American Army Magazines Vietnam War. American equipment
April 11 marked the 40th anniversary of the cult film Apocalypse Now, so it was released again. A great reason to remember the Vietnam War. The theme seems hackneyed, but there are a lot of really wild things left in it. For example, the word "frag" comes from the time of the Vietnamese and meant the murder of one's own officer; the fighters of the Tiger detachment cut off the ears of the enemies; and the executioner from the famous photograph depicting the execution of the partisan opened a pizzeria and lived out his days in Virginia.
We have collected 10 facts for you. Some of them are film worthy in their own right.
The word "frag" came from the Vietnam War and meant the murder of one's own commander.
The current schoolchildren who use the word “frag” hardly realize how wild his story is. "Frag" is an abbreviation for the phrase "fragmentary grenade", and over time, they began to refer to the murder of their own commander during the Vietnam War.
At the very end of the war, the devil knows what was going on in the American army: discipline was cracking at the seams, many soldiers used drugs, and outright outcasts fell into the conscripts. Under these conditions, some of the rank and file went to kill especially annoying commanders - they simply threw the very fragmentary grenade into their tent. It was hard to prove that this was not the work of the Viet Cong, and the new commander, knowing the fate of the previous one, was like silk. Many soldiers liked to brag about how many "frags" they had on their account. Most often it was empty chatter, but in 1970 alone, 321 cases of fragging were recorded.
The executioner from the famous photo "Execution in Saigon" quietly lived out his days in Virginia and even opened a pizzeria
The photo "Execution in Saigon" has become one of the most famous symbols of the Vietnam War and its brutality. It depicts a police chief of South Vietnam (US allies) shooting a Viet Cong guerrilla. The photo at one time made a lot of noise, was replicated around the world, and the photographer Eddie Adams, who made it, won the Pulitzer Prize (however, voluntarily refusing it).
All the more surprising is the fate of the shooter. Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan immigrated to the United States after the war and ended up owning a small pizzeria in Virginia. The only thing that overshadowed his old age was that someone nevertheless found out the truth and once filled a pizzeria with the words: “We know who you are!”. Eddie Adams himself subsequently changed his mind about what was happening and apologized to Loan, stating that he had undeservedly denigrated him with his photograph.
One of the heroes of the Vietnamese admitted that he accomplished the feat completely stoned
Sergeant Peter Lemon received the Medal of Honor for an astonishing feat. In 1970, he served as a machine gunner's assistant guarding a base in Tai Tin Province.
When the base was attacked, killing many Americans, Peter held back two waves of the offensive, firing from a grenade launcher, machine guns, and when they failed, from a personal rifle. He threw grenades at the enemy, was wounded three times, carried a wounded comrade out from under fire, and in the end ran to finish off the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.
The feat of the sergeant became widely known and was widely replicated in the media. However, Lemon's confession was a blow to the prestige of the army: at the time of the attack, he and his comrades smoked so much cannabis that they hardly understood what was happening. Peter himself told reporters that he considered America the aggressor and added that, according to his observations, 90% of all American soldiers in Vietnam smoke marijuana.
US military recorded 'ghost voices' to scare superstitious Viet Cong
One of the methods of psychological warfare used by the US military is the "voices of ghosts." The officers learned that, according to local beliefs, unburied soldiers would forever roam the Earth, howling terribly and dragging everyone who came across to the next world.
It was decided to use these legends in the strangest way: around the bases (and sometimes just in certain places in the jungle) speakers were placed playing recordings of "ghostly and creepy sounds", many of which were simply taken from horror films. The operation was called "Wandering Soul".
- The famous "Record No. 10" is a great example of dark ambient.
Buddhist funeral music and recordings in Vietnamese were often used, in which supposedly dead soldiers howled terribly and talked about the imminent death of their comrades-in-arms. The reception, apparently, had no effect. But the contribution of the American army to it is difficult to overestimate.
125 thousand American guys immigrated to Canada, hiding from the draft. And half liked it there more than at home
Throughout the Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of draft-age guys mowed down in every possible way. Immigration to Canada turned out to be the most trouble-free way - it's close, easy to enter, there is no language barrier, and Canada refused to extradite fugitive conscripts, although they were considered criminals in the USA.
