Russian Bear
10th April 2025, 20:05
Parts of the page were translated from Russian to English using Google Translate by Russian Bear
54825
Only in 1961 - 1965, the Soviet Union provided Vietnam with 130 guns and mortars, 1.4 thousand machine guns, 54 thousand small arms (A.V. Okorokov. Secret Wars of the USSR). Subsequently, the Vietnamese People's Army received MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighters, IL-28 bombers, T-54 tanks, and SA-75 Dvina air defense systems (I.Ya. Kuminov. Soviet military-technical assistance to Vietnam during the war). By 1965, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam received 340 million rubles free of charge from the Soviet Union; weapons, ammunition and other material resources were supplied. Soviet military specialists helped Vietnam master military equipment.
At the request of Vietnam for help, Soviet military soldiers were sent from the USSR. According to the operational directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, there are 6,359 generals and officers, 4.5 thousand sergeants and privates who shot down American planes and controlled air defense and aviation, while simultaneously teaching the Vietnamese military how to handle Soviet equipment. 13 people were officially declared dead. Every day of this nine-year war cost the USSR 2 million dollars.
Documentary film, view from the Russian side:
R7y30-pRKcE
The American command strictly forbade shelling Soviet ships and transport, since such actions could provoke the outbreak of the Third World War, however, it was the Soviet military-economic machine that was opposed to the Americans. “We are destroying the infrastructure of Vietnam, bombing power plants and roads. However, we are prohibited from dropping bombs on ships on which the Soviet Union delivers missiles” - from the memoirs of American pilots. Two thousand tanks, seven hundred light and maneuverable aircraft, seven thousand mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters and much more were supplied by the USSR as free friendly assistance to Vietnam. Almost the entire air defense system of the country, which was later assessed by the enemy as impassable for any type of fighter, was built at the expense of the USSR, by Soviet specialists. The armament of the warring state took place under the most difficult conditions of constant bombing and open robbery by China. Over ten thousand Vietnamese were sent to the Union to undergo military training and learn how to use Soviet modern technology. According to various estimates, supporting friendly Vietnam cost the USSR budget from one and a half to two million dollars daily.
The Americans knew very well where the Soviet camps were located, so while there were no active hostilities, they were tolerant of the Russians. Occasionally, flying planes dropped leaflets indicating the time of the bombing and inviting the Russians to leave the danger zone.
The Americans' sense of complete impunity ended with a shock on July 25, 1964. This was the first battle between Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and American aircraft. On this day, three planes were destroyed by three missiles near Hanoi. The Americans experienced such horror that they did not fly for two weeks. The Vietnamese shamelessly speculated on help from the USSR and even exposed Soviet ships to attack.
Even after the withdrawal of American troops from the territory of Indochina, Soviet troops maintained their presence to achieve other military goals, only this time the Cold War. Their task was to control the movement of ships of the US and Chinese navies in the Pacific and Indian oceans. This was an important component in defending the military and political interests of the Soviet Union.
The Vietnam War is an example of how the US (a civilized country) fights
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf518a93ab309bec668aa/scale_1200
We will not talk about just any war, but about a war waged by a state whose leadership today, as they say, cannot sleep or eat because people are dying in the country of the blue and yellow flag. They are very worried. Very! At least, that is what they tell the average person.
The United States has participated in a ton of military conflicts since 1945. Well, how did they participate?
NOBODY HAS EVER THREATENED THE TERRITORY OF THE USA.
This is practically impossible, given their geographical location and the presence of nuclear weapons, which they demonstrated in Japanese cities immediately after their creation.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf7d1da2f1816aa6e701f/scale_1200
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945)
Therefore, the US simply, without any threat to their territory, attacked this or that country for some reason.
Although the reason, in general, is naturally clear - these are resources and the establishment of the dollar's power, so that it would be possible to rob the entire world.
But of all the wars organized by the Americans, the Vietnam War is worth mentioning separately. Since this is not a short-term armed conflict, but a full-fledged war of the United States with the Vietnamese people, who are 12 thousand km away from them.
But since it was the Americans who exterminated the Vietnamese people, then in civilized Europe this was considered, and is still considered, the norm - after all, no one, except the totalitarian USSR, condemned the Americans for this. So this is what the civilized world had to do.
And now a little history and interesting facts.
Every time, as "hawk" politicians, i.e. supporters of aggressive actions in the United States propose to intervene in events in some country or to start another war, anti-war Americans remind them: "Do you want a second Vietnam?"
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf92a4d4ed96c7640b693/scale_1200
This was the case
⚠️ in 1999 during the Yugoslav conflict,
⚠️ in 2001 in Afghanistan,
⚠️ in 2003 in Iraq,
⚠️ in 2011 during the Libyan events.
The thing is that the long war in Vietnam lasted 9 years - from 1964 to 1975 and ended with a poorly concealed defeat for the United States. But in fact, this conflict lasted longer - from 1955 to 1975.
On the morning of April 30, 1975, tanks with five-pointed stars on their towers entered the capital of South Vietnam - Saigon. They were supported by detachments of Viet Cong guerrillas. The red flag of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with a yellow star was raised above the palace, and the city was soon renamed Ho Chi Minh City, in honor of the communist who founded the North Vietnamese state. That is, the communists won, and they rule Vietnam to this day.
At that time, the US troops had already left the country three years ago. They were forced to do so by mounting losses and anti-war protests in their own country.
How it was is very instructive to remember every time another war breaks out on the planet.
