Common name " Vietnam War” or “Vietnam War” is the Second Indochina War, in which the main belligerents were the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States. The Vietnam War circa 1961 and ended on April 30, 1975. In Vietnam itself, this war is called the Liberation War, and sometimes the American War. Often the Vietnam War is seen as the peak " cold war between the Soviet bloc and China on the one hand, and the United States with some of its allies on the other.

In America, the Vietnam War is considered the darkest spot in its history. The Vietnam War was both a civil war between various political forces in Vietnam and an armed struggle against the US-backed opposition.

Killed American journalist. (pinterest.com)

The US allies in the Vietnam War were the South Vietnamese army, the contingents of Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. On the other hand, only the North Vietnamese army and the NLF (National Liberation Front of South Vietnam) fought.

Interrogation of the Viet Cong. (pinterest.com)

On the territory of North Vietnam were military specialists from Ho Chi Minh's allies - the USSR and China, who did not officially participate in the battles, with the exception of the defense of DRV facilities from US military air raids at the initial stage of the war.

Execution in Saigon. (wikipedia.org)

Major fighting between the NLF and the US Army involving a large number of personnel, weapons and military equipment took place every day, causing local residents to suffer.

Children. (wikipedia.org)

In general, the assessment by the world community of the actions of the NLF army and the US army in South Vietnam was sharply negative. Massive anti-war demonstrations were held in Western countries, including the United States.

Suicide bomber. (wikipedia.org)

The United States media in the 70s were no longer on the side of their government and often showed the futility of war. Many conscripts sought because of this to evade service and assignment to Vietnam.

Vietnamese woman. (wikipedia.org)

The protests of the US public to a certain extent influenced the position of President Nixon, who decided to withdraw troops from Vietnam, but the main factor was the military and political futility of the further continuation of the war.

Memorial. (wikipedia.org)

Aftermath of the Vietnam War

Total US combat losses - 47,378 people, non-combat - 10,799. Wounded - 153,303, missing - 2,300. Approximately 5,000 US Air Force aircraft shot down.

Losses of the army of the Republic of Vietnam, US allies - 254 thousand people.

Combat losses of the Vietnam People's Army and partisans of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam - more than 1 million 100 thousand people.

Losses civilian population Vietnam - more than 3 million people.

The Vietnam War, organized by the communists (agents of Moscow), claimed more than 3 million lives. In this war, in fact, Moscow and communist Beijing were at war with the United States. As cannon fodder, the communists, as always, used the masses of Vietnam and China, who believed their demagogy, as well as the USSR. Moscow supplied (free of charge) weapons, officers, specialists, and China - weapons, officers, soldiers and food.

This is how the communists (on orders from Moscow) unleashed the Vietnam War:

For both the Soviet Union and China, Vietnam was an extremely important strategic area. For the USSR, it was the main channel for political penetration into Southeast Asia. Especially significant - in the context of deteriorating relations with China. With Vietnam as an ally, Moscow could achieve complete strategic isolation of Beijing and thus not find itself in a dependent position in the event of reconciliation between the latter and the United States. It was also important for the Chinese side to have Vietnam as an ally. The strategic dominance of the USSR in this region would close the encirclement around the PRC and weaken its position as the leader of the communist movement in Southeast Asia. In this situation, Hanoi tried to formally maintain a neutral position, which allowed it to receive operational assistance from both the USSR and the PRC. Looking ahead, we note that as Moscow and Hanoi drew closer, relations between Beijing and the latter began to noticeably decline and gradually reached lowest point. Ultimately, the USSR filled the space left by the end of the war and the US withdrawal from Vietnam.

The main role in the development of the partisan movement in South Vietnam was played by the communists from the DRV. At the beginning of 1959, the final decision was made in Moscow to unleash a large-scale civil war. The North Vietnamese communists announced that they supposedly did not see peaceful ways to reunite the country after the failure of the terms of the Geneva agreements, and made a choice in favor of supporting the anti-Ziem underground. From the middle of the year, “military advisers” began to go south, having grown up in these places and ended up in the north after the division of the country. At first, the transfer of people and weapons was carried out through the demilitarized zone (DMZ), but after the military successes of the communist forces in Laos, transit began to be carried out through Lao territory. This is how the “Ho Chi Minh trail” arose, which ran through Laos, bypassing the DMZ and further south, entering the territory of Cambodia. The use of the "trail" was a violation of the neutral status of these two countries, established by the Geneva Accords.

In December 1960, all South Vietnamese groups that fought against the Diem regime were united into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF), which became widely known in the West as the Viet Cong. From about 1959, the Viet Cong units began to be actively supported by the DRV. In September 1960, the North Vietnamese government officially acknowledged its support for the insurgency in the South. By this time, centers for training fighters were already operating in the territory of the DRV, "forging" cadres from among the inhabitants of the southern regions of Vietnam, who moved to the DRV in 1954. The instructors at these centers were mainly Chinese military specialists. In July 1959, the first large group of trained fighters numbering about 4,500 people began to seep into South Vietnam. Subsequently, they became the core of Viet Cong battalions and regiments. In the same year, the 559th transport group was formed as part of the Army of North Vietnam, designed to provide rear support for operations in South Vietnam through the "Laotian salient". Weapons began to arrive in the southern regions of the country and Combat vehicles, which allowed the rebel detachments to win a number of significant victories. By the end of 1960, the Viet Cong already controlled the Mekong Delta, the Annam Central Plateau, and the coastal plains. At the same time, terrorist methods of struggle became widespread. So, in 1959, 239 South Vietnamese officials were killed, and in 1961 more than 1,400.