When President Carter granted an amnesty to all those who fled compulsory military service for another country, half of all fugitives returned on the first day. By the way, one of the most famous Canadian dodgers is the father of cyberpunk, William Gibson. True, he did not want to return home - he liked Canada much more than at home.
The Americans believed that the Viet Cong were afraid of the ace of spades.
But for the Vietnamese, this is just nonsense.
You may have seen in Vietnamese films (even documentaries) how American soldiers leave an ace of spades on the bodies of dead Viet Cong - as a kind of trademark. This custom really took place, but it comes from a curious mistake. One day, there was a rumor among the military that the Vietnamese were madly afraid of this card, considering it a symbol of death and a bad omen.
However, this is just a story, there is nothing like it in Vietnamese culture. The myth was so enduring that American card makers sent crates of aces of spades to the war.
Soldiers of the "Tiger" detachment cut off the ears of the enemies and made necklaces out of them
The American special forces detachment "Tiger" specialized in the fight against partisans. In the course were any methods, even the most dirty and cruel. In 2003, correspondent Michael Salla published previously classified data from the Vietnam era. The US Army conducted its own war crimes investigations into Tiger Squad and concluded that most of the rumors about it were true.
The Tiger fighters cut off the ears of the partisans and made necklaces out of them. They tortured the detainees and destroyed the civilian population in order to intimidate them. Local residents were used to clear minefields, forcing them to run through them at gunpoint. Michael Salla's investigation led to the strongest public outcry, even after so many decades. However, in the end, no one was punished: in the conclusions of the tribunal, it was about the detachment as a whole, specific names were not named.
Patrol unit "Tiger".
A similar example of the bloodthirstiness of soldiers is given in the autobiographical book "Old Men" by Gustav Hasford, which was made into the film "Full Metal Jacket". There, one of the black fighters, originally from New Orleans, cut off the feet of the Viet Cong, believing that this was how he received their strength.
During the evacuation, the Americans threw 47 million dollars into the sea
Frequent wind
After the fall of Saigon in 1975, American forces staged a large-scale evacuation of the remaining forces and allied Vietnamese. The operation was called "Gusty Wind", and during its course 7 thousand people were evacuated per day. However, everything was carried out in such a hurry that there was a catastrophic lack of space on the deck. The refugees were eventually preferred to helicopters, which were dropped from the deck to make room.
The footage of the Iroquois being thrown overboard by an aircraft carrier has become the most famous symbol of defeat in the Vietnam War. The cost of the cars that went to the bottom is estimated at $ 10 million at the rate of those years. Taking into account inflation and in terms of current money, this is about 47 million.
Agent "Orange" caused offspring mutations not only in the Vietnamese, but also in American soldiers
The use of a toxic substance codenamed Agent Orange is a well-known fact. During Operation Ranch Hand, American troops sprayed 77 million liters of herbicide over 10% of all of South Vietnam, which was supposed to destroy the jungle where the guerrillas were hiding. The consequences for local residents were catastrophic - 4 million people became victims of the "orange". Three million suffered directly from these chemical weapons, and another million from congenital diseases.
Spraying Agent Orange.
Agent "orange" has terrible consequences for offspring - it causes body deformations in the fetus. But what is known much less is that not only the Vietnamese, but also hundreds of thousands of American military personnel suffered from the toxin. According to statistics, the children of Vietnam veterans are three times more likely to be born with birth defects and diseases.
The most dangerous specialization of the Vietnam War is not marines or "tunnel rats", but helicopter reconnaissance
Films about the Vietnam War give an extremely one-sided view of the war: because of them, it seems that there is nothing more dangerous than being a Marine and almost all of them, sooner or later, are doomed to death. In reality, infantry mortality was not that great (by the standards of the conflict, of course). In total, 2 million Americans served in Vietnam, of which more than 50 thousand. The chances of becoming dead or crippled here were 33% - incredibly high by the standards of the Vietnam War.
H-13, Sioux.
