A report on Vietnam War, Laos and First Indochina War

Clockwise from top left: U.S. combat operations in Ia Đrăng

ARVN Rangers defending Saigon during the 1968 Tết Offensive

Two A-4C Skyhawks after the Gulf of Tonkin incident

ARVN recapture Quảng Trị during the 1972 Easter Offensive

Civilians fleeing the 1972 Battle of Quảng Trị

Burial of 300 victims of the 1968 Huế Massacre

Clockwise from top: After the fall of Dien Bien Phu supporting Laotian troops fall back across the Mekong River into Laos; French Marine commandos wade ashore off the Annam coast in July 1950; M24 Chaffee American light tank used by French in Vietnam; Geneva Conference on 21 July 1954; A Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat from Escadrille 1F prepares to land on operating in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Ba Cut in Can Tho Military Court 1956, commander of religious movement the Hòa Hảo, which had fought against the Việt Minh, Vietnamese National Army and Cao Dai movement throughout the first war

Pha That Luang in Vientiane is the national symbol of Laos.

Map of insurgency and "disturbances", 1957 to 1960

Fa Ngum, founder of the Lan Xang Kingdom

Japanese troops lay down their arms to British troops in a ceremony in Saigon after the surrender of Japan.

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles greet President Ngô Đình Diệm of South Vietnam in Washington, 8 May 1957

Local Lao soldiers in the French Colonial guard, c. 1900

Commander of the C.L.I. (Corps Léger d'Intervention) arriving in Indochina.

The Ho Chi Minh trail, known as the Truong Son Road by the North Vietnamese, cuts through Laos. This would develop into a complex logistical system which would allow the North Vietnamese to maintain the war effort despite the largest aerial bombardment campaign in history

French General Salan and Prince Sisavang Vatthana in Luang Prabang, 4 May 1953

Telegram from Hồ Chí Minh to U.S. President Harry S. Truman requesting support for independence (Hanoi, February 28, 1946)

The Ho Chi Minh trail required, on average, four months of rough-terrain travel for combatants from North Vietnam destined for the Southern battlefields.

Ruins of Muang Khoun, former capital of Xiangkhouang province, destroyed by the American bombing of Laos in the late 1960s

Hồ Chí Minh and Marius Moutet shaking hands after signing modus vivendi 1946 after Fontainebleau Agreements

President Kennedy's news conference of 23 March 1961

French Marine commandos wade ashore off the Annam coast

Mekong River flowing through Luang Prabang

A map of dissident activities in Indochina in 1950

Laos map of Köppen climate classification.

French foreign airborne 1st BEP firing with an FM 24/29 light machine gun during an ambush (1952)

Ngô Đình Diệm after being shot and killed in a coup on 2 November 1963

Flag of the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party

A Bearcat naval fighter aircraft of the Aéronavale drops napalm on Việt Minh Division 320th's artillery during Operation Mouette (November 1953)

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ASEAN heads of state in New Delhi on 25 January 2018

Map of the war in 1954: Orange = Areas under Việt Minh control. Purple = Areas under French control. White-dotted hatch = Areas of Việt Minh guerrilla encampment and fighting.

A U.S. B-66 Destroyer and four F-105 Thunderchiefs dropping bombs on North Vietnam during Operation Rolling Thunder

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016

Captured French soldiers, escorted by Vietnamese troops, walk to a prisoner-of-war camp in Dien Bien Phu

ARVN Forces and a US Advisor inspect a downed helicopter, Battle of Dong Xoai, June 1965

A Marine from 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, moves a suspected Viet Cong during a search and clear operation held by the battalion 15 mi west of Da Nang Air Base, 1965.

A proportional representation of Laos exports, 2019

Student demonstration in Saigon, July 1964, observing the tenth anniversary of the July 1954 Geneva Agreements

Peasants suspected of being Viet Cong under detention of U.S. Army, 1966

French Foreign Legion patrol question a suspected member of the Việt Minh.