Viet Cong fighters began to use mainly Chinese-made Soviet 7.62-mm AK-47 assault rifles, machine guns of the same caliber, RPG-2 anti-tank grenade launchers, as well as 57-mm and 75-mm recoilless rifles. In this regard, it is interesting to quote the statement of US Secretary of Defense McNamara. In a memorandum dated March 16, 1964, he noted that “beginning on July 1, 1963, among the weapons captured from the Viet Cong, weapons that had not previously been encountered by them began to come across: Chinese 75-mm recoilless rifles, Chinese heavy machine guns, American 12.7-mm heavy machine guns on Chinese-made machines. In addition, it is quite obvious that the Viet Cong are using Chinese 90-mm rocket-propelled grenade launchers and mortars. "According to the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1961-1965, 130 recoilless rifles and mortars were transferred through the DRV through the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam as gratuitous aid, 4 thousand machine guns, 54.5 thousand units small arms and ammunition for them (mainly captured, German production). At the same time, significant economic assistance was also provided to North Vietnam. In turn, during the period from 1955 to 1965, China provided the DRV with economic assistance in the amount of 511.8 million rubles, including 302.5 million rubles free of charge. In general, the amount of assistance to the PRC, according to Pentagon intelligence, was approximately 60% of the assistance to the USSR.

Thanks to the support of North Vietnam, the guerrillas acted more and more successfully. This forced the US to step up military aid Diem government. In the spring of 1961, the United States sent to South Vietnam about 500 specialists in counterguerrilla operations, officers and sergeants of the "special forces" ("green berets"), as well as two helicopter companies (33 H-21 helicopters). Soon, a special Advisory Group for the provision of military assistance to South Vietnam was set up in Washington, headed by General P. Harkins. By the end of 1961, there were already 3,200 American troops in the country. Soon, the "group of advisers" was transformed into the Command for the provision of military assistance to South Vietnam with a deployment in Saigon. It took upon itself the solution of many operational issues that had not previously been within the competence of the American advisers and the Advisory Group. At the end of 1962, the number of American military personnel was already 11,326 people. During this year, they, together with the South Vietnamese army, conducted about 20,000 military operations. Moreover, many of them, thanks to the use of helicopter support during attacks, turned out to be quite successful. In December 1961, the first regular units of the US Armed Forces were transferred to the country - two helicopter companies, designed to increase the mobility of the government army. There was a constant build-up of the Soviet corps in the country. American advisers were preparing the South Vietnamese soldiers and participated in the planning of military operations. During this period, the events in South Vietnam did not yet attract much attention from the American public, but the John F. Kennedy administration was determined to repel "communist aggression" in Southeast Asia and demonstrate to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev the US readiness to support its allies in the face of "national liberation movements ". "National liberation movements" - the terminology used by the USSR, denoting the process of exporting the revolution and Moscow's active interference in domestic political processes in other countries, including the organization of civil wars, partisan and terrorist actions, military coups and revolutions. On January 6, 1961, the Soviet leader N.S. Khrushchev publicly declared that "wars for national liberation" are just wars and therefore world communism will support them.

The growing conflict in Vietnam became one of the "hot" hotbeds of the Cold War. First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Khrushchev was afraid to enter into direct combat with the United States, which was fraught with the war in Vietnam, where American pilots and Soviet anti-aircraft gunners actually found themselves face to face. Moreover, Khrushchev's self-esteem was still too freshly wounded by the forced withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. He categorically did not want to conflict with the States again. Everything changed overnight. Leonid Brezhnev, who replaced Khrushchev in October 1964, decided to intervene. The escalating ideological conflict with China, strained relations with the radical Castrovian Cuba, and the growing tension in negotiations with the DRV threatened a serious split in the communist part of the world. Having strengthened his influence, Suslov, who became the main ideologist of the Soviet regime, demanded activity in Indochina, because he was afraid that Beijing would be able to strengthen its authority by acting as the only consistent defender of the Vietnamese people.

The competent tactics that the Vietnamese used at the talks in Moscow also played their role. The cunning Prime Minister of the DRV Pham Van Dong, who controlled the government for almost a quarter of a century, knowing that Brezhnev had been in charge of the military-industrial complex since the late fifties, made Leonid Ilyich an offer he could not refuse: in exchange for helping Vietnam, the USSR could receive trophy samples of the latest American military equipment. The move was extremely effective - in May 1965, military advisers and anti-aircraft missile units fully manned by Soviet personnel went to Vietnam, which on August 5 opened the account of downed American aircraft. The wreckage was to be collected and studied by a special group of trophy workers, formed from employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense.

In January 1963, in the battle of Apbak, the partisans managed to defeat the government army for the first time. The situation of the Diem regime became even more precarious after the outbreak of the Buddhist crisis in May. Buddhists make up the bulk of the population of Vietnam, but Diem and almost all of his entourage were Catholic Christians. Buddhist unrest swept through a number of cities in the country, several monks committed self-immolation, which received a great response in Europe and the United States. In addition, it was already clear that Diem was incapable of organizing an effective fight against the NLF guerrillas. American representatives through secret channels contacted the South Vietnamese generals preparing the coup. On November 1, 1963, Ngo Dinh Diem was deprived of power and the next day he was killed along with his brother.

The military junta that replaced Diem proved politically unstable. Over the next year and a half, another coup took place in Saigon every few months. The South Vietnamese army was involved in a political struggle, which allowed the NLF guerrillas to expand the territories under their control.

The number of US troops in South Vietnam before the official deployment of troops:

1959 - 760
1960 - 900
1961 - 3205
1962 - 11300
1963 - 16300
1964 - 23300

Number of North Vietnamese troops transferred to South Vietnam during the first phase of the war:

1959 - 569
1960 - 876
1961 - 3400
1962 - 4601
1963 - 6997
1964 - 7970
In total, by the end of 1964, more than 24000 North Vietnamese military. Gradually, North Vietnam began to send there not just manpower, but entire military formations. In early 1965, the first three regular regiments of the Vietnam People's Army arrived in South Vietnam.

In March 1965, two battalions of the Corps were sent to South Vietnam to protect the strategically important Danang airfield. marines. Since then, the United States has become a participant in the civil war in Vietnam.