However, most of the losses, apparently, were not suffered by the Marines and tunnel fighters, but by the pilots of reconnaissance helicopters. Particularly affected were the lungs, like a glass ball with a propeller, the H-13 machines. Their losses were colossal. Military helicopter pilot Robert Mason in his autobiographical novel The Chicken and the Hawk gives the following example: in the 1/9 squadron serving next to him, 14 out of 20 reconnaissance helicopter pilots died in less than six months.
But the most surprising thing about the Vietnamese is that the most famous "facts" about its soldiers turned out to be myths. 2/3 of the Americans who served were volunteers, and when they returned home they did not become psychopaths and drug addicts. Statistics, on the contrary, show that the number of suicides, unemployed and drug addicts among them was less than among those who did not serve.
The image of the Viet Cong soldier also turned out to be a myth: most of them found themselves in the jungle for the first time in their lives and were scared no less than the Americans. And they, too, often suffered from traps, but already left by the US allies (mainly the Hmong people). And the story that American soldiers preferred captured AK-47s also worked in the opposite direction - the Vietnamese themselves did not have so many Kalashnikovs, so they often took captured M-16s.
Unique retro photographs taken by war correspondents during the Vietnam War.
In the 21st century, against the backdrop of numerous military conflicts unleashed by the United States, the war that Washington once lost in Vietnam is fading into the shadows. But this war is clearest example that patriotism and national consciousness can defeat the most powerful enemy with the most modern weapons.
1. Battle in the Ya Drang Valley 
At midnight, after heavy and exhausting fighting, a detachment of 23 people, led by Sergeant Frederick Kluge, went in search of a group of 26 wounded Americans, led by platoon commander 2nd Lieutenant Robert Jeanette. The photograph shows the dead and wounded soldiers of the third battalion of the American 1st Cavalry Division, who unexpectedly came under fire from the guerrillas while trying to get out of the encirclement in the Ya Drang valley, November 18, 1965.
2. POW fighter of the army of North Vietnam 
A North Vietnamese army fighter captured on November 19 by American units who were on foot to the Crooks landing zone, located 10 kilometers from the Albany zone.
3. Soldier of the reserve division 
An American Marine who had recently arrived in South Vietnam and was immediately dispatched to search for North Vietnamese guerrillas near Da Nang Air Base on April 29, 1965.
4. Civilians cross the destroyed bridge in the city of Hue 
The battle for the South Vietnamese city of Hue is one of the longest and bloodiest battles of all the time of hostilities in Vietnam, which took place in 1968 between the forces of the United States and South Vietnam on the one hand and the forces of North Vietnam and their allies on the other. The battle was characterized by fierce street fighting, accompanied by great destruction and casualties among the civilian population.
5. Battle of Dongsoai 
Exhausted civilians who emerged from their underground shelters after two days of bombardment and grueling fighting in the vicinity of Dong Xoai, June 6, 1965.
6. The use of a mixture of defoliants and herbicides by the US Army 
Four American military transport aircraft Fairchild C-123 Provider spray liquid defoliant over the positions of North Vietnamese troops in September 1965. The uncontrolled and massive use of defoliants with herbicides has caused serious environmental problems in those regions, as well as millions of cases of diseases, including hereditary ones, among the local population.
7. Among the remains of dead soldiers 
A South Vietnamese Marine wearing 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.
8. The only way to be saved 
Vietnamese women and children hide from artillery fire in an overgrown canal 30 km west of Saigon on January 1, 1966.
9. Unbearable heat 
Resting Rick Holmes fighting in Sector C with the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Rifles, 173rd Airborne Brigade, January 3, 1966.
10 Massive Bomb Strike 
An American Douglas A-1 Skyraider drops bombs filled with white phosphorus on the positions of North Vietnamese troops in the Ia Drang valley, near the X-Ray landing zone, on November 15, 1965.
11. American soldiers in Vietnam during a napalm attack 
Fireballs from napalm explosions in the vicinity of the location of the soldiers of the American troops.
12. Help a seriously wounded comrade 
A slightly wounded US Marine gives water to his seriously wounded comrade during a special operation along the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam, July 21, 1966.
13. Detained on suspicion of assisting partisans 
A Vietnamese child clings to his father, who was detained and tied up as a suspected North Vietnamese guerrilla 280km northeast of Saigon, February 17, 1966.
14. American Marine 
The face of a US Marine firing an M60 machine gun during one of the battles south of the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam, October 10, 1966.
