hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair
historian
mentioning the vietnam war is one of the
fastest ways to spark
controversy in any military history
community
opinions will rage back and forth about
whether or not the usa was justified
in its intervention what mistakes it
made and if america really ever had a
chance of victory
but while topics such as these are very
common what is much less talked about is
the perspective of the vietnamese people
during the conflict their motivations
the agenda of their leaders
and how they endured nearly 20 years of
bloody
vicious guerrilla warfare this video
will seek to explain their side of the
story
as well as provide context for the
stubborn spirit of resistance
that enabled vietnam to hold out against
the american juggernaut
despite all efforts to beat them into
submission
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to understand the attitude of the
vietnamese during the war
one must first be aware of vietnam's
history
of occupation and exploitation by
foreign powers
first there was china which spent a
thousand years trying to absorb the
nation
through both conquest and cultural
assimilation however
by the 19th century china was undergoing
its own negative experiences
with colonialism as powerful european
empires began expanding
into asia and destroying the old status
quo
with chinese influence on the wane it
seemed as if vietnam might have a chance
to stand on its own
but a small squadron of french warships
would promptly crush
those hopes unable to resist this
technologically superior foe
the win imperial dynasty ruling vietnam
at the time
quickly capitulated and by 1884 most of
vietnam had become part of the greater
colonial union
of french indochina with the win court
reduced to a puppet administration
colonial governors operated with
virtually no oversight from the french
state and were allowed to use any and
all means at their disposal
to suppress any hint of native
resistance often this extended to the
point of criminalizing the mere act of
identifying
oneself as vietnamese
trapped in a thoroughly miserable
existence the vietnamese peasants were
desperate for a savior
any savior but after decades of failed
revolts and horrific
reprisals the iron grip of colonialism
remained as strong as ever
yet unbeknownst to the peasantry the
seeds of a new revolution were already
being sown
not in the plantations or even in the
courts of the wind bureaucracy but in
the coffee houses of paris
where the few vietnamese lucky enough to
scrape together enough money to afford a
western education
were debating the merits of a strange
radical new ideology
known as communism
unlike any political ideology at the
time communism promised freedom and
equality for those laboring under the
yoke of capitalistic
imperialism and so spread like wildfire
from the moment
it was introduced from overseas becoming
vietnam's dominant underground political
movement by the early
1930s
[Music]
central to the communist movement in
vietnam was the unassuming son of a
disgraced bureaucrat
called win sing or as he is more
commonly known
ho chi minh after leaving vietnam
sometime in the 1910s
ho chi minh drifted around europe
visiting both the united states and
possibly britain
as early as 1918 he was a dedicated
anti-imperialist joining the group of
vietnamese patriots which petitioned the
french government for independence
during the treaty of versailles
in 1920 he was one of the many
communists avidly following the progress
of vladimir lenin's october revolution
in russia the success of which proved
beyond any doubt
that the imperialist system could be
overthrown through force of arms
[Music]
inspired by lenin's success ho chi minh
chaired the first meeting
of what would become the indo-chinese
communist party
or icp in 1930 with the express goal of
ending colonial rule of his native
country
but for all of his early efforts regime
change in vietnam would not originate
with the vietnamese
but would instead be instigated from the
most
unlikely of sources imperial japan
in 1940 japan invaded vietnam as part of
their efforts to establish
the greater east asia co-prosperity
sphere
or in other words a series of client
states under imperial domination
in 1945 they officially annexed the
country
and expelled all western influences
including the entire french colonial
administration
mere months later the japanese
surrendered to the allies
and with their collapse vietnam's
century-old political order had come
crashing down
leaving total chaos in its wake
it was during this last chaotic year of
the occupation
that ho chi minh truly came into his own
as leader
he had returned to vietnam in 1941 to
organize
a major resistance movement against
japanese forces known as the viet minh
and by 1945 he was leading an army of at
least
10 000 communist gorillas his
long-awaited revolution began
on august 15th before even the ink on
the japanese instrument of surrender had
time to dry
with the french colonial forces in
vietnam having been disarmed by the
japanese earlier that year
there was a brief window in time where
the vietmen had free run of the entire
country
but far from screaming defiance at the
hated western imperialists
ho chi minh was instead positively
desperate to secure a friendship with
the united states
this was due in large part to the
activities of the u.s
office of strategic services or oss
which had made contact with the viet
minh in 1945
and selected ho chi minh as their
primary contact within vietnam
part of what enabled the close
relationship between america and the
viet minh
was their lack of a traditional
communist agenda despite ho chi minh's
unabashed belief in the ideology his
primary goal was
always the liberation of vietnam
as he himself stated at first patriotism
not yet communism
as a result both joseph stalin and mao
zedong
initially distrusted ho chi minh for his
unwillingness to make class warfare a
priority above
national freedom this however struck a
chord with american observers
who were naturally sympathetic to the
idea of an oppressed nation
throwing off the shackles of a
domineering imperialist regime
[Music]
thus oss operatives celebrated alongside
the peasantry when ho chi minh declared
the democratic republic
of vietnam on september 2nd 1945.
