In May 1975, the Vietnamise people’s army swept south and toppled the US puppets in their capital. The victory was an example to liberation movements across the world, remembers Bill Bonnar.
On May 1st, 1975, one of the greatest victories of the modern era took place when forces of the Vietnamese Liberation Army entered Saigon to complete the final liberation of their country. It was the culmination of a heroic struggle against immense odds when the Vietnamese people finally achieved their independence first from French colonialism then from American imperialism. It also represented a catastrophic defeat for the United States which reverberates to this day. Since 1975 the United States has never engaged in a war against any country that could actually hit back. Their aggression has always been against countries which lacked the military capability, whether it be Iraq or Afghanistan. It is why the United States has never launched a military attack on Iran. The Vietnam war also sparked one of the greatest solidarity movements in history; a global movement which played a key role in the victory, particularly in America. Fifty years on it is still difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the conflict and its global significance.
Vietnam had been a French colony, part of French Indochina, a colonial regime marked by brutality and exploitation. During the Second World War the country was occupied by Japan and after their defeat the demand for independence was overwhelming. Led by the Vietnamese Communist Party under the leadership of Ho Chi Min, the independence movement grew from strength to strength. When the French colonial regime returned in 1945 the National Liberation Movement launched an armed struggle to free the country, eventually defeating the French forces and establishing themselves as the dominant force throughout the country. In 1954 a peace deal was brokered, allowing for a temporary division of the country between North and South pending national elections. The elections took place in the North resulting in an overwhelming victory for the Liberation Movement. Fearing the same result in the South a military coup took place, supported by the United States, cancelling the election and establishing South Vietnam as a separate country. Of course, the Republic of South Vietnam was always a fiction, certainly in the eyes of the Vietnamese people including those who lived in the South. It was created by the Americans and their allies as a vehicle for their occupation in much the same way as the Vichy Republic in France during the second World War was a vehicle for the German occupation. Both disappeared as soon as the respective occupations ended.
The regime in Saigon was a puppet of the United States. It would not have lasted five minutes without US military and economic support. Supported by North Vietnam, which in turn was supported by the Soviet Union and China, the liberation forces in the south launched a guerilla war to free their country. The American response was to send in tens of thousands of troops and begin a bombing campaign against North Vietnam. By 1970 it was clear the United States had lost the ground war, with 50,000 American troops killed. They now relied almost entirely on the bombing campaign. By 1972 this was also proving ineffective, while the anti-war movement was reaching a crescendo. The Americans actively considered using nuclear weapons as a final throw of the dice, but came up with a plan which might have proven equally effective: Operation Rolling Thunder. Using conventional B52 bombers, they would bomb North Vietnam ‘back to the stone age’. In December 1972 the bombers struck 24 hours a day for a week. The destruction was unimaginable. More bombs were dropped on North Vietnam in that week than were dropped in the whole of Europe during the whole of the Second World War. Yet still it didn’t break the will of the Vietnamese people. After that, Washington knew they were defeated. They signed the Paris Peace accord in 1973, allowing for a phased withdrawal of American forces, leaving their puppets in Saigon to face the music. Now in control of most of the country the liberation forces supported by North Vietnam swept south, taking the capital on May 1st, 1975.
It represented a catastrophic defeat for American imperialism and a victory for the Vietnamese people that was an example to those involved in similar struggles throughout the world. The cost to Vietnam was enormous. An estimated two million people killed. Millions injured. Tens of thousands of babies born with deformities and cancer caused by chemical attacks by the Americans. The whole country reduced to ruin by American bombing. A level of death and destruction for which the United States has never paid a penny in reparations. Not even an apology. It took a generation to recover.
Bill Bonnar is the International Secretary of the Scottish Socialist Party and a member of the Scottish Left Review editorial committee.