Where was the war in Vietnam? Vietnam War
The Soviet Union initiated the signing of documents recognizing the independence of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam was instantly divided into North and South - the first went to the pro-communist Ho Chi Minh, the government of the second was headed by Ngo Dinh Diem.
Soon, a civil war broke out in South Vietnam and the United States took advantage of this reason, deciding to “establish peace in the region.” What happened next is what Americans still call “a crazy disco in the jungle.”
Brotherly help
Naturally, the Soviet Union could not abandon its “little brother” in trouble. It was decided to station a small contingent of Soviet specialists in Vietnam and send a significant part of the equipment there. In addition, the USSR accepted about 10,000 people from Vietnam for training - they later formed the backbone of the Vietnamese liberation army.
Russian Rambo
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Schools of death
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Iron barrier
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union did not formally take part in the war, Vietnam was provided with very significant material support. As friendly assistance, two thousand tanks, seven hundred aircraft, seven thousand guns and about a hundred helicopters were sent to another continent. Soviet specialists were able to create an impenetrable air defense system.Li Si Qing and other legends
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The Untouchables
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Losses
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Against the background of numerous US wars of the last decade, the war in Vietnam, which was lost for Washington, is gradually receding into the shadows. However, she is a shining example of how national identity and patriotism can defeat any enemy, even armed with modern weapons.
The Vietnam War was the longest military conflict in modern military history. The conflict lasted about 20 years: from November 1, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
The most characteristic picture of the Vietnam War
In 1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt officially announced his country's assistance to Ho Chi Minh and his Vietnam Minh movement. The documents referred to them as "patriots", "nationalists", "freedom fighters" and "allies".
Roosevelt and Ho Chi Minh
[Wikipedia]
58,200 Americans died in the fighting and another 304,000 were wounded. In total, approximately 2.5 million military personnel passed through Vietnam. Thus, every tenth person was killed or injured. About two-thirds of the American military during the war were volunteers. The bloodiest year for Americans was May 1968, when 2,415 people died.
Moments of war
The average age of a dead American soldier was 23 years 11 months. 11,465 deaths were under 20 years of age, and 5 died before reaching 16 years of age! The oldest person killed in the war was a 62-year-old American.
War is a matter for the young...
[http://www.warhistoryonline.com/]
Civilian casualties to date are unknown—about 5 million are believed to have died, with more in the North than in the South. In addition, the losses of the civilian population of Cambodia and Laos are not taken into account anywhere - apparently, they also number in the thousands here.
Footage of war crimes
From 1957 to 1973, about 37 thousand South Vietnamese were shot by Viet Cong guerrillas for collaborating with the Americans, most of whom were minor government employees.
A typical picture of Vietnamese cities...
On average, an American soldier fought 240 days a year in Vietnam! For comparison, an American soldier fought in the Pacific during World War II on average 40 days over 4 years.
Military operation in the jungle
As of January 2004, 1,875 American soldiers were reported missing in action in Vietnam. As of August 1995, there were 1,713,823 Vietnam War veterans in the United States. Only 0.5 percent of Vietnam War veterans were incarcerated after the war ended, and their suicide rate was 1.7 percent higher than average.
Downed American pilot
During the Vietnam War, the United States used the chemical Agent Orange, which was banned for military use in Geneva in 1925. As a result, at least 400 thousand Vietnamese died. The traditional explanation for this fact is its use exclusively against vegetation.
Spraying defoliants over the jungle.
[Wikipedia]
On March 16, 1968, American soldiers completely destroyed a Vietnamese village, killing 504 innocent men, women and children. Only one person was convicted of this war crime, who was “pardoned” three days later by personal decree of Richard Nixon.
Destroyed Vietnamese village
The Vietnam War is one of the most terrible events in the history of the country that has occurred over the last century. We often see the American interpretation on screens, but was it really like that? Let's take a short excursion into history.
Humanity is built in a strange way. Any inhabitant of the Earth understands that war is horror, misfortune and tears. A person, unless he is, of course, deeply ill, realizes that there is no place for romance in it. It is impossible to justify the death of civilians by any goals. There are no such goals! But at the same time, most of those living do not perceive the pain of millions of people as their own. The loss of a wallet is perceived more acutely than war, unless it concerns one personally. For this reason, events that took place several decades ago are of little interest to anyone. Especially if they took place in a country located thousands of kilometers away.
