The Vietnam War: A Comprehensive Perspective on the Vietnamese Side

💥 Introduction

Mentioning the Vietnam War is one of the fastest ways to spark controversy in any military history community. Opinions will rage back and forth about whether the USA was justified in its intervention, what mistakes it made, and if America ever really had a chance of victory. However, while these topics are very common, what is much less talked about is the perspective of the Vietnamese people during the conflict. Their motivations, the agenda of their leaders, and how they endured nearly 20 years of bloody, vicious guerrilla warfare.

⛓️ Vietnam's Historical Struggles

📜 A Long Legacy of Occupation

To understand the attitude of the Vietnamese during the war, one must first be aware of Vietnam's history of occupation and exploitation by foreign powers. First, there was China, which spent a thousand years trying to absorb the nation through conquest and cultural assimilation. However, by the 19th century, China was undergoing its own negative experiences with colonialism as powerful European empires began expanding into Asia and destroying the old status quo.

⚔️ French Colonial Rule

With Chinese influence on the wane, it seemed as if Vietnam might have a chance to stand on its own. But a small squadron of French warships promptly crushed those hopes. Unable to resist this technologically superior foe, the Nguyen imperial dynasty ruling Vietnam at the time quickly capitulated. By 1884, most of Vietnam had become part of the greater colonial union of French Indochina, with the Nguyen court reduced to a puppet administration. Colonial governors operated with virtually no oversight from the French state and were allowed to use any means to suppress any hint of native resistance. Often this extended to criminalizing the mere act of identifying oneself as Vietnamese.

🔥 Seeds of Revolution

💡 The Rise of Communism

Trapped in a thoroughly miserable existence, the Vietnamese peasants were desperate for a savior. After decades of failed revolts and horrific reprisals, the iron grip of colonialism remained as strong as ever. Yet unknown to the peasantry, the seeds of a new revolution were already being sown in the coffee houses of Paris. Here, the few Vietnamese who could afford a Western education debated the merits of a strange radical new ideology known as communism. Unlike any political ideology at the time, communism promised freedom and equality for those laboring under the yoke of capitalistic imperialism.

🌟 The Emergence of Ho Chi Minh

Central to the communist movement in Vietnam was the unassuming son of a disgraced bureaucrat called Nguyen Sinh Con, or as he is more commonly known, Ho Chi Minh. After leaving Vietnam sometime in the 1910s, Ho Chi Minh drifted around Europe, visiting both the United States and possibly Britain. As early as 1918, he was already a dedicated anti-imperialist. In 1920, he was one of the many communists avidly following the progress of Vladimir Lenin's October Revolution in Russia. Inspired by Lenin’s success, Ho Chi Minh chaired the first meeting of what would become the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) in 1930, with the express goal of ending colonial rule in his native country.

🌍 World War II and the Japanese Occupation

🎖️ The Impact of Japanese Occupation

While Ho Chi Minh's early efforts didn’t immediately result in a regime change, World War II introduced an unlikely catalyst for revolution—imperial Japan. In 1940, Japan invaded Vietnam as part of their efforts to establish the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In 1945, Japan officially annexed the country and expelled all western influences, including the entire French colonial administration. Mere months later, the Japanese surrendered to the Allies. With their collapse, Vietnam’s century-old political order came crashing down, leaving total chaos in its wake.

🏹 Ho Chi Minh’s Revolutionary Movement

It was during this last chaotic year of the occupation that Ho Chi Minh truly came into his own as a leader. He had returned to Vietnam in 1941 to organize a major resistance movement against Japanese forces known as the Viet Minh. By 1945, he was leading an army of at least 10,000 communist guerrillas. His long-awaited revolution began on August 15th, before the ink on the Japanese instrument of surrender had time to dry. With the French colonial forces in Vietnam having been disarmed by the Japanese earlier that year, there was a brief window where the Viet Minh had free run of the entire country.

