Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Geneva Accords of mid-1954 provided for a temporary division of Vietnam at the
Ben Hai River. When Ngo Dinh Diem, the anti-communist Catholic leader of the southern
zone, refused to hold the 1956 elections, the Ben Hai line became the border between
North and South Vietnam.
The American War
Around 1960, the Hanoi government changed its policy of opposition to the Diem regime
from one of 'political struggle' to one of 'armed struggle'. The National Liberation Front
(NLF), a communist guerrilla group better known as the Viet Cong (VC), was founded to
fight against Diem.
An unpopular ruler, Diem was assassinated in 1963 by his own troops. When the Hanoi
government ordered North Vietnamese Army (NVA) units to infiltrate the South in 1964,
the situation for the Saigon regime became desperate. In 1965 the USA committed its first
combat troops, soon joined by soldiers from South Korea, Australia, Thailand and New
Zealand in an effort to bring global legitimacy to the conflict.
As Vietnam celebrated the Lunar New Year in 1968, the VC launched a surprise attack,
known as the Tet Offensive, marking a crucial turning point in the war. Many Americans,
who had for years believed their government's insistence that the USA was winning, star-
ted demanding a negotiated end to the war. The Paris Agreements, signed in 1973,
provided for a ceasefire, the total withdrawal of US combat forces and the release of
American prisoners of war.
Reunification
Saigon surrendered to the NVA on 30 April 1975. Vietnam's reunification by the com-
munists meant liberation from more than a century of colonial oppression, but it was soon
followed by large-scale internal repression. Hundreds of thousands of southerners fled Vi-
etnam, creating a flood of refugees for the next 15 years.
Vietnam's campaign of repression against the ethnic Chinese, plus its invasion of Cam-
bodia at the end of 1978, prompted China to attack Vietnam in 1979. The war lasted only
17 days, but Chinese-Vietnamese mistrust lasted for well over a decade.
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search