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That of Vietnam was not just one of the many colonial wars. For the young people who in 1968 were rebelling all over the world against the dominant powers, Vietnam was much more. It was the first act of the new awareness of the limits of the democratic West. The dogged resistance and the sacrifices of that far-off peasant people showed the young people of the West that the great USA democracy was not democratic enough to allow someone, in a distant province of Asia, to choose a different way to its own. Vietnam thus had the value of an example because it demonstrated that the greatest military, technological and financial power in the world could not dominate a people that was fighting for its independence and freedom. After the victory of 1975, the bitterness of Vietnamese politics and the conflicts for the supremacy of the area disappointed the expectations of those who had fought for a free Vietnam. But Vietnam still remains the sole example of a war that was fought not only in the jungle and in the rice-fields, but in the roads, in the squares and in the universities of the whole world. It was there that the real defeat of the United States was consummated.
In Vietnam the Americans had taken the place of French colonialism defeated in 1954 in Dien Bien Phu by the army of the Viet Minh led by General Giap. The Viet Minh had been founded in 1941 by desire of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party, presided over by Ho Chi Min. In December 1960 the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam was established against the puppet regime of Diem, installed in south Vietnam with American support. By the next year the guerrilla forces had already occupied most of the countryside, while in the cities the Buddhist protest was developing: in 1963 the first monk sets fire to himself in Saigon; to the strengthening of the opposition and of the guerrillas the regime of Diem, and then of Van Thieu, responds with ruthless repression. Meantime the USA commitment to support the South Vietnamese progressively grows.
In 1967 Che Guevara launches the slogan "Create two, three, many Vietnams", while the United States sees the beginning of the great demonstrations against the war (with the slogan "Stop the bombing" in North Vietnam) and the soldiers’ protest and that of the young conscripts. The Tet offensive was an attempt at a general attack with a very high symbolic value (one commando even managed to enter the USA embassy in Saigon) but from the military point of view it was not a great success. It did not manage to permanently capture important objectives and it did not have any great support in the cities where the insurrections that the partisans expected did not take place. Militarily the Americans managed to win back almost all the outposts that they had first lost, including the ancient capital of Vietnam, Huè. The Tet offensive was however a great political success, and marked a real turning point in the Vietnamese war: it showed American and world public opinion that a victory of the United States in the field was not something that could be obtained in the short term, and maybe it was completely impossible. During the month of March bitter fighting continues: the USA troops launch a counter-offensive in the Mekong Delta, beginning what will be remembered as the battle of the rice-fields. Meanwhile, the liberation forces continue with their siege on the American base of Khe Shan, which had begun with the attack of 21 January. The heavy USA bombardments on Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, continue; on 7 March there are hundreds of victims among the civilian population.
 The 16 March, even if the news is not released immediately, is the day of moral disaster for the United States: led by first lieutenant Calley, the green berets occupy the village of Mylai and, finding no Vietcong, exterminate over one hundred people between women, children and old men. After various attempts at covering up, the news of the crime arrives on the front pages of the newspapers only towards the end of the year. But the pressure of public opinion and of the protest movements drives President Johnson to take the path of negotiations aimed at withdrawing the American troops from South Vietnam. After having taken the command of the troops from General Westmoreland, on 31 March, with a dramatic television speech, Johnson announces that he will not stand as a candidate in the November presidential elections, leaving the candidacy to Senator Hubert Humphrey and that he will interrupt the bombardments on North Vietnam. On 9 April Hanoi consents to open negotiations with the United States; on 3 May, the USA and North Vietnam reach an agreement for a pre-negotiation that will begin in Paris on 10 May. In order to influence the negotiations, on the 5th of the month the Liberation Front launches a new impressive offensive. The attack hits 122 different places but is concentrated above all on the capital of the South, Saigon. The Vietcong occupy the industrial and commercial neighbourhood of Cholon, which is bombed by the USA planes. The fighting in Saigon continues into the beginning of June, when the government forces win back the neighbourhood of Cholon, while, in the palaces of power of Saigon, the policies of the president Van Thieu clash with the hard line policies of the vice-president Cao Ky. On 27 June, after months of siege, the marines abandon Khe Shan, breaking the encirclement. It is a hard defeat, that drives the Americans in retaliation to intensify their bombing of North Vietnam, which had been reduced in May and June. However the way to the negotiation table is now open. On 7 November Nixon, a Republican, succeeds Johnson in the White House. On 8 December the South Vietnamese delegation arrives in Paris, composed of sixty members and led by the number two of the regime, Cao Ky. The American delegation is led by Cyrus Vance. After very long preliminaries, it is 18 January before the actual negotiation begins: around the table are the two Vietnamese governments, the USA and the Liberation Front, which thus gains definitive political-diplomatic acknowledgement. The negotiations, interrupted by phases of violent resumption of the fighting, will lead to the peace agreements signed on 27 January 1973, which provide for the withdrawal of the USA troops, the cessation of hostilities and the reunification of the country. Van Thieu continues the war, but in 1975 Saigon is liberated. Another story begins. |
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In Vietnam, 1968 begins with what will go down in history as the Tet offensive. For Tet, the lunar new year that is celebrated at the end of January, Van Thieu, President of South Vietnam, had announced a 48 hour truce. On 27 January the one week truce announced by the FNL (National Liberation Front) began.
In '64 President Johnson begins his escalation, using B52 bombers to strike the North Vietnamese territory. By the end of 1975 the USA military troops number 175 thousand. But in the USA and throughout the world the opposition against the war becomes stronger, and a group of intellectuals from various nations (among whom Lelio Basso, Guenther Anders, Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russell) creates what will be known as the Russell Tribunal, to try the USA crimes in Vietnam. 