The Soviet leadership formally at the beginning of 1965, but in fact at the end of 1964, decided to provide the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with large-scale "military-technical assistance" and, in fact, direct participation in the war. According to A. Kosygin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, aid to Vietnam during the war cost the Soviet Union 1.5 million rubles a day. Until the end of the war, the USSR supplied North Vietnam with 95 S-75 Dvina air defense systems and more than 7.5 thousand missiles for them. 2,000 tanks, 700 light and maneuverable MIG aircraft, 7,000 mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters, and much more were delivered to North Vietnam from the USSR free of charge. Almost the entire air defense system of the country was built at the expense of the USSR, by the forces of Soviet specialists. Despite the fact that the US authorities were well aware of the provision of Soviet military assistance to North Vietnam, all Soviet specialists, including the military, were required to wear only civilian clothes, their documents were kept at the embassy, ​​and they learned about the final destination of their business trip at the last moment. Secrecy requirements were maintained until the withdrawal of the Soviet contingent from the country, and the exact numbers and names of the participants are not known to this day.

Over ten thousand Vietnamese were sent to the Soviet Union to undergo military training and training in handling Soviet modern technology.

Soviet crews of anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) took a direct part in the hostilities. The first battle between anti-aircraft gunners of the USSR and American aircraft took place on July 24, 1965. There are claims that the Soviet Union was involved in the Vietnam War much deeper than is commonly believed. In particular, Mark Sternberg, an American journalist and former Soviet officer of the Turkestan military district, wrote about four USSR fighter air divisions that took part in battles with American aircraft. The Americans had every reason not to trust the assurances of the USSR about the exclusively advisory mission of military specialists. The fact is that the majority of the population of North Vietnam was illiterate. The vast majority were starving, people were exhausted, so ordinary fighters did not even have a minimum margin of endurance and strength. Young men could only endure ten minutes of combat with the enemy. There was no need to talk about mastery in the field of piloting on modern machines.

Communist China provided significant military and economic assistance to North Vietnam. On the territory of the DRV, Chinese ground forces were stationed, which included several units and formations of anti-aircraft (cannon) artillery. From the very beginning of the war, the leadership of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) had the task of involving its two largest allies, the USSR and China, in the war. As in the Korean War of 1950-1953. China was the only force capable of providing direct assistance to people in case of need. And the Chinese leadership, without hesitation, promised to help with manpower if American troops landed on the territory of the DRV. This verbal agreement was largely implemented by Beijing. As Ardalion Malgin, Deputy Chairman of the KGB of the USSR, informed the Central Committee of the CPSU in October 1968, two Chinese divisions and several other units provided cover for the northern regions of the DRV. Without Chinese food aid, the half-starved North Vietnam would have faced the prospect of mass starvation, since China supplied half of the food that came to the DRV through "fraternal aid."

The selection and study of captured samples of American military equipment, as well as acquaintance with the tactics of combat operations of the US armed forces in Vietnam, was carried out by a group of Soviet military scientific specialists in accordance with an agreement between the USSR Minister of Defense and the Minister of National Defense of the DRV. From May 1965 to January 1, 1967 alone, Soviet specialists selected and sent to the Soviet Union over 700 different samples of US military equipment and weapons (according to official Vietnamese data 417), including parts of aircraft, missiles, electronic, photographic reconnaissance and other weapons . In addition, Soviet specialists prepared dozens of information documents based on the results of studying both directly samples of equipment and weapons, and American technical documentation.

During the Vietnam War, the Soviet military-industrial complex received almost all the latest American technology. According to one of the leaders of those years, in the late 60s and early 70s, almost all the State and Lenin Prizes on "closed" topics were awarded for reproducing American models. This process had its downsides. Firstly, they copied American samples in the way that the technological level of Soviet industry allowed. Simplified options and worked in a simplified way. Secondly, sample documentation was usually non-existent, and an incredible amount of work was spent on figuring out why this or that block did not work or did not work as it should. As a result, a whole generation of specialists grew up in the USSR, whose intellectual potential was wasted on studying the behavior of American "black boxes". Having taken leadership positions, they could only demonstrate creative failure. The Soviet military-industrial complex as a whole received experience that was important for itself and detrimental to the country. Its leaders, unlike their American colleagues, did not receive super profits, but the conditions for the supply of "special equipment" to Vietnam created the most fertile ground for large-scale fraud. Since the weapons were handed over to friends free of charge, no transfer and acceptance certificates were drawn up. The Vietnamese might want to set up accounting, but this would complicate relations with Beijing. Until 1969, while a significant part of the supplies went through railway through China, many echelons with weapons disappeared without a trace. Aleksey Vasiliev, who worked as a correspondent for Pravda in Hanoi, said that after several cases of loss, an experiment was carried out. The Vietnamese were informed about the departure of a non-existent train from the USSR. And after the allotted time, they confirmed its receipt.

The losses of the parties in the Vietnam War unleashed by the Communists and Moscow:

According to the official data of the Vietnamese government, released in 1995, during the entire war, 1.1 million soldiers of the North Vietnamese army and NLF (Viet Cong) guerrillas, as well as 2 million civilians in both parts of the country, were killed.

The losses of the military personnel of South Vietnam are approximately 250 thousand dead and 1 million wounded.

US losses - 58 thousand dead (combat losses - 47 thousand, non-combat - 11 thousand; out of the total number, as of 2008, more than 1,700 people are considered missing); wounded - 303 thousand (hospitalized - 153 thousand, minor injuries - 150 thousand).

In the myth about the “Slavic roots of Russians”, Russian scientists put a bold point: there is nothing from the Slavs in Russians. The western border, up to which true Russian genes are still preserved, coincides with the eastern border of Europe in the Middle Ages between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia with Muscovy. This boundary coincides with both the isotherm of the average winter temperature of -6 degrees Celsius and the western boundary of the 4th USDA hardiness zone.

Stages of the Vietnam War.

• Guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam (1957-1965).
• US military intervention (1965-1973).
• The final stage of the war (1973-1975).

We will consider precisely the military intervention of the United States.

Causes of the Vietnam War.

It all started with the fact that the US plans were to surround the USSR with "their" countries, that is, countries that would be puppets in the hands of the United States and perform all necessary actions against the USSR. At that time, among such countries were already South Korea and Pakistan. It remained the case for northern Vietnam.