VIETNAM, FRANCE
At the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnam, along with neighboring Laos and Cambodia, were colonies of France.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf8a5edb6884e614c5bb1/scale_1200
During World War II, these lands of Indochina were occupied by the Japanese. But when the guns died down and the samurai and their soldiers laid down their arms, the Vietnamese made it clear that they were not happy about the return of the colonizers.
In 1945, a democratic republic was proclaimed in the northern Vietnamese city of Hanoi, headed by 55-year-old underground fighter Ho Chi Minh, who graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in the Soviet Union.
The French, of course, did not recognize the new state and tried to take the country back by force. The future famous French actor Alain Delon served in the punitive troops that arrived from Europe.
“We were not given a rest… If someone had a fever, you couldn’t even think about going to the first aid station. We were being prepared to be turned into cannon fodder,” recalled one of the future star’s colleagues.
Alain Delon did not want to fight. He broke the rules so often that he was transferred to a disciplinary company in the city of Saigon. He spent his days loading rice on the dock and returned to the guardhouse in the evening. However, he later recalled: "This time allowed me to become who I became later and who I am now." From March to May 1954, French troops fought heavy battles in northern Vietnam against the national liberation movement of this country and were eventually surrounded. The French government sued for peace and agreed to recognize the independence of Vietnam. But when leaving, the French divided the country into two parts. In order not to give the communists power over the entire territory, South Vietnam was created - a state south of the 17th parallel.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf9a37c7fe713137597e3/scale_1200
In order not to give the communists power over the entire territory, South Vietnam was created - a state south of the 17th parallel
While Hanoi was the capital of the north, Saigon became the capital of the south.
A similar situation was already in Germany, divided into the FRG and the GDR,
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfa1518553b18cc08e9d4/scale_1200
Germany, divided into the FRG and the GDR
and Korea, which had just ended a war.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfa1e67acb76ac8519776/scale_1200
North and South Korea
The division of Vietnam and the beginning of the war
So, like the previously mentioned countries, such as Germany and Korea, Vietnam was divided into two ideologically different territories. As was said, France divided Vietnam in order to somehow retain its influence in the country. For what purpose - it is clear, to continue to rob it.
In the West by this time, which included France, the hegemon had already clearly formed - the United States, which pushed France aside and began to fulfill its role as colonizers in the south of Vietnam, trying to suppress pro-communist sentiments and the further liberation struggle, which, naturally, was supported by the Soviet Union.
Saigon, i.e. the south, was immediately flooded with different people from across the ocean - some were engaged in trade (largely - drug trafficking), others - in buying up antiquities, others - in espionage.
The atmosphere of those days is perfectly described in Graham Greene's story "The Quiet American", twice filmed in Hollywood. Its main character, the English journalist Fowler, tells a friend from the USA, who supposedly arrived in Saigon on a humanitarian mission, but in fact leads the local military: "Do you think General The wouldn't have carried out a sabotage? It would be much more advantageous than a parade! Dead women and children - that's a sensation! The entire world press will scream about what happened." In 1955, in the south of Vietnam, which was under the West, guerrilla units of the Viet Cong movement appeared, using red North Vietnamese flags.
https://images.stopgame.ru/uploads/users/2021/542147/r1694x948/HxpjgSpayeVuiYmTldGf_w/00064.ivZpYOC.jpg
Soviet military specialists and Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners in Nam Dinh Province, 1965.
It was from this moment that the real war began.
That is, the war began because the Vietnamese simply organized a liberation struggle for their territory from the occupiers. What impudence!
The US was constantly increasing the number of its citizens in South Vietnam - now real intelligence officers, military advisers, and anti-guerrilla specialists.
President John Kennedy said in 1961: “They do not fire missiles. Their troops are rarely seen. They send weapons, agitators, aid, equipment, and propaganda into all troubled areas… This is a battle for minds and souls, as well as for lives and territory. And in this competition, we cannot remain on the sidelines.”
During his presidency, the number of “advisers” with US passports in South Vietnam increased from 1 to 23 thousand.
Open US intervention
In August 1964, the US aircraft carrier Maddox, which had entered the Gulf of Tonkin and approached the Vietnamese coast for electronic reconnaissance, was attacked by three Vietnamese boats. They fired torpedoes at it, and F-8 aircraft took off from the carrier and drove the boats away. This "Tonkin incident" was used by the US as a pretext for direct intervention in the war with the Vietnamese.
At the same time, Viet Cong guerrillas attacked an American base in the south of the country for the first time.
Here I will remind you once again: Vietnam is 12 thousand kilometers from the US!
Since the beginning of 1965, President Lyndon Johnson, re-elected for a new term, began sending to Vietnam not "advisers", but real military units to fight the guerrillas. The number of US troops in Vietnam increased to 184,000 by the end of his rule.
The US military behaved so arrogantly that even South Vietnamese officers, i.e. collaborators - US allies, began to run away from the service.
US General Norman Schwarzkopf later recalled how they talked to these supposed allies: "We pushed them aside, saying: "Get out of the way, little yellow-faced brother. The good guys are already here, the cavalry is here, now we are going to go out of town and defeat the Indians, so you just get out." It was a terrible mistake! "
In addition, on March 2, 1965, the Americans began air raids on the north of the Asian country, i.e. the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which they themselves recognized. This operation was called "Rolling Thunder". Bombs fell on port piers, Vietnamese airfields, and cities, including the capital Hanoi. Both soldiers and civilians perished. That is, the war was waged not only against the partisans who sympathized with the North, but also against the North itself. A country that Western countries themselves recognized.
