North Vietnam

Examples of North Vietnam in the following topics:

• The Peace Accords and the Legacy of Defeat

  • They ended direct U.S. military involvement and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam.
  • The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.
  • Schlesinger stated that he would recommend resumption of U.S. bombing in North Vietnam if North Vietnam launched a major offensive against South Vietnam.
  • On April 27, 100,000 North Vietnamese troops encircled Saigon.
  • US Air Force B-52 Bombing North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II

• A Growing War in Vietnam

  • The Vietnam War (1957–1975) was fought in South Vietnam and the bordering areas of Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.
  • The Vietnam War (1957–1975) was conducted in South Vietnam and the bordering areas of Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam.
  • In South Vietnam, anti-Communist Ngo Dinh Diem had become prime minister in 1954, while Ho Chi Minh continued to rule the North.
  • By 1960, North Vietnam had also created the National Liberation Front (NLF) to resist Diem and carry out an insurgency in the South.
  • Kennedy's policy toward South Vietnam rested on the assumption that South Vietnamese leader Diem and his forces must ultimately defeat the North Vietnamese troops on their own.

• Vietnam Becomes Nixon's War

  • The Nixon Doctrine aimed to gradually strengthen South Vietnamese forces so they could defend against North Vietnam without U.S. support.
  • Thus, Nixon sought to implement a policy that would ensure the safety of American forces from North Vietnamese attacks as they withdrew from and evacuated South Vietnam.
  • Abrams, commander of the American military forces in Vietnam, advocated for smaller-scale operations against the logistics of the two North Vietnam armies, the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the National Liberation Front (NLF); more openness with the media; and more meaningful cooperation with the South Vietnamese forces.
  • To this end, Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger employed Chinese and Soviet foreign policy gambits to defuse some of the anti-war opposition at home and to pressure North Vietnam into favoring negotiations.
  • In order to intensify the pressure on North Vietnam to negotiate and to buy time for U.S. withdrawal, Nixon approved a secret bombing campaign of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia in March of 1969 (code-named Operation Menu).

• Commitment to Vietnam

  • Doubt arose among Washington D.D. policy-makers that Diem was capable of defeating the opposing Chinese Communist regime in the North; some feared Diem might negotiate with Ho Chi Minh, the president of North Vietnam.
  • Maddox engaged 3 North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats in a sea battle, resulting in several North Vietnamese casualties.
  • This served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.
  • These guerrilla attacks prompted the administration to order retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam.
  • North Vietnam, utilizing the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk Trails, matched the U.S. at every point of the escalation, funneling manpower and supplies to the southern battlefields.

• "Americanizing" the Vietnam War

  • Westmoreland expanded American troop strength in South Vietnam.
  • These guerrilla attacks prompted the administration to order retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam.
  • On November 27, 1965, the Pentagon declared that if major operations were to successfully neutralize North Vietnamese and NLF forces, U.S. troop levels in South Vietnam would need to increase from 120,000 to 400,000.
  • North Vietnam, utilizing the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk Trails, matched the U.S. at every point of the escalation, funneling manpower and supplies to the southern battlefields.
  • The US launched Operation Rolling Thunder, a strategic bombing campaign of North Vietnam in 1965.

• The Ford Administration

  • With the conquest of South Vietnam by North Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in Vietnam essentially ended.
  • One of Ford's greatest challenges was dealing with the continued Vietnam War.
  • American offensive operations against North Vietnam had ended with the Paris Peace Accords, signed on January 27, 1973.
  • The accords declared a cease-fire across both North and South Vietnam and required the release of American prisoners of war.
  • The agreement guaranteed the territorial integrity of Vietnam and, like the Geneva Conference of 1954, called for national elections in the North and South.

• Gradual Withdrawal

  • Adjusting to Nixon's policy of Vietnamization, General Creighton W.
  • Vietnamization received another severe test in the spring of 1972 when the North Vietnamese launched a massive conventional offensive across the Demilitarized Zone.
  • Beginning on March 30,the Easter Offensive (known as the Nguyễn Huệ Offensive to the North Vietnamese) quickly overran the three northernmost provinces of South Vietnam.
  • The U.S. countered with a buildup of American airpower to support ARVN defensive operations and to conduct Operation Linebacker, the first offensive bombing of North Vietnam since Rolling Thunder had been terminated in 1968.
  • Nixon's policy of Vietnamization was tested when the South Vietnamese army launched Operation Lam Son, attacking the North Vietnamese supply line known as the Ho Chi Minh trail.

• Indochina: The Background to War

  • As the French did not have the means to immediately retake Vietnam, the major powers came to an agreement that British troops would occupy the south while Nationalist Chinese forces would move in from the north. 
  • Nationalist Chinese troops entered the country to disarm Imperial Japanese troops north of the 16th parallel on September 14, 1945. 
  • At the International Geneva Conference on July 21, 1954, the new socialist French government and the Viet Minh made an agreement that was denounced by the government of Vietnam and by the United States, but which effectively gave the Communists control of North Vietnam above the 17th parallel.
  • Control of the north was given to the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh, and the south continued under Emperor Bao Dai (former Emperor of Vietnam and at the time the chief of state of the State of Vietnam or South Vietnam).
  • North Vietnam also invaded and occupied portions of Laos to assist in supplying the guerrilla fighting National Liberation Front in South Vietnam.

• Nixon and Foreign Policy

  • They ended direct U.S. military involvement and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam.
  • The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.
  • After the withdrawal of American forces, it was not long before renewed conflict ignited between North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
  • On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese troops overcame all resistance and took Saigon.
  • Following the North Vietnamese takeover of South Vietnam, a reunited Vietnam subsequently invaded the Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War and fought the Third Indochina War, or the Sino-Vietnamese War, against a Chinese invasion.

• Shuttle Diplomacy

  • Kissinger also oversaw United States negotiations in Vietnam in the 1960's.
  • [Henry Cabot Lodge], an old friend serving as Ambassador to Saigon, had asked me to visit Vietnam as his consultant.
  • I toured Vietnam first for two weeks in October and November 1965, again for about ten days in July 1966, and a third time for a few days in October 1966...
  • Along with North Vietnamese Politburo Member Le Duc Tho, Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1973, for the negotiation of ceasefires and "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam"; Tho rejected the award, telling Kissinger that peace had not been really restored in South Vietnam.
  • Although the conflict would continue until the successful invasion of South Vietnam by the North Vietnamese in 1975, Kissinger's diplomacy did help the U.S. end its military involvement in the war.