101 Facts About The Vietnam War

greetings mother factors and welcome to this week's edition of 101 facts my name is sam and today we're here to talk about another huge conflict that struck the world the ramifications of which are still felt today no not batman vs superman if only this one could have been resolved that easily hello talking about the vietnam war but how did the war start what were some of the most unbelievable traps and operations used by both sides and is this the only piece of vietnam war-related media that doesn't include fortunate sun by creed's clearwater revival is it is it i mean we're definitely not going to use it because we'll be sued to oblivion two out of three those questions are going to be answered so i hope you're prepared for an awful lot of history as well as some bouts of you weren't there man you weren't there as we go through 101 facts about the vietnam war number one so this war was a conflict in vietnam but also laos and cambodia from the 1st of november 1955 to the fall of saigon on the 30th of april 1975. nearly 20 whole years long number two and who was it between well predominantly it was between north and south vietnam with help from china north korea and the soviet union from the north whereas the south had the us south korea australia and new zealand to give them a helping hand number three to hugely hugely simplify all this and believe me we'll go into more detail a bit later on because that's what this video is north vietnam's communists south vietnam is not communist fight north vietnamese communists and south vietnamese communist rebels known as the viet cong wanted to overthrow the south vietnamese government and reunite the country number four but how did this whole thing kick off well it's not as easy to summarize as it seems frankly but to begin we have to go back to the year 1887 with would you believe the french it was in this year that they put a big old colonial system in vietnam as part of what it called french indochina number five french indochina was a group including coach in china cambodia and nam and tonkin and then eventually laos this didn't directly cause the war you understand but it's important to set the scene number six now you may remember something quite massive happened in the 1940s danny devito was born oh and uh world war ii happened though those two things are directly unrelated during this time france was taken over by those rotters the nazis and the japanese who were on their side invaded vietnam which was a french colony number seven the french eventually took back control again after they won the second world war though in august of 1945. however a month later something changed and that something requires us to talk about a man named ho chi minh number eight you see men had been introduced to the shiny concept of communism in the early 20s while studying in of all places france i don't know why i'm constantly surprised by the french but there we are in fact he later established the indo-chinese communist party in hong kong an important part of this here tale number nine he then planned to go back to indochina and lead his people to independence however the french were on his case and basically acted like club bouncers saying he couldn't come in and need a liberation of those inside not with those trainers or at least that's what club bouncers have said to me number 10. so he tried to settle in hong kong under the false name lai tai but the british government said nah so he made his way to moscow where he appealed to the organization com intern would you believe a communist organization for funding to launch a movement in indochina he planned to base himself in neighboring siam which isn't me by the way but instead is what we now call thailand number 11 he also got a dose of tb during this time so ouch that stuff that killed arthur morgan ain't nothing to play with anyway then in 1941 he tried to head back to his country to lead the revolution number 12 poor timing on his part though because that's when the nazis were invading everything remember though he did still manage to get in so props to him number 13. the people called him the bringer of light when he returned which is a bit silly because we know that the sun is the bring of light really that's just science he found that japan had seized control of the north of vietnam in 1940 so he led a guerrilla movement known as the viet minh to fight back for their country number 14 guerrilla warfare in case you've ever wondered what that means means small pockets of non-military soldiers and was heavily used by the viet minh they set up hundreds of booby traps which cause injuries and death to their opponents number 15 if you want an example of a vicious booby trap that would make indiana jones wet himself the viet cong who we'll talk about a bit later on would tie vicious bamboo pit viper snakes to the top of caves or from trees to try and nibble on the enemy at face height this would not only really hurt but it would pump horrific venom into their body killing them very quickly and painfully number 16. it's worth noting by the way that there's a difference between the viet minh and the viet cong the viet minh had been fighting against the japanese and french rule in the north whereas the viet cong were rebels in the south fighting for the north number 17. anyway in september of 1945 ho chi minh declared that north of vietnam as independent from the rest he apparently took inspiration for the winding of set declaration from the americans very own declaration of independence to try and woo them a little bit number 18. this didn't work though you see the president at the time in the us addressed congress with the truman doctrine nothing to do with the truman show but it was the foreign policy that the u.s would assist any country that was