in his opening speech he began with
words familiar to every american
behind him on the podium stood oss major
archimedes patty
and as the speech came to a close a
plane bearing u.s markings flew over the
assembled crowd
which greeted its appearance with
thunderous applause
all across the nation americans were
seen as heroes and
liberators and for a moment it seemed as
if this would be the start of a glorious
new relationship
between east and west
of course we all know that this was
never really an option
the french wanted their colonies back
and the newly elected president truman
had no interest in cooperating with an
openly communist regime
after negotiations with the french broke
down completely
the vietnamese had no choice but to
fight for their independence
and the first indochina war began on
december 16th
1946 during this time the wind dynasty
attempted to reassert
its control over the nation with the
13th emperor
bao dai siding with the french and
resuming his place as a puppet ruler
over their occupied territories
as the war dragged on the u.s began
sending aid to the french but after
their dramatic defeat
at diane bien phu in 1954 they agreed to
new negotiations with the vietnam
the ensuing treaty split the country in
two halves
the drv in the north and the state of
vietnam
in the south baodai was then
unceremoniously ousted by his prime
minister no din diem
after a referendum determined that the
state of vietnam should become
a republic however this was hardly a
triumph of democracy over imperialism
for diem was utterly corrupt and the
referendum was blatantly rigged
diem even went so far as to deliberately
ignore the french promise that the south
would be allowed to vote
on whether or not to reunite with the
north under the drv
when it became obvious that the dm had
no intention
of allowing reunification drv-backed
insurgents began popping up
all over the south causing him to become
even more anti-communist
and in turn causing america to offer
increasing amounts of aid
to his administration however diem
proved to be
a fickle ally often refusing to
cooperate with his u.s backers
especially in regards to rural
development
and land management in 1963 tensions
finally came to a head
when diem was abruptly assassinated in a
military coup d'etat
that was aided by the cia this
combined with the gulf of tonkin
incident in 1964
paved the way for a full-scale u.s
invasion from the outset
of war vietnamese generals knew that a
conventional victory was impossible
america was simply too powerful to
defeat using traditional battlefield
tactics
but the huge rural population of the
south was already mostly under the sway
of the drv-backed
national liberation front or more
commonly known as the vietcong or vc
the vc in combination with the people's
army of vietnam waged a successful
series of campaigns against the
disorganized
south vietnamese until large numbers of
american troops
began arriving in 1965
following american involvement the
conflict began to shift into a war of
attrition
[Music]
vietnamese defense strategy revolved
around their extensive network of
tunnels which many likened more to
underground cities than mere military
strongholds
over 200 miles or 321 kilometers of
tunnel were dug during the war with the
largest system
at kuche being just 20 miles or 32
kilometers outside
saigon their importance was summed up in
the words of colonel
chaolam we knew the americans were
determined to find and destroy the
tunnel system
they understood as did we however kuche
went
so did the war it was our determination
not to lose even
one centimeter of the tunnels it was a
contest of wills
resulting in some very fierce fighting
we made a tremendous sacrifice
to gain victory two years after its
arrival
the united states of america expanded
its bombing campaigns across north
vietnam
in an effort to break their will to
fight when a north vietnamese civilian
saw the first b-57 bombers
open their bombays over his home
province of quang min
his first thought was not to flee and
panic but was instead
why is a mother airplane dropping baby
airplanes
having miraculously survived the initial
attack he gathered his family and fled
for the nearby caves
he later recalled to a journalist people
didn't talk about the meaning of the war
we were really confused why the
americans tried to invade our homeland
we hadn't done anything to them
[Music]
sadly the citizens of vietnam had much
more to fear than american bombs