15. Music show 
The Korean Kittens perform in a music show in front of US soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division.
It became one of the largest local conflicts of the Cold War period. According to the Geneva Accords of 1954, which ended the Indochina War, Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel into northern and southern parts. On July 16, 1955, the Prime Minister of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, announced that he would not comply with the Geneva Accords, and an anti-communist state would be created in South Vietnam. In 1957, the first detachments of the anti-Ziem underground appeared in South Vietnam, which began a guerrilla war against the government. In 1959, the support of the South Vietnamese partisans was declared by the North Vietnamese communists and their allies, and in December 1960, all underground groups merged into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF), which in Western countries was often called the "Viet Cong".
The weapons used by the South Vietnamese guerrillas were very diverse. It had to be obtained in battles, by introducing secret agents into the enemy camp, as well as by deliveries from communist countries through Laos and Cambodia. As a result, the Viet Cong was armed with many samples of both Western and Soviet weapons.
Echoes of the previous war
During the Indochina War, which lasted from 1946 to 1954, the French army, which fought to preserve the French colonial possessions in Indochina, enjoyed the support of Great Britain and the United States, and the Viet Minh national liberation movement - the support of communist China. Thanks to this, the arsenal of the Vietnamese partisans in the early 60s was rich and varied in composition. The Viet Cong had submachine guns MAT-49 (France), STEN (Great Britain), PPSh-41 (China), PPS-43 (China), Mosin carbines and rifles (USSR), Kar98k carbines (Germany), MAS- 36 (France), Browning machine guns (USA), DP-28 (USSR), MG-42 (Germany). The most popular Viet Cong small arms were MAT-49, Kar98k, Mosin and PPSh rifles.
Viet Cong fighters with small arms
Source: vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net
American machine guns
Since the US entry into the conflict, American material support for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARV) has increased. Thompson and M3 submachine guns, M1 and BAR carbines began to enter the country. Some of these weapons immediately fell into the hands of the Viet Cong guerrillas, since many ARV servicemen were disloyal to the current government and willingly supplied their friends from « Viet Cong » . It is worth noting that after the AK-47 fell into the hands of the Vietnamese partisans, they happily abandoned American and British weapons, since Soviet machine guns outnumbered the enemy’s small arms. The only exception was the M3, which was very effective in close combat.
American soldier with an M3 assault rifle, Vietnam, 1967
Source: gunsbase.com
From factory to jungle
With the advent of the new American M-16 rifle in 1967-68, it also appeared in the arsenal of the Viet Cong. The "Black Rifle" (as the soldiers dubbed it) showed low efficiency during the fighting in the Vietnamese jungle. The barrel and action group of the emka supplied to Vietnam were not chrome plated, and there were no cleaning kits. All this led to the fact that the machine quickly clogged with soot and failed. For this reason, the M16 was not particularly popular with the Viet Cong guerrillas either. The new modification M16A1 was finalized taking into account the feedback received from the soldiers who fought in Vietnam, and in 1967 began to enter service with the American army. Unlike its predecessor, the M16A1 was readily used by both the Americans and the Viet Cong. The advantage of the modified emka was that it had a bayonet-knife, but it was significantly inferior to the AK-47 in hand-to-hand combat, since its butt often split after impact, which did not happen with the butt of a Soviet machine gun.
Partisan girl with M-16
Source: historicalmoments2.com
The controversial symbol of the "Viet Cong"
The M-1 carbine and the M3 submachine gun are considered symbols of the early guerrilla warfare in Vietnam - this primarily refers to units of local forces that did not enjoy sufficient support from North Vietnam. The light but powerful M-1 carbine was easy to operate and repair, and the M3 submachine gun was indispensable in close combat. You can find quite conflicting reviews about the M1 carbine. In the Vietnamese museum expositions dedicated to the guerrilla war in the jungle, it is presented as the main weapon of the Viet Cong on initial stage war. At the same time, a number of experts point out that the M1 is more correctly called the best among the weapons available to the guerrillas, and with the advent of other types of small arms, the Vietnamese began to abandon the M1.
