In my nearly two decades of writing a regular column, I can’t recall ever penning a historical commentary on the Vietnam War.
I could be wrong; the old memory banks aren’t exactly razor sharp as I grow older. But I’m pretty confident in that assessment, and the reasoning is simple. This conflict – which bridged two long, bloody decades from 1955 to 1975, more or less – is far too complex to simply abbreviate into a single piece. There were so many facets and so many players. This week I’m going to pull out one of those facets, which may spark other pieces in the future. And by may, I mean that I can pretty much guarantee it.
Those with a base knowledge of the Vietnam War will most certainly know of the United States’ involvement in the conflict, largely fought between democratic South and communist North. There have been countless movies and documentaries created on America’s main active fighting years in the Southeast Asian nation in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, but U.S. intervention in the region actually began much earlier.
America’s first crack at stifling communism in Asia began with the Korean War. Three years of vicious fighting resulted in a stalemate by the time the armistice was finally signed in July 1953. The U.S., aligned with the democratic Republic of Korea in the south (sound familiar…) against the communist forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the north backed by their allies China and the Soviet Union, lost 36,000 personnel after the guns had fallen silent. Evidently unsatisfied with the result, the American powers-at-be turned their attention to French-controlled Vietnam in their next bid to prevent the ‘Red Tide’ from washing further over East Asia.
Prior to 1965, the American government was cautious in actually committing troops on the ground in Vietnam to do the actual fighting against the communist armies of the North and its combat allies such as the notorious Viet Cong. And so at first it supported the French peripherally in other ways, mostly by providing equipment, performing reconnaissance flights and training soldiers. France had overseen Vietnam as one of its colonies since the 1880s, but after decades of uprisings and bitter fighting it finally relinquished control of the nation in 1954 by pulling out its military forces and governing politicians.
Ho Chi Minh’s communist movement had gained significant strength particularly in the northern regions by this point, and at the 1954 Geneva Conference the country was split virtually in two at the 17th parallel. Hanoi would serve as capital in the north and Saigon would be the capital in the south. Still fearing that socialist movements would spread throughout the region, the U.S. government doubled down on providing training and military technology and equipment to the ARVN – South Vietnam’s armed forces.
John F. Kennedy was the first American president to truly escalate the U.S.’s role in Vietnam, and he would not be the last. One of the means he authorized to assist the south’s fight against the north was disrupting Hanoi’s ability to feed and hide its troops. American military advisors recommended that the Air Force use a series of potent herbicide mixtures to blanket Vietnam’s thick vegetation overgrowth in an effort to eliminate the previously impenetrable jungle canopy. The herbicide would also effectively destroy rice fields used to feed the communist troops.
One of the most notorious herbicides the U.S. employed was a mixture known as Agent Orange. The concoction notably contained a chemical contaminant called dioxin, which was extremely effective in destroying vegetation, but would also prove equally effective in harming human cells. By the time ‘Operation Ranch Hand’ ended in 1971, it is estimated that something like five million acres of forest were either destroyed or heavily damaged by Agent Orange and the host of other herbicides used. More than 45 million litres of Orange were dropped on the Vietnam countryside over the 10-year campaign.
The staggering environmental factors aside, the human impact was equally appalling. There is no way to know the actual number of people these toxic herbicides killed directly, but estimates are in the ballpark of half a million due to the host of cancers and other health problems they manifested. Millions more continue to be affected today, 60 years later. Agent Orange and its cousins White, Blue, Purple, Pink and Green have also been directly linked to hundreds of thousands of birth defects in Vietnam. American military personnel who directly handled the substance or were exposed to it were not immune as well; many who survived the war returned home only to succumb to cancers created by the herbicides years after the last U.S. troops were pulled out of Saigon in dramatic fashion in 1973.
The quote at the top of this piece is attributed to American history writer Paul Dickson. He was referencing the seemingly-innocent handles used by the U.S. military for some of its deadliest weapons deployed during Vietnam, and included Agent Orange in the mix. And despite its technological edge and air superiority over the country, the U.S. still failed to wear away the resolve of its opponent. The Vietnamese knew their country well and how to fight in it extremely effectively, and exacted a toll of over 58,000 Americans killed in action by war’s end. Vietnam remains a communist nation to this day.
The Vietnam War saw atrocities committed by both sides, and wherever there is war at any point of time in history, it’s usually the local civilian population that suffers most. The Vietnamese population certainly suffered unimaginably. And because of the decision to utilize substances like Agent Orange without truly knowing the human cost down the road, multiple generations of innocent people wound up paying for it.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you back here in a fortnight.
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This is a bi-weekly opinion column; for question or comment contact Dan McNee at dmcnee@midwesternnewspapers.com.
