Vietnam Wars

A South Vietnamese Soldier with the Flag of the RVN during the War of the Flags, January 1973. Source: Wikipedia

On 30th December 1972, the US ended its bombing campaign on North Vietnam. On 8th January talks resumed between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho and a settlement based on the previous draft agreement, was rapidly concluded. It was agreed that a ceasefire would take effect in Vietnam on 23rd January and that a full peace treaty would follow on 28th January.

Kham Thien Street, central Hanoi, 27th December 1972. Source: salon.com

On 18th December 1972, in an effort to bring the North Vietnamese back to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered the intense bombardment of military, industrial and civilian infrastructure in and around Hanoi and Haiphong. The air assault, known as Operation Linebacker II, lasted eleven days from 19th December until 30th December, with one day’s break on Christmas Day.

The US flew 729 B-52 sorties over North Vietnam and dropped over 20,000 tons of ordnance on the two cities targeted, resulting in immense damage, including to residential areas. The campaign was the most concentrated and destructive American bombing campaign of the Vietnam War and resulted in the loss of at least 1,200 Vietnamese lives; the US lost 15 B-52s to North Vietnamese air defences and 75 airmen were killed. In the US, the campaign became known colloquially as the “Christmas Bombings”.

Royal Lao Army Soldiers Engage North Vietnamese Troops on the Plain of Jars, Laos. Source: Russia Beyond website.

Between August and October 1972 in Laos, Rightist forces, consisting of Royal Lao Army Troops, Hmong guerillas and Thai mercenaries launched a multi pronged offensive against North Vietnamese forces on the Plain of Jars, called Operation Phou Phiang II. The offensive was led by General Vang Pao, leader of the Hmong militia and was supported by significant US air power. The objective of the attack was to relieve the PAVN siege of Long Tieng, the Hmong stronghold, and then to push Communist forces off the Plain and towards the Laotian/Vietnamese border. Despite the resources deployed by the Vientiane government, Vang Pao’s forces never made serious headway against the dug in Vietnamese troops and American air support failed to be decisive. Ultimately the government offensive was repelled by the Communists without any of its strategic aims being achieved.

Le Duc Tho, Henry Kissinger and DRV and US delegations at the Paris Peace Talks, November 1972. Source: Alamy Stock Photos.

On 7th November 1972, President Richard Nixon was re-elected, defeating his Democratic challenger, Senator George McGovern, by a landslide. With political uncertainty out of the way, Kissinger and Le Duc Tho plus their respective delegations, resumed formal peace talks in Paris on 20th November. Kissinger presented his opposite number with sixty nine amendments, produced by President Thieu, to their previous informal October agreement, including the withdrawal of all PAVN troops from South Vietnam, a demand supported by Nixon.

Henry Kissinger in Discussion with Le Duc Tho, Paris, October 1972. Source: HistoryNet

On 8th October 1972, after intense personal discussions between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in Paris, a breakthrough seemed to be reached when the two men agreed the basis for full American withdrawal from Vietnam and safeguards for the continuance of the Saigon regime after that withdrawal. However, Kissinger found himself unable to persuade President Thieu that his agreement with Tho contained sufficient guarantees for the RVN’s sovereignty. Specifically, Thieu demanded that any accord that secured US withdrawal from South Vietnam was matched by NVA withdrawal from the South too, particularly from territory the North Vietnamese had acquired during the Easter Offensive.

A Member of South Vietnamese Airborne Forces Fires on Dug In North Vietnamese Positions During the Second Battle for Quang Tri, July 1972. Source: HistoryNet.com

During summer 1972, the ARVN, backed by significant US airpower, first halted and then pushed back the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive on all fronts. Commencing with the breaking of the siege of An Loc, South Vietnamese elite forces slowly pushed the PAVN back, freeing up the highways and recapturing most of the urban settlements overrun in the initial Communist advance. This culminated in the 80 day battle for the provincial capital of Quang Tri, which finally fell to the ARVN on 18th September.

North Vietnamese Troops In Quang Tri, May 1972. Source: People’s Army Newspaper website

On 1st May 1972, PAVN forces broke into the provincial capital of Quang Tri, capturing the city, causing a precipitate flight of the defeated garrison down Highway 1 towards Hué and almost leading to the collapse of the entire ARVN front line. This was the high point of North Vietnam’s Easter Offensive. Only heavy US bombing managed to slow the NVA advance and give time to South Vietnamese forces to regroup.

South Vietnamese Soldiers and Civilians Fleeing South From Quang Tri, April 1972. Source: TopFoto

On 30th March 1972, the PAVN launched a large scale conventional invasion of South Vietnam across the DMZ. The reasoning behind the so-called Easter Offensive is disputed, but with the Paris peace talks stalled, despite secret negotiations between Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, it is likely the assault was designed to force the talks forward to gain negotiating advantage for the DRV, and to significantly weaken the the RVN’s position. The NVA attacked on three fronts with tank and artillery based tactics redolent of North Korea’s invasion of the South in 1950. The North Vietnamese made considerable gains in April, overrunning much of the territory immediately south of the DMZ, besieging the provincial capital of Quang Tri and launching a major assault on Hué.

Female Member of the Khmer National Armed Forces, Late 1971. Source: Shutterstock

On 21st August 1971, the Lon Nol regime in Cambodia launched Operation Chenla II, intended to extend the new government’s authority into the east of the country - territory that had long been in the hands of the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong, now that the grip of the Communists had been weakened by the US incursion the previous year and sustained subsequent US bombing of their sanctuaries.