Partisan girl with M-1 carbine
Source: pinterest.com
"Red" weapon
The third stage in the development of the Viet Cong weapons base falls on the period of the Tet offensive of 1968. During the offensive, the guerrillas suffered heavy losses, and to make up for them, the People's Army of North Vietnam sent some of their soldiers with weapons to the south. The North Vietnamese soldiers were armed with the new SKS carbines, AK-47 assault rifles, and RPD machine guns made in China. The downside of this weapon was the high aiming range (for the AK-47 it was 800 meters, for the RPD and SKS - 1 kilometer) - excessive in Vietnam, where most of the shots were fired point-blank or from a very short distance. At the same time, the SKS proved to be excellent when firing from unprepared positions, which was very important for the Viet Cong fighters. The RPD used in Vietnam was significantly lighter than its predecessors, making it easy to carry. And the AK-47 became the most effective small arms of the Vietnam War in terms of the totality of its characteristics.
Vietnamese partisan with SKS carbine. Wax figure at the Vietnam Partisan Movement Museum
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Partisan air defense
The main weapon of the Vietnamese partisan air defense was the DShK heavy machine gun, which extremely poorly coped with the task of shooting down American aircraft. Partisan air defense worked more effectively against helicopters, but this efficiency was achieved more due to good camouflage. The Viet Cong machine gunners managed, without being noticed, to let the American helicopter into close range and release the first round. After that, the partisans lost their advantage and became a good target for helicopter pilots.
North Vietnamese soldiers with DShK. With the same machine guns that came to South Vietnam, the Viet Cong partisans tried to shoot down American helicopters
IN The war in Vietnam began with the shelling of the USS Maddox. This happened on August 2, 1964.
The destroyer was in the Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnamese territorial waters where no one called the US) and was allegedly attacked by Vietnamese torpedo boats. All torpedoes missed, but one boat was sunk by the Americans. The Maddox fired first, explaining it as a warning fire. The event was called the "Tonkin Incident" and was the reason for the outbreak of the Vietnam War. Further, by order of US President Lyndon Johnson, the US Air Force attacked the naval facilities of North Vietnam. It is clear for whom the war was beneficial, he is a provocateur.
The confrontation between Vietnam and the United States began with the recognition of Vietnam as an independent state in 1954. Vietnam was 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 dominated by 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 broke out in South Vietnam.
The US feared that communism could spread throughout Asia in a domino fashion.
Representatives of the communist camp waged a guerrilla war on enemy territory, and its hottest focus 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 the underground complex near the village of Kuti, which had been significantly expanded by that time, became their base.
The United States supported the South Vietnamese government, fearing the further expansion of the Communists in Southeast Asia.
The Soviet leadership at the beginning of 1965 decided to provide the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) with large-scale military-technical assistance. According to Alexei Kosygin, chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, 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 8,000 US and Australian troops were allocated. Once in the jungle of the Iron Triangle, the allies faced an unexpected surprise: in fact, there was no one to fight with. Snipers, stretch marks 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 again went underground. In the underground cities, the halls were without additional supports and they were designed for the miniature constitution of the Vietnamese. Below is a plan-scheme of a real underground city explored by the Americans.
Much larger Americans could hardly squeeze through the passages, the height of which was usually in the range of 0.8-1.6 meters, and the width was 0.6-1.2 meters. 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 complicated orientation.
Viet Cong guerrillas throughout the war were supplied through the so-called "Ho Chi Minh trail", which ran through neighboring Laos. The Americans and the army of South Vietnam tried several times to cut the "path", but it did not work out.
In addition to fire and traps of "tunnel rats", snakes and scorpions, which the partisans specially set on, could also wait. Such methods led to the fact that among the "tunnel rats" there was a very high mortality rate.
Only half of the personnel returned from the 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 anti-aircraft gunners of the USSR and American aircraft took place on July 24, 1965. The Soviet MiGs, which the Vietnamese flew, have proven themselves well.
During the years of the war, the Americans lost 58,000 people in the jungle killed, 2,300 went missing and over 150,000 were wounded. At the same time, the list of official losses did not include Puerto Ricans who were recruited into the US army in order to obtain United States citizenship. North Vietnamese losses amounted to over a million killed military personnel and over three million civilians.
