Vietnam Wars

A Pictorial History, Inspired by ‘Vietnam, A History’ by Stanley Karnow (1991)

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Calls to Impeach President Nixon Outside the White House. Source: History On The Net

As the Second Indochina War fell into an uneasy stalemate in late 1973, developments in the United States were conspiring to effectively hobble the ability of the Nixon administration to intervene in order to help sustain the anti-Communist regimes in Saigon, Vientiane and Phnom Penh. The Watergate scandal, which had started as a botched attempt by Nixon to spy on the Democrats’ campaign during the 1972 Presidential election, had spiralled into a full-blown inquiry into serial dishonesty at the heart of government: this included the lies to Congress about the extent of US involvement in the Laotian and Cambodian conflicts. On 7th November 1973, Congress overruled Nixon’s veto of the law limiting the President’s right to wage war without recourse to Congress.

As calls grew for Nixon’s impeachment grew in the US, it became clear that sustained American military support for the RVN, the Republic of Kampuchea and the Kingdom of Laos would be severely curtailed from now on.

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Royal Lao Amy Senior Commanders in 1973. Source: Unforgettable Laos website.

In mid-January 1973, the last major offensive of the Laotian Civi War was launched by the Rightist-dominated Vientiane government. Spearheaded by General Vang Pao’s Hmong irregular forces and supported by units of the Royal Lao Army, Thai mercenaries and US air cover, the Rightists struck PAVN forces dug in on the Plain of Jars, in an assault called Operation Phou Phiang III.

Despite the deployment of considerable military resources, Vang Pao was unable to dislodge the North Vietnamese forces from their positions. Senior RLA commanders had hoped to drive the communists off the Plains of Jars, but the campaign achieved little success. On 21st February 1973, as a direct consequence of the Paris Peace Accords, the Vientiane Treaty was signed between the Royal Lao government and the Pathet Lao, which brought the fighting to an end. Under this agreement, Hanoi agreed to end its support for the Pathet Lao and slowly to withdraw from Laos. The agreement also ended all American air support for the Vientiane regime and committed both the Royal Lao government and the Pathet Lao to power-sharing discussions and an end to the armed conflict.

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A Cambodian Soldier Marches With His Unit North of Phnom Penh, Summer 1973. Source: Alamy Stock Photos

In January 1973, in light of the Paris Peace Accords, Lon Nol announced a unilateral ceasefire in the Cambodian Civil War. The Khmer Rouge however did not reciprocate but instead launched a major offensive that penned FANK forces into the urban centres and major highways. US aerial bombing missions in Cambodia had ceased under the Paris agreement, but in response to the KR assault which led to the surrounding of Phnom Penh by the Cambodian Communist forces (the PAVN did not participate in the offensive), bombing attacks in support of the FANK recommenced on 9th February 1973.

In military terms the air campaign was a success. The encirclement of the Cambodian capital was broken with the Khmer Rouge suffering an estimated 16,000 casualties. The victory however came at considerable cost. Destruction of rural areas, much of which was held by the KR, was immense which resulted in many civilian deaths and large scale displacement of the peasant population, causing a major refugee problem in Phnom Penh and other Cambodian cities. Meanwhile Congress had declared American military operations in Cambodia illegal, and on 15th August, as the Nixon White House became embroiled in the Watergate scandal, American air support for the Cambodian government ceased for good. The Lon Nol regime had survived but was left in an extremely precarious state.

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The US Delegation Signing the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27th January 1973. Source: Bridgeman Images

On 27th January 1973, the USA, the DRV and the RVN signed the ceasefire agreement, formally bringing the Vietnam War to an end. Secretary of Defense Laird soon after announced the end of the draft in the United States.

The key provisions of the Agreement were:- the full withdrawal of all US ground combat personnel from South Vietnam within sixty days; the North Vietnamese agreed to release all American POWs held in the North on the same timescale; the division of Vietnam into two states was recognised as indefinite and not to be resolved militarily. Political negotiations between the Saigon government and the NLF would determine the RVN’s political future. It was also agreed that all US and Vietnamese forces would be withdrawn from Laos and Cambodia. The implementation of the accords would be monitored by the International Commission of Control and Supervision, consisting of representatives from Canada, Poland and Indonesia.

In Cambodia, in the light of the agreement, Lon Nol declared a unilateral ceasefire, which was not however accepted by the Khmer Rouge, despite the NVA ceasing all offensive operations in Cambodia in support of the KR. Crucially there was no agreement that PAVN troops would vacate South Vietnam, which resulted in ongoing tension in the South between the ARVN and the NVA.

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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.

As the proposed settlement would be based on the ceasefire line, this resulted in an extraordinary outbreak of low level military conflict between the PAVN and the ARVN as both sides attempted to seize territory held by the other before the ceasefire took force. This became known as the “War of the Flags”, given the practice, initiated by South Vietnam, of entering contested villages and raising either RVN or NLF flags there. This frequently resulted in fighting between the two forces, particularly in the disputed Central Highlands. Overall the ARVN enjoyed slightly more success during this conflict, pushing NVA troops out of some areas taken by the communists during the Easter Offensive. Some 6,000 casualties were incurred by both sides during the fighting.