The southern part of Vietnam asked for help from the United States, due to its weakness in front of the northern part, since at that time there was an active struggle between the two halves of one country. And northern Vietnam enlisted the support of the USSR in the form of a visiting head of the Councils of Ministers, but the USSR did not openly get involved in the war.

Vietnam: War with America. How did she go?

In the north of Vietnam, Soviet centers of air defense missile forces were established, but under the guise of strict secrecy. Thus, air security was ensured, and at the same time, Vietnamese soldiers were trained as missilemen.

Vietnam has become a test site for weapons and military installations of the United States and the Soviet Union. Our specialists have tested the principles of "ambush" shooting. First, the enemy plane was shot down, and then in the blink of an eye the person moved to a pre-prepared place, carefully hidden from prying eyes. In order to catch the anti-aircraft installations of the USSR, the United States used the Shrike homing missile. The struggle was daily, the losses of American aircraft were huge.

In northern Vietnam, about 70% of the weapons were Soviet-made, it can be said that the Vietnamese army was Soviet. The weapons were unofficially shipped through China. The Americans, despite their impotence, did not want to give up, although during the years of the war they lost thousands of people and more than 4,500 units of fighters and other military equipment, which accounted for almost 50% of all air force. The public demanded the withdrawal of the troops, but President Nixon did not want to lose face and lose the dignity of America.

Let's sum up the Vietnam War.

After America lost a lot of money, suffered huge human losses, in the form of killed and maimed soldiers, the withdrawal of American troops began. This event was facilitated by the signing of a peace treaty between Hanoi and Washington in Paris. January 27, 1973.

On the morning of January 27, 1973, the center of Hanoi along the shores of the Lake of the Returned Sword was unusually crowded. Few people lived in the cities during the war. The Vietnamese explained this with the exhaustive word so tan - "evacuation" or, more precisely, "dispersal". But the winter dankness gave way to warmth, and it was possible to relax in the slightly damp, caressing air, which happens very early in spring before the flowering of oriental cherries.

It was the day of victory. The mood of the people on the bomb-sheltered shore of the lake was upbeat, but not exactly jubilant, although newspapers and street speakers shouted about the historic victory. Everyone was waiting for news of the signing in Paris of an agreement to restore peace in Vietnam. The time difference with France is six hours, and the historical moment came in the evening.

In the Tassov mansion on the cozy Khao Ba Kuat, teletypes were already chiming out dispatches from Paris about the arrival of delegations on Avenue Kleber, when my colleagues and I gathered at a table by the open veranda to celebrate the event in Russian. Even though they haven't figured it out yet.

A month ago, at the same table for a can of sprats, a bubble of "Stolichnaya" and pickles from the embassy shop, they gathered for dinner in order to be in time before the night bombing. More often they did not have time and shuddered from a close explosion ...

The gift of the American Santa Claus was the finale of the war: in less than 12 days, one hundred thousand tons of bombs on the cities of North Vietnam - five non-nuclear Hiroshima.

New Year 1972 in Haiphong. "Christmas" bombings touched not only military facilities. Author's photo

Glittering beards of aluminum tinsel hung from the branches of a sprawling ligja in the yard, dropped by escort planes to interfere with air defense radars.

In November, I still "went to war." Vietnam was not bombed north of the 20th parallel so as not to spoil the atmosphere of the Paris talks. Nixon promised the Americans to adequately pull the country out of the Vietnamese swamp, and negotiations seemed to be moving forward.

After 45 years, the world has changed a lot, but the political technologies of war and peace are similar. Hanoi insisted that in the south of Vietnam it was not his regular troops who were fighting against the Americans and the Saigon regime, but rebels and guerrillas (“we are not there”). The Americans and Saigon refused to talk to the "rebels", and Hanoi did not recognize the Republic of Vietnam - "an American puppet". Finally found the form. The negotiations that began in 1969 were quadripartite: the United States, North Vietnam, the pro-American Republic of Vietnam, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (VRP RSV) created by Hanoi, which was recognized only by the socialist countries. Everyone understood that war is coming between communist Vietnam and the United States, and the real bargaining went on in parallel between Politburo member Le Duc Tho and presidential adviser Henry Kissinger.

In the autumn of seventy-two, the Americans did not bomb the main part of North Vietnam with the largest cities. But everything south of the 20th parallel, on the way to the south of the movement of North Vietnamese troops, equipment and ammunition, US aircraft - tactical from the Thai Utapao (this is the resort of Pattaya!), Strategic from Guam and "sailors" from aircraft carriers - ironed to the fullest. The ships of the 7th fleet were added with their artillery, the silhouettes of which are in good weather appeared on the horizon. The narrow strip of the coastal plain was like the surface of the moon.

Now from Hanoi to the Hamrong Bridge, the beginning of that former “fourth zone”, the drive is no more than two hours, and then it was better not to meddle on the number one coastal highway, but to trudge south through the mountains and jungle along the dirt roads of the “Ho Chi Minh trail”. Past burned-out fuel trucks and tanks, joker with girls from repair teams on broken crossings.

The word “detente” sounded in the world, which the Vietnamese did not like (what kind of “detente” is there if you have to fight for the unification of the country?). They were morbidly jealous of America of both "elder brothers" who were at enmity with each other.

Nixon became the first US president to come to Beijing and Moscow and talk to Mao and Brezhnev. In mid-December 1972, the American press wrote about the flight to the moon of Apollo 17 with three astronauts and the imminent end of the Vietnam War. In the words of Kissinger, "the world was at arm's length."

On October 8, Kissinger met with Le Duc Tho at a villa near Paris. He surprised the American by proposing a draft nine-point agreement that broke the vicious circle of mutual demands. Hanoi proposed a ceasefire in all of Vietnam a day after the signing of the agreement, two months later the Americans were to withdraw their troops, and a coalition government was created in South Vietnam. That is, Hanoi recognized the Saigon administration as a partner. It was proposed to hold elections under the auspices of the Council of National Reconciliation and Accord.

One can speculate about the reasons for Hanoi's softening of approach. His Easter offensive in the spring of 1972 in the south was not a success. The Americans responded with powerful bombing major cities and infrastructure of North Vietnam. Detente raised doubts about the reliability of the allies - the USSR and China.