🇺🇸 The Initial Relationship with the United States

🤝 Dreams of Cooperation

Far from screaming defiance at the hated Western imperialists, Ho Chi Minh was posivitely desperate to secure a friendship with the United States. This was due in large part to the activities of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which had made contact with the Viet Minh in 1945 and selected Ho Chi Minh as their primary contact within Vietnam.

🌐 Early Sympathy and Celebrations

Part of what enabled the close relationship between America and the Viet Minh was their lack of a traditional communist agenda. Despite Ho Chi Minh's unabashed belief in the ideology, his primary goal was always the liberation of Vietnam. As he himself stated, "at first, patriotism, not yet communism." This sentiment struck a chord with American observers, who were naturally sympathetic to the idea of an oppressed nation throwing off the shackles of a domineering imperialist regime. OSS operatives celebrated alongside the peasantry when Ho Chi Minh declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on September 2nd, 1945. In his opening speech, he began with words familiar to every American.

🇫🇷 French Reoccupation and the First Indochina War

⚖️ A Frustrated Dream Deferred

Of course, this dream was never really an option. The French wanted their colonies back, and the newly elected President Truman had no interest in cooperating with an openly communist regime. After negotiations with the French broke down completely, the Vietnamese had no choice but to fight for their independence. The First Indochina War began on December 16th, 1946. During this time, the Nguyen dynasty attempted to reassert its control over the nation, with the 13th Emperor Bao Dai siding with the French and resuming his place as a puppet ruler over their occupied territories.

📉 The Turning Point: Dien Bien Phu

As the war dragged on, the U.S. began sending aid to the French. However, after their dramatic defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, they agreed to new negotiations with the Viet Minh. The ensuing treaty split the country into two halves: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in the north and the State of Vietnam in the south. Emperor Bao Dai was unceremoniously ousted by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, after a referendum determined that the State of Vietnam should become a republic.

⛓️ The Divide Deepens

🗳️ Corruption and Disunity

This referendum was hardly a triumph of democracy over imperialism, for Diệm was utterly corrupt, and the referendum was blatantly rigged. Diệm even went so far as to deliberately ignore the French promise that the South would be allowed to vote on whether or not to reunite with the North under the DRV. When it became clear that Diệm had no intention of allowing reunification, DRV-backed insurgents began appearing all over the South, increasing anti-communist activities and intensifying U.S. aid to Diệm's administration.

🔪 The Fall of Diệm

However, Diệm proved to be a fickle ally, often refusing to cooperate with his U.S. backers, especially in regard to rural development and land management. In 1963, tensions finally came to a head when Diệm was abruptly assassinated in a military coup d'état that was aided by the CIA. This, combined with the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, paved the way for a full-scale U.S. invasion.

💣 The American Juggernaut

🎖️ Guerrilla Warfare

From the outset of war, Vietnamese generals knew a conventional victory was impossible. America was simply too powerful to defeat using traditional battlefield tactics. However, the huge rural population of the South was already mostly under the sway of the DRV-backed National Liberation Front, also known as the Viet Cong (VC). The VC, in combination with the People's Army of Vietnam, waged a successful series of campaigns against the disorganized South Vietnamese until large numbers of American troops began arriving in 1965. Following American involvement, the conflict began to shift into a war of attrition.

🐀 The Importance of Tunnels

Vietnamese defense strategy revolved around their extensive network of tunnels, which many likened more to underground cities than mere military strongholds. Over 200 miles (321 kilometers) of tunnel were dug during the war, with the largest system at Củ Chi being just 20 miles (32 kilometers) outside Saigon. Colonel Chao Lam summed up their importance: "We knew the Americans were determined to find and destroy the tunnel system. They understood, as did we, that as Củ Chi went, so did the war. It was our determination not to lose even one centimeter of the tunnels. It was a contest of wills resulting in some very fierce fighting. We made a tremendous sacrifice to gain victory."

