The Vietnam War Explained In 25 Minutes | Vietnam War Documentary

[Music] [Music] the Vietnam War began in good faith by good people with good intentions but some two decades later it was all over for the Vietnamese it was not a war about communism it was a war for independence a war for Vietnam but a combination of American overconfidence Cold War tensions and imperialist tendencies the Americans had previously fought so hard against made the war in Vietnam one of America's darkest pages in its short but dense history by the end of the war more than 58,000 Americans would die as too would 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers over a million North Vietnamese soldiers and Vietcong guerrillas would also perish as well as over two million civilians from both the north and the south and thousands more from Laos and Cambodia the French conquest of Indochina again in 1858 they boasted about bringing their civilization to Vietnam beginning the construction of roads and bridges but the Vietnamese did not take well to their French colonizers just as they hadn't to earlier invasions by the Chinese the French were the enemy and the Vietnamese people struggle for independence in 1919 at the end of the Great War American President Woodrow Wilson went to Paris to help rebuild a new world and advocated for the independence of colonized nations upon his stay in France a man appeared with a petition for the president signed by himself and other Vietnamese nationalists asking that Vietnam to become an independent state the president secretary promised to show it to Wilson but there is no evidence he ever did throughout his career this man would go by some 70 names but eventually settle for the most enlightened one Ho Chi Minh after taking part in a demonstration against a puppet Emperor Ho Chi Minh was marked for arrest and fled Vietnam in 1911 remaining in exile for 30 years when he discovered the anti-colonial writings of Lenin he became a communist his fuel was for an independent Vietnam by 1940 the Second World War had come Germany had conquered most of Western Europe including France and the Japanese began to occupy Vietnam to help fight the Japanese invaders Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam and founded a revolutionary movement which he named the Vietnam independence League the Viet Minh this new fighting force grew quickly and relied on guerrilla warfare tactics hit-and-run strategies that would later be used some three decades later when the Americans arrived in the spring of 1945 three years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the United States government were looking for ways to undermine Japanese forces in Vietnam when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh for OSS the precursors for the CIA supplied her and his guerrilla fighters with weapons and were impressed with how quickly they learned to handle them who began to call his followers the Viet American army and praised the United States as a champion of democracy when two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japanese surrender seemed imminent Ho Chi Minh called upon all the people of Vietnam to rise up and take control of their country before the French could re-establish their rule on the 2nd of September 1945 the same day as the Japanese surrendered ending world war two hundreds of thousands of people went to Badin square in Hanoi to see Ho Chi Minh proclaim Vietnam independent the future looked promising but President Franklin Roosevelt who had campaigned for a world of independent self-governing states was now dead and his successor Harry Truman was facing an entirely different world the Soviet Union had occupied Eastern Europe and looked to spread further into Turkey Greece and Iran the Cold War had begun the French warned if their colonies were to become independent under American assistance France would have no choice but to fall under Soviet influence the French poured thousands of men back into Vietnam with the help of American aid in 1950 communist North Korea invaded South Korea domino theory was at the height of political thought the idea that if one nation fell to communism others would as well the United States and tens of thousands of troops to push the invaders back north they did so successfully and it showed Western powers that communism in Asia could be contained by 1953 with the help of American aid the French had been fighting for seven years in Vietnam and had suffered more than a hundred thousand casualties French platoons would be ambushed trains blown up roads blocked all for them to be ambushed again the Viet Minh supplied by the Soviets and Chinese were forced to be reckoned with the French were demoralized and so proposed to begin talks to end the fighting before the talks began however both sides tried to enforce their military position in the French set up a fortified base in dn bien phu believe in any altercation would result in a french victory so confident in fact they saw no need to worry about the jungle covered hills that overlooked their 11,000 men fifty thousand vietnamese soldiers then surrounded the valley and their heavy artillery began to fire the French were trapped after 55 days of brutal attack the French surrendered had been lost 8,000 troops after a hundred years of colonial rule the French were leaving this decisive victory for the viet minh installed a belief that they could fight a great western power and win an armistice was then signed splitting vietnam into two parts along the 17th parallel separated by a demilitarized zone civilians had 300 days to relocate to their preferred destination and so 900,000 refugees fled to the south seeking a life free from communism the south would become known as the republic of vietnam with ZM as its president in the capital of Saigon and protected by the army of the Republic of Vietnam the arvin in the north the capital would become Hanoi where Ho Chi Minh and the Communists implemented land reforms similar