The problem is that history repeats itself. The trouble that engulfed distant Vietnam in the 70s of the last century has now reached other parts of the world. Can we be sure that it will not affect you and me?
Causes
When thinking about the causes of the Vietnam War, it is difficult to escape the patterns. The roots of any war must be sought in the answer to the question: “Who benefits from this?” For the domestic audience of the United States, its citizens brought the light of democracy to the uncouth natives. However, even today Americans “save” the inhabitants of Iraq, Libya, and Syria from ignorance. And we all remember well how they “helped” the people of Yugoslavia to understand all the “beauty” of democratic values.
The Vietnam War was a period of fierce confrontation between two ideologies. Vietnam at that time was divided into two parts. The liberation movement in North Vietnam was supported by the USSR, and South Vietnam was a US protectorate. The precursors to war are often internal contradictions in a country, and Vietnam was no exception. For a long time it was a French colony. The liberation movement for independence in the country began in the 40s of the last century. An interesting fact is that the leader of the movement against the French colonialists, Ho Chi Minh, was actively supported by the United States during World War II. It was beneficial for the Americans that the Vietnamese Independence League, which he headed, was fiercely fighting the Japanese. At that time, “Grandfather Huo” was fighting in China. The Americans spared no money on weapons for the Chinese and Vietnamese communists, with whose hands the enemies of the United States were destroyed.
The situation changed after the Japanese surrender. Ho Chi Minh with troops of his supporters captured Hanoi and moved on, spreading his influence over increasingly vast territories of North Vietnam. Not wanting to lose its influence in Indochina, in December 1946 France transferred its expeditionary force there, but was unable to do anything against the growing strength of Ho Chi Minh's partisan detachments.
And already in 1950, the United States came to the aid of France. And they got involved in this long war. They were terrified of the spread of communist influence in Asia, so the States already at that time paid for 80% of all military expenses. These were terrible years in the history of Vietnam. Tourists who decide to visit Hanoi will learn about this terrible time by visiting the Hoa Lo prison museum.
The museum is conveniently located in the historical part of the city, between the central railway station and the Lake of the Returned Sword. Part of the museum's exhibition tells about the torture that Vietnamese fighters against the French colonialists were subjected to. During the period of 1954 alone, more than 2 thousand people were kept and brutally tortured in the Hoa Lo prison. The cruelty of “civilized” people is amazing.
It’s hard to imagine, but the history of long-suffering Vietnam could have been even more tragic. It is known that Vice President Richard Nixon recommended destroying the Vietnamese with tactical nuclear weapons. Memories of the nuclear bombing of Japan were still fresh. Only the prisoner prevented this bloody madness from being carried out. in July 1954 Geneva Agreement. In accordance with it, Vietnam was divided along the demilitarized zone (17-1 parallel) into North and South Vietnam. Losing their influence, the French almost immediately granted independence to South Vietnam.
For a short time, active military operations in Vietnam subsided. During this period, an outright “witch hunt” began overseas in the United States. Communist ideology becomes banned; the United States views any event in the world through the prism of its own security, as is customary today. In the case of Vietnam, this played a fatal role. The spread of communism in China, and then in North Vietnam, was perceived by the US administration as a threat to a complete loss of influence in Asia.
France, having lost its strength, could no longer hold back the onslaught of the northerners, and the Americans decided to replace them. They provided universal support to the first president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. The Vietnamese associate this personality with the times of rabid dictatorship and persecution of Buddhism. Today, all tourists visiting the sights of Hue are shown the car in which the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc went to Saigon and committed self-immolation. So he protested against the persecution of Buddhism. A recording of this tragic event has been preserved.
Ngo Dinh Diem's brutal rule predictably led to the formation of a resistance in South Vietnam. Multiple South Vietnamese guerrilla groups united in December 1960 to form the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, called the Viet Cong in the West.
The Americans could not allow the Viet Cong to unite with the northern troops. This would mean the fall of the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, loyal to the Americans. In December 1961 US armed forces arrived in South Vietnam consisting of two helicopter companies.
