The War in Vietnam, military part

Ladies and gentlemen. Much time has passed since the last text about Vietnam, so today I would like to go back in there. This series deserves to be completed, especially since my dear colleague suggested in the meantime its extension for another text motivated purely socially. Well... For now I said that I will think about it, but let's firstly focus on the war. In the words of Clausewitz, "War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means." And with the politics we are already ended...

We start in 1946 when First Indochina War erupts after the Viet Minh and the "government" of Indochina clashes over the use of the port of Haiphong. Viet Minh attacks and disperses French troops but just after a few days the French fleet arrives, bombes the city and forces the Viet Minh to go and agree to a ceasefire. The communists tried to turn the tables in the next month (December), but the French, despite a smaller number of troops, managed to defend and strengthen Haiphong. The next year, 1947, the French and the Viet Minh were playing "cat and mouse" moving along all possible administrative boundaries. The French were eager to lead to a huge battle while the Vietnamese didn’t want to be too close to them. During operation "Lea," in late 1947, which was aimed against Ho Chi Minh, French managed to seize 9,000 communist soldiers. Commander of the Viet Minh unfortunately had fled...

Throughout 1948 and up to early 1949 were the talks between the French and the Vietnamese nationalist on the establishment of an independent government in Saigon that would be opposed to the Viet Minh. At the end of the year Communists went on the offensive and isolated the dozen of the French bases along the Sino-Vietnamese border, but without success in continuing the attack. Year 1950 changed everything. War broke out in Korea, which completely turned reasoning of Washington. Suddenly it turned out that the war in Indochina is another conflict incited by the Soviet Union and it is essential to do something about it. And as soon as possible... Now we’ll move a little bit forward. Yes, the conflict between the Viet Minh and the government of Saigon lasts for another four years (and the next three, as the uprisings in the south of Vietnam), but nothing important changes there. North remains communist, in the south the government in Saigon is trying to control the situation and in the middle of it all are civilians who sometimes do not know whom to support.

Americans are going with the flow and trying to help Saigon. In 1964 they send the USS Maddox in the Tonkin Gulf waters on the intelligence mission and to help Southern forces. And here comes the fun part: the ship's crew inform command that on August 2 Maddox has been fired upon by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. On August 4 situation is repeated and USS Maddox reports that it returned fire heavily damaging or destroying three enemies. The most interesting thing about it is that a year later, President Johnson had unintentionally told the journalist that "our Navy fired to the whales." In addition, in 2005 the National Security Agency (NSA) declassified documents proving that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was completely crafted. This attack has never took place. For the Congress, it did not matter (especially since in 1964 it was a mystery). President Johnson got the power to fight the red plague in Indochina. And he indeed did it. By the end of 1964 16,000 American soldiers landed on the Vietnamese airports.

At the beginning of 1965, began Operation "Flaming Dart," an air attack against several main communist bases to warn the communist Ho Chi Minh to not escalate the war. The Pentagon decided that the operation should be extended, and in March was launched operation "Rolling Thunder," which lasted for the next three years and focused on bombing anything that even resembled infrastructure and economic base of North Vietnam. In December 1965 started the "Game Warden," that is, an operation involving naval patrolling and guarding of the Mekong Delta so the Viet Cong could not use it. Number of American soldiers reached the level of 200,000 this month.

The beginning of 1966 was greeted by operations such as the "White Wing" and "Attleboro," in which the US troops tried to find and destroy the main warehouses communists. Hundreds of guns, explosives and tons of rice were captured and more than 3,000 enemy soldiers were killed. The course of the war, however, has not been changed. U.S. Army tried to succeed in the next year with the operation "Cedar Falls" that struck an important bastion of the Viet Cong near Saigon. Within three weeks 11 hectares of forest were cleared, miles of tunnels were destroyed, important enemy base was penetrated and 750 Communists were killed. However, operation failed to break their morale... And that's why a "Junction City" (in honor of one town in Kansas) was prepared. It was the largest airborne operation since the "Market Garden" in 1944. Americans wanted airborne to drive the Viet Cong away from the forest directly on the previously set soldiers on the likely routes of escape. Airborne troops, however, were embroiled in heavy fighting with the well-hidden enemy, it was necessary to enter new soldiers and slowly clean every inch of the forest. At some point, every advanced scout been attacked by invisible guerrillas and the Americans still had no idea where they really should go... Once again it was a tactical victory of America, but the real victory of North Vietnam. Viet Cong was still unbroken and still making coalition pay. As a result of the operation “Junction City” 810 tons of rice, 600 tons of guns and 500,000 pages of documents of the Viet Cong were seized.

The year 1968 brought huge changes. North Vietnam assembled his own offensive - Operation "Tet," which at its highest point reached many important cities and military bases, including even Saigon. 85,000 soldiers of the Viet Cong and Viet Minh consistently destroyed the image of the American army in the eyes of society (in the first phase. In all three phases involved more than 500,000 North Vietnamese). The operation ended after 10 months of defeat the Viet Cong and Viet Minh at the loss of 111,000 people. Journalists informed that it was the biggest intelligence lost since the Pearl Harbor in 1941... Because of the offensive R. Nixon came to power and began termination of the war. In Vietnam, military operations were now over. Over the next two years US army continued strengthening of the position of South Vietnam and the bombing of Cambodia and Laos. In 1973, US came back home from Vietnam, never to return there. Two years later, North Vietnam took Saigon and started unification of the country.

Why the war could not be won? North Vietnam was buried in the ground by all means, and moved from one end of the country to the other by miles of underground tunnels. In addition, the lack of infrastructure in Vietnam and the terrible economy was on the agenda for many years already and the bombing did not change a single thing. Everything, including rice was imported on the ships from the Soviet Union and China. Ships, which could not be bombed without greater consequences... In addition, jungles, marshes, swamps and wide rivers are not the best areas for conventional war with tanks... Americans did not understand that it is not enough to take the enemy capital, disarm the regular army and force someone to sign the capitulation. There is still Viet Cong, which acted in the south, still Ho Chi Minh Trail exists in Cambodia and Laos, supplying the guerrillas and transports from China and the USSR still operate. In order to win this war, Americans would have to surround the entire Vietnam with double wall, mines, barbed wire and a guard points, every few meters. And then they would have to purify every acre of land methodically, with flame-throwers and grenades. On the ground and under the ground. For this purpose, they would have to spend two, three or even four times as much soldiers and equipment... The war in Vietnam was simply impossible to win from the very beginning...