Why? Just to intimidate. They did the same with the Japanese, Germans, and Arabs in Iraq. That's how they fight.
Against this background, the Soviet government decided to help Vietnam in the air war against the United States. Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and pilots went to Vietnam. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam received 95 S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile systems and almost 8,000 missiles for them.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfbef9523772f00a02902/scale_1200
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam received 95 S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile systems and almost 8,000 missiles for them
In addition, 687 tanks were delivered to Vietnam by cargo ships. 316 MiG-17, MiG-21 and Su-17 aircraft arrived in North Vietnam partly by sea and partly by air. These were quite modern machines for those times.
The first battle of the anti-aircraft gunners who arrived from the Union and American pilots took place on July 24, 1965. And soon there were the first victories.
As is known, at that time it was the height of the Cold War, which the West declared on the USSR after the Soviet government refused to recognize the power of the dollar, not ratifying the Bretton Woods Agreement. Therefore, helping the Vietnamese communists was quite logical.
By the way, there are many legends about the participation of Soviet soldiers in this war. One of which is reflected in the popular song "Phantom", when an American pilot asks the Vietnamese:
"Who is that pilot who shot me down?", and he
Answered the slanted one
Who commanded the interrogation
You were shot down by our pilot Li Si Tsin (i.e. Lisitsyn)
Senator McCain in captivity
One of the famous US politicians in the 21st century, who fiercely hated Russia, Senator John McCain, was a pilot during the Vietnam War.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfd37bd8cff1d0a4389e7/scale_1200
John McCain, was a pilot during the Vietnam War
On October 26, 1967, he flew out to bomb a power plant in Hanoi and was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile from the S-75 complex. McCain ejected and glided by parachute into a fountain in the center of the North Vietnamese capital, breaking both arms and a leg. During interrogation, he gave only brief information about himself, but the Vietnamese guessed from his last name that he was a relative of Admiral McCain. Even a French journalist was allowed to see him, who saw him gray-haired and having lost 26 kilograms of weight.
The future senator spent five and a half years in captivity and was released only after the signing of peace agreements.
In 2009, while traveling through Asian countries, he even visited his former cell.
Anti-war movement in the USA
In the United States, from the very beginning of its army's entry into the war, an anti-war movement emerged. At first, it was a few pacifist intellectuals and hippie vagabonds. But then, as the number of killed increased, hundreds of thousands of people began to speak out against the war.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfe297a8a8e15f8096d61/scale_1200
In 1967, pacifists in the United States held a "march on the Pentagon", when 100 thousand young people came to Washington to protest against the war and the draft.
Soon the first data appeared about the war crimes of the US troops in Vietnam - the murder of civilians and inhumane methods of warfare.
The resonance was caused by the use of defoliants - chemicals that cause leaves to fall on trees so that guerrillas could not hide in the jungle.
☢️ During the war, the US Army sprayed 72 million liters of defoliants on the territory of South Vietnam to destroy forests.
☢️ In addition - and other poisons, which, entering the human body with water and food, caused various liver and blood diseases, mass congenital malformations of newborns and disruptions in the normal course of pregnancy.
After the use of defoliants by the American military after the war, several tens of thousands of people died.
In total, there are about 4.8 million victims of defoliant spraying in Vietnam.
Not only areas of South Vietnam were exposed to chemical influence, but also neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
The American military also
☢️ used gases;
☢️ caused artificial cloud formation and acid rain, using ☢️ cloud treatment with chemicals and acidification of the atmosphere;
☢️ sprayed chemicals that caused severe fires in the jungle
By the way, as a result of the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Americans, about 400,000 people died in Vietnam.
The weapons that the US used were banned back in 1925. That is, it is clear that if the Americans treated their Vietnamese allies as second-class citizens, then they were extremely cruel to their opponents. This is quite comparable to the actions of the Nazis! They destroyed not only people, but also the nature of Vietnam.
The large-scale use of chemicals by American troops led to serious consequences:
⚠️ mangrove forests were almost completely destroyed (500 thousand hectares),
⚠️ 60% (about 1 million hectares) of jungles were affected and
⚠️ 30% (more than 100 thousand hectares) of lowland forests.
⚠️ Since 1960, the yield of rubber plantations has decreased by 75%.
⚠️ American troops destroyed from 40 to 100% of crops:
- bananas,
- rice,
- sweet potatoes,
- papaya,
- tomatoes,
- 70% of coconut plantations,
- 60% of rubber trees,
- 110 thousand hectares of casuarina plantations.
As a result of the use of chemicals, the ecological balance of Vietnam has seriously changed:
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cff59762550169a13ec9a/scale_1200
In the affected areas,
⚠️ out of 150 bird species, 18 remained,
⚠️ amphibians and insects almost completely disappeared,
⚠️ the number of fish in the rivers decreased and
⚠️ the composition of the rivers changed;
⚠️ the microbiological composition of the soil was disrupted,
⚠️ plants were poisoned;
⚠️ the number of tree and shrub species of the tropical rainforest sharply decreased: in the affected areas, only a few species of trees and several species of thorny grasses remained that were not suitable for cattle feed.
☢️ In general, the United States was not only the first to use nuclear weapons against civilians, they were the first to use scorched earth tactics, using chemical and environmental weapons.
☢️In addition, the Americans burned villages with napalm, a substance that could not be extinguished if it caught fire on a person's clothing.