to those under Mao leaving thousands dead and imprisoned the Vietcong and their leaders were willing to break the peace to head south along what would soon be called the Ho Chi Minh Trail and fight for United Vietnam these men belonged to an organization called the National Liberation Front the NLF the armed wing of the organization was all the People's Liberation Army forces but the US and its allies gave them a more disparaging name communist traitors to the nation the Viet Cong John F Kennedy had been elected and Cold War tensions were at new heights the lessons from the Second World War on every policymakers mind aggressive dictatorships needed to be stopped before they constituted a serious danger to the Peace of the world a growing number of critics complained at Kennedy's leniency he had failed to stop the construction of the Berlin Wall and communism was spreading in Laos and Cambodia so when time came for Vietnam he couldn't be seen to do nothing Kennedy's advisors insisted he should send ground troops into Vietnam to help the South push back the Vietcong Vietnam can't fall to communism he was told but he refused to send in troops instead he sent an elite group of soldiers the Green Berets and military advisers to train and organize South Vietnam's military Kennedy also took other steps doubling their military funding sending helicopters and armored personnel carriers but he also authorized the use of napalm Toffoli ins and Agent Orange to deny cover to the Vietcong and to destroy the crops that fed them but the American buildup of personnel in South Vietnam War II do Chi Minh who saw an invasion of the north is inevitable the Chinese then promised to arm his troops and conscription was introduced requiring every able-bodied man to serve corruption and the suppression of Buddhists by Catholic officials in South Vietnam's government had become so bad that to protest president ZM and his regimes oppression a 73 year old monk set himself on fire as a silent crowd watched him burn to death another monk repeated again and again a Buddhist monk becomes a martyr a Buddhist monk becomes a martyr soon other monks would become martyrs but instead of allowing greater freedoms for his people President diem imposed martial law and arrested anyone that Pro tested the south a place promised to become a democracy had become a dictatorship Siam's rain could not continue Viet Nam's military generals who had been told a coup would not be stopped by the United States assassinated ZM and his brother people took to the streets in celebration but a new threat had arrived and one Kennedy had dreaded who was to replace him Kennedy would not live to see the question he had pondered he was assassinated on the 22nd of November 1963 and his vice president lyndon b johnson was now in charge fearing it would make a bad situation worse Johnson had opposed the coup that overthrew ZM and had with ZM GaN the Vietcong saw an opportunity and began to carry out attacks throughout the countryside a new power struggle began in the south between January 1964 and June 1965 there would be eight different governments who after cooled after government in ruins as the USS Maddox slowly moved through the Gulf after issuing warning shots and came under fire from a North Vietnamese torpedo squadron Ho Chi Minh was shocked to hear of his Navy's attack and the officer on duty was removed for impulsiveness Ho Chi Minh demanded to know who gave the order to attack but there are still disagreements to this day on who did back in Washington the Joint Chiefs of Staff urged retaliation against Vietnam but Johnson again refused a second attack would have to happen to justify retaliation Johnson argued but no second attack ever did instead sonar operators convinced themselves an attack from the North Vietnamese had probably occurred the attack was probable but not certain Johnson was told and since it had probably happened it shouldn't be left unanswered American pilots were sent to attack North Vietnamese torpedo boat installations and oil facilities for the first time American pilots dropped bombs on Vietnam the non-existent second attack allowed Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution granting the president authority to assist any Southeast Asian country threatened by communist aggression and gave Johnson the legal justification to deploy US forces in Vietnam in retaliation nor Fiat Cong guerrillas shelled the American airbase near Saigon killing five Americans and destroying five b-57 bombers advisors again suggested to Johnson he should place troops on the ground and carry out an air attack on targets in the north but he refused to send ground troops the Vietcong then struck an American helicopter base at pleiku killing eight advisors and hundreds more and native blowing up a hotel killing 23 Americans hoping to bomb them into surrender Johnson responded on March 2nd 1965 systematically bombarding targets codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder the president had changed his policy from retaliatory bombing to an all-out attack something that was kept from the public the American people couldn't know he had widened the war Vietcong attacks continued but America couldn't leave they were too heavily invested and a withdrawal rule would make them look weak so in March 1965 Johnson took the action he avoided for so long he was putting ground troops in Vietnam it was no longer a fight against communism as Pentagon Papers later revealed it was to avoid humiliation as 1966 began 2344 Americans had died in Vietnam 200,000 men were stationed there with more on the way the Vietcong now controlled three-quarters of South Vietnam's countryside moving their supplies and weapons through Laos and Cambodia 12,000 miles of twisted jungle roadways known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail they're Americans reasoned if the trail could be sufficiently damaged the enemy wouldn't be able to sustain itself 3 million tons of explosives