threatened by communism number 19. so this whole shebang caught the attention of the usa and it made them a tad concerned you see they later subscribe to a theory that they call domino theory which has nothing to do with pizza or old games but has more to do with you guessed it communism it essentially meant that if one country became more communist inclined the others surrounding it would too eventually turning the whole world communist number 20. it of course didn't help that the soviet union and china had supported the democratic republic of vietnam and was supplying them with military aid in their fight for freedom number 21. then in 1954 this all led to a very important conflict the battle of dien bien fu between the french and the viet minh the viet minh had placed cannons in the caves in mountains surrounding the french military camps and like a wenger boys song went boom boom boom boom number 22 as the french position in 1954 became more precarious they reached out to good old friendly america for support the us then made plans for operation vulture the idea was for two to three hundred american aircraft to fly in and save the day at dien pien fu number 23 and u.s planning went even further than that with the idea that three tactical a-bombs would win the day calm down lads calm down number 24 it's not clear how serious these plans were to use nuclear weapons but military intervention of some kind was definitely an option there was just one obstacle here though president eisenhower wouldn't intervene unilaterally the british had to come along for the ride too and they wouldn't so operation vulture was cancelled number 25. anyway back to the battle of dmpn few the viet minh targeted important pressure points of the french like their airstrips and other strongholds this meant french morale began to wane a little because they could no longer get support drops as easily and monsoon weather didn't really help things either number 26 the chinese were also a big help for the viet minh here retraining them in siege techniques and providing them with weaponry and all sorts over the weeks bit by bit of the french perimeter was worn down number 27 after 14 000 dead wounded or captured the french eventually conceded defeat and signed the geneva accords in may of 1954. number 28 with these accords the countries of the united nations in geneva came together to look at how the french could strategically pull out without incident don't laugh at that come on these accords essentially use the 17th parallel line as the dividing line between the states of north and south vietnam number 29 you therefore had north vietnam in the well north under the control of ho chi minh and then the south had nego din diem a catholic nationalist the us rather liked number 30. following the partition of vietnam eisenhower sent negotiate a ton of help actually in fact it was more than a ton between 1955 and 1960 money and weapons were sent u.s military advisors reached a thousand and almost two billion dollars in aid was handed on over number 31 support for negotiating in south vietnam began to erode though because he was autocratic and had a tendency to appoint family members to positions of power according to some historians he also jailed around forty thousand political prisoners and executed around twelve thousand my experience at high school is anything to go by that's not gonna make you popular number thirty-two the calls also stipulated that vietnam should be reunified within two years under one government however the us would not agree to vietnam holding a general election since they feared the communist party in the north of the country and what would happen if they won it remember the truman doctrine using communism do not mix like peanut butter and uh roast pork no i'm not like so in order to prevent vietnam from following in the steps of say china the united states decided to support negotiating dm's cancellation of the elections some speculate the result of the election would have very likely been a unified vietnam under ho chi minh number 34. now ho chi minh responded to this news not very positively if i'm honest by activating the viet minh can't raise in south vietnam who began to wage small scale attacks on the southern government number 35 the north also created what was later known as the ho chi minh trail which isn't a lovely nature hike might be these days but wasn't back then but actually a supply route through cambodia and laos to get their troops in the south food and weapons or a combination of the two although i don't know what that would look like number 36 gradually u.s involvement increased until the country and other un members were involved in all-out combat against ho chi minh soldiers the first u.s soldiers were killed in their living quarters in saigon in july of 1959 number 37 in 1960 ho chi minh now 70 years of age was replaced as general secretary of the north vietnamese communist party by li duan who started to call more of the shots number 38 it was all change over in the us too with the election of john f kennedy to the presidency who took office in 1961. a few years before coming into power in 1954 he'd said about vietnam should i do the voice no god please no i am frankly off the belief that no amount of american military assistance can conquer an enemy which is everywhere and at the same time nowhere that is terrible that's really bad number 39 it's a great quote and you'd think that might mean he'd be anti-war but you'd be wrong by the time he got to the white house he clearly changed his tune and started to ramp up us involvement by may of 1961 he'd sent 400 green berets to south vietnam along with some helicopters for good measure green berets in the soldiers by the way not just some lovely jade hats number 40 u.s support to south vietnam under jfk