☢️ In March 1968, US troops committed a mass murder of civilians in the village of Song My.
⚠️ More than 500 residents were killed,
⚠️ all buildings were burned,
⚠️ livestock and
⚠️ crops were destroyed.
Later, only one soldier was found guilty by an American court!
Of course, North Vietnamese soldiers also committed war crimes. For example, after the battle at Hill 1338 in June 1967, they finished off 43 wounded and captured Americans with shots to the head.
But unlike the Americans, they were fighting for their lives on their own soil against a foreign army.
Well, in general, everyone knows how Americans fight since World War II.
In addition to using nuclear weapons against the civilian population of Japan, it is important to note that during the entire Second World War, 4 million civilians in Germany were killed. So, of these 4 million civilians, 3 million were killed by Anglo-American bombings. This is 3 times more than the military of Hitler's Germany and its allies destroyed by them during the entire Second World War.
In general, to be honest, the main war then was Europe against the USSR, where 1 million civilians in Germany died as a result of military actions.
Afterwards, Britain and the United States simply decided to join the victory and killed 3 million civilians with their bombings. This is not counting the Japanese. This is how the Americans fight. Including in Vietnam.
As for the position of the Soviet Union in that war, Stalin said: "Hitlers come and go, but the German people remain."
So, US Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg, having served as a Marine in Vietnam and having seen the horrors that were happening there, later took a secret report about US policy in Vietnam from his job at the Pentagon and in 1971 gave it to journalists. And they published it.
Ellsberg had to sue the government for several years and prove that it had done more harm to the country with its policy than he had done with his publication of the report. Oddly enough, the court sided with him and the journalists.
In the early 1970s, rock festivals, ethnic holidays, demonstrations and rallies in cities were already being held against the war in Vietnam.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652d0042899d7674f39ea4d0/scale_1200
In the early 1970s, rock festivals, ethnic holidays, demonstrations and rallies in cities were already being held against the Vietnam War.
Famous people of the world created the "Russell Tribunal" to morally condemn Americans fighting in a foreign country. It included world celebrities.
Military operations and heavy losses
The leadership of the American army, understanding the unpopularity of the war, sought to end it by defeating the communist guerrillas in South Vietnam and destroying the cities of North Vietnam.
American units launched offensives in the jungle twice: in 1965-1967 and in 1968. The US Army managed to take control of the roads, but the guerrillas laid "Viet Cong trails" through the mountains and through the neighboring country of Laos, along which they dragged weapons and ammunition by hand, transported them on carts and pack donkeys. While the Americans were winning in open battles, they were unable to cope with the partisans.
In 1969, the Vietnamese President of the DRV Ho Chi Minh died. But this did not affect the course of the war, nor did the human losses of the communists. They were ready for such sacrifices. Their motivation was high.
But American society was not ready for large losses in a distant Asian war. In total, 58 thousand US servicemen were killed, missing, died of wounds and diseases from 1964-1973 (47 thousand in battles, 11 thousand from diseases and other causes). There were 303 thousand wounded, and many of them returned to America as cripples and served there as living evidence of the uselessness of the war.
Two communist offensives from north to south in 1968 and 1972 led to a complete revolution in the minds of Americans: "We have been fighting for many years, but we are not succeeding!" - even those who initially advocated war shouted. They changed their position radically.
In 1969, when the US president changed and the Republicans led by Richard Nixon came to power, a course was proclaimed for the "Vietnamization of the war": let some Vietnamese, i.e. American puppets, fight with others, and we need to leave.
As practice has shown more than once later, the withdrawal of American troops from anywhere in the 21st century leads to filling the "vacuum". This happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And in fact, the withdrawal from Vietnam itself was similar to the flight from Afghanistan.
There is a famous photo on the Internet where the Americans and their vassals, fleeing, throw a helicopter off a ship - a working, normal one, to make room for people.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652d0107c095b8411aca221e/scale_1200
The famous photo of the Americans and their vassals escaping, throwing a helicopter off a ship to make room for the people
But naturally, this did not help, as in Afghanistan, the native collaborators tried to escape to the USA, but they were simply pushed out of the transport.
Withdrawal of troops and defeat
Between 1971 and 1973, American units were withdrawn from Vietnam more and more, until by the time the peace agreement between North Vietnam and the USA was signed in Paris, there were only 24 thousand of them left.
The document on the complete withdrawal was signed on January 27, 1973.
After that, the communists continued the fight - the partisans in the south received constant assistance from the north.
And in 1974, the US Congress decided to reduce military aid to South Vietnam - and soon its army began to retreat.
In December 1974, the North Vietnamese army crossed the border and began an offensive. Five generals who served as Americans committed suicide, and on April 30, 1975, the communists raised the red flag over Saigon.
This is how the story of the Americans' attempt to curb the Vietnamese ended.
In essence, the United States lost to a small nation with a traditional system, while having hundreds of times more resources and the most modern technologies, using vile methods and prohibited weapons.
The war was waged, as was said, for a zone of influence. The Americans, having covered thousands of kilometers, killed about 5 million Vietnamese so that they could continue to exploit them and use them in their geopolitical interests. This is how Western civilization works, which today talks about humanism and democracy.
❌Unfortunately, no one was punished for what they did.
❌In addition, the American state has since started numerous wars around the world, naturally choosing a weaker opponent who cannot fight back.
This is how Americans fight.
