vietnam history - 1945 - 1975, vietnam war - 1961-1975, viet nam war, dien bien phu, french indochina war, fall of saigon, viet minh's victory

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.722.non-fictionVietnam became the Western world's most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and less familiar battles such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh's warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed 2 million people. Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom forty died for every American. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners' victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, Marines from North Carolina, Huey pilots from Arkansas.vietnam war 1961-1975 – history, vietnam war 1961-1975 – personal recollections

The Viet Nam Wars tells the story of the three wars fought in Viet Nam since 1945: an anti-colonial war, directed against the French, ending with the Viet Minh's victory at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; a war if national reunification, pursued by the northern Vietnamese against their southern counterparts, culminating in the fall of Saigon in 1975; and intimately connected with this internal conflict, a war against American forces that lasted from 1965 until 1973.indochinese war, 1946-1954, vietnamese conflict , 1961-1975, dien bien phu, fall of saigon

For as long as the Vietnamese people fought against foreign enemies, women were a vital part of that struggle. The victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu is said to have involved hundreds of thousands of women, and many of the names in Viet Cong unit rosters were female. 1961-1975 - women - interviews, vietnamese conflict, 1961-1975 -- personal narratives, vietnamese, ho chi minh, viet cong, hanoi

1963 – A general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu participates in the overthrow of President Ngô Đình Diệm 's government. Coup leader General Dương Văn Minh briefly becomes chief of a military junta in South Vietnam. 1964 – Lieutenant General Nguyễn Khánh overthrows Minh to become prime minister. 1965 – Vice Air Marshall Nguyễn Cao Kỳ overthrows Khánh to become prime minister. General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu is his chief of state. 1967 – Nguyễn Văn Thiệu runs successfully to be the second president of South Vietnam. Nguyễn Cao Kỳ is his running mate. 1971 – President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu re-elected. 1973 – The Paris Peace Accords, negotiated without Thiệu’s participation, fails to stop the fighting in South Vietnam. Even so, US and allied troops withdraw. 1975 – On 24 April, with North Vietnamese victory imminent, Thiệu’ resigns as president and the CIA fly him to Taiwan. He then spends most of his exile in London, moving to Massachusetts, USA, in the 1990s. Timber framed image of Nguyen Van Thieu, Second President of Vietnamrepublic of vietnam, president of south vietnam, nguyen van thieu, thieu