Laos, 10
times the amount of bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. A secret bombing campaign occurred in
Cambodia which was at the time a neutral country. U.S. aircrafts dropped a ½ million tons of
bombs on Cambodia. In May 1969, the
American press published reports about the illegal bombing campaign in
Cambodia. Aircraft flight logs were
falsified and the U.S. Congress was not informed about the bombing raids.
Legacy of a quagmire
What is the
enduring legacy of American involvement in Vietnam? Historians, military experts, and economic
and political leaders can learn a great deal by studying this conflict. The Vietnam War teaches us that a military’s
superior firepower cannot win a war by itself.
The war advises us that presidents and foreign policy leaders can make
erroneous choices in their diplomatic efforts.
The war teaches us that the will of a nation cannot be broken solely by
a vigorous bombing campaign.
Shortly after
the NVA took control of Saigon in the spring of 1975, Cambodia attacked
Vietnam. As a result of this incursion,
30,000 Vietnamese people were killed.
Three years later, on December 25, 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia. China, an ally of the Cambodian government
retaliated against Vietnam and this conflict led to the deaths of about 100,000
people.
Today,
relations between the United States and Vietnam have improved. The U.S. is now Vietnam’s main economic trade
partner. Vietnam is the second largest
supplier of clothes to the U.S. Vietnam
has one of the fastest growing economies in south east Asia.
American
domestic and foreign policy makers should evaluate what will be the legacies of
the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
decision makers who authorize military actions in foreign countries should
study previous incursions and try to forecast what the risks and future
consequences will be for military actions.
What are the financial and human costs of fighting the wars? What are the environmental and public health
challenges? How will the relationships
of the warring nations involved be affected?
Millions of lives depend of making accurate and well-informed decisions
regarding invasions into foreign lands.
Facts about Vietnam:
Population:
92,477,857 (July 2013)
Capital:
Hanoi
Area:
127,123 sq. miles (Slightly larger than New Mexico)
GDP
– per capita: $3,600 (2012, in US dollars)
Official
Language: Vietnamese
Literacy
Rate: 93.4%
Religions:
None – 80.8%, Buddhist – 9.3%, Catholic – 6.7%
Sources:
“Vietnam War Bombs Still Killing People 40 Years Later,” by Chris
Brummitt, Associated Press
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