KEY FIGURES OF THE VIETNAM WAR picture the Vietnam War was a manifestation of Cold War tensions between the communist Soviet Union and the anticommunist United States North Vietnam received weapons and military advis ers from the Soviet Union and China The United States provided South Vietnam with advisers beginning in the 1950s and sent troops to fight in the war from 1965 to 1973 U S leaders believed that if Vietnam became a communist country it would lead to the fall of neighboring states to the communists an idea known as the domino theory In the end the North was victorious and Vietnam was reunited under Communist rule But more than 20 years of war from 1954 to 1975 had devastated Vietnam Entire villages and rice paddies had been destroyed Vast areas of the countryside were left barren and unusable because of the effects of bombings land mines and the spraying of an herbicide called Agent Orange Mil lions of Vietnamese had been left homeless Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1 1 million North Vietnamese sol diers and Viet Cong communist rebels According to U S estimates between 200 000 and 250 000 South Vietnamese soldiers died More than 58 000 U S troops were killed or went missing as a result of the war Their names are inscribed on the Viet nam Veterans Memorial in Washington D C Among the countries that had smaller forces in
INTRODUCTION 9 Vietnam South Korea suffered more than 4 000 dead Australia more than 500 Thailand about 350 and New Zealand some three dozen Key Figures of the Vietnam War will not only profile those people who played instrumental roles in and leading up to this long and bitter conflict it will also provide an overview of the country of Vietnam and a chronicle of the war
N CHAPTER ONE VIETNAMIE THE COUNTERY ITS PEOPLE AND THE ROAD TO WAR ne of the world's most populous countries Vietnam occupies the easternmost part of mainland Southeast Asia It has a long coastline much of which fronts the South China Sea to the east and south The country is bor dered by the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest Cambodia and Laos to the west and China to the north Its capital is Hanoi As of 2013 the estimated population of this long narrow coun try was nearly 90 million LAND AND CLIMATE Mountains cover about two thirds of the land especially in the north The major lowland areas are two deltas which are plains that form around the mouth of a river In the northeast the Red River forms a delta at the Gulf of Tonkin The Mekong River forms an even larger delta in the south 10
Farmers at work in 2013 harvesting in the rice terraces of Yen Bai a small town in northern Vietnam