Kissinger and Le Duc Tho met three more times in October. Hanoi agreed to drop the demand to release all political prisoners in South Vietnam in exchange for the release of American prisoners of war. They also set a date for the end of the war - 30 October. Kissinger flew off to consult with Nixon.

What followed was less and less clear news. The head of the Saigon regime, Nguyen Van Thieu, said that he would not make concessions to the communists, no matter what the Americans agreed with them. Washington demanded that the project be amended and made it a precondition for the withdrawal of regular units of North Vietnam from South Vietnam, the entry of a five thousandth international contingent there. On October 26, the State Department said that there would be no signing on the 30th. Hanoi responded by publishing a secret draft agreement. The Americans were indignant, the negotiations stalled. On December 13, Kissinger flew out of Paris, and two days later, Le Duc Tho.

Saturday, December 16th was cool. In the morning, Hanoi was enveloped in "fun", a winter mixture of rain and fog. In "Nyan Zan" there was a long statement of the GRP RYU. The meaning is clear: if Washington does not withdraw its amendments, the Vietnamese will fight to the bitter end. In other words, expect an offensive in the dry season that has already begun in the south.

From the center of Hanoi to the airport Gyalam only eight kilometers, but the road could take an hour, or two, or more. Two pontoon crossings with one-way traffic across the Red River were either connected or parted, passing barges and scows. And the steel web of the brainchild of the Eiffel - the Long Bien Bridge - was torn. One span, hunched over, buried itself in the red water.

I went to the airport on an official occasion. A Vietnamese party and state delegation was escorted to Moscow on the 55th anniversary of the revolution. The head of the National Assembly of the DRV, Truong Tinh, was flying via Beijing.

Saturday was also the day of meeting and seeing off Aeroflot's Il-18, which once a week flew in from Moscow via India, Burma and Laos. It was a celebration of communication with the outside world. Saturday party at the airport has become a social event. In the small terminal building one could not only see who arrived and who flies away, but also meet the cream of the foreign colony - diplomats, journalists, generals, get some information, just "bargain physiognomy."

We had to stay longer than usual at the airport. Something incomprehensible has happened. After boarding the plane, the passengers again descended the ladder and lined up under the wing with their bags and wallets. Before that, no one paid attention to the noise of an aircraft invisible behind low clouds. When the Il-18 retired towards Vientiane, we learned that the cause of the commotion was an American drone.

On Sunday, the 17th, I received a call from Haiphong from a representative of the USSR Ministry of the Navy. He saw how in the morning for the first time after a two-month break american planes mined the fairway of the port and fired several rockets at the city. The port of Haiphong has been closed for several months. minefields. Soviet supplies, primarily military supplies, went to Vietnam in a delicate way: first to the ports of South China, from there by rail to the Vietnamese border and then on their own or by trucks.

On Monday, the eighteenth, a cold "fung" drizzled again. From the water sprayed in the air, the leaves on the trees gleamed, moisture penetrated the houses, settling in a slippery film on the stone floor tiles, and soaked into clothes. In Gyalam, they met the plane of the Chinese airline, on which Le Duc Tho arrived. He looked tired, depressed, did not make statements. On his way from Paris, he met in Moscow with Politburo member Andrei Kirilenko and Central Committee Secretary Konstantin Katushev. In Beijing, he was received by Premier Zhou Enlai. Moscow and Beijing knew that this chance for peace in Vietnam had been missed.

It had already been decided in Washington to bomb Hanoi and Haiphong in order to force the Vietnamese into peace. With Operation Linebaker II approved, Nixon sent a secret telegram to Hanoi demanding that they accept US terms. She came on Monday evening.

That evening at the Hanoi International Club there was a reception and a film screening on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the establishment of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Seated in the front row were Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy Trinh and Hanoi Mayor Tran Duy Hyng. They already knew that the B-52s were flying from Guam to Hanoi. Later, the mayor will tell me that during the official part he received a call from the air defense headquarters.

They showed a chronicle in which the cannonade rumbled. When the session was interrupted, the roar did not stop, because it also came from the street. I went out into the square - the glow covered the northern half of the horizon.

The first raid lasted about forty minutes, and the siren at the National Assembly monotonously howled the all-clear. But minutes later, heart-rendingly intermittently warned of a new alarm. I did not wait for the lights out when the street lamps were lit, and in the dark I went home. Fortunately, it's close: three blocks. The horizon was on fire, roosters were crowing in the yards, mistaking it for dawn...

He was not a military expert, but he guessed from the running chains of fountains of fire that these were carpet bombings from the B-52. In my work, I had a competitive advantage over AFP colleague Jean Thoraval, the only Western reporter in Hanoi: I didn't have to get a censorship stamp before the text was sent. Therefore, he was the first. A few hours later, the start of the operation was confirmed from Washington.

The next morning, at the International Club, the Vietnamese organized a press conference with American pilots shot down at night. They brought the survivors and not badly crippled. Then, until the new year, such press conferences were held almost daily, and each time they brought "fresh" prisoners. Most are still in mud-splattered flight suits, and some, in bandages or casts, are already in striped pajamas.

They were different people - from the twenty-five-year-old Bachelor of Arts Lieutenant Robert Hudson to the forty-three-year-old "Latinos", Korean War veteran Major Fernando Alexander, from the unfired Paul Granger to the commander of the flying "superfortress" Lieutenant Colonel John Yuinn, who has twenty years of service behind him, one hundred and forty sorties to South Vietnam and twenty-two to the "fourth zone" of the DRV. By their last names it was possible to judge where their ancestors came to America from: Brown and Gelonek, Martini and Nagakhira, Bernaskoni and Leblanc, Camerota and Vavroch...

In the light of the searchlights, they entered one by one into a cramped hall filled with people and tobacco smoke. Before the public, among which there were few foreigners, and there were not so many journalists, they behaved differently: confusion with a shadow of fear, a detached look into the void, arrogance and contempt ... Some simply remained silent until the little Vietnamese officer, disfiguring names and surnames, read out personal data, ranks, service numbers, types of aircraft, place of captivity. Others identified themselves and asked to tell their relatives that "they are alive and treated humanely."