54825
Only in 1961 - 1965, the Soviet Union provided Vietnam with 130 guns and mortars, 1.4 thousand machine guns, 54 thousand small arms (A.V. Okorokov. Secret Wars of the USSR). Subsequently, the Vietnamese People's Army received MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighters, IL-28 bombers, T-54 tanks, and SA-75 Dvina air defense systems (I.Ya. Kuminov. Soviet military-technical assistance to Vietnam during the war). By 1965, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam received 340 million rubles free of charge from the Soviet Union; weapons, ammunition and other material resources were supplied. Soviet military specialists helped Vietnam master military equipment.
At the request of Vietnam for help, Soviet military soldiers were sent from the USSR. According to the operational directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, there are 6,359 generals and officers, 4.5 thousand sergeants and privates who shot down American planes and controlled air defense and aviation, while simultaneously teaching the Vietnamese military how to handle Soviet equipment. 13 people were officially declared dead. Every day of this nine-year war cost the USSR 2 million dollars.
Documentary film, view from the Russian side:
R7y30-pRKcE
The American command strictly forbade shelling Soviet ships and transport, since such actions could provoke the outbreak of the Third World War, however, it was the Soviet military-economic machine that was opposed to the Americans. “We are destroying the infrastructure of Vietnam, bombing power plants and roads. However, we are prohibited from dropping bombs on ships on which the Soviet Union delivers missiles” - from the memoirs of American pilots. Two thousand tanks, seven hundred light and maneuverable aircraft, seven thousand mortars and guns, more than a hundred helicopters and much more were supplied by the USSR as free friendly assistance to Vietnam. Almost the entire air defense system of the country, which was later assessed by the enemy as impassable for any type of fighter, was built at the expense of the USSR, by Soviet specialists. The armament of the warring state took place under the most difficult conditions of constant bombing and open robbery by China. Over ten thousand Vietnamese were sent to the Union to undergo military training and learn how to use Soviet modern technology. According to various estimates, supporting friendly Vietnam cost the USSR budget from one and a half to two million dollars daily.
The Americans knew very well where the Soviet camps were located, so while there were no active hostilities, they were tolerant of the Russians. Occasionally, flying planes dropped leaflets indicating the time of the bombing and inviting the Russians to leave the danger zone.
The Americans' sense of complete impunity ended with a shock on July 25, 1964. This was the first battle between Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and American aircraft. On this day, three planes were destroyed by three missiles near Hanoi. The Americans experienced such horror that they did not fly for two weeks. The Vietnamese shamelessly speculated on help from the USSR and even exposed Soviet ships to attack.
Even after the withdrawal of American troops from the territory of Indochina, Soviet troops maintained their presence to achieve other military goals, only this time the Cold War. Their task was to control the movement of ships of the US and Chinese navies in the Pacific and Indian oceans. This was an important component in defending the military and political interests of the Soviet Union.
The Vietnam War is an example of how the US (a civilized country) fights
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf518a93ab309bec668aa/scale_1200
We will not talk about just any war, but about a war waged by a state whose leadership today, as they say, cannot sleep or eat because people are dying in the country of the blue and yellow flag. They are very worried. Very! At least, that is what they tell the average person.
The United States has participated in a ton of military conflicts since 1945. Well, how did they participate?
NOBODY HAS EVER THREATENED THE TERRITORY OF THE USA.
This is practically impossible, given their geographical location and the presence of nuclear weapons, which they demonstrated in Japanese cities immediately after their creation.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf7d1da2f1816aa6e701f/scale_1200
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 1945)
Therefore, the US simply, without any threat to their territory, attacked this or that country for some reason.
Although the reason, in general, is naturally clear - these are resources and the establishment of the dollar's power, so that it would be possible to rob the entire world.
But of all the wars organized by the Americans, the Vietnam War is worth mentioning separately. Since this is not a short-term armed conflict, but a full-fledged war of the United States with the Vietnamese people, who are 12 thousand km away from them.
But since it was the Americans who exterminated the Vietnamese people, then in civilized Europe this was considered, and is still considered, the norm - after all, no one, except the totalitarian USSR, condemned the Americans for this. So this is what the civilized world had to do.
And now a little history and interesting facts.
Every time, as "hawk" politicians, i.e. supporters of aggressive actions in the United States propose to intervene in events in some country or to start another war, anti-war Americans remind them: "Do you want a second Vietnam?"
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf92a4d4ed96c7640b693/scale_1200
This was the case
⚠️ in 1999 during the Yugoslav conflict,
⚠️ in 2001 in Afghanistan,
⚠️ in 2003 in Iraq,
⚠️ in 2011 during the Libyan events.
The thing is that the long war in Vietnam lasted 9 years - from 1964 to 1975 and ended with a poorly concealed defeat for the United States. But in fact, this conflict lasted longer - from 1955 to 1975.
On the morning of April 30, 1975, tanks with five-pointed stars on their towers entered the capital of South Vietnam - Saigon. They were supported by detachments of Viet Cong guerrillas. The red flag of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with a yellow star was raised above the palace, and the city was soon renamed Ho Chi Minh City, in honor of the communist who founded the North Vietnamese state. That is, the communists won, and they rule Vietnam to this day.
At that time, the US troops had already left the country three years ago. They were forced to do so by mounting losses and anti-war protests in their own country.
How it was is very instructive to remember every time another war breaks out on the planet.