In our minds it is customary to associate the image of John Kennedy almost with a “dove of peace.” However, this image is far from reality. It was his administration that frantically demonstrated to the USSR its determination in the matter of destroying the “communist infection.” American advisers trained the South Vietnamese military in the basics of counterinsurgency. The situation in the country was heating up. The threat of losing South Vietnam, and with it Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, was already too realistic. The blame for the sluggishness of the military was attributed to the inability to fight and the excessive greed of Ngo Dinh Diem.
Predictable November 2, 1963, under vague circumstances, Ngo Dinh Diem was shot and killed. There was a coup in the country, of which there were several more in the next two years.
By a fateful coincidence, at the same time, US President John Kennedy was shot, and Lyndon Johnson took his place. The first document he signed was an order to send additional troops to Vietnam. Thus, the limited contingent of American troops from 760 people in 1959 increased to 23,300 in 1964. The flywheel of the war began to spin with renewed vigor. From this moment we can consider that the “hot” phase of the confrontation between the two systems began.
Now all that remained was to wait for a formal reason and unleash a full-scale bloodbath. This occasion was the shelling of the American destroyer Maddox by North Vietnamese troops, which, together with two other American ships August 2, 1964 arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later, information about the shelling was refuted by the sailors of the destroyer themselves. But who cared anymore? Isn’t it true, there is a direct analogy with today. For example, with unconfirmed information on the “uranium dossier”, which formed the basis for the decision to start the war in Iraq.
Lyndon Johnson immediately ordered airstrikes against North Vietnam (Operation Pierce Arrow). The US Congress adopted the Tonkin Resolution almost unanimously. There was only one vote against. Ordinary Americans were not at all excited by the news of the start of a military operation. Then none of them imagined that they would have to die on foreign soil. It’s one thing when “you need to unite the nation and defend democracy,” and quite another to die.
US military contingent in Vietnam to the beginning February 1968 numbered more than half a million people. The Vietnamese fought desperately for their right to life. When coffins began to arrive in the United States, the wave of anti-war sentiment began to grow exponentially. The war came into the homes of ordinary Americans.
Against the backdrop of significant defeats in South Vietnam and the actual failure of the “air” war, spring 1968 Negotiations were started to end the hostilities. Then events began to occur that today are commonly called the use of “double standards.” Publicly, the American administration announced a policy of withdrawing American soldiers from the territory of South Vietnam and even returned home 210 thousand of its troops. In fact, the bet was placed on arming the Saigon army, which by that time numbered more than a million people. She was given modern American weapons.
When Richard Nixon, in the heat of his presidential promises, announced an end to the war in 1969, it was enthusiastically received by American society. The people had a short memory, because Lyndon Johnson lied just as sweetly. One way or another, Nixon was elected president. The coffins in which young boys from distant Vietnam were returning home quickly discouraged Americans from carrying “democratic values,” and discontent in the country grew.
At the same time, American bombers dropped more bombs on Vietnam in 1970 than in the last five years combined. All public statements of American politicians turned out to be lies.
Appetite, as you know, flares up during eating. It was no longer possible to stop the war when it brought such dividends. Weapons corporations had a vested interest in the supply of weapons. The fire of napalm and phosphorus burned out entire villages. Dioxin was used, the most toxic substance at that time. You can learn more about the history of this hell at the Hanoi War Crimes Museum. The photo and film documents collected there are terrifying. In Vietnam, children are still born with genetic deformities.
It is now known that during the entire conflict, 14 million tons of explosives were dropped on Vietnam. The American political and economic elite made billions of dollars from this tragedy. Maybe that's why the war lasted so endlessly.
Under the pressure of internal unrest, exhausted by large material and human losses, early 1973 The US was forced to end the war. The active phase of American participation in the war ended in inglorious flight. But military and material assistance to the Saigon regime continued until 1975, until its final defeat.
Results
For more than 10 years, the Vietnamese resisted desperately and heroically. You need to understand that it is impossible to win such a war on the will to win alone. It was a strange war in which millions of Vietnamese were killed and maimed, but it was actually fought between two political systems. The USSR and China sided with the communist North. The support was enormous. Free material assistance was provided, weapons were supplied, and our military advisers trained the Vietnamese military. Without their help, victory would have been impossible.