The first press conference was dominated by the silent ones. Probably, they thought that this was an unfortunate accident and tomorrow Hanoi would capitulate under blows from the sky. But each subsequent group became more talkative. By Christmas, almost everyone congratulated relatives on the holiday and expressed the hope that "this war will end soon." But they also said that they were fulfilling military duty, they bombed military facilities, although they did not rule out “collateral losses” (perhaps they touched housing a little).

December 19 at pacific ocean south of the islands of Samoa, a cabin with American officers Cernan, Schmitt and Evans descended by parachute. It was the descent vehicle of Apollo 17 returning from the Moon. The astronaut heroes were welcomed aboard the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga. At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Nakagawa's plane took off from another aircraft carrier, the Enterprise. His parachute opened over Haiphong, and the Vietnamese met him in a flooded rice field not at all cordially. A little earlier, the navigator-instructor of the B-52 squadron, Major Richard Johnson, was captured. He and Captain Richard Simpson managed to eject. The remaining four crew members were killed. Their "superfortress" opened the scoring shot down over Hanoi.

The Christmas bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong, and this is almost continuously twelve days, have become a test of strength for both sides. American aviation losses were serious. By American information, fifteen B-52s were lost - the same number as in the entire previous war in Vietnam. According to the Soviet military, 34 of these eight-engine vehicles were shot down in the December air battle. In addition, 11 other aircraft were destroyed.

The picture of giants burning in the night sky and falling apart was enchanting. At least thirty American pilots were killed, more than twenty were missing, dozens were captured.

I did not see air battles, although the Vietnamese later reported the loss of six MiG-21s. But towards the planes, a mass of metal rose into the air from below, including bullets from the rifle of the barmaid Min from the roof of the Hanoi Metropol and from the Makarov of a police officer near our house. Anti-aircraft guns worked in every quarter. But all B-52s were shot down by Soviet-made S-75 air defense systems. The Soviet military did not directly participate in this, they were only advisers and instructors at that time, but Soviet technology played an obvious role.

According to Vietnamese data, 1,624 people died on the ground in the pre-New Year air war. Civil. The Vietnamese did not report on the military.

The hope of completely suppressing the will of the population did not materialize. There was no panic, but it was felt that people were on edge. This was told to me by the classic of Vietnamese literature Nguyen Kong Hoan, who we had known for a long time.

During the Christmas peace break, our company went to Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph. Not even Makhlouf, the Egyptian chargé d'affaires. Prayed for peace. And in the lobby of the Metropol, the role of Santa Claus at the Christmas tree was played by American pastor Michael Allen, who flew in before the bombing as part of a pacifist delegation led by the former US prosecutor in Nuremberg, Telford Taylor. It also included singer Joan Baez. She sang Christmas songs, and when she found out that I was Russian, she suddenly hugged me and sang “Dark Eyes” ... After Christmas, they bombed again.

The New Year was celebrated in tense silence, expecting bombings. But when Le Duc Tho flew to Paris, it became somehow more cheerful. Negotiations resumed, and the agreement was signed in much the same form as the draft published in October. The December air war over Hanoi and Haiphong changed nothing.

The main results of the agreement were the complete withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam (March 29, 1973) and the exchange of prisoners, which was carried out in several stages. It was a solemn event. American Hercules from Saigon and Da Nang and ambulance C-141s from Clark Field in the Philippines flew to the Zyalam airfield. In the presence of a commission of officers from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the United States, the PRG of the Republic of South Ossetia, the Saigon regime, Indonesia, Hungary, Poland and Canada, the Vietnamese authorities handed over the liberated prisoners to the American general. Some were simply pale and exhausted, others left on crutches, others were carried on stretchers. Among them was John McCain, whom I did not pay attention to then. But then, at a meeting in Brussels, he reminded him of that day.

It was worse with other articles of the agreement. The ceasefire between the troops of the Vietnamese communists and the Saigon army in the south was unsteady, the parties constantly accused each other of violating the Paris Agreement. The letter of the agreement, which each side read in its own way, itself became an argument for war. The fate of the Geneva Agreement of 1954, which put an end to the French war for the former colony, was repeated. The communists accused the Saigons of holding separate elections in the south and proclaiming their own anti-communist state. The Saigonians accused the communists of starting terrorist actions against the authorities in the south and organizing military penetration from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia. Hanoi assured that his troops were not there anywhere, and the VRP of the South Vietnam was fighting for the creation of an independent and neutral country in the south.

Le Duc Tho, unlike Kissinger, did not go to receive the Nobel Prize because he knew that the agreement would not last long. For two years, the Communists were convinced that America had left Vietnam and was not going to return. The spring offensive of 1975 buried the Paris Agreement with all its decorative republics and mechanisms of control. Guarantees from the USSR, France, Great Britain and China did not interfere with the course of events. Vietnam was unified by military means.

State thought is characterized by inertia. The French began to fight for Indochina when the era of territories ended and other mechanisms for using resources came to the place of military-political control over the territories. The Americans got involved in Vietnam when the main thing was the confrontation between the two systems. The communists denied the principles of free trade and capital movement sacred to America, interfered with transnational business. Eastern Europe already closed, endangered - Southeast Asia. Maoist China influenced the region. On September 30, 1965, an attempted communist coup in Indonesia was thwarted at the cost of great bloodshed. The rebels fought guerrilla wars in Thailand, Burma, and the Philippines. In Vietnam, the Communists controlled half of the country and had a chance to take over the other... In Washington, they seriously considered the "domino theory", in which Vietnam was the critical bone.

What was this war for, in which more than 58,000 Americans died, millions of Vietnamese were killed, millions were crippled physically and mentally, not to mention the economic costs and environmental damage?

The goal of the Vietnamese communists was a nation-state under the rigid rule of the party, with an independent, bordering on autarky economy, without private property and foreign capital. For this they made sacrifices.