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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”.

With its air defences ultimately overwhelmed, Hanoi indicated that the DRV would resume talks in Paris once the bombing stopped.

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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.

In November, the Laotian government launched a far more successful campaign known as Operation Black Lion III. A joint offensive by the Royal Lao Air Force, the RLA and Thai mercenaries succeeded in blunting Communist incursions and took the towns of Salavan and Paksong from the Communists and inflicted heavy casualties on both the Pathet Lao and the NVA. With the Paris peace talks slowly making progress, the view of the Vientiane government was that any ceasefire agreed in Vietnam would be extended to Laos, and Black Lion III therefore represented something of a Rightist “land grab" before an expected armistice. The operation was one of the most successful offensives carried out by Royal Lao forces in the Laotian Civil War.

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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.

Le Duc Tho felt the Americans were negotiating in bad faith and that Thieu was exerting an effective veto on the proposals despite what Tho viewed were significant DRV concessions, particularly the commitment to end the “popular uprising” in the South indefinitely and to achieve reunification of Vietnam through peaceful means. The talks broke down into mutual antagonism before collapsing altogether in early December. A negotiated settlement to the Vietnam War seemed as far away as ever.

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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.

Frustrated by Thieu’s opposition, Hanoi Radio broadcast details of the agreement to the world in an effort to pressure Kissinger to overrule Thieu. In response, and in an effort to reassure the DRV, Kissinger publicly announced that “peace is at hand”.

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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.

The initial success of the Easter Offensive, launched in order to create leverage in the Paris peace talks, may even have surprised Hanoi, but after initial sweeping gains, the NVA was unable to sustain its momentum. The ARVN recovered its balance and displayed a level of military competence and aggression not previously evident. Crucial to success was American air support that devastated the exposed North Vietnamese formations, inflicting huge casualties. As the fighting ground to a halt with the arrival of autumn, the North Vietnamese had nonetheless significantly expanded the size of the Communist “liberated zones” across South Vietnam, which enabled the PAVN to establish a permanent military presence in the South.

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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.

In retaliation, on 8th May, Nixon ordered a resumption of the bombing of towns and cities in North Vietnam, including, controversially, the mining of the harbour of the city of Haiphong, aiming to squeeze the DRV economically by restricting imports and exports to and from North Vietnam’s only major commercial port.

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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.

The Americans and South Vietnamese had been caught by surprise, but in May, the allies hit back, with the ARVN displaying an unexpected level of of resilience and military aggression which resulted in a stalling of the North Vietnamese offensive and a series of intense conventional battes between the two armies for territory. Crucial to the ability of the RVN to stabilise its position was intense US air support which played havoc with the North Vietnamese tank-based formations. Significantly, the Viet Cong played very little role in the fighting as strategic control of the Communist military effort reverted to the PAVN and away from guerrilla tactics.

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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.

The attack focused on recapturing Route 6 and breaking the encirclement of Kompong Tom by the NVA. The campaign met with initial success when Communist forces were caught by surprise, resulting in significant gains by the Khmer National Armed Forces (FANK) during the late summer. However, the PAVN regrouped and, supported by the Khmer Rouge, launched a devastating counter-offensive in October 1971 which reversed all the Cambodian government gains and forced Lon Nol's troops into a precipitate reteat. By December 1971, when the fighting had died down, it was clear that the Phnom Penh regime hd suffered a major defeat. The FANK was forced into a defensive posture thereafter, holding the towns and highways of western Cambodia, but unable to effect any control of most of the countryside, which fell into the hands of the increangly militarily effective Khmer Rluge.

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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.

In the meantime, American troop withdrawals continued apace: by the end of 1971, US ground troop presence in Vietnam was down to 140,000 men.

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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.

Nixon tried to prevent publication, but the Supreme Court upheld the right of the NYT to publish under the First Amendment.

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

In February 1971, in a test of the effectiveness of Vietnamisation, South Vietnamese troops, supported by significant US airpower, entered Laos in a major attempt to sever the Ho Chi Minh Trail completely in an assault entitled Operation Lam Son 719. Some 30,000 ARVN troops, headed by elite units of Rangers moved swiftly along Route 9 aiming for the Communist logistics base of Tchepone. Despite initial success during which the ARVN forces established several fire bases of their own to support the attack and captured the outpost of A Luoi, the North Vietnamese soon recovered. They were able to bring up over 30,000 men to the battle supported by tanks and mortars. The South Vietnamese were soon forced into a fighting retreat back along Route 9, which quickly dissolved into chaos. The invasion force was effectively driven out of Laos by the PAVN. Both sides suffered thousands of casualties during the fighting, but the outcome was a clear defeat for South Vietnam. Lam Son 719 demonstrated that even with intense American air support, the ARVN could not match the NVA on the field of battle and the defeat did not auger well for the achievement of peace with honor, which required the military resilience and civil sustainability of the RVN, on which Nixon had based his entire Vietnam War strategy.

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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.

Meanwhile the scaling down of American ground operations in South Vietnam continued apace. By the end of 1970, combat deaths numbed just twenty four - the lowest number of fatalities since 1965 - and US troop numbers were down to 280,000 men.