Vietnam War

Vietnam War

Vietnam has always been subject to threats and invasion from its large neighbours - particularly China. In the eighteenth century a new threat emerged - the French invaded the area, called Annam then, and established control. They used the land as their colony, and created a strong French influence, though one which did not suppress Vietnamese desires for independence. In 1954 the French were defeated in the north at Dien Bien Phu, but in the south, Vietnamese leaders did not want to be part of the pro-Communist system being set up by the north. The country was divided along the 17th parallel of latitude, with the south being supported by the United States, and the north by Russia and China. (Brigham, et. al 2008)

The north began to send troops into to the south, supported by southerners sympathetic to their cause. The main reason for the United States' involvement was a fear that communism would spread throughout Asia. China had become communist in 1949, and the Korean War of the 1950s had seemed to show the spreading power and influence and threat of communism. The Australian government shared this view, and was ready to support the United States in South Vietnam. The Vietnamese called it a "multifaceted war of sabotage." Hanoi officials have described the assaults as comprising steady harassment by artillery fire, intrusions on land by infantry patrols, naval intrusions, and mine planting both at sea and in the riverways. Chinese clandestine activity (the "sabotage" aspect) for the most part was directed against the ethnic minorities of the border region. According to the Hanoi press, teams of Chinese agents systematically sabotaged mountain agricultural production centers as well as lowland port, transportation, and communication facilities.

Psychological warfare operations were an integral part of the campaign, as was what the Vietnamese called "economic warfare"--encouragement of Vietnamese villagers along the border to engage in smuggling, currency speculation, and hoarding of goods in short supply. China's leverage in the Cold War was primarily determined by its enormous size. With the largest population and occupying the third largest territory in the world, China was a factor that neither superpower could ignore. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Mao's China entered a strategic alliance with the Soviet Union, the United States immediately felt seriously threatened.

Facing offensives by Communist states and revolutionary/radical nationalist forces in East Asia, Washington, with the creation and implementation of the NSC-68, responded with the most extensive peacetime mobilization of national resources in American history. The implementation of this agreement resulted in China's support for Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh and, in October 1950, massive intervention in the Korean War, making Mao's China a "front-line soldier" fighting against the U.S. imperialists. (Bundy, William P. A 2004) Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, East Asia continued to be a main focus of the Cold War.

While China was playing a central role in the two Taiwan Strait crises and the Vietnam War -- the longest "hot" war during the Cold ...