Guerrilla Phase (195764)

For developments leading up to the 1954 Geneva Conference on Indochina and the partition of Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam, .

North Vietnam, with its capital at Hanoi, was governed by the Vietnamese Communist party under the leadership, until 1969, of President Ho Chi Minh. South Vietnam, with Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) as capital, became a republic in 1955; its first president was Ngo Dinh Diem.

After partition, there were mass movements of population. Almost 1,000,000 refugees from Communism moved to the south. About 100,000 Vietminh (Communist-led revolutionaries who had been fighting for Vietnamese independence) moved to North Vietnam.

The nationwide elections to reunify the two Vietnams that were scheduled for 1956 were not held. South Vietnam and the United States, which under President Eisenhower had begun giving economic and military assistance to the South Vietnamese, believed that such elections would lead to a Communist takeover of all Vietnam.

By 1957 it appeared that the Diem regime might be able to put South Vietnam on a firm enough footing to keep it from being taken over by the Communists. Antigovernment forces therefore took action to gain control of the rural areas of South Vietnam as a first step in conquering the south. Small teams began terrorist attacks on villages, followed by ambushes of government troops sent to restore order.

The Vietcong

In 1960, the Communists set up a political organization called the National Liberation Front (NLF) to direct the insurrection. Its fighters became known as Vietcong (Vietnamese Communists). Peasants were recruited for the Vietcong by persuasion and by coercion. Recruitment in South Vietnam was rapid.

The Vietcong became a crack guerrilla force. A large share of their arms and equipment was captured from government soldiers. As the Vietcong grew more numerous, they were able to exact tribute payments and allotments of men from the villages they controlled.

Counter-guerrilla Efforts

South Vietnamese government forces, suffering from low morale and a high desertion rate, badly needed support. In 1961 President Kennedy placed American advisers at the battalion level of the ARVN forces and allowed them to accompany ARVN units on operations. A U.S. Air Force unit was sent to train South Vietnamese pilots. United States pilots began transporting Vietnamese soldiers to combat locations by helicopter and other types of aircraft. At the same time, small U.S. Special Forces teams were sent to organize the mountain tribes so that they could resist the Vietcong. By 1962, 4,000 United States military advisers were in South Vietnam.

The Allied forces, however, remained far too few to defeat the guerrillas. The Vietcong were receiving men and supplies from North Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a jungle trail that crossed through neighboring Laos.

Among the Vietcong enticements to win over the peasants of South Vietnam were promises of their own land, tax relief, and expulsion of the American "imperialists." The South Vietnamese government also recognized the importance of peasant allegiance. Programs were set up to give the peasants their own land and to protect them from Vietcong raids. However, many of the civil servants who administered the programs were corrupt or indifferent, and the effective administrators were targets for assassination by the Vietcong.

Diem Overthrown

As the Vietcong gained strength, the government became increasingly repressive. In 1963 Diem was overthrown in a military coup. Political turmoil followed and the people's confidence in the government continued to slip. The war effort of the government proved ineffective and the countryside increasingly fell to the Vietcong.

The year 1964 proved even more discouraging for the South Vietnamese forces. More than 100,000 of their soldiers deserted during the year, while Vietcong recruitment was stepped up in the south and infiltration from the north increased. The government was in a seriously weakened condition, causing the United States to increase its assistance.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

In August, 1964, two U.S. Navy destroyers reported being attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam. United States forces retaliated by bombing North Vietnamese coastal bases. Both houses of Congress then passed a resolutionthe Gulf of Tonkin Resolutionauthorizing the President to use "all necessary action to protect our armed forces and to assist nations covered by the SEATO treaty." (This treaty included South Vietnam.) Almost 20,000 United States troops were in Vietnam by the end of the year.