The Second Indochina War between Vietnam and the United States ended only in April 1975, when the Saigon Independence Palace was captured. Later the country was unified.
The Vietnamese are proud of their heroic history. While it was both a civil war, it was also a time of liberation from American occupation. The country defended its right to its own choice and sovereignty. Millions of maimed Vietnamese, in some places completely destroyed cities, fields and forests scorched by napalm - this is the price of that terrible war. But the country survived.
Today, tourists arriving in Vietnam are no longer reminded of the terrible and tragic pages of that very recent war. The country is actively developing. Young people are learning English in droves and are eagerly trying to help the crowds of vacationers who come to soak up the beautiful sandy shores of the South China Sea.
History buffs, tired of beach holidays, book excursions where they are willing to show them partisan tunnels and traps. Such excursions evoke ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, respect and admiration for the tenacity and courage of the people who endured a war to destroy the country for 10 years and emerged victorious from this massacre. On the other hand, the touch of commerce in everything is striking. A certain dissonance is felt in this country - patriotic posters are hung everywhere, on which “Grandfather Ho” is smiling, the pioneers wear red ties... But at the same time, there is universal admiration for the “green piece of paper”. A clear association emerges with the USSR during its collapse, and a sense of an impending era of change is felt.
For the United States, the war with the Vietnamese people became an inglorious and bitter page in history. The losses of the American army amounted to more than 60 thousand killed, over 300 thousand Americans were maimed. In addition, more than $4 billion was spent from the country's budget to help the Saigon regime. The war was a successful investment and a profitable event only for the “top”, which became quite rich during the 10 years of bloody carnage.
Conviction in one’s own exclusivity and the lack of alternative to the American development model, and most importantly, impunity. This is what lies at the heart of the Vietnam War.
Attractions
If you are interested in the history of Vietnam and the conflict, you can visit museums and attractions dedicated to the Vietnam War in major cities:
- In Hanoi, as mentioned above, there is the Hoa Lo prison museum and,
- In Ho Chi Minh City it is,
- Museum in Danang.
IN The war in Vietnam began with the shelling of the US destroyer Maddox. This happened on August 2, 1964.
The destroyer was in the Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnamese territorial waters where no one invited the United States) and was allegedly attacked by Vietnamese torpedo boats. All the torpedoes missed, but one boat was sunk by the Americans. "Maddox" started shooting first, explaining that it was warning fire. The event was called the “Tonkin Incident” and became the reason for the start of the Vietnam War. Next, on the orders of US President Lyndon Johnson, the US Air Force attacked North Vietnamese naval installations. It is clear for whom the war was beneficial, he is the provocateur.
The confrontation between Vietnam and the United States began with the recognition of Vietnam as an independent state in 1954. Vietnam turned out to be divided into two parts. The South remained under the control of France (Vietnam had been its colony since the 19th century) and the United States, while the North was in full control of the communists with the support of China and the USSR. The country was supposed to unite after democratic elections, but the elections did not take place, and a civil war began in South Vietnam.
The United States feared that communism could spread throughout Asia in a domino fashion.
Representatives of the communist camp waged guerrilla warfare on enemy territory, and its hottest hotbed was the so-called Iron Triangle, an area of 310 square kilometers northwest of Saigon. Despite such proximity to the strategic settlement of the South, it was actually controlled by communist partisans, and their base was a significantly expanded underground complex near the village of Kuti.
The US supported the South Vietnamese government, fearing further communist expansion in Southeast Asia.
At the beginning of 1965, the Soviet leadership decided to provide the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) with large-scale military-technical assistance. According to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin, aid to Vietnam during the war cost the Soviet Union 1.5 million rubles a day.
To eliminate the partisan zone, in January 1966 the United States decided to conduct Operation Crimp, for which it allocated 8 thousand US and Australian troops. Finding themselves in the jungles of the Iron Triangle, the allies were faced with an unexpected surprise: in fact, there was no one to fight with. Snipers, tripwires on the trails, unexpected ambushes, attacks from behind, from territories that, it would seem, had already (just!) been cleared: something incomprehensible was happening around, and the number of victims was growing.
The Vietnamese sat underground and after the attacks went underground again. In the underground cities, the halls had no additional supports and were designed for the miniature constitution of the Vietnamese. Below is a plan diagram of a real underground city explored by the Americans.