eventually reached new heights though we're talking jets so we mean heights literally as well as apc's and riverboat patrols we're also talking a whopping 16 000 military advisers number 41 all of this military kit didn't translate into success on the ground though in 1963 for instance south vietnamese forces were defeated by viet cong at back despite outnumbering them four to one despite having helicopters and despite having the assistance of u.s advisers the meaning of life to make things worse by 1963 nago din diem had become pretty unpopular with most of the south vietnamese population including buddhists over his favoritism towards the country's catholic minority trouble was indeed brewing number 43 in may of that year in the city of huwai buddhist protesters angry that the buddhist flag had been banned by the government was shot at by security forces eight people were killed which started what was known as the buddhist crisis number 44 the so-called buddhist crisis reached its zenith a month later when monk tik guang duk in protest immolated or burned himself to death at a busy road in saigon pictures of the incident were beamed around the world though obviously we can't show them it even later became the album cover for rage against machine's debut number 45 rather than pull back from the buddhist crisis nego din diem doubled down despite requests from the us for south vietnam to undertake reforms diem went the opposite way and imposed martial law number 46 things got so bad the us government even backed a coup against dm which resulted in him being overthrown and then assassinated in november of 1963. number 47 if the aim had been to bring more stability to south vietnam after all this yeah that didn't work between 1963 and 1965 12 different governments will come and go number 48 shortly after nego dindiem's death president kennedy was himself assassinated in dallas texas as a result vice president lyndon b johnson then took over in the white house number 49. meanwhile on the other side of the ideological divide the north vietnamese were starting to enjoy some success in late 1960 they'd backed the formation of the national liberation front the nlf an organization aimed at helping anti-government insurgency in the south number 15. the nlf was seen by the usa as an extension of north vietnamese influence and the nlf's military was given the name viet kong see i told you we'd get to them later i mean if i didn't say that chris or roche could you edit that in thanks number 51 between 1963 and 1965 the vietcong insurgency backed by north vietnam grew from around 30 000 to 150 000 fighting men with recruitment helped by the oppressive nature of the government in saigon number 52 although approximately 200 americans had been killed in the conflict by the end of 1963 america still hadn't fully entered the war all that changed in august of 1964 with the gulf of tonkin incident number 53 the incident on the 2nd of august involved the us destroyer uss maddox which was attacked by the north vietnamese torpedo boat in the well gulf of tonkin hence the name obviously number 54 a second north vietnamese attack on u.s ships from the area apparently took place on august the 4th i say apparently because it's now generally accepted that this second incident didn't occur and what was thought of as a potential attack was a combination of stormy seas overactive imaginations and false signals number 55 either way within days of the incident or incidents i guess the us congress overwhelmingly passed the gulf of tonkin resolution which gave president johnson the authority to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the united states number 56 at the start of 1965 american combat troops were being sent into the conflict and the president gave the go-ahead for operation rolling thunder a huge sustained bombing campaign that lasted over three years number 57 from 1965 to 1968 rolling thunder would see between 640 000 to 864 000 tons of bombs dropped on north vietnam that's more than the entire korean war or more than the us dropped in the pacific theater of world war ii around 180 000 north vietnamese civilians were killed with around 20 000 chinese personnel also losing their lives number 58 that's just one u.s operation another was called operation wandering soul which was a little more spooky essentially it was playing on the buddhist belief of the viet cong soldiers by playing eerie tapes created to sound like ghosts or spirits wandering the jungle in an effort to scare them away some realised it was all fake but it legitimately did haunt and scare some others number 59 before that though in 1962 the hugely controversial operation ranch hand began why was it controversial well in the end the us cate 10 to 20 of the entirety of vietnam with 19 million gans of the herbicide agent orange the aim was to kill plant life to expose the foliage that the viet minh used for trading number 60 the plan worked well kind of a lot of plants died but didn't stop the soldiers it also reportedly caused huge health issues for the vietnamese peoples that live nearby number 61 the number of u.s troops on the ground began to increase rapidly in january of 1965 just over 5 000 men were drafted to fight but by july of that year johnson was calling for 35 000 men each month number 62 the first major battle between the u.s and north vietnamese troops came at the battle of ayad rang in november of 1965. some 800 north vietnamese and nearly 300 americans died number 63 the battle was significant as it laid down the template for how the war would be conducted north vietnam forces were prepared to take major casualties and the us were trying to inflict the maximum damage to wear them down in a war of attrition nintendo 64. on the other hand the us troops would call in artillery and air support so north