How the End of the Vietnam War Led to a Refugee Crisis Nonetheless, if there had been no Chinese or Soviet support, the North Vietnamese could not have won, he says, pointing out that the U.S. military budget was roughly 30 times greater than the entire gross national product of North Vietnam. Largely uncontroversial war-dead totals then are calculated for South Vietnam's allies (lines 142 to 179--the three estimates for South Vietnam and allies on lines 182 to 184 are for background only). Moreover, both parts of Vietnam committed democide against their own people as well as in other countries, and democide was committed by foreigners against them. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder. In November 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. in front of a crowd of some 25,000 people. In South Vietnam there was the suppression of various sects and their independent armies (line 219), rebellions of minorities (lines 222 to 223), the pre-Vietnam War communist inspired guerrilla war directed by North Vietnam from 1954 through 1959 (lines 227 and 228), and the incursion into Cambodia (line 239). All rights reserved. Battle of Ia Drang | Battle of Ia Drang Casualty List, Operation Ranch Hand: Definition, Strategy & Impact. by Jason von Meding Here's What You Need To Remember: The consequences of the defoliant have been toxic for Vietnam. I therefore accept the sum without adjustment. The Vietnam War was a costly conflict between all sides from both a financial and military perspective. Should they ever be captured by bad guys, they crowed, they'd buy their freedom with the gold. Of the 200,000 refugees that fled the Highlands offensive by the North in March 1975, only 45,000 made it to Tuy-Hoa. Cu Chi Tunnels - Facts, History & Length 320,000 military personnel, more than 4,000, https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-combatants. Applying this to the number who fled yields a likely Vietnam democide of 250,000 boat people (line 753). I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. Putting together all these consolidations and calculations, I figure that for the years 1945 to 1956 the Vietnamese communists likely killed 242,000 to 922,000 people (line 347). The Soviets wanted to make life difficult for the United States, McAllister says, but they didnt want to do it in a way that got them in a conflict with the United States., Soviet involvement in the war increased in the late 1960s, just as Chinas influence was lessening. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/main.xhtml, State Lists of Fatal Casualties of the Vietnam War, www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-lists/, RE: Seeking photos & records of 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group in Vietnam or other conflicts, Find answers to your research questions at, How to File a FOIA Request for Archival Records. She has an M.S.Ed. I can now give a summary of the democide for this period (lines 361 to 365). As can be seen, while the high is appropriately higher, the low is over 100,000 greater than the consolidated figure and raises some question as to the validity of the underlying sub-totals. The Vietnam War was described as a civil war within South Vietnam, although it became a proxy war between Cold War powers. Image. Vietnamese boat people ( Vietnamese: Thuyn nhn Vit Nam) were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. In the summer of 1973 Congress passed a measure prohibiting any U.S. military operations in or over Indochina after August 15. I assume that those for which the regime must be held responsible could vary from one-third to two-thirds, most reasonably a half of them. The Viet Cong lost around 1.1 million combatants. Military Advisors in Vietnam: 1963 | JFK Library After an easy success at Phuoc Long, northeast of Saigon, in December 1974January 1975, the Hanoi leaders believed that victory was near. Finally, we must recognize that aside from what was estimated above, there was throughout American involvement a background of small level atrocities (such as the killing of Viet Cong trying to surrender or of innocent peasants simply because they were running away) and massacres (such as wiping out the inhabitants of a village from which a sniper had been firing). Trade between the two nations ultimately resumed in the 1990s. Other South Vietnamese allies also committed democide, specifically S. Korean troops. I guess that the 1956 portion of this estimate includes executions associated with political repression, rebellions, and the last year of "land reform." The Tet Offensive (1968) | Encyclopedia.com The war became synonymous with a quagmire, an intervention that was escalated massively by Johnson and Nixon, but that seemed an endless waste of blood and money. Estimates of this for various periods are shown in the table (line 638 to 668), and consolidated for 1975 to 1980, and 1981 to 1987 (lines 669 and 670). It wanted no part of the new conflict. Not all democide figures are indirect. Following this are listed estimates of the overall military and civilian toll (lines 805 to 814). Given the extent and nature of this war for Americans, it seems that a low of near 25 Vietnamese so murdered per month is probably a rock bottom figure, especially considering that this is less than one such killing per day for all American ground action in all of South Vietnam. Because of the disruption caused by the Tet