Nguyen Van Thieu in 1971. Source: Wikipedia

On 3rd October 1971, Nguyen Van Thieu was re-elected President of South Vietnam. The “election” of Thieu for a second term was somewhat farcical. All other presidential candidates had withdrawn either due to intimidation or because they believed that the ballot would be rigged. Thieu therefore won the election unopposed. This would have been embarrassing to previous US administrations who had been keen to emphasise the democratic credentials of the RVN to justify their anti-communist struggle in Vietnam, but for Nixon and Kissinger, focused on achieving troop withdrawals and a negotiated settlement with Hanoi, the continuity of the Thieu regime was not unwelcome.

Daniel Ellsberg testifying to an unofficial Congressional committee assessing the significance of the Pentagon Papers. Source: Britannica

On 13th June 1971, The New York Times began publishing the so-called Pentagon Papers. These documents comprised the Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, an in-depth critical study of US involvement in Indochina from 1945 until 1968, commissioned by Robert McNamara in 1967. The study revealed the depth and extent of America’s Indochina commitment, including details of the secret bombing undertaken in Laos and Cambodia, together with the coastal raids on North Vietnam in support of the RVN navy in 1964. The report was leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, one of its authors, who had become convinced the Vietnam War was both immoral and unwinnable. Although the Nixon administration was not directly compromised by the revelations, the documents revealed the extent to which the Johnson government and its predecessors had lied to both Congress and the US public with regard to the extent of their Vietnam commitment, and their pursuit of illegal operations to support the war effort. The New York Times’ revelations undermined further public support for the war.

A US Tank Covers South Vietnamese Soldiers As They Prepare To Enter Laos, February 1971. Source: Warfare History Network website.

Lieutenant William Calley, November 1970. Source: NBC News.

On 12th November 1970, Lieutenant William Calley went on trial in a military court for the murder of twenty two Vietnamese civilians during a raid he led on the village of My Lai, suspected of supporting Viet Cong guerrillas, in March 1968. Calley was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment, later commuted to ten, of which he served three years under house arrest. The case caused controversy in the US, where some took the view it confirmed that US troops in wartime were not above the law, with others expressing sympathy for Calley and his men faced with hostile forces often disguised as civilians. Either way, the case demonstrated the stress of guerrilla warfare on American troops in Vietnam and the casual way Vietnamese non-combatants were often viewed as collateral damage. The atrocity, which came to be known as the My Lai Massacre, involved the deaths of up 500 villagers, many of whom were women and children.

Mary Ann Vecchio Kneeling Beside the Body of Jeffrey Miller, Watched by Other Shocked Students after Miller was Shot Dead by National Guardsmen at Kent State University, 4th May 1970. Source: Washington Post.

On 4th May 1970, one of the most notorious incidents of the American anti-war protests took place at Kent State University, Ohio. A large - predominantly student - demonstration had been organised to protest the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia, calling for an end to the national draft and demanding the withdrawal of the National Guard who had entered the University campus to control and limit the demonstrations. The Ohio National Guard had been mobilised following several violent antiwar protests and riots in the town of Kent and on campus. Feelings were running high on both sides. On 4th May, a growing band of 300 protestors were ordered to disperse by the Guard. When the demonstrators refused, twenty eight Guardsmen opened fire into the crowd, killing four demonstrators outright - Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer - and injuring five others, some of whom were spectators.

On 28th April 1970, in the context of the change of regime in Phnom Penh, Nixon announced a large scale airborne and land-based incursion by US and South Vietnamese troops into Cambodia,aimed at destroying North Vietnamese and Viet Cong supply sites and logistics. The raid was successful in the disruption of Communist infrastructure and was limited in duration, with American troops withdrawing on 30th June, although ARVN troops stayed in the country for a longer period. Although the Lon Nol regime welcomed the attack, in the US itself, the operation led to a huge outbreak of protest and anti war demonstrations by Americans outraged by this escalation in the fighting, despite Nixon’s stated aim of winding down American involvement in the war.

Top: South Vietnamese Rangers Transported by US Helicopters as part of the Cambodian Incursion. Source: HistoryNet

General Lon Nol in March 1970. Source: Bridgeman Images

On 18th March 1970, while Prince Sihanouk was out of the country visiting Moscow, Lon Nol, in collaboration with Deputy Prime Minister Sisowath Sirik Matak, launched his much-anticipated coup against Sihanouk. Lon Nol declared himself premier and quickly obtained the support and approval of the National Assembly. Shortly thereafter Lon Nol abolished the Cambodian monarchy and declared the establishment of the Khmer Republic. The grievances of the Cambodian Right were well known - disagreement with Sihanouk’s leftist economic policies certainly, but overwhelmingly huge frustration at the prince’s tolerance of the occupation of eastern Cambodia by the NVA and his apparent insouciance at the growth in strength and influence of the Khmer Rouge in rural areas.

The Vietnam War Moratorium Protest, 15th November 1969. Source: estuarypress.com/ Paul Richards

In autumn 1969, a series of huge antiwar demonstrations took place across the United States. The most significant were in Washington itself on 15th October and 15th November, termed the “Moratorium Days” which featured a large number of Vietnam War veterans calling for an end for to the conflict, as well as liberal protestors. The 15th November protest is estimated to have consisted of at least 500,000 people. The organising body was a broad-based coalition, the Moratorium Committee, that deliberately sought to tilt the protests away from their historic radical, student and hippy roots, and mobilise wider, non overtly political, public opinion and demonstrate that opposition to the war now spanned geographic, class and racial lines.