would fall in the Laos portion of the trail alone a million more tons than that dropped on Germany and Japan during World War two as the months and years went on and the death tolls of American troops were climbing the American people were told not to worry they were killing the enemy at a ratio of 10 to 1 but American mothers fathers sisters and brothers didn't care about the 10 they cared about the one general westmoreland who claimed he could win the war in three years sent an urgent cable to Washington asking for $200,000 but McNamara the Secretary of Defense told Johnson he had two options negotiate a compromise with Hanoi or give general westmoreland his men but the chances of victory he said and no better than one in three lyndon b johnson chose option two to send more men he had been told the war was unwinnable but hundreds of thousands of American troops were being prepared to be deployed to a war those in Washington knew was a lost cause it wasn't just the Vietnamese the Americans were fighting it was also the terrain soldiers would have to make their way through elephant grass thorn bushes bamboos 20 meters tall and jungles so thick it would take an hour just to move a hundred feet finger long black leeches caused wounds that quickly became infected and sunlight rarely hit the jungle floor booby traps landmines and grenades laced the terrain often causing the loss of limbs or death u.s. soldiers also had to deal with m16 rifles that jammed in gunfights often cost in their lives although the enemy rarely won a battle American victory rarely seemed to matter enemy soldiers were quickly replaced and US soldiers were spread so thin it meant any land they captured and then left was quickly taken back by the enemy by the end of 1967 20,000 Americans would be dead but those back home were told victory was in sight there was light at the end of the tunnel the protests intensified at the beginning of 1968 half a million US troops were in Vietnam and American leaders promised victory was in sight but the North Vietnamese Army and Vietcong were planning the general offensive scores of coordinated attacks of South Vietnamese towns and cities and with Saigon defeated it would leave the Americans with no choice but to withdraw the date chosen for the attack was January 31st the first day of the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration known as Tet advance and we will achieve total victory ho chi minh told his soldiers by January 30th a 36-hour troops for Tet was in effect and thousands of Arvin troops had gone home for the holiday the next day 84,000 Vietcong guerillas and North Vietnamese soldiers attacked 36 of South Vietnam's 44 provincial capitals dozens of American and Arvin military bases and the six largest cities in the country including Wei Danang and Saigon but as the fighting raged on the plan the Vietcong an NVA had put in place was not going well South Vietnamese soldiers and US troops were inflicting significant casualties upon them and this would continue throughout the battle for the first time the US soldiers could see what they were fighting the Vietcong were in the streets rather than in the bushes and in the buildings rather than hidden in the trees the Vietcong were now play in America's game the game America was best at after months of fighting the Vietcong were pushed back Johnson claimed the Tet Offensive was a devastating defeat for the Communists of the 84,000 enemy troops that took part in the Tet Offensive 58,000 are killed wounded or captured it was an overwhelming victory for America and the arvin the Vietnam War was the first television war in which on-site coverage from the frontlines was brought into the American livingroom the public had been told up to the Tet Offensive the war was nearly over the North Vietnamese were so ground down that victory was in sight so when the offensive was launched it contradicted what the American people had been told and it broke their trust in the government protesters took to the streets on March 31st 1968 Johnson spoke to the nation on television he announced the u.s. was to stop bombing North Vietnam in the hopes to get them to the negotiating table he also said he would not run for re-election it stunned the nation he would begin to focus his efforts on achieving peace Martin Luther King was then assassinated and protesters again took to the streets the nation hadn't been this divided since the Civil War to make matters worse as Robert Kennedy run for campaigned to bring the war to an end in June he - just like his brother was assassinated the nation was torn apart Richard Nixon was elected president on a program of ending the war and bringing a broken nation together 37 thousand US troops had died when he took office and the war was on everybody's mind but how he got there to the highest office in the land was kept a secret as the next election came Johnson was making significant progress and had agreed to stop all bombing of Vietnam Hanoi for the first time had agreed to talk to Saigon and the u.s. had agreed to include the Vietcong in the peace talks peace for what seemed like the first time was in sight but on November 2nd just three days before the US election President Chu of South Vietnam unexpectedly withdrew from the peace talks a representative of the Nixon campaign had secretly contacted the Saigon government urging - to stay away from the talks promising that once Nixon was elected president he would drive a harder bargain with Hanoi than Hubert Humphrey his competition would do to a CIA bargain Chu's office and an FBI wiretap in the South Vietnamese embassy in Washington Johnson had found out what had happened he discovered that Nixon and his team were committing treason they were contacting a foreign power in the middle of a war Nixon had been willing to delay the bloodshed in order to get elected Johnson unwilling to share how he got the information said nothing Nixon's secret was safe as the peace talks reached stalemate and