Tóm tắt: Cuộc kháng chiến chống Mỹ (1954 - 1975) | Chiến tranh Việt Nam | Tóm tắt lịch sử

After the end of World War II, the US was i

ncreasingly fearful of the spread of commun

ism in the world. Therefore, as early as 19

46, the Americans had a plan to intervene i

n Vietnam, but there was no opportunity whe

n France gradually lost ground in the war w

ith the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The

opportunity for US intervention only arose

initially. The United States simply provid

ed financial aid to France, but later this

aid became tens of thousands of tons of wea

pons and military supplies every month. Mil

itary advisors, and even American pilots, p

articipated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

However, even the extensive US interventio

n could not save France from a disastrous d

efeat against Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu. In

April 1954, France was forced to sign the G

eneva Accords, agreeing to withdraw its tro

ops from Vietnam. The 17th parallel became

a temporary military boundary for both side

s to concentrate their forces, and after tw

o years, when the French had withdrawn, bot

h sides had completed their withdrawal. The

South would hold a general election to uni

fy the country when the French troops withd

rew. The Americans had determined that if t

he general election took place, most Vietna

mese people would vote for President Ho Chi

Minh. Therefore, the US supported Ngo Dinh

Diem in establishing a separate government

south of the 17th parallel through a refer

endum. Faced with this situation, our peopl

e had to continue the resistance war agains

t the US to unify the country. In the initi

al phase after gaining independence, the No

rth focused on restoring the economy and so

ciety, land reform, and healing the wounds

of war in the South. The revolution mainly

fought politically against the Ngo Dinh Die

m regime. Many demonstrations and marches b

roke out to pressure the government to impl

ement the Geneva Accords and hold a general

election to unify the country, demanding d

emocratic freedoms. The Saigon government i

ntensified its repression, hunting down and

executing tens of thousands of Party membe

rs and officials. The Communist Party and t

he revolutionary participants. Faced with t

his situation, the Party Central Committee

decided to shift the people of South Vietna

m from peaceful struggle to armed struggle

throughout South Vietnam. The people rose u

p to seize power, establish armed forces, c

onfiscate land from landlords, and distribu

te it to the poor. By the end of 1960, the

revolution had taken control of about half

of the rural areas in South Vietnam, the Ce

ntral Highlands, and Central Vietnam. From

that momentum, the National Liberation Fron

t of South Vietnam was established in Decem

ber 1960, chaired by lawyer Nguyen Huu Tho,

with the goal of fighting against the US a

nd the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. From 1961 to 1

965, North Vietnam entered the first five-y

ear plan with the task of developing indust

ry and agriculture, reforming society, and

simultaneously providing support to the fro

nt lines in South Vietnam. The US increased

economic and military aid to the Ngo Dinh

Diem government. The Diem Special War campa

ign was devised primarily using the Republi

c of Vietnam's armed forces, equipped with

advanced weapons supplied by the US, and im

plementing military plans devised by US adv

isors. The Saigon government intensified th

e establishment of strategic hamlets, reloc

ating farmers to villages and fortified are

as to isolate the revolutionary army from t

he population. The revolutionary army was s

upported and commanded by the US through a

system of military advisors. Saigon continu

ously launched sweeping operations to destr

oy revolutionary forces. The border and coa

stal areas were blockaded to prevent North

Vietnamese support for the South. In Februa

ry 1961, the South Vietnamese Liberation Ar

my was established. During 1961 and 1962, t

he Liberation Army repelled many enemy atta

cks, destroying numerous isolated outposts.