The Paris ceasefire agreements were signed only in January 1973. It took a few more years to withdraw the troops.
Carpet bombing of cities in North Vietnam, carried out by order of US President Nixon. On December 13, 1972, a North Vietnamese delegation left Paris, where peace talks were being held. In order to force them to return back, it was decided to launch massive bombing attacks on Hanoi and Haiphong.
A South Vietnamese Marine wearing 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 losses were about 1,624 civilians, military casualties are unknown. Aviation losses - 6 MiG 21 aircraft.
"Christmas bombing" is the official title.
During Operation Linebacker II, 100,000 tons were dropped on Vietnam! bombs.
The most famous case of the use of the latter is Operation Popeye, when US transport workers sprayed silver iodite over the strategic territories of Vietnam. From this, the amount of precipitation increased three times, roads were washed away, fields and villages were flooded, communications were destroyed. With the jungle, the US military also acted radically. Bulldozers uprooted trees and topsoil, and herbicides and defoliants (Agent Orange) were sprayed on the rebel stronghold from above. This seriously disrupted the ecosystem, and in the long run led to mass diseases and infant mortality.
The Americans poisoned Vietnam with everything they could. They even used a mixture of defoliants and herbicides. From what freaks are still born there already at the genetic level. This is a crime against humanity.
The USSR sent to Vietnam about 2,000 tanks, 700 light and maneuverable aircraft, 7,000 mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters, and much more. Almost the entire air defense system of the country, impeccable and impenetrable for fighters, was built by Soviet specialists at Soviet funds. There were also "exit training". 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 on January 1, 1966.
On March 16, 1968, American soldiers completely destroyed a Vietnamese village, killing 504 innocent men, women, and children. For this war crime, only one person was convicted, who three days later was "pardoned" by the personal decree of Richard Nixon.
The Vietnam War also became a drug war. Drug addiction in the troops has become another factor that crippled the combat capability of the United States.
On average, an American soldier in Vietnam fought 240 days a year! For comparison, an American soldier during the Second World War in the Pacific fought an average of 40 days in 4 years. Helicopters performed well in this war. Which the Americans lost about 3500 pieces.
From 1957 to 1973, about 37,000 South Vietnamese were shot by Viet Cong guerrillas for collaborating with the Americans, most of whom were petty civil servants.
Civilian casualties are unknown to date - 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, here they also number in the thousands.
The average age of a dead American soldier was 23 years 11 months. 11,465 dead were under the age of 20, and 5 died before reaching the age of 16! The oldest person to die in the war was a 62-year-old American.
The Vietnam War was the longest military confrontation in modern military history. The conflict lasted about 20 years: from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
But Vietnam won...
Our crimson flag proudly flies,
And on it - the stars of the victory sign.
Like the surf
Thunderstorm -
The power of friendship is fighting,
To new dawns we go step by step.
This is Lao Dong, our party
Us forward from year to year
Leads!
— Do Ming, "Lao Dong Party Song"
Soviet tanks in Saigon ... this is the end ... The Yankees do not want to remember this war, they no longer openly fight with the radicals and generally revised their methods of fighting the "red plague".
The basis of information and photos (C) is the Internet. Main sources:
It became one of the most important events of the Cold War period. Its course and outcome largely predetermined further development events throughout Southeast Asia.
The armed struggle in Indochina lasted more than 14 years, from the end of 1960 to April 30, 1975. Direct US military intervention in the affairs of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam continued for more than eight years. Military operations also took place in a number of regions of Laos and Cambodia.
In March 1965, 3,500 marines were landed in Da Nang, and in February 1968, US troops in Vietnam already numbered 543,000 people and a large number of military equipment, which accounted for 30% of the combat strength of the US Army, 30% of army aviation helicopters, about 40% tactical aircraft, almost 13% of attack aircraft carriers and 66% of marines. After the conference in Honolulu in February 1966, the heads of the US allies in the SEATO bloc sent troops to South Vietnam: South Korea - 49 thousand people, Thailand - 13.5 thousand, Australia - 8 thousand, the Philippines - 2 thousand and New Zealand - 350 people.