The dreams of those who fought against American imperialism did not come true, the fears that pushed the Americans into one of the bloodiest wars of the century did not come true. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines did not become communist, but rushed forward along the capitalist path in the economy, joined in globalization. In Vietnam, an attempt at "socialist transformation" in the south led in 1979 to the collapse of the economy, the monstrous problem of refugees ("people on boats") and war with China. Actually, China by that time had already abandoned classical socialism. The Soviet Union collapsed.

From the veranda of the once “journalistic” bar on the roof of the Caravel Hotel, a panorama of Ho Chi Minh City opens up, on the futuristic skyscrapers of which are the brands of world banks and corporations. Down in Lam Son Square, a Japanese firm is building one of the most modern subways in the world. Nearby on a red banner there is a slogan: "Hot greetings to the delegates of the city party conference." And state television talks about America's solidarity with Vietnam against Beijing's attempts to take away its islands in the South China Sea...

Photo made amateur cam"Zenith"

The war began as a civil war in South Vietnam. Later, North Vietnam was drawn into the war - later supported by the PRC and the USSR - as well as the United States and its allies, who acted on the side of the friendly South Vietnamese regime. As events unfolded, the war became intertwined with the parallel civil wars in Laos and Cambodia. All fighting in Southeast Asia from the late 1950s to 1975 is known as the Second Indochina War.

Prerequisites

Since the second half of the 19th century, Vietnam has been part of the colonial empire of France. After the end of the First World War, the country began to grow national consciousness, underground circles began to appear that advocated the independence of Vietnam, and several armed uprisings took place. In 1941, the League for the Independence of Vietnam was created in China - a military-political organization that initially united all opponents of the French colonial administration. In the future, the main role in it was played by supporters of communist views, led by Ho Chi Minh.

During World War II, the French administration agreed with Japan that the Japanese would have access to Vietnam's strategic resources while maintaining France's colonial administrative apparatus. This agreement was valid until 1944, when Japan established full control over the French possessions by force of arms. In September 1945, Japan capitulated. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the establishment of an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) throughout Vietnamese territory.

However, France refused to recognize the loss of its colony, and despite the agreements reached on the mechanism for granting independence to the DRV, in December 1946, France began a colonial war in Vietnam. However, the French army could not cope with the partisan movement. Since 1950, the United States began to provide military assistance to French troops in Vietnam. Over the next 4 years (1950-1954), US military aid amounted to $3 billion. However, in the same 1950, the Viet Minh began to receive military assistance from the People's Republic of China. By 1954, the situation for the French forces was almost hopeless. The war against Vietnam was extremely unpopular in France. By this time, the US was already paying 80% of the cost of this war. The final blow to French colonial ambitions in Indochina was a heavy defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. In July 1954, the Geneva Accords were concluded, ending the eight-year war.

The main points of the agreement on Vietnam provided:

1) temporary division of the country into two parts approximately along the 17th parallel and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between them;

After the French left, the Ho Chi Minh government quickly consolidated its hold on North Vietnam. In South Vietnam, the French were replaced by the United States, which viewed South Vietnam as the main link in the security system in the region. The American doctrine of "dominoes" assumed that if South Vietnam became communist, then all the neighboring states of Southeast Asia would fall under the control of the communists. Ngo Dinh Diem, a well-known nationalist figure with a high reputation in the United States, became the Prime Minister of South Vietnam. In 1956, Ngo Dinh Diem, with the tacit support of the United States, refused to hold a national referendum on the question of the reunification of the country. Convinced that the peaceful unification of the country had no prospects, the Vietnamese nationalist and communist forces launched an insurgency in rural areas of South Vietnam.

The war can be divided into several periods:

Guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam (1957-1964).

Full-scale US military intervention (1965-1973).

The final stage of the war (1973-1975).

In December 1960, when it became apparent that Ngo Dinh Diem's ​​regime was gradually losing control over rural areas. The US decides to intervene in the war. On August 2, 1964, the USS Maddox, which was patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin, approached the coast of North Vietnam and was allegedly attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, under unclear circumstances, another attack was carried out. As a response, President L. Johnson ordered the American air force to strike at the naval facilities of North Vietnam. Johnson used these attacks as a pretext to get Congress to pass a resolution in support of his actions, which later served as a mandate for undeclared war.

The course of the war in 1964-1968.

Initially, the bombing was intended to stop the penetration of North Vietnamese forces into South Vietnam, to force North Vietnam to refuse assistance to the rebels, and also to boost the morale of the South Vietnamese. Over time, two more reasons appeared - to force Hanoi (North Vietnam) to sit down at the negotiating table and use the bombing as a trump card in concluding an agreement. By March 1965, American bombing of North Vietnam had become a regular occurrence.

Air operations in South Vietnam also intensified. Helicopters were widely used to increase the mobility of South Vietnamese and American troops in rough terrain. New types of weapons and combat methods were developed. For example, defoliants were sprayed, "liquid" mines were used, penetrating under the surface of the earth and retaining the ability to explode for several days, as well as infrared detectors that made it possible to detect the enemy under the dense canopy of the forest.

Air operations against the guerrillas changed the nature of the war; now the peasants were forced to leave their houses and fields, destroyed by intense bombing and napalm. By the end of 1965, 700,000 inhabitants had left rural areas of South Vietnam and became refugees. Another new element was the involvement of other countries in the war. In addition to the United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and later the Philippines and Thailand came to the aid of the South Vietnamese government. In 1965, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin promised to send Soviet anti-aircraft guns, MIG jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles to North Vietnam.

The United States began bombing supply bases and gas depots in North Vietnam, as well as targets in the demilitarized zone. The first bombardment of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and the port city of Haiphong was carried out on June 29, 1966. Despite this, the number of North Korean troops infiltrating South Vietnam steadily increased. Soviet supplies to North Vietnam were carried out through the port of Haiphong, from the bombing and mining of which the United States refrained, fearing the consequences of the destruction of Soviet ships.