The struggle against the strategic hamlets

was quite fierce and intense. The US and t

he government... The power of Saigon, despi

te concentrating efforts to relocate people

to establish hamlets, only managed to impl

ement less than half of the plan. By the en

d of 1962, more than half of the hamlets, w

ith nearly 70% of the peasant population in

the South, were still in the hands of the

revolution. In urban areas such as Saigon,

Hue, and Da Nang, where the Republic of Vie

tnam government controlled many layers of p

eople, the struggle was waged through demon

strations and marches. The political strugg

le in urban areas and the continuous attack

s of the liberation army accelerated the de

cline of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. In Novem

ber 1963, with the instigation of the US, G

eneral Duong Van Minh staged a coup, killin

g the Ngo Dinh Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu brothe

rs. This coup plunged the Saigon government

into a prolonged crisis. In just 18 months

, more than 10 coups occurred before the tw

o generals Nguyen Van Thieu and Nguyen Cao

Ky took power in June. In 1965, following s

uccessive defeats on the battlefield and th

e chaotic political situation of the Republ

ic of Vietnam, the US government decided to

cancel the Special War plan and send US tr

oops to directly participate in the fightin

g to prevent the South from falling into th

e hands of the Liberation Army. After the f

ailure of the Special War strategy, the US

switched to a Local War strategy in the Sou

th and expanded the bombing campaign agains

t the North. The Local War strategy began i

n mid-1965 and was carried out by US troops

, troops from several US allies, and the So

uth Vietnamese army. US allies who had depl

oyed troops to South Vietnam at that time i

ncluded South Korea, Thailand, the Philippi

nes, Australia, and New Zealand. The total

number of troops in the South at its peak r

eached nearly 1.5 million, of which US troo

ps accounted for more than half a million.

This was stated in the action plan for Viet

nam written on May 24, 1965, by the Assista

nt Secretary of State. US Secretary of Defe

nse Donald Trump listed the US objectives i

n the war, 70% of which were to avoid a hum

iliating defeat for the US, relying on its

numerical superiority and modern weapons. T

he US military, upon entering South Vietnam

, immediately launched Search and Destroy a

nd Pacification operations against the base

s of the Liberation Army. Our people and ar

my, in a people's war strategy employing va

rious combat methods, intercepted the enemy

on all fronts. From 1965 to 1967, the Libe

ration Army eliminated 255,000 enemy soldie

rs, including 110,000 US soldiers, and dest

royed thousands of tanks, aircraft, and com

bat vehicles. Entering the spring of 1968,

based on an assessment of the favorable bal

ance of forces after two dry seasons, and t

aking advantage of the contradictions in th

e US presidential election, our army decide

d to launch a general offensive and Uprisin

g throughout South Vietnam, with a focus on

key cities. The objective of this campaign

was to destroy American and allied forces,

launching a strong attack on the Saigon go

vernment, forcing the US to withdraw its tr

oops. The Tet Offensive and Uprising began

with a surprise attack by the main forces o

n almost all cities in South Vietnam on the

night of October 30, 1968. In Saigon, the

liberation army attacked key enemy position

s such as the US Embassy, the Independence

Palace, the General Staff Headquarters of t

he Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, the ra

dio station, and Tan Son Nhat Airport. In t

he first phase, our forces eliminated 147 e

nemy soldiers, including 43,000 American so

ldiers, and destroyed a large amount of the

ir infrastructure and war equipment. Howeve

r, because the enemy forces were still very

large, with nearly 1.5 million troops stat

ioned in the cities, they quickly organized

a counterattack, causing our forces to suf

fer heavy losses. With the escalation of th

e war in the South, the US also expanded th

e war to the North using air and naval forc

es. In August 1964, after fabricating the G

ulf of Tonkin incident as a pretext, the Un

ited States sent bombers to bomb several ar

eas in the North, such as Quang Binh, Nghe

An, Thanh Hoa, and Quang Ninh. The goal of

these campaigns was to destroy the economic

and military potential of the North, preve

nt support for the South, and intimidate th

e spirit and will of our people to resist t

he enemy's destructive actions. The North p

romptly switched to a wartime state, diggin

g trenches and fortifications. The Air Defe

nse, Air Force, and Navy, equipped with mod

ern weapons and equipment, trained and supp

orted by the Soviet Union, were the main fo

rces in this war. In over four years, from

1900 to 1968, the North shot down more than