The USSR and China took the side of North Vietnam, providing it with extensive economic, technical and military assistance. By 1965 alone, the DRV received 340 million rubles from the Soviet Union free of charge or in the form of loans. Weapons, ammunition and other materiel were supplied to the VNA. Soviet military specialists helped VNA soldiers to master military equipment.
In 1965-1666, the American-Saigon troops (over 650 thousand people) launched a major offensive with the aim of capturing the cities of Pleiku, Kontum, dissecting the forces of the NLF, pressing them to the borders of Laos and Cambodia and destroying them. At the same time, they widely used incendiary means, chemical and biological weapons. However, SE AO thwarted the enemy offensive by launching active operations in various regions of South Vietnam, including those adjacent to Saigon.
With the beginning of the dry season of 1966-1967, the American command launched a second major offensive. Parts of the SA SE, skillfully maneuvering, escaped from blows, suddenly attacked the enemy from the flanks and rear, making extensive use of night operations, underground tunnels, communications and shelters. Under the blows of the SA SE, the American-Saigon troops were forced to go on the defensive, although by the end of 1967 their total number already exceeded 1.3 million people. At the end of January 1968, the NLF armed forces themselves went on the general offensive. It involved 10 infantry divisions, several separate regiments, a large number of battalions and companies of regular troops, partisan detachments (up to 300 thousand people), as well as the local population - about one million fighters in total. Attacks were simultaneously made on 43 of the largest cities in South Vietnam, including Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), 30 of the most important air bases and airfields. As a result of the 45-day offensive, the enemy lost more than 150 thousand people, 2,200 aircraft and helicopters, 5,250 military vehicles, 233 ships were sunk and damaged.
In the same period, the American command launched a large-scale "air war" against the DRV. Up to 1,000 warplanes delivered massive strikes against DRV targets. In 1964-1973, over two million sorties were made over its territory, 7.7 million tons of bombs were dropped. But the bet on the "air war" failed. The government of the DRV carried out a mass evacuation of the population of cities into the jungle and shelters created in the mountains. The Armed Forces of the DRV, having mastered supersonic fighters, anti-aircraft missile systems, radio equipment received from the USSR, created a reliable air defense system of the country, which destroyed up to four thousand American aircraft by the end of 1972.
In June 1969, the People's Congress of South Vietnam proclaimed the formation of the Republic of South Vietnam (RSV). The SE Defense Army in February 1968 was transformed into the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NVSO SE).
Major defeats in South Vietnam and the failure of the "air war" forced the US government in May 1968 to begin negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the Vietnamese problem and to agree to an end to the bombing and shelling of the territory of the Republic of South Vietnam.
Since the summer of 1969, the US administration has set a course for "Vietnamization", or "de-Americanization", of the war in South Vietnam. By the end of 1970, 210,000 American soldiers and officers were withdrawn from South Vietnam, and the size of the Saigon army was increased to 1.1 million people. The United States transferred almost all the heavy weapons of the withdrawn American troops to it.
In January 1973, the US government signed an agreement to end the Vietnam War (the Paris Agreement), which provided for the complete withdrawal of US troops and military personnel from South Vietnam, the dismantling of US military bases, and the mutual return of prisoners of war and detained foreign civilians.
Up to 2.6 million American soldiers and officers participated in the Vietnam War, equipped with a large amount of the most modern military equipment. US spending on the war reached $352 billion. During its course, the American army lost 60,000 people killed and over 300,000 wounded, about 9,000 aircraft and helicopters, and a large amount of other military equipment. After the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam, over 10,000 American military advisers remained in Saigon under the guise of "civilians". US military assistance to the Saigon regime in 1974-1975 amounted to more than four billion dollars.
In 1973-1974, the Saigon army intensified the fighting. Its troops regularly carried out a large number of so-called "pacification operations", the Air Force systematically bombarded areas in the zone of control of the government of the Republic of South Ossetia. At the end of March 1975, the command of the army of the Republic of Vietnam concentrated all remaining forces for the defense of Saigon. In April 1975, as a result of the lightning-fast Operation Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnamese troops defeated the South Vietnamese army, which was left without allies, and captured all of South Vietnam.
The successful completion of the war in Vietnam made it possible in 1976 to unite the DRV and the RSE into a single state - the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
(Additional