#1 The Vietnam War isn’t called that in Vietnam
The name itself shows a non-native understanding of the conflict. Instead, the two decades of fighting in Vietnam, from 1954 to 1975, are called “the American Warâ€. The Vietnamese made the assumption that the foreign forces who fought in that war were all Americans, but they were not: large numbers of Thais, South Koreans and Australians, to name but a few, fought on the side of South Vietnam.
#2 The Vietnam War wasn’t just in Vietnam
The poor choice of name for the war fails to reflect how much of south-east Asia it affected. The French had been using Vietnam as a launch point for hostilities against both Burma (now also known as Myanmar) and Thailand (previously Siam until 1939), so it was unsurprising that fighting leaked out of Vietnam’s borders. The main reason for this was the so-called Ho Chi Minh trail, a supply line that stretched along the spine of the entire country that enabled the communist powers in the north to supply the communist guerrillas (the Viet Cong) in the south.However, most of this road network was actually located in neighbouring Cambodia and also ran through parts of Laos. The regular bombing of both countries took place under the orders of American presidents Lyndon Johnson (in office 1963–69) and Richard Nixon (1969–74).
Unlisted CIA plans (black ops) were also carried out. They were unofficial (and illegal), as America had never formally declared war or confirmed to the public that combat operations were taking place in either Cambodia or Laos.
The instability caused by this unofficial military activity allowed the communists of North Vietnam to help support a communist revolution and civil war in Cambodia. This would lead to the formation of the Khmer Rouge regime (in power from 1975–79), which was responsible for the infamous Cambodian genocide.
#3 The Vietnam War was part of the Cold War
Technically, the Vietnam conflict was a civil war, with the communist North fighting against the anti-communist South (it was not a democracy and was run by a paranoid dictator Nguyễn Văn Thiệu). The country had never been split like this before; the two areas were artificial, with no natural boundary between them, so it was highly likely that one or both sides would attempt to reunite the country by force.However, the North was backed by communist China and the Soviet Union, and the South was backed by the west. But in practical terms, with respect to both finances and equipment, it was America which supported the South.
Vietnam became a testing ground for weapons. How well did the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk do against the Soviet-made S-75 Dvina surface to air missiles? Similarly, while the AK-47 had been in use for nearly 20 years, this was the first time it was used wholesale against the American M16. The AK, with the larger clip of bullets (30 versus 20) and fewer moving parts, meant that it rarely jammed and was the perfect jungle ambush weapon.
#4 The Vietnam War is still going on in Vietnam
While nearly 60,000 Americans lost their lives in the war, more than 3.3 million Vietnamese (both North and South including civilians) died. By the end of the war in 1975, America had dropped more than seven million tonnes of bombs on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – more than had been dropped during all of the Second World War. In 1971 alone, 800,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped on these countries – and that was when the war was ‘winding down’. Thousands of tonnes of defoliant, known as Agent Orange, destroyed thousands of acres and poisoned the land, killing both humans and livestock and resulting in birth defects in unborn babies.Both sides used landmines, and it is estimated that these, combined with unexploded ordinance, mean there are some 800,000 tonnes of explosives yet to be made safe in a country where 20 per cent of Vietnam’s total area is still thought to contain unexploded devices. It’s been estimated that since 1975 there have been 100,000 casualties, of which there were 40,000 deaths, by these dangerous relics of the war.
In conclusion, the story of the Vietnam War combines 19th-century imperialism with 20th-century communist history and late 20th-century American foreign policy. It is a rich and complex era characterised by catastrophic misjudgements, ruthless cover-ups and tragic consequences on all sides.
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