Heavily bandaged woman burned by napalm, with a tag attached to her arm which reads "VNC Female" meaning Vietnamese civilian

Near the sanctuary on the main upper level of Vat Phou, looking back towards the Mekong River

China supplied the Việt Minh with hundreds of Soviet-built GAZ-51 trucks during the 1950s.

A US "tunnel rat" soldier prepares to enter a Viet Cong tunnel.

Rivers are an important means of transport in Laos.

Anti-communist Vietnamese refugees moving from a French LSM landing ship to the USS Montague (AKA-98) during Operation Passage to Freedom in 1954

Viet Cong soldier crouches in a bunker with an SKS rifle

Pha That Luang in Vientiane. The Buddhist stupa that is a national symbol of Laos.

Bois Belleau (aka USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24)) transferred to France in 1953

ARVN forces assault a stronghold in the Mekong Delta.

A 1952 F4U-7 Corsair of the 14.F flotilla which fought at Dien Bien Phu

Viet Cong before departing to participate in the Tet Offensive around Saigon-Gia Dinh

National University of Laos in Vientiane.

French-marked USAF C-119 flown by CIA pilots over Dien Bien Phu in 1954

A poster celebrating the 60th anniversary of the French recognition of North Vietnamese independence

The ruins of a section of Saigon, in the Cholon neighborhood, following fierce fighting between ARVN forces and Viet Cong Main Force battalions

French Indochina medal, law of August 1, 1953

Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson at the Glassboro Summit Conference where the two representatives discussed the possibilities of a peace settlement

Lao dancers during the New Year celebration

Propaganda leaflet urging the defection of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to the side of the Republic of Vietnam

ARVN and US Special Forces, September 1968

Wat Nong Sikhounmuang - buddhist pagoda in Luang Prabang.

An alleged Viet Cong captured during an attack on an American outpost near the Cambodian border is interrogated.

Soviet advisers inspecting the debris of a B-52 downed in the vicinity of Hanoi

American POWs recently released from North Vietnamese prison camps, 1973

Civilians in a NVA/Viet Cong controlled zone. Civilians were required to show appropriate flags, during the War of the flags

Memorial commemorating the 1974 Buon Me Thuot campaign, depicting a Montagnard of the Central Highlands, a NVA soldier and a T-54 tank

Victorious PAVN troops at the Presidential Palace, Saigon

Ho Chi Minh from the Việt Minh independence movement and Việt Cộng with East German sailors in Stralsund harbour, 1957

Leonid Brezhnev (left) was the Soviet Union's leader during the Vietnam War.

Soviet anti-air instructors and North Vietnamese crewmen in the spring of 1965 at an anti-aircraft training center in Vietnam

Vietnam People's Air Force pilots walk by their aircraft, the MiG-17. The development of the North Vietnamese Vietnam People's Air Force (VPAF) during the war was assisted by Warsaw Pact nations throughout the war. Between 1966 and 1972 a total of 17 flying aces was credited by the VPAF against US fighters.

Fidel Castro meeting with Võ Nguyên Giáp at the Vietnam Military History Museum

East German solidarity stamp depicting a Vietnamese mother and child with the text "Unconquerable Vietnam"

The Thai Queen's Cobra battalion in Phuoc Tho

Napalm burn victims during the war being treated at the 67th Combat Support Hospital

Interment of victims of the Huế Massacre

Master-Sergeant and pharmacist Do Thi Trinh, part of the WAFC, supplying medication to ARVN dependents

Memorial temple to Nguyễn Thị Định and the female volunteers of the Viet Cong whom she commanded. They came to call themselves the "Long-Haired Army".

A wounded African-American soldier being carried away, 1968

Guerrillas assemble shells and rockets delivered along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

UH-1D helicopters airlift members of a U.S. infantry regiment, 1966

North Vietnamese SAM crew in front of SA-2 launcher. The Soviet Union provided North Vietnam with considerable anti-air defence around installations.

Bombs being dropped by the B-52 Stratofortress long-range strategic bomber.

B-52 wreckage in Huu Tiep Lake, Hanoi. Downed during Operation Linebacker II, its remains have turned into a war monument.