The much larger Americans could hardly squeeze through the passages, which were usually in the range of 0.8-1.6 meters in height and 0.6-1.2 meters in width. There was no obvious logic in the organization of the tunnels; they were deliberately built as a chaotic labyrinth, equipped with a large number of false dead-end branches that made orientation difficult.
Viet Cong guerrillas were supplied throughout the war through the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail, which ran through neighboring Laos. The Americans and the South Vietnamese army tried several times to cut the “trail,” but it didn’t work out.
In addition to fire and traps, the “tunnel rats” could also be waiting for snakes and scorpions, which the partisans deliberately baited. Such methods led to a very high mortality rate among “tunnel rats”.
Only half of the personnel returned from their holes. They were even armed with special pistols with silencers, gas masks and other things.
The "Iron Triangle", the area where the catacombs were discovered, was eventually simply destroyed by the Americans with B-52 bombing.
The fighting took place not only underground, but also in the air. The first battle between Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and American aircraft took place on July 24, 1965. The Soviet MIGIs, which the Vietnamese flew, performed well.
During the war, the Americans lost 58 thousand people in the jungle, 2300 were missing and over 150 thousand were wounded. At the same time, the list of official losses did not include Puerto Ricans who were hired into the American army in order to obtain United States citizenship. North Vietnamese losses amounted to over a million military personnel killed and more than three million civilians.
The Paris ceasefire agreements were only signed in January 1973. It took several more years to withdraw troops.
Carpet bombing of North Vietnamese cities was carried out by order of US President Nixon. On December 13, 1972, the North Vietnamese delegation left Paris, where peace negotiations were being held. In order to force them to return, it was decided to launch massive bombing attacks on Hanoi and Haiphong.
A South Vietnamese Marine wears a special bandage among the decomposing corpses of American and Vietnamese soldiers who died during the fighting on a rubber plantation 70 km northeast of Saigon, November 27, 1965.
According to the Soviet side, 34 B-52s were lost during Operation Linebacker II. In addition, 11 aircraft of other types were shot down. North Vietnamese casualties were approximately 1,624 civilians, military casualties are unknown. Aviation losses - 6 Mig 21 aircraft.
"Christmas Bombing" is the official name.
During Operation Linebacker II, 100 thousand tons were dropped on Vietnam! bombs.
The most famous use of the latter is Operation Popeye, when US transport workers sprayed silver iodite over strategic areas of Vietnam. As a result, the amount of precipitation tripled, roads were washed away, fields and villages were flooded, and communications were destroyed. The American military also acted radically with the jungle. Bulldozers uprooted trees and topsoil, and herbicides and defoliants (Agent Orange) were sprayed from above onto the rebel stronghold. This severely disrupted the ecosystem and, in the long term, led to widespread illness and infant mortality.
The Americans poisoned Vietnam with everything they could. They even used a mixture of defoliants and herbicides. Why are freaks still born there at the genetic level? This is a crime against humanity.
The USSR sent about 2,000 tanks, 700 light and maneuverable aircraft, 7,000 mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters and much more to Vietnam. Almost the entire air defense system of the country, impeccable and impenetrable to fighters, was built by Soviet specialists using Soviet funds. “On-site training” also took place. Military schools and academies of the USSR trained Vietnamese military personnel.
Vietnamese women and children hide from artillery fire in an overgrown canal 30 km west of Saigon, January 1, 1966.
On March 16, 1968, American soldiers completely destroyed a Vietnamese village, killing 504 innocent men, women and children. Only one person was convicted of this war crime, who was “pardoned” three days later by personal decree of Richard Nixon.
The Vietnam War also became a drug war. Drug addiction among the troops became another factor that undermined the combat effectiveness of the United States.
On average, an American soldier fought 240 days a year in Vietnam! For comparison, an American soldier fought in the Pacific during World War II on average 40 days over 4 years. Helicopters performed well in this war. Of which the Americans lost about 3,500.
From 1957 to 1973, about 37 thousand South Vietnamese were shot by Viet Cong guerrillas for collaborating with the Americans, most of whom were minor government employees.