VIETNAM, FRANCE
At the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnam, along with neighboring Laos and Cambodia, were colonies of France.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf8a5edb6884e614c5bb1/scale_1200
During World War II, these lands of Indochina were occupied by the Japanese. But when the guns died down and the samurai and their soldiers laid down their arms, the Vietnamese made it clear that they were not happy about the return of the colonizers.
In 1945, a democratic republic was proclaimed in the northern Vietnamese city of Hanoi, headed by 55-year-old underground fighter Ho Chi Minh, who graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in the Soviet Union.
The French, of course, did not recognize the new state and tried to take the country back by force. The future famous French actor Alain Delon served in the punitive troops that arrived from Europe.
“We were not given a rest… If someone had a fever, you couldn’t even think about going to the first aid station. We were being prepared to be turned into cannon fodder,” recalled one of the future star’s colleagues.
Alain Delon did not want to fight. He broke the rules so often that he was transferred to a disciplinary company in the city of Saigon. He spent his days loading rice on the dock and returned to the guardhouse in the evening. However, he later recalled: "This time allowed me to become who I became later and who I am now." From March to May 1954, French troops fought heavy battles in northern Vietnam against the national liberation movement of this country and were eventually surrounded. The French government sued for peace and agreed to recognize the independence of Vietnam. But when leaving, the French divided the country into two parts. In order not to give the communists power over the entire territory, South Vietnam was created - a state south of the 17th parallel.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cf9a37c7fe713137597e3/scale_1200
In order not to give the communists power over the entire territory, South Vietnam was created - a state south of the 17th parallel
While Hanoi was the capital of the north, Saigon became the capital of the south.
A similar situation was already in Germany, divided into the FRG and the GDR,
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfa1518553b18cc08e9d4/scale_1200
Germany, divided into the FRG and the GDR
and Korea, which had just ended a war.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfa1e67acb76ac8519776/scale_1200
North and South Korea
The division of Vietnam and the beginning of the war
So, like the previously mentioned countries, such as Germany and Korea, Vietnam was divided into two ideologically different territories. As was said, France divided Vietnam in order to somehow retain its influence in the country. For what purpose - it is clear, to continue to rob it.
In the West by this time, which included France, the hegemon had already clearly formed - the United States, which pushed France aside and began to fulfill its role as colonizers in the south of Vietnam, trying to suppress pro-communist sentiments and the further liberation struggle, which, naturally, was supported by the Soviet Union.
Saigon, i.e. the south, was immediately flooded with different people from across the ocean - some were engaged in trade (largely - drug trafficking), others - in buying up antiquities, others - in espionage.
The atmosphere of those days is perfectly described in Graham Greene's story "The Quiet American", twice filmed in Hollywood. Its main character, the English journalist Fowler, tells a friend from the USA, who supposedly arrived in Saigon on a humanitarian mission, but in fact leads the local military: "Do you think General The wouldn't have carried out a sabotage? It would be much more advantageous than a parade! Dead women and children - that's a sensation! The entire world press will scream about what happened." In 1955, in the south of Vietnam, which was under the West, guerrilla units of the Viet Cong movement appeared, using red North Vietnamese flags.
https://images.stopgame.ru/uploads/users/2021/542147/r1694x948/HxpjgSpayeVuiYmTldGf_w/00064.ivZpYOC.jpg
Soviet military specialists and Vietnamese anti-aircraft gunners in Nam Dinh Province, 1965.
It was from this moment that the real war began.
That is, the war began because the Vietnamese simply organized a liberation struggle for their territory from the occupiers. What impudence!
The US was constantly increasing the number of its citizens in South Vietnam - now real intelligence officers, military advisers, and anti-guerrilla specialists.
President John Kennedy said in 1961: “They do not fire missiles. Their troops are rarely seen. They send weapons, agitators, aid, equipment, and propaganda into all troubled areas… This is a battle for minds and souls, as well as for lives and territory. And in this competition, we cannot remain on the sidelines.”
During his presidency, the number of “advisers” with US passports in South Vietnam increased from 1 to 23 thousand.
Open US intervention
In August 1964, the US aircraft carrier Maddox, which had entered the Gulf of Tonkin and approached the Vietnamese coast for electronic reconnaissance, was attacked by three Vietnamese boats. They fired torpedoes at it, and F-8 aircraft took off from the carrier and drove the boats away. This "Tonkin incident" was used by the US as a pretext for direct intervention in the war with the Vietnamese.
At the same time, Viet Cong guerrillas attacked an American base in the south of the country for the first time.
Here I will remind you once again: Vietnam is 12 thousand kilometers from the US!
Since the beginning of 1965, President Lyndon Johnson, re-elected for a new term, began sending to Vietnam not "advisers", but real military units to fight the guerrillas. The number of US troops in Vietnam increased to 184,000 by the end of his rule.
The US military behaved so arrogantly that even South Vietnamese officers, i.e. collaborators - US allies, began to run away from the service.
US General Norman Schwarzkopf later recalled how they talked to these supposed allies: "We pushed them aside, saying: "Get out of the way, little yellow-faced brother. The good guys are already here, the cavalry is here, now we are going to go out of town and defeat the Indians, so you just get out." It was a terrible mistake! "
In addition, on March 2, 1965, the Americans began air raids on the north of the Asian country, i.e. the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which they themselves recognized. This operation was called "Rolling Thunder". Bombs fell on port piers, Vietnamese airfields, and cities, including the capital Hanoi. Both soldiers and civilians perished. That is, the war was waged not only against the partisans who sympathized with the North, but also against the North itself. A country that Western countries themselves recognized.
