Vietnam War History (vs. America) from 1954-1965

The Vietnam War was a war within Vietnam that lasted from the year 1959 to April 30, 1975. The Vietnam war is often known as a "proxy war" between the U.S. and its Western allies on the side of the RVN, with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China supporting the DRV on the other. It was within the year and summer of 1954 that France and Vietnam signed The Geneva Peace Accords. The Geneva Peace Accords reflected the strains of the international cold war. The Geneva Accords represented the worst of all the possible futures for the war-torn Vietnam. Within the Geneva Accords, Vietnam would also hold national elections in attempt to reunify the country.

Using the SEATO for political cover, the Eisenhower (President of the United States during this time) administration helped create a new nation from dust in southern Vietnam. In 1955, with the help of massive amounts of American military, political, and economic aid, the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (GVN or South Vietnam) was born. The following year, Ngo Dinh Diem, who was an anti-communist figure from the south, won a questionable election that made him president of South Vietnam. "President Diem is the churchhill of the decade...in the vanguard of those leaders who stand for freedom."(Lyndon B. Johnson)


Diem had "less than solid claims to being the legitimate leader of
a legitimate government. Ho Chi Minh ruled as the undisputed leader of a
revolutionary movement victorious in battle over a foreign enemy. Diem, in
contrast, had built up his own power through a series of maneuvers which, in
effect, were coups: against the army high command, against the French, against
the sects, against Bao Dai, and against the expectations of most of the Geneva Powers. His open favoritism to the Roman Catholic minority, increasing reliance
upon the Americans, and continuing failure to defeat the guerrillas, further
undermined his claim to be the authentic representative of a traditionalist Vi-
etnamese polity."(Joes,67)

"From 1956-1960, the Communist Party of Vietnam desired to reunify the country through political means alone. Accepting the Soviet Union's model of political struggle, the Communist Party tried unsuccessfully to cause Diem's collapse by exerting tremendous internal political pressure. After Diem's attacks on suspected Communists in the South, however, southern Communists convinced the Party to adopt more violent tactics to guarantee Diem's downfall. At the Fifteenth Party Plenum in January 1959, the Communist Party finally approved the use of revolutionary violence to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem's government and liberate Vietnam south of the seventeenth parallel. In May 1959, and again in September 1960, the Party confirmed its use of revolutionary violence and the combination of the political and armed struggle movements. The result was the creation of a broad-based united front to help mobilize southerners in opposition to the GVN."(Professor Robert K. Brigham)

It was within 1961 that as Eisenhower was at the begginning of his retirement that he warned his successor, John F. Kennedy that Laos was the "the key to the entire area of Southeast Asia and might even require that the introduction of American combat troops." Kennedy portrayed Vietnam as not only "a proving ground for democracy in Asia", but a "test of American responsibility and determination." "He fully subscribed to the policy of containment, arguing that the line had to be held against "the relentless pressure of the Chinese Communists."(Karnow,247)

It was then within 1965 that Ambassador Taylor of the United States urged President Johnson to authorize retaliatory raids against North Vietnam, but Johnson did not want to complicate the war during the Christmas season. Taylor then in January of 1965 stated "we are presently on a losing track to take no positive action now is to accept defeat in the fairly near future. Taylor stated he only saw "political turmoil, irresponsibilty, and division...lethargy deepening loss of morale and discouragement." With this fact, the United States had a choice, either to consider "ultamate withdrawal" or to introduce a "new element or elements." Taylor preferred two options: to one, put in American combat troops, or two, to step up the bombing of North Vietnam.(Karnow,409-410)


Joes J., Anthony. The War for South Viet Nam 1954-1975. Praeger:London,1990

Karnow,Stanly. Vietnam A History The First Complete Account of Vietnam at War. The Viking Press:New York, 1983