when vietcong gorillas went to ground
among the rural peasantry
u.s forces responded by declaring any
villages with a suspected vc presence
as free fire zones
then came the infamous melee massacre on
march 16
1968 when at least 347
unarmed civilians were brutally executed
by american soldiers
although the heroic actions of a u.s
helicopter crew saved a few innocent
lives most were not so fortunate
and mili would go on to become known as
the worst war crime ever perpetrated by
u.s soldiers in vietnam
as traumatizing as the war was for the
civilian population it was arguably just
as bad for the vietnamese soldiers on
account of how long most were expected
to serve on the front lines
[Music]
lake haudai head of surgery at a
military hospital later recalled
when we were called to go south everyone
was very excited
as it turned out while i only planned to
stay for six months
i ended up staying for eight years
given these extended deployment times
vietnamese soldiers quickly became
hardened to the horrors of war
and had little mercy for any americans
unfortunate enough to fall
into their grasp
american pilots were especially loathed
due to their indiscriminate bombing
campaigns and many were tortured to
death
after they bailed out over vietnamese
territory
to keep their populace motivated and
stave off the effects of war weariness
the drv maintained strong and effective
propaganda campaigns throughout the
conflict
the mastermind behind these campaigns
was vo winzop
a renowned military leader who had
fought alongside ho chi minh since the
1940s
people quickly formed long queues to
purchase his newspapers and listen to
loudspeaker broadcasts about the latest
developments on the front lines
with minimal access to international
news the people of the north were easily
swayed by party rhetoric
and quickly came to regard the war as a
necessary and righteous struggle against
yet
another imperialist aggressor
by contrast the urban population of the
south could listen to four news reports
and had a much more conflicted
attitude towards the violence tearing
apart their nation
the success of the vietnamese propaganda
machine was demonstrated following the
tet
offensive of 1968 which caught u.s
forces completely by surprise
amidst the chaos vc infiltrators
launched an attack on the american
embassy in saigon penetrating the
compound and opening fire on the
chancery building with rocket-propelled
grenades
although the building withstood the
assault the fact that such an attack had
occurred
at all was psychologically devastating
to the usa
proving that not even the capital city
of south vietnam
was safe from communist infiltration the
tet offensive also brought the reality
of war to the urban population of the
south leading many to lose confidence in
the western-backed government
by the early 1970s the endless jungle
warfare had taken their toll
on both sides but the drv remained
defiant while u.s morale had plummeted
to the point where
soldiers were openly ignoring orders and
deserting in record numbers
desperate to at least preserve the
status quo america began pouring
resources into strengthening the south
vietnamese army while pulling out its
own
traumatized troops out of the conflict
but it was too little
too late and in 1975 a massive offensive
by the drv
known as the ho chi minh campaign
smashed through the defenses around
saigon
and decapitated the republic after
almost
20 years of war and millions of deaths
the drv
finally stood triumphant against all
odds
communism had won
or had it while the sacrifices made by
the north vietnamese during the war
allowed them to survive and eventually
reunite with the south
the conflict would leave millions on
both sides scarred
for life furthermore despite the
expectations
of the international community communism
failed to spread throughout southeast
asia
after the fall of saigon rendering
decades of u.s
obsession with the domino theory utterly
pointless
despite the repeated entries of ho chi
minh and extensive testimonies by oss
operatives
in the 1940s america never fully grasped
that it was the desire for liberty not
communism
that motivated the north vietnamese to
fight on
against the odds their support of the
corrupt diem administration
only furthered this rift in
understanding
and the resultant two decades of
violence opened up
a deep national wound between north and
south
that has yet to be fully healed
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[Music]
you