Why? Just to intimidate. They did the same with the Japanese, Germans, and Arabs in Iraq. That's how they fight.
Against this background, the Soviet government decided to help Vietnam in the air war against the United States. Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and pilots went to Vietnam. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam received 95 S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile systems and almost 8,000 missiles for them.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfbef9523772f00a02902/scale_1200
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam received 95 S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile systems and almost 8,000 missiles for them
In addition, 687 tanks were delivered to Vietnam by cargo ships. 316 MiG-17, MiG-21 and Su-17 aircraft arrived in North Vietnam partly by sea and partly by air. These were quite modern machines for those times.
The first battle of the anti-aircraft gunners who arrived from the Union and American pilots took place on July 24, 1965. And soon there were the first victories.
As is known, at that time it was the height of the Cold War, which the West declared on the USSR after the Soviet government refused to recognize the power of the dollar, not ratifying the Bretton Woods Agreement. Therefore, helping the Vietnamese communists was quite logical.
By the way, there are many legends about the participation of Soviet soldiers in this war. One of which is reflected in the popular song "Phantom", when an American pilot asks the Vietnamese:
"Who is that pilot who shot me down?", and he
Answered the slanted one
Who commanded the interrogation
You were shot down by our pilot Li Si Tsin (i.e. Lisitsyn)
Senator McCain in captivity
One of the famous US politicians in the 21st century, who fiercely hated Russia, Senator John McCain, was a pilot during the Vietnam War.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfd37bd8cff1d0a4389e7/scale_1200
John McCain, was a pilot during the Vietnam War
On October 26, 1967, he flew out to bomb a power plant in Hanoi and was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile from the S-75 complex. McCain ejected and glided by parachute into a fountain in the center of the North Vietnamese capital, breaking both arms and a leg. During interrogation, he gave only brief information about himself, but the Vietnamese guessed from his last name that he was a relative of Admiral McCain. Even a French journalist was allowed to see him, who saw him gray-haired and having lost 26 kilograms of weight.
The future senator spent five and a half years in captivity and was released only after the signing of peace agreements.
In 2009, while traveling through Asian countries, he even visited his former cell.
Anti-war movement in the USA
In the United States, from the very beginning of its army's entry into the war, an anti-war movement emerged. At first, it was a few pacifist intellectuals and hippie vagabonds. But then, as the number of killed increased, hundreds of thousands of people began to speak out against the war.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cfe297a8a8e15f8096d61/scale_1200
In 1967, pacifists in the United States held a "march on the Pentagon", when 100 thousand young people came to Washington to protest against the war and the draft.
Soon the first data appeared about the war crimes of the US troops in Vietnam - the murder of civilians and inhumane methods of warfare.
The resonance was caused by the use of defoliants - chemicals that cause leaves to fall on trees so that guerrillas could not hide in the jungle.
☢️ During the war, the US Army sprayed 72 million liters of defoliants on the territory of South Vietnam to destroy forests.
☢️ In addition - and other poisons, which, entering the human body with water and food, caused various liver and blood diseases, mass congenital malformations of newborns and disruptions in the normal course of pregnancy.
After the use of defoliants by the American military after the war, several tens of thousands of people died.
In total, there are about 4.8 million victims of defoliant spraying in Vietnam.
Not only areas of South Vietnam were exposed to chemical influence, but also neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
The American military also
☢️ used gases;
☢️ caused artificial cloud formation and acid rain, using ☢️ cloud treatment with chemicals and acidification of the atmosphere;
☢️ sprayed chemicals that caused severe fires in the jungle
By the way, as a result of the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Americans, about 400,000 people died in Vietnam.
The weapons that the US used were banned back in 1925. That is, it is clear that if the Americans treated their Vietnamese allies as second-class citizens, then they were extremely cruel to their opponents. This is quite comparable to the actions of the Nazis! They destroyed not only people, but also the nature of Vietnam.
The large-scale use of chemicals by American troops led to serious consequences:
⚠️ mangrove forests were almost completely destroyed (500 thousand hectares),
⚠️ 60% (about 1 million hectares) of jungles were affected and
⚠️ 30% (more than 100 thousand hectares) of lowland forests.
⚠️ Since 1960, the yield of rubber plantations has decreased by 75%.
⚠️ American troops destroyed from 40 to 100% of crops:
- bananas,
- rice,
- sweet potatoes,
- papaya,
- tomatoes,
- 70% of coconut plantations,
- 60% of rubber trees,
- 110 thousand hectares of casuarina plantations.
As a result of the use of chemicals, the ecological balance of Vietnam has seriously changed:
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652cff59762550169a13ec9a/scale_1200
In the affected areas,
⚠️ out of 150 bird species, 18 remained,
⚠️ amphibians and insects almost completely disappeared,
⚠️ the number of fish in the rivers decreased and
⚠️ the composition of the rivers changed;
⚠️ the microbiological composition of the soil was disrupted,
⚠️ plants were poisoned;
⚠️ the number of tree and shrub species of the tropical rainforest sharply decreased: in the affected areas, only a few species of trees and several species of thorny grasses remained that were not suitable for cattle feed.
☢️ In general, the United States was not only the first to use nuclear weapons against civilians, they were the first to use scorched earth tactics, using chemical and environmental weapons.
☢️In addition, the Americans burned villages with napalm, a substance that could not be extinguished if it caught fire on a person's clothing.
