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Cold
War Files:
The Vietnam War:
Introduction
The Wars for Indochina, 1945-1975
Ia Drang. Khe Sanh. The Tet Offensive. Napalm. Agent Orange. The Christmas Bombing. Kent State. Ho Chi Minh. The bombing of Cambodia. Vietnamization. To many Americans, the words above resurrect memories of war in Indochina, a war usually seen as a tragic episode in the Cold War that helped to shape an entire generation’s encounter with the world. These words drive home that American memory of Indochina is fragmentary. Remembrance, yes; but of an American-refracted experience.
The wars for Indochina (and area comprised of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) stretched over four decades: 1945 to 1989. They ultimately came to play an important role in the global Cold War. American involvement in Indochina was heaviest from 1965 to 1975, but these wars cannot be reduced to those years alone. One has to go back to 1945, for this long conflict only makes sense in the context of French colonialism, the rise of anticolonial nationalism, French decolonization, and the rise of the Cold War.
Soldiers quickly unload from a helicopter  | Looking at a map, one can see that French Indochina occupied the eastern third of mainland Southeast Asia. Vietnam in particular takes up the easternmost portion, a long S-shaped wedge of land bordering the South China sea. Although geographers place Vietnam within Southeast Asia, Vietnamese have historically defined themselves in relation to China, on its northern frontier, and Southeast Asia to its south and west.
With the coming of French imperialists in the nineteenth century, the Japanese military in World War Two, and Americans in the Cold War, a wide array of international forces have also left their mark on the country. It is also important to note, however, that the wars that broke out after 1945 in Vietnam eventually spilled over into Laos and Cambodia as well. For this reason, I will refer to the conflicts in this region as the First Indochina War (1946-1954), the Second Indochina War (1959-1975), and the Third Indochina War (1977-89). Given the limited space available here, I will focus on Vietnam in the period from 1945 to 1975 but make a few comments on the wars in these other countries.
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