In North Vietnam, American bombing also resulted in numerous civilian casualties and the destruction of many civilian objects. Civilian casualties were relatively low due to the construction of thousands of one-person concrete shelters and the evacuation of much of the urban population, especially children, to rural areas. Industrial enterprises were also taken out of the cities and placed in countryside. One of the tasks assigned was the destruction of villages controlled by the Viet Cong. Residents of suspicious villages were evicted from their houses, which were then burned or bulldozed, and the peasants were relocated to other areas.

Beginning in 1965, the USSR supplied equipment and ammunition for air defense, while China sent auxiliary troops numbering from 30,000 to 50,000 to North Vietnam to assist in restoring transport communications and strengthening air defense. Throughout the 1960s, China insisted that North Vietnam continue the armed struggle until complete and final victory. The USSR, fearful of border conflicts, was apparently inclined to open peace negotiations, but because of the rivalry with China for the leadership of the communist bloc, did not put serious pressure on the North Vietnamese.

Peace negotiations. End of the war

From 1965 to 1968, repeated attempts were made to start peace negotiations, but they turned out to be fruitless, as were the efforts of international mediators. : “Hanoi understands the principle of reciprocity as follows: in South Vietnam, there is Civil War, Hanoi supports one side, the US the other. If the US stops its aid, then Hanoi is ready to do the same.” The United States, on the other hand, claimed that it was protecting South Vietnam from external aggression.

Three major obstacles stood in the way of the peace talks:

1) Hanoi's demand that the US finally and unconditionally stop the bombing of North Vietnam;

2) the refusal of the United States to go for it without concessions from North Vietnam;

3) the unwillingness of the South Vietnamese government to enter into negotiations with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.

In the late 1960s, the United States was swept by an unprecedented wave of public discontent over the undeclared war in Vietnam. Apparently, this was not only due to the huge costs of the war and heavy losses (during 1961-1967 almost 16,000 American troops were killed and 100,000 wounded; total losses from 1961 to 1972 amounted to 46,000 killed and more than 300,000 wounded) , but also by televised demonstrations of the devastation caused by US troops in Vietnam. The Vietnam War had a very significant impact on the worldview of the people of the United States. A new movement, the hippies, emerged from the youth protesting against this war. The movement culminated in the so-called "Pentagon Campaign", when up to 100,000 young people gathered in Washington in October 1967 to protest against the war, as well as protests during the US Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in August 1968.

Desertion during the Vietnam campaign was a fairly widespread phenomenon. Many deserters from the Vietnam era left units tormented by the fears and horrors of war. This is especially true of those who were drafted into the army against the will of the recruits themselves. However, many of the future deserters went to war of their own free will. The American authorities tried to solve the problem of their legalization immediately after the end of the war. President Gerald Ford in 1974 offered a pardon to all draft evaders and deserters. More than 27,000 people came to confession. Later, in 1977, the next head of the White House, Jimmy Carter, pardoned those who fled the United States so as not to be drafted.

"Vietnam Syndrome"

One of the consequences of US participation in the Vietnam War is the emergence of the "Vietnam Syndrome". The essence of the "Vietnam Syndrome" is the refusal of the Americans to support the participation of the United States in military campaigns that are long in nature, do not have clear military and political goals, and are accompanied by significant losses among American military personnel. Separate manifestations of the "Vietnamese syndrome" are observed at the level of the mass consciousness of Americans. Anti-interventionist sentiment became a concrete expression of the “Vietnam Syndrome”, when the increased desire of the American people for the non-participation of their country in hostilities abroad was often accompanied by a demand to exclude war from the arsenal of means national policy governments as a method of solving foreign policy crises. The intention to avoid situations fraught with a “second Vietnam” took shape in the form of the slogan “No more Vietnams!”.

On March 31, 1968, US President Johnson gave in to demands to limit the scale of American participation in the war and announced a reduction in the bombing of the North and called for an end to the war on the terms of the Geneva Accords. Immediately before presidential elections 1968 Johnson ordered an end to American bombing of North Vietnam on November 1. The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Saigon government were invited to take part in the talks in Paris. R. Nixon, who replaced Johnson as president in January 1969, announced a transition to the "Vietnamization" of the war, which provided for the phased withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam. ground forces, the use of the remaining military personnel mainly as advisers, instructors, as well as to provide technical assistance and air support to the South Vietnamese armed forces, which meant the transfer of the main burden of hostilities to the shoulders of the South Vietnamese army. The direct participation of American troops in hostilities ceased from August 1972. At the same time, the United States significantly increased the bombing of Vietnam, first in the south, and then in the north, and soon hostilities and bombing engulfed almost the entire Indochina. The expansion of the scale of the air war led to an increase in the number of downed American aircraft (8500 by 1972).

At the end of October 1972, after secret talks in Paris between President Nixon's national security adviser H. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, a preliminary nine-point agreement was reached. However, the United States hesitated to sign it, and after the Saigon government raised objections on a number of points, they tried to change the content of the agreements already reached. In mid-December, negotiations broke down, and the United States launched the most intense bombing of North Vietnam of the entire war. American B-52 strategic bombers carried out "carpet" bombing of the areas of Hanoi and Haiphong, covering an area 0.8 km wide and 2.4 km long in one bombing.

In April 1973, the last American military units left Vietnam, and in August the US Congress passed a law prohibiting any use of American military forces in Indochina.

The political clauses of the ceasefire agreement were not implemented and the fighting never stopped. In 1973 and early 1974, the Saigon government managed to achieve significant successes, but at the end of 1974 the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam struck back and in 1975, together with the North Vietnamese troops, launched a general offensive. In March, they occupied the city of Methuot, and the Saigon troops were forced to leave the entire territory of the Central Plateau. Their retreat soon turned into a rout, and by mid-April the Communists had captured two-thirds of the country. Saigon was surrounded, and on April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese troops laid down their arms.

The Vietnam War is over. From 1961 to 1975, 56,555 American servicemen died and 303,654 were injured. The Vietnamese lost at least 200,000 Saigon soldiers, an estimated one million soldiers of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese army, and half a million civilians. Several million more people were injured, about ten million were left homeless.

Consequences of the use of chemical weapons in Vietnam