Vietnamese refugees fleeing Vietnam, 1984

A bombed Buddha statue in Laos. U.S. bombing campaigns made Vietnam the single most bombed country in history.

Captured U.S.-supplied armored vehicles and artillery pieces

A young Marine private waits on the beach during the Marine landing, Da Nang, 3 August 1965

A marine gets his wounds treated during operations in Huế City, in 1968

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and General Westmoreland talk with General Tee on conditions of the war in Vietnam.

U.S. helicopter spraying chemical defoliants in the Mekong Delta, South Vietnam, 1969

Handicapped children in Vietnam, most of them victims of Agent Orange, 2004

Cemetery for ten unmarried girls who volunteered for logistical activities, who died in a B-52 raid at Đồng Lộc Junction, a strategic junction along the Ho Chi Minh trail

Stone plaque with photo of the "Thương tiếc" (Mourning Soldier) statue, originally, installed at the Republic of Vietnam National Military Cemetery. The original statue was demolished in April 1975.

The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975.

- Vietnam War

Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia.

- First Indochina War

The conflict emerged from the First Indochina War between the French colonial government and a left-wing revolutionary movement, the Viet Minh.

- Vietnam War

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the communist Pathet Lao came to power, ending the civil war.

- Laos

The conflict gradually escalated into the Vietnam War (1955–1975).

- First Indochina War

During the First Indochina War, the Indochinese Communist Party formed the Pathet Lao independence organisation.

- Laos

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Vietnam

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Country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of 311699 km2 and population of 96 million, making it the world's fifteenth-most populous country.

The Grand Palais built for the 1902–1903 world's fair, when Hanoi was French Indochina's capital

Partition of French Indochina after the 1954 Geneva Conference

Three US Fairchild UC-123B aircraft spraying Agent Orange during the Operation Ranch Hand as part of a herbicidal warfare operation depriving the food and vegetation cover of the Việt Cộng, c. 1962–1971

Nature attractions in Vietnam, clockwise from top: Hạ Long Bay, Yến River and Bản-Giốc Waterfalls

Hoàng Liên Sơn mountain range, the range that includes Fansipan which is the highest summit on the Indochinese Peninsula.

Köppen climate classification map of Vietnam.

Nha Trang, a popular beach destination has a tropical savanna climate.

Native species in Vietnam, clockwise from top-right: crested argus, a peafowl, red-shanked douc, Indochinese leopard, saola.

Sa Pa mountain hills with agricultural activities

The National Assembly of Vietnam building in Hanoi

Examples of the Vietnam People's Armed Forces weaponry assets. Clockwise from top right: T-54B tank, Sukhoi Su-27UBK fighter aircraft, Vietnam Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter, and Vietnam People's Army chemical corps with Type 56.

A Communist Party propaganda poster in Hanoi

Historical GDP per capita development of Vietnam

Vietnam's tallest skyscraper, the Landmark 81 located in Bình Thạnh, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

A Vietnamese-made TOPIO 3.0 humanoid ping-pong-playing robot displayed during the 2009 International Robot Exhibition (IREX) in Tokyo.

Vietnamese science students working on an experiment in their university lab.

Hội An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a major tourist destination.

HCMC–LT–DG section of the North–South Expressway.

Tan Son Nhat International Airport is the busiest airport in the country.

The port of Hai Phong is one of the largest and busiest container ports in Vietnam.

Sơn La Dam in northern Vietnam, the largest hydroelectric dam in Southeast Asia.

In rural areas of Vietnam, piped water systems are operated by a wide variety of institutions including a national organisation, people committees (local government), community groups, co-operatives and private companies.

Development of life expectancy in Vietnam since 1950

Vietnamese calligraphy in Latin alphabet.

Vietnamese traditional white school uniform for girls in the country, the áo dài with the addition of nón lá, a conical hat.

Vietnamese dragon on Emperor Khải Định's c. 1917 scroll in British Library collection.

Ca trù trio performance in northern Vietnam

Some of the notable Vietnamese cuisine, clockwise from top-right: phở noodle, chè thái fruit dessert, chả giò spring roll and bánh mì sandwich.