Civilian casualties to date are unknown—about 5 million are believed to have died, with more in the North than in the South. In addition, the losses of the civilian population of Cambodia and Laos are not taken into account anywhere - apparently, they also number in the thousands here.
The average age of a dead American soldier was 23 years 11 months. 11,465 deaths were under 20 years of age, and 5 died before reaching 16 years of age! The oldest person killed in the war was a 62-year-old American.
The Vietnam War was the longest military conflict in modern military history. The conflict lasted about 20 years: from November 1, 1955 until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
But Vietnam won...
Our crimson flag flies proudly,
And on it are stars, a victory sign.
Like the surf
Grozovoy —
The power of military friendship,
We are moving towards new dawns step by step.
This is Lao Dong, our party,
We're moving forward year after year
Leading!
— Do Minh, "Song of the Lao Dong Party"
Soviet tanks in Saigon... this is already the end... The Yankees do not want to remember this war, they no longer openly fight with the radicals and have generally revised their methods of fighting the “red plague”.
The basis of information and photos (C) Internet. Main sources:
On August 5, 1964, American warplanes raided a torpedo boat base off the coast of North Vietnam. This day is considered the first air war in the history of Vietnam. Ten years before this event, in 1954, Vietnam was freed from French colonists. In accordance with the Geneva Agreement, the country was divided into two parts - North and South. In 1960, an armed conflict began between them. Within a few years it escalated into a large-scale war.
Causes of the Vietnam War
In the North, the country was ruled by the Communist Party led by Ho Chi Minh. The puppet government of South Vietnam extended its hands for American military assistance. This is how the interests of the USSR and the USA clashed in Southeast Asia. The United States planned to surround the USSR along the perimeter with countries that would be pro-American. These already included Pakistan and South Korea. North Vietnam got in the way. Without him, the Americans lost their advantage in this region.
President Kennedy ordered the entry of troops into South Vietnam. By 1964 their number was more than 20,000. In February 1965, Chairman of the Council of Ministers A.N. Kosygin, who visited Hanoi, promised Soviet military assistance to North Vietnam. However, the Soviet Union did not openly get involved in the conflict. Therefore, the Soviet specialists who arrived there in the spring of 1965 were identified as civilians on all papers. They remained silent for many years.
Stages of the Vietnam War
Under a veil of secrecy, ten Soviet military centers of anti-aircraft missile defense forces were deployed in North Vietnam. The main task was to train Vietnamese rocket pilots. This is how they covered the sky, ensuring victory on earth. The Americans knew about the presence of Soviet specialists, but for the time being treated this fact condescendingly. The feeling of complete impunity disappeared after American planes began to be shot down by Vietnamese (and essentially Soviet) air defenses. The fighting went on every day.
Soviet specialists developed their own tactics - shooting from an ambush. A strike on an enemy plane and an immediate retreat to another, pre-prepared position in the jungle. American aviation losses reached 25%. The Shrike homing missile came to the aid of the Americans, detecting the operation of anti-aircraft guns in a matter of seconds. The Vietnam War became a kind of testing ground for various types of weapons, including counter-weapons.
During the 9 years of the war, about 500 air battles were fought and 350 American aircraft were shot down. The losses of the Vietnamese side were 131 aircraft. During all this time, almost 800 American pilots were captured. Contrary to the established legend, no one tortured them or kept them in terrible conditions, and Soviet intelligence officers were not allowed anywhere near them. Over the entire period of the military campaign, US aviation lost more than 4,500 fighters and bombers. This was equal to almost half of America's entire air fleet.
Almost 70% of the North Vietnamese army was supplied with Soviet-made weapons. Supplies passed through China, where the “cultural revolution” was going on at that time. By the early 70s, America began to resemble a hunted animal. Public opinion demanded the withdrawal of troops. Soldiers died in the thousands. Numerous protest demonstrations often ended in clashes with the police. The reservists even burned their agendas. President Nixon hesitated: he either gave orders to stop the bombing, or to resume it. The Americans wanted to save face.
Results of the Vietnam War
On January 27, 1973, a ceasefire agreement was signed between Hanoi and Washington. The withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam began. The most modern army in the world at that time was defeated. 60,000 dead soldiers and hundreds of thousands maimed - this is the terrible result of this war. Almost $300 billion was spent on the war.