vietnamese troops would get as physically close to their enemies as possible to stop them calling in help after all you don't want to bomb your own people i mean i'm no general but pounding your own soldiers with artillery isn't really the best thing to do in a war number 65 by the end of 1967 some half a million american troops were stationed in vietnam and the war was costing 25 billion dollars per year it was also massively unpopular so it's not like it was even worth it either number 66 the increase in drafting caused a wave of civil disobedience in november of 1965 thousands of protesters took part in the march on washington for peace in vietnam number 67 others tried to avoid the draft which tended to see working-class men called to fight over middle-class men since college students could defer between 1965 and 1975 about 40 000 so-called draft dodgers fled to canada others pretended to be gay or self-mutilated to avoid service number 68 american soldiers used to put an ace of spades on the bodies of deceased enemy soldiers this wasn't just for a cool magic trick this is because they've been incorrectly told that the card represented death in vietnam it hadn't when the war started but by the end thanks to the americans and their effort to spook their enemies with playing cards it actually did come to represent death number 16 this feels inappropriate adrian cronauer is an important figure for the vietnam war or rather in the public's memory of it cronulla was a dj who joined the military in 1965 hosting a radio show in the morning specifically for american troops he was immortalized in the movie good morning vietnam played by the one the only robbie no sorry robin williams number 17 there was an infamous pow camp that the americans jokingly nicknamed the hanoi hilton here american soldiers were treated especially badly and had concrete slams for beds in rat infested cells number 71 by the way we know the vietnam war as well the vietnam war but over in vietnam itself it's called the american war number 72 hey here's something that you'd never expect to have been used during the war the humble slinky they were attached to the end of radios and then thrown into branches of trees to improve amplitude of the signal i like slinkys i just think they're neat number 73 some of the troops on the american and south vietnamese side would be known as tunnel rats but don't worry they weren't actually rats this isn't some sort of combat ratatouille instead they were soldiers who would crawl into tiny tunnels used by the viet cong in order to search them number 74 but what were they searching for well they would conduct search and destroy missions within these tunnels looking for the enemy but they'd also try and find booby traps in these tunnels to try and clear them out which frankly sounds like a horrific job you know the more i hear about this vietnam war the less fun it sounds you know number 75 these tunnel systems were vast known as the coochie tunnels they were meticulously hidden these titled thousands of miles and allowed the vietcong to mount a bright attacks and then disappear again just like that asmr baby number 76 but these tunnels would often be laced with traps for the enemy these traps include tripwires that made grenades go boom boom boom and even boxes of scorpions or snakes which would tip over and fall on their head number 77 they would also use pungie stick traps oh yeah like in tony hawk sharpened bamboo sticks covered with all sorts of horrible detritus in hidden pits if soldiers fell into them not only would they have holes in them they'd likely be infected with bacteria too number 78 another word that's somewhat synonymous with the vietnam war is napalm a terrible weapon used by the us military it's essentially a chemical gel that burns at extremely high temperatures many who encountered it were severely affected by it according to thoughtco 60 suffered fifth degree burns number 79. anyway 1968 was a major year for the war and it began with the launch of the tet offensive on the 30th of january this was a major campaign by north vietnam and viet cong forces when about 85 000 of their troops launched attacks on over a hundred cities towns villages and military outposts number 80. on paper the tat offensive was a huge defeat for north vietnam they suffered casualty rates for almost 60 percent and they were pushed out of most of the cities they attacked in a matter of days number 81 one exception to this was the battle of huey where communist troops held the city for 25 days during this occupation vietcong troops arrested civilians connected to the south vietnamese government or american forces these so-called counter-revolutionaries were then executed when u.s and south vietnam forces finally regained control of the city they found evidence of the massacre thousand eight hundred bodies and three thousand residents missing number eighty-two while the tet offensive had failed to ignite a rebellion in south vietnam that would have overthrown the government it doubt a huge psychological blow to the us administration and american public opinion number 83 as a result of tet between the 11th and 17th of february 543 americans died in a single week the highest weekly death toll for the entire war having previously claimed the end of the war was close us general william westmoreland requested 200 000 more troops to help win the war number 84 an opinion poll by gallup in february of 1968 now showed 50 of americans disapproved of johnson's handling of the war with only 35 percent in favor a month later president johnson said he would scale back the bombing campaign against north vietnam seek negotiated peace and shocking the public he would not run for re-election that's an impression of an american being shocked by that number 85 the same month that johnson made