Vietnam Television (VTV), the main state television station

Special Tết decoration in the country seen during the holiday

Vietnam borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia through the South China Sea.

After World War II, France returned to reclaim colonial power in the First Indochina War, from which Vietnam emerged victorious in 1954.

The Vietnam War began shortly after, during which the nation was divided into communist North supported by the Soviet Union and China, and anti-communist South supported by the United States.

People's Army of Vietnam

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Military force of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

General Võ Nguyên Giáp on the date of the PAVN's establishment in 1944. Chief of General Staff Hoàng Văn Thái wearing a pith helmet and holding the flag.

Infiltrators on the move in Laos down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Captured photo shows VC crossing a river in 1966.

Vietnam Map with eight Military Districts and four Corps

During the French Indochina War (1946–1954), the PAVN was often referred to as the Việt Minh.

In the context of the Vietnam War (1955–1975), the army was referred to as the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).

Soon after the 1954 Geneva Accords, the 330th and 338th Divisions were formed by southern Viet Minh members who had moved north in conformity with that agreement, and by 1955, six more divisions were formed: the 328th, 332nd and 350th in the north of the North Vietnam, the 305th and the 324th near the DMZ, and the 335 Division of soldiers repatriated from Laos.

South Vietnam

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Country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of the Cold War.

About 1 million North Vietnamese refugees left the newly created communist North Vietnam during Operation "Passage to Freedom" (October 1954).

A woman casting her ballot in the 1967 elections in the Republic of Vietnam

Radio Vietnam broadcast hours cards, denoting times and frequencies of radio broadcasts in 1960 and 1962. Address: 3 Phan Dinh Phung St., Saigon

The beginnings of the Vietnam War occurred in 1955 with an uprising by the newly organized National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (Việt Cộng), armed and supported by the North Vietnam, with backing mainly from China and the Soviet Union.

A French governor-general (toàn quyền) in Hanoi administered all the five parts of Indochina (Tonkin, Annam, Cochinchina, Laos, and Cambodia) while Cochinchina (Nam Kỳ) was under a French governor (thống đốc), but the difference from the other parts with most indigenous intelligentsia and wealthy were naturalized French (Tourane now Đà Nẵng in the central third of Vietnam also enjoyed this privilege because this city was a concession too.) The northern third of Vietnam (then the colony (thuộc địa) of Tonkin (Bắc Kỳ) was under a French resident general (thống sứ).

The French Indochina War began on 19 December 1946, with the French regaining control of Hanoi and many other cities.

Viet Cong

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Guerrilla forces from North Vietnam's Vietcong movement crossing a river in 1966 during the Vietnam War

Soldiers and civilians took supplies south on the Ho Chi Minh trail (1959)

Situation of the Communist forces in South Vietnam in early 1964

A photo from the U.S. Information Agency allegedly showing a 23-year-old Le Van Than, who had defected from the Communist forces and joined the South Vietnam Government side and was later recaptured by the Viet Cong and spent a month in a Viet Cong internment camp.

Brinks Hotel, Saigon, following a Viet Cong bombing on December 24, 1964. Two American officers were killed.

A Viet Cong prisoner captured in 1967 by the U.S. Army awaits interrogation.

A U.S. Air Force Douglas Skyraider drops a white phosphorus bomb on a Viet Cong position in South Vietnam in 1966.

Viet Cong soldiers captured by US Marines outside of Dong Ha, RVN 1968

Viet Cong soldier stands beneath a Viet Cong flag carrying his AK-47 rifle.

A U.S. propaganda leaflet urges Viet Cong to defect using the Chiêu Hồi Program.

Viet Cong soldiers carry an injured American POW to a prisoner swap in 1973. The VC uniform was a floppy jungle hat, rubber sandals, and green fatigues without rank or insignia.

The Viet Cong was an armed communist revolutionary organization in South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

It fought under the direction of North Vietnam, against the South Vietnamese and United States governments during the Vietnam War, eventually emerging on the winning side.

By the terms of the Geneva Accord (1954), which ended the Indochina War, France and the Viet Minh agreed to a truce and to a separation of forces.