offensive in 1968, South Vietnam was unable to keep count of assassinations during this period and their number usually do not appear in the above. Though it originally took little interest in the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union secretly ramped up its aid to North Vietnam following Nikita Khrushchevs fall from power. He succeeded in 1954 and established a Communist government. Now I can gather together (lines 624 to 628) and total (line 629) the various estimates of democide by South Vietnam and allies during the Vietnam War and pre-guerrilla period. It is still a concern in Southeast Asia today. Chapter 14: The Gang of Centi-Kilo Murderers I list related estimates and their consolidations for civilians (lines 188 to 193), military (lines 196 to 199), and combined (lines 202 to 206), and then check the latter by two sums. It is suspected that over 1.2 million of these deaths were murders. North Vietnamese troops or their guerrilla Viet Cong surely committed more democide than that for which I have been able to find estimates. Cruel fact: How many Vietnamese people died in the Vietnam war? At the beginning of the Vietnam War, when Mr. Nguyen was a cadet fresh out of his . Updated: June 17, 2019 | Original: June 14, 2019. I try to handle this by dividing "land reform" estimates in terms of their ostensive inclusiveness. Image credit: PBS The Vietnam War was a long, deadly struggle that took place from 1954 to 1975 between North Vietnam and South Vietnam The U.S. National Archives shows that 58,220 U.S. soldiers perished. It is unknown how much aid was lost from North Vietnamese allies. 14. By the time American forces finally withdrew in 1973, about 2.7 million U.S. soldiers had served in Vietnam, more than 58,000 had died, and the nation had racked up a staggering bill of at least $111 billion (plus billions more in non-military costs). I show estimates of this or related information (lines 637 to 759), the first of which refer to re-education camps. By 1975, when North Vietnamese troops took Saigon and reunified the nation under communist rule, an estimated 1 million to 3 million Vietnamese had perished, many of them civilians. Chapter 23: Democide Through the Years After a while, no one thinks theyre going to win, says James McAllister, a political science professor at Williams College, but theyre damn sure a loss is not going to take place under their watch., READ MORE:How the Vietnam War Ratcheted Up Under 5 US Presidents. For information I list a number of estimates of Vietnamese refugees and consolidate them (lines 841-860). The United States officially entered the war in 1965 when the North Vietnamese attacked the USS Maddox, backing South Vietnam. Bombs ready to be loaded onto a French aircraft for the long drawn out Dien Bien Phu Battle of the Indochina War onApril 10, 1954.. The United States got involved to prevent South Vietnam from falling into communist hands. One more point. The conflict. Then there are the massacres and atrocities that American forces were found or alleged to have done (lines 595 to 598). This period, from 1953 to 1956, is very significant and the estimates are very confused. Learn about Vietnam war statistics and casualties. The Vietnam War - Vietnam War | NZHistory, New Zealand history online Not only is Vietnam's history complex, therefore, but the estimates of those killed in war and democide differ considerably by perpetrator, victims, time, and place. For these actions, however, they were ultimately answerable to North Vietnamese superiors. A converted T-28 trainer aircraft is seen near 250-pound bombs used by Meo pilots of Vang Pao's "mini-Air Force" against North Vietnamese in northern Laos. (Show more) See all related content Recent News Jun. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. Among the most useful of these I would include Lewy (1978), Andradr (1990), Moss (1990), Wiesner (1988), and Moore (1990). SMART NEWS Nixon Prolonged Vietnam War for Political GainAnd Johnson Knew About It, Newly Unclassified Tapes Suggest Nixon ran on a platform that opposed the Vietnam war, but to win the. Unexploded munitions from the Vietnam War-era continue to kill Laotians (and Vietnamese and Cambodians) to this day. With these checks completed, I can pull together the various sub-totals and totals and present them in a summary fashion (lines 823 to 838). Tet is a huge holiday in Vietnam marking the start of the Lunar New Year. Instead, a communist insurgency broke out, pitting the so-called Viet Cong, who were sponsored by North Vietnam, against Diems forces. 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Women in the Vietnam War - HISTORY I therefore treat them separately (lines 436 to 448). Historical background In South Vietnam, the government of Ngo Dinh Diem countered North Vietnamese subversion (including the assassination of over 450 South Vietnamese officials by Viet Cong in 1956) by detaining tens of thousands of suspected communists in "political re-education centers." Village battles were not uncommon as the two factions fought for control of the region. Next, I consider the democide by South Vietnamese and others (lines 475 to 621in Table 6.1B). The U.S. Embassy in Vientiane remained open throughout. They were determined to go on holding it, both as a matter of national pride and because if they let one colony go loose, then the others might get ideas.. At first, the U.S. operated behind the scenes, but after 1964, sent combat troops and became more deeply mired in the war. The question is how many of these deaths then constituted democide by Allied forces, that is indiscriminate killing resulting from or consistent with higher commands. This does not count Laotians and Cambodians killed by Vietnamese governments, virtually all by Hanoi. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in 1978 and 1979, but continued into the early 1990s. [25] Protests, campaigning and the atmosphere of elections had been interpreted by the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam and L Dun as signs that the population would embrace a 'general uprising' against the government of South Vietnam. From the sources it seems that this was a small proportion of the overall toll, possibly 5 to 10 percent (line 590), and probably a tenth to a quarter of this democide was due to American action (line 592). To determine some range of deaths in these camps, I had to first establish their population. Fall of Saigon - Wikipedia LONDON A Romanian man who was part of an international human smuggling ring was sentenced Tuesday to more than 12 years in prison for the deaths of 39 migrants from Vietnam who suffocated in a . Chapter 22: The Social Field and Democide I have accordingly outlined in the table all the estimates associated with it so that the mode of calculation and associated subtotals for this period can be clearly distinguished. In July 1967 North Vietnam's communist leaders decided to gamble upon a course of action that would ideally break the stalemate between North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam. One estimate presumably of the overall National Liberation Front democide (line 468) is shown for comparison to the sum of North Vietnam's democide in South Vietnam (line 467). It was far less intense in the early years than after the full American involvement in 1965. Yet, as Moise points out, they both learned one important lesson: Its dangerous to get in a fight when the other side cares about winning more than you do.. Chapter 10: Orwellian North Korea Another was missing four toes from one foot. Vietnam's re-education camps after 1975: Narratives of detainees Returning now to Table 6.1A and the consolidation of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong war-dead estimates and extrapolations (line 102), this may be checked against those consolidations of the separate war-dead estimates and extrapolations (line 67 and 83) by summing them (line 104). The table lists estimates of the number of Vietnamese boat people that fled or tried to flee (lines 702 to 711) and their consolidation (line 713). Clearly there is little difference between the two ways of assessing the democide and a final total is determined as usual (line 433). Weight is added to his description of this massacre by Louis A. Wiener, an international authority on refugees.10. In any case, I will subsequently check on these results by comparing them against total war-dead estimates. The following year, in 1976, Vietnam was united as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Chapter 3 Japan's Savage Military One way of judging whether this figure is way too low or high is to look at it as a monthly ratio to American troop strength. In any case, the consolidated low and mid-value are such as to assume that beyond those massacres we do know took place there is warrant to some others mentioned (line 601). Half the victims are children. Other nations such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and the Philippines provided a limited number of troops to South Vietnamese forces. . During the final years of World War II, political leader Ho Chi Minh organized a group, the Viet Cong, to fight the powers in occupancy of the territory and take control. For all American forces throughout South Vietnam, this works out to about 5 to 60 Vietnamese killed per month from 1965 to 1972, which seem prudent brackets on the monthly American democide by bomb or shell. Weakened by defeat in the war, France withdrew its forces in 1945. Finally, I can calculate the overall democide of Vietnam in the post-Vietnam War period (lines 762 to 764). The idea that this war was only to stop the spread of communism and push democracy on newly forming nations was very unpopular, and many civilians believed that the United States should not have gotten involved at all. Two years after the withdrawal of the last United States combat troops, North Vietnamese Army (NVA) tanks and soldiers rolled into Saigon.Within days, the US-backed South Vietnamese government turned on its heels and fled, its leaders spirited out of the country with American help.. After more than a century of foreign domination and 21 years of war and division, Vietnam was . And the illusory playthings are cluster bombs. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. 1965 in the Vietnam War - Wikipedia flashcard sets. The United States and many other countries intervened, propping up both sidesbut especially South Vietnamwith troops, weapons and supplies and turning what started as a small guerrilla uprising into a major Cold War-era conflict. Moreover, thousands or tens of thousands were abducted to disappear forever, but are not included here under assassinations and executions. (line 319), and the suppression of uprisings (line 326). How eight countries got bogged down in the Vietnam War's Cold War proxy battle. Even if labeled "war-dead" the estimate may cover all killed during the war, which would include democide (e.g., possibly line 133). Poster entitled "Support Vietnam People," circa 1969, showing China's support of the Communist cause in Vietnam. Elections were planned to reunite the country within two years, but Diem, with U.S. approval, never submitted to a vote that he feared losing. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Nixon then sent troops across the border in 1970, taking advantage of a coup that ousted Sihanouk in favor of a pro-American general. View of a collection of defused cluster bombs and grenades used by an international bomb disposal group for training in Savannakhet, Laos, on May 2, 2006. Chapter 8: The Pakistani Cutthroat State The important statistics and information to remember from this lesson are: To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Yet their support for South Vietnam never wavered, no matter who occupied the White House. Particularly, Lewy (1978, p. 341) and Hyman (1992, p. 42). However, side effects occurred because of Agent Orange. 15.See Rummel (1990, p. 28; 1991, Table IIA.1, lines 378-382, "War isn't this century's biggest killer", "Democide in totalitarian states: mortacracies and megamurderers", "The Holocaust in comparative and historical perspective". On April 30 what remained of the South Vietnamese government surrendered unconditionally, and NVA tank columns occupied Saigon without a struggle. War-dead estimates for the Vietnam War abound (lines 53 to 214). This ratio seems about right to me, given the known atrocities and massacres, the indiscriminate bombing and shelling that did occur, and the confessions about killing POWs or those trying to surrender, all juxtaposed against the early insufficient but later extensive attempts by the High Command to limit such killing, hold soldiers and officers responsible for such acts, and better publicize rules of engagement that would protect civilians. A mass exodus in 1975 of people loyal to the South Vietnamese cause was followed by another wave in 1978 of "boat people," refugees fleeing the economic restructuring imposed by the communist regime. One is that of the separate civilian and military consolidations (line 207); the other is of the preliminary North Vietnam/Viet Cong, South Vietnam, United States, and other third party sub-totals (line 208). Many of these deaths were suspected to be murders, often targeting able-bodied young men who could pose a threat to the other side should they have chosen to join the military. Vietnam War - Fall, Saigon, US Withdrawal | Britannica Chapter 20: The Context of Democide Socio-Economic and Geographic Not all of these were military personnel; nearly half of the deaths of the Vietnam War were the deaths of civilians caught in the fighting. I can now total the overall domestic and foreign democide for North Vietnam during this period (lines 467 to 472). The rest of the estimates for this period are for North Vietnam's democide in South Vietnam during the pre-Vietnam War guerrilla struggle, during the war itself, and in Cambodia (lines 374-472). This also assumes that the zones were about a quarter to a third less deadly then the camps in the early period and half as deadly later. In the first few years of the Vietnam War, there had been decreased fighting around the holiday, so U.S. troops and its . Considerable democide followed Hanoi's victory over South Vietnam in 1975. It is much larger than even the high and is given in the source without explanation, justification, or citation.11 I therefore ignore it. The United States withdrew its forces in 1973, placing the onus on South Vietnam to fight its own battle. Nai returned his one-eyed gaze to me and laughed. Prince Norodom Sihanouk basically felt that he was surrounded by dangerous enemies, and he had to make nice with some of them, Moise says, adding that he could not afford to offend the North Vietnamese despite being anti-communist in Cambodian politics.. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. The United States provided funding and troops to the South Vietnamese effort to prevent Communism from spreading further in East Asia. Vietnam portal v t e Operation Frequent Wind was the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and "at-risk" Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the Fall of Saigon. The Geneva conference established a treaty that split the nation of Vietnam in half for the time being, with reunification elections set to be held in 1956. On April 29, 1975, as communist North Vietnamese troops closed in on the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon, the United States ordered the immediate evacuation of U.S. personnel and several. Put in their place to rule was Emperor Bao Dai, a French implant who had ties to creating a democracy. Vietnam War | Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueos Jesse Greenspan is a Bay Area-based freelance journalist who writes about history and the environment. An estimated 250,000 South Vietnamese troops died in combat. Chapter 7: Poland's Ethnic Cleansing Many movements on the home front arose in the early 1970s to end the war, which sped the process of withdrawing troops along. China and the Soviet Union didnt have to do as much as the Americans, Moise explains, because they were buttressing the stronger side. 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