his shock announcements u.s troops in the village of mailai killed more than 500 civilians most of whom weren't grown men the massacre was covered up for over a year and when it finally did come to light only one u.s soldier served the time and even then it was only for three years number 86 richard nixon became the new president of america in 1969 and over the course of his time in office he sought to bring down the number of us troops in action from a peak of 549 000 in 1969 down to 69 000 in 1972. number 87 nixon campaigned on a promise of ending the war and it's since come to light that he secretly tried to prevent a successful settlement before he was elected he didn't want the credit to go to someone else for potentially damaging his chances of winning the oval office number 88 ho chi minh passed away in 1969 while the war was very much still raging by the time it was over the south vietnamese city of saigon was renamed ho chi minh city which might give you a little bit of a clue about how this ends number 89 as u.s troop numbers were reduced a process known as the vietnamization took place it's a weird word but sure this meant that military responsibilities in south vietnam were transferred back to local forces instead number 90 on the 15th of november of that year the biggest anti-war demonstration in the history of the united states took place around 500 000 people attended a largely peaceful protest in washington nixon claimed to be watching sports on television in the white house at the time and wasn't bothered by it number 91 you see when tricky dicky nixon became president of the united states in 1969 he wanted to bring us troops out of vietnam and leave the fighting to the vietnamese soldiers instead however many u.s citizens did not approve of the move to invade laos and cambodia which prompted protests up and down the country number 92 between 1969 and 1970 the u.s launched operation menu which sounds tasty but it really wasn't you see the us thought that there were communist supply bases in cambodia and so wanted to eradicate them by bombing them it's important to point out that cambodia was officially neutral and so the bombings were kept secret number 93 in 1970 u.s and south vietnamese troops even crossed the cambodian border to attack communists there they did the same in laos in 1971 to hit the ho chi minh trail but then they were forced to retreat number 94. finally in january 1973 north vietnam and communists from south vietnam reached a settlement with the usa and the south vietnamese government the agreement on ending the war and restoring peace in vietnam saw the country again divided on 17th parallel and u.s troops were to leave within 60 days this though was not the end of the war number 95 in april of 1975 north vietnamese forces seized control of saigon the capital of south vietnam and the government there was surrounded the war was over and three months later the two countries were finally united as the socialist republic of vietnam under communist rule number 96 by 1995 vietnam had realized the full scale of civilian harm during the war over 2 million civilians from both the north and south had been killed and over a million soldiers killed between all the armies involved number 97 the bombing of north vietnam surpassed the total tonnage of bombs dropped on germany italy and japan during world war ii the war was estimated to cost around 200 billion dollars number 98 like i mentioned earlier laos and cambodia were heavily involved in the war which meant that civilians paid a large price too laos is thought to be the most heavily bombed country in the world per capita with an estimated 30 of cluster bombs remaining unexploded number 99 when the united nations set the 2030 agenda for the sustainable development goals they included an extra goal for laos to rid the country of dangerous unexploded items from said vietnam war number 100 on may 25th 2012 the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the vietnam war was put into place put in there by barack obama remember him this was a program too and i quote honor and give thanks to a generation of proud americans who saw our country through one of the most challenging missions we've ever faced programme will continue until november 11th 2025. number 101 the vietnam war inspired many pieces of media since from movies to video games but also had a big impact on the world of music too with songs on the aforementioned fortunate sun by queen's clearwater revival give me shelter by the rolling stones and edwin stars war being directly inspired by the conflict in vietnam so that was 101 fans about the vietnam war did you learn anything new i do hope so let me know in the comments down below yeah also let us know what you want to see next because we need to you know we need to cater for you guys and to do that we need to know what you want hey while you're down there too why not give us a like and subscribe to our facts if you haven't done so already please thank you in the meantime though two videos on screen that you're gonna really enjoy honestly you're gonna i mean i can i can't speak highly enough of them frankly why not give one a click and i'll see you there goodbye now

Channel: 101Facts

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Keywords: 101 facts, 101, 101facts, vietnam war, vietnam, facts about vietnam war, vietnam war facts, usa vietnam war, usa vietnam, vietnam war history, vietnam history, vietnam war documentary, vietnam war movies, vietnam war explained, vietnam war stories, agent orange, napalm, good morning vietnam, viet cong, viet minh, ho chi minh, full metal jacket, tunnels, booby traps, soviet union, cold war, richard nixon, tet offensive, vietnam draft

Id: WR-CeKiwfhQ

Length: 27min 12sec (1632 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020