the war continued American men were sent to their deaths in pointless battles they were to fight for land such as hamburger hill just to lay to give it up for the enemy body count is all that mattered as the protests back home continued Nixon had to change his policy the public had had enough thousands of men were dying for nothing a policy of Vietnamization was to take place arvin troops would gradually take on more and more responsibility and American troops would start coming home the Americans began training the Arvin sending more than a million m16 rifles 40,000 grenade launchers and thousands of vehicles both American and South Vietnamese officials knew if America couldn't win with half a million of its own troops South Vietnam by itself stood no chance publicly Nixon claimed the campaign to be a great success on September 2nd 1969 the 24th anniversary of Ho Chi Minh's declaration of Vietnam's independence ho Chi Minh passed away for America although military victories increased and casualty figures fell anti-war sentiment had still grown when the public found out in the small village of malai American soldiers had slaughtered more than 500 innocent men women and children protests and anti-war sentiment reached new heights hundreds of thousands of people across the country took to the streets four students were killed at Ken's date and another two at Jackson State University with negotiations at stalemate Nixon began a bombing campaign around Hanoi remembered as the Christmas bombing 1,600 civilians were killed on December 26 Hanoi agreed to return to negotiations it would take them just six days to reach a final agreement America had bombed them into accepting a deal prisoners of war were to be released and American troops were to withdraw from Vietnam on March 29th 1973 the last American troops would leave South Vietnam only 200 Marines would remain helping guard the American Embassy and other buildings in Saigon along with diplomats and CIA agents the south and the north would fight on and the population was once again caught in a brutal civil war Nixon had pledged to South Vietnam that if Saigon were to be in trouble the US Air Force would provide assistance to push the Communists back just as they had done with the Easter offensive but in August 1974 Nixon had resigned amid the Watergate scandal and Congress were in no mood to help they cut South Vietnam funds and assistance in half and up to 20,000 arvin troops were leaving the military a month the Americans had provided guns but not enough bullets they're provided planes but no pilots or training they provided trucks but no spare parts things in the South were quickly falling apart the North pushed on South defeating Arvin forces at every turn after thirty years of civil war Saigon was going to fall everything the Americans had fought and died to prevent was going to happen soldiers and civilians began to flee South to evade the North Vietnamese Army and President Chu resigned on April 29th the invasion of Saigon began it was time to evacuate helicopters would pick up groups of people and ferry them to aircraft carriers and ships then to return to pick up more when the ships were full and to prevent more from coming helicopters were pushed into the ocean the South surrendered to stop further bloodshed many were sent to re-education camps for upwards of 10 years arvin graveyards were bulldozed or pad locked and every effort was made to wipe away the memory of South Vietnam regime the Vietnamese after 30 years of war 2 million deaths millions of refugees and villages destroyed were finally united under one communist nation with Soviet help Vietnam would be turned into a new socialist system agriculture was collectivized capitalism was abolished industry was nationalized and planners were appointed to run it all along strict communist lines the results was economic catastrophe the standard of living fell and people starved 1.5 million people would eventually flee with 400,000 making it to America to paraphrase John Kerry the Vietnam War bought everything into question the rationalization of destroying villages in order to save them America's morality in the face of mulai the meaning of free-fire zones shooting anything that moved a soldier's place to cheapness on the lives of civilians the falsification of body counts to increase kill death ratio the unimportance of battles as men charged up hills because their generals told them to and after losing one platoon or two platoons they marched a way to leave the hill for the enemy pride allowed the most unimportant battles to be blown into extravaganzas because America couldn't lose and she couldn't retreat and because it didn't matter how many lives were lost to prove that point but for those who fought and died on all sides risk their lives for their country who showed bravery and crow Feist they shouldn't be forgotten for it was not a soldiers war but a political war for which America and Vietnam will never be the same build a fence around your land but bind by the stones spin you laugh his work [Music] above the ground [Music] [Music] take it all in stride [Music] Mullens drive [Music] you

Channel: The Life Guide

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Rating: 4.7827177 out of 5

Keywords: the vietnam war, the american war, communism, cold war, Viet Cong, guerilla warfare, french in vietnam, ho chi minh, vietnam, viet minh, united states, vietnam independence, Dien, educational video, vietnam war documentary, war education documentary, history education, The Vietnam War Explained In 25 Minutes | Vietnam War Documentary, best history documentary, vietnam war infomation, vietnam war explained video, loans, degree, education, insurance, best educational video

Id: 7tNTh6KlXXU

Length: 28min 36sec (1716 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/pirate8585]

Right now I'm watching the Ken Burns documentary. Can't explain in words how horrible this war was.

[u/RogueJuan8121]

Thanks for the link!