☢️ In March 1968, US troops committed a mass murder of civilians in the village of Song My.
⚠️ More than 500 residents were killed,
⚠️ all buildings were burned,
⚠️ livestock and
⚠️ crops were destroyed.
Later, only one soldier was found guilty by an American court!
Of course, North Vietnamese soldiers also committed war crimes. For example, after the battle at Hill 1338 in June 1967, they finished off 43 wounded and captured Americans with shots to the head.
But unlike the Americans, they were fighting for their lives on their own soil against a foreign army.
Well, in general, everyone knows how Americans fight since World War II.
In addition to using nuclear weapons against the civilian population of Japan, it is important to note that during the entire Second World War, 4 million civilians in Germany were killed. So, of these 4 million civilians, 3 million were killed by Anglo-American bombings. This is 3 times more than the military of Hitler's Germany and its allies destroyed by them during the entire Second World War.
In general, to be honest, the main war then was Europe against the USSR, where 1 million civilians in Germany died as a result of military actions.
Afterwards, Britain and the United States simply decided to join the victory and killed 3 million civilians with their bombings. This is not counting the Japanese. This is how the Americans fight. Including in Vietnam.
As for the position of the Soviet Union in that war, Stalin said: "Hitlers come and go, but the German people remain."
So, US Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg, having served as a Marine in Vietnam and having seen the horrors that were happening there, later took a secret report about US policy in Vietnam from his job at the Pentagon and in 1971 gave it to journalists. And they published it.
Ellsberg had to sue the government for several years and prove that it had done more harm to the country with its policy than he had done with his publication of the report. Oddly enough, the court sided with him and the journalists.
In the early 1970s, rock festivals, ethnic holidays, demonstrations and rallies in cities were already being held against the war in Vietnam.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652d0042899d7674f39ea4d0/scale_1200
In the early 1970s, rock festivals, ethnic holidays, demonstrations and rallies in cities were already being held against the Vietnam War.
Famous people of the world created the "Russell Tribunal" to morally condemn Americans fighting in a foreign country. It included world celebrities.
Military operations and heavy losses
The leadership of the American army, understanding the unpopularity of the war, sought to end it by defeating the communist guerrillas in South Vietnam and destroying the cities of North Vietnam.
American units launched offensives in the jungle twice: in 1965-1967 and in 1968. The US Army managed to take control of the roads, but the guerrillas laid "Viet Cong trails" through the mountains and through the neighboring country of Laos, along which they dragged weapons and ammunition by hand, transported them on carts and pack donkeys. While the Americans were winning in open battles, they were unable to cope with the partisans.
In 1969, the Vietnamese President of the DRV Ho Chi Minh died. But this did not affect the course of the war, nor did the human losses of the communists. They were ready for such sacrifices. Their motivation was high.
But American society was not ready for large losses in a distant Asian war. In total, 58 thousand US servicemen were killed, missing, died of wounds and diseases from 1964-1973 (47 thousand in battles, 11 thousand from diseases and other causes). There were 303 thousand wounded, and many of them returned to America as cripples and served there as living evidence of the uselessness of the war.
Two communist offensives from north to south in 1968 and 1972 led to a complete revolution in the minds of Americans: "We have been fighting for many years, but we are not succeeding!" - even those who initially advocated war shouted. They changed their position radically.
In 1969, when the US president changed and the Republicans led by Richard Nixon came to power, a course was proclaimed for the "Vietnamization of the war": let some Vietnamese, i.e. American puppets, fight with others, and we need to leave.
As practice has shown more than once later, the withdrawal of American troops from anywhere in the 21st century leads to filling the "vacuum". This happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And in fact, the withdrawal from Vietnam itself was similar to the flight from Afghanistan.
There is a famous photo on the Internet where the Americans and their vassals, fleeing, throw a helicopter off a ship - a working, normal one, to make room for people.
https://avatars.dzeninfra.ru/get-zen_doc/271828/pub_6527e5817ccaeb00f20fd873_652d0107c095b8411aca221e/scale_1200
The famous photo of the Americans and their vassals escaping, throwing a helicopter off a ship to make room for the people
But naturally, this did not help, as in Afghanistan, the native collaborators tried to escape to the USA, but they were simply pushed out of the transport.
Withdrawal of troops and defeat
Between 1971 and 1973, American units were withdrawn from Vietnam more and more, until by the time the peace agreement between North Vietnam and the USA was signed in Paris, there were only 24 thousand of them left.
The document on the complete withdrawal was signed on January 27, 1973.
After that, the communists continued the fight - the partisans in the south received constant assistance from the north.
And in 1974, the US Congress decided to reduce military aid to South Vietnam - and soon its army began to retreat.
In December 1974, the North Vietnamese army crossed the border and began an offensive. Five generals who served as Americans committed suicide, and on April 30, 1975, the communists raised the red flag over Saigon.
This is how the story of the Americans' attempt to curb the Vietnamese ended.
In essence, the United States lost to a small nation with a traditional system, while having hundreds of times more resources and the most modern technologies, using vile methods and prohibited weapons.
The war was waged, as was said, for a zone of influence. The Americans, having covered thousands of kilometers, killed about 5 million Vietnamese so that they could continue to exploit them and use them in their geopolitical interests. This is how Western civilization works, which today talks about humanism and democracy.
❌Unfortunately, no one was punished for what they did.
❌In addition, the American state has since started numerous wars around the world, naturally choosing a weaker opponent who cannot fight back.
This is how Americans fight.