1954 The Domino Theory

After the French were defeated in 1953, the 1954 Geneva Accords split the country in two, and the first US military advisers went to Vietnam. The North was led by the Communist poet, Ho Chi Minh; the South was ruled by the Catholic anti-Communist Ngo Dinh Diem. According to Cold War thinking, if Vietnam went communist, all the countries of South East Asia would fall like dominoes to the Communist bloc. Diem was assassinated by his generals in October 1963. Three weeks later President Kennedy was assassinated.

Vietnam was an issue in the presidential elections of 1964. Fearful of nuclear confrontation with Russia, voters flocked to the "peace candidate", Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ). But LBJ rapidly escalated American involvement. In February 1965 he unleashed Operation Rolling Thunder: wave after wave of B52s showed he meant to bring the North to the Peace Table. When the North advanced to the South, LBJ sent in 3,500 marines. In July 1965 he sent 175,000 more troops. The first step to all-out war had been taken.

At first, the US set out to "pacify" villages by "winning the hearts and minds" of the people. It soon became clear that villages controlled by American forces by day were often VC (Vietcong, Vietnamese Communists) by night. In 1966, General Westmoreland started "search and destroy" missions. Intended to find and attack guerrilla camps in the jungle, they soon degenerated into operations to search and burn villages in "free-fire zones". Anyone could be shot –because anyone could be "Charlie" (VC). In March 1968 this policy led to the murders of more than 500 men, women and children in the notorious My Lai massacre.

The Vietcong celebrated the Lunar Year, Tet, by simultaneously striking 100 South Vietnamese cities. They suffered high casualties. In a military sense, they lost. But in a psychological sense, they won. TV cameras recorded VC commandos taking over the courtyard of the US Embassy in the center of Saigon. After the Americans won the bloodiest battle of the war (the siege of Khe Sanh), losing about 500 men, their base was abandoned. Secretary of Defense McNamara resigned. Westmoreland was replaced. LBJ retired and Republican Richard Nixon was elected president. 

The "Nixon Doctrine" called for the "Vietnamization" of the war: the South Vietnamese were to continue to fight without American help. Troop withdrawals were announced. Troop strength was at an all-time high but morale was at an all-time low. Drug abuse was rampant and soldiers were refusing missions. Henry Kissinger went to Paris to negotiate for peace talks. When American forces were sent into Cambodia, anti-war demonstrations increased at home. Nixon was re-elected in 1972 pledging "peace with honor". For the first time polls showed a majority of Americans were against the war.

The Paris Agreement, signed by the US, North Vietnam and South Vietnam called for a cease-fire, the establishment of a National Council of Reconciliation and the total withdrawal of US forces. Congress set an August 15 deadline for withdrawal. Nixon made a secret promise, that if North Vietnam attacked, the US would support the Southern leadership. But Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace in August 1974 due to the Watergate scandal. Gerald Ford became president.

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