✈️ The Harsh Realities of War

🔥 Bombing Campaigns

Two years after its arrival, the United States expanded its bombing campaigns across North Vietnam in an effort to break their will to fight. When a North Vietnamese civilian saw the first B-57 bombers open their bombays over his home province of Quang Ninh, his first thought was not to flee in panic but was instead, "Why is a mother airplane dropping baby airplanes?" Having miraculously survived the initial attack, he gathered his family and fled to nearby caves.

🩸 The My Lai Massacre

Sadly, the citizens of Vietnam had much more to fear than American bombs. When Viet Cong guerrillas went to ground among the rural peasantry, U.S. forces responded by declaring any villages with a suspected VC presence as free-fire zones. Then came the infamous My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, when at least 347 unarmed civilians were brutally executed by American soldiers. Although the heroic actions of a U.S. helicopter crew saved a few innocent lives, My Lai would go on to become known as the worst war crime ever perpetrated by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.

🛡️ The Vietnamese Soldiers' Perspective

⏳ Extended Deployments

As traumatizing as the war was for the civilian population, it was arguably just as bad for the Vietnamese soldiers due to the extended deployment times most were expected to serve. Lake Hau Dai, head of surgery at a military hospital, later recalled, "When we were called to go south, everyone was very excited. As it turned out, while I only planned to stay for six months, I ended up staying for eight years." Given these extended deployment times, Vietnamese soldiers quickly became hardened to the horrors of war and had little mercy for American soldiers.

🔪 Hostility Towards American POWs

American pilots were especially loathed due to their indiscriminate bombing campaigns. Many American soldiers were tortured to death after bailing out over Vietnamese territory.

📣 Propaganda and Its Impact

📜 Propaganda Campaigns

To keep their populace motivated and stave off the effects of war weariness, the DRV maintained strong and effective propaganda campaigns throughout the conflict. The mastermind behind these campaigns was Vo Nguyen Giap, a renowned military leader who had fought alongside Ho Chi Minh since the 1940s. People quickly formed long queues to purchase his newspapers and listen to loudspeaker broadcasts about the latest developments on the front lines. With minimal access to international news, North Vietnamese were easily swayed by party rhetoric and came to regard the war as a necessary and righteous struggle against imperialist aggressors.

💔 Contrasts in the South

By contrast, the urban population of the South had access to four news reports and had a much more conflicted attitude towards the violence tearing apart their nation. The success of the Vietnamese propaganda machine was evident following the Tet Offensive of 1968, which caught U.S. forces completely by surprise. Amidst the chaos, VC infiltrators attacked the American embassy in Saigon, penetrating the compound and opening fire on the chancery building with rocket-propelled grenades. Although the building withstood the assault, the fact that such an attack had occurred was psychologically devastating to the USA, proving that not even the capital city of South Vietnam was safe from communist infiltration.

🛡️ Endgame and Aftermath

💔 War Fatigue and Defiance

By the early 1970s, the endless jungle warfare had taken its toll on both sides. However, the DRV remained defiant, while U.S. morale plummeted to the point where soldiers were openly ignoring orders and deserting in record numbers. Desperate to at least preserve the status quo, America began pouring resources into strengthening the South Vietnamese army while pulling its own traumatized troops out of the conflict. But it was too little, too late. In 1975, a massive offensive by the DRV, known as the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, smashed through the defenses around Saigon and decapitated the Republic.

🌍 The Final Reunification

After almost 20 years of war and millions of deaths, the DRV finally stood triumphant. However, the final victory was bittersweet. While the sacrifices made by the North Vietnamese during the war allowed them to survive and reunify with the South, the conflict left millions on both sides scarred for life. Furthermore, despite the expectations of the international community, communism failed to spread throughout Southeast Asia after the fall of Saigon, rendering decades of U.S. obsession with the "domino theory" utterly pointless. The repeated entreaties of Ho Chi Minh and extensive testimonies by OSS operatives in the 1940s failed to convey to America that it was the desire for liberty, not communism, that motivated the North Vietnamese to fight on against the odds.

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