I took these photos 45 years ago. At the end of the Vietnam War. Not its complete completion, when Vietnam was united, but the Vietnam War waged by America, about which so much has been written and filmed that there seems to be nothing to add.

On the morning of January 27, 1973, the center of Hanoi along the shores of the Lake of the Returned Sword was unusually crowded. Few people lived in the cities during the war. The Vietnamese explained this with the exhaustive word so tan - "evacuation" or, more precisely, "dispersal". But the winter dankness gave way to warmth, and it was possible to relax in the slightly damp, caressing air, which happens very early in spring before the flowering of oriental cherries.

It was the day of victory. The mood of the people on the bomb-sheltered shore of the lake was upbeat, but not exactly jubilant, although newspapers and street speakers shouted about the historic victory. Everyone was waiting for news of the signing in Paris of an agreement to restore peace in Vietnam. The time difference with France is six hours, and the historical moment came in the evening.

In the Tassov mansion on the cozy Khao Ba Kuat, teletypes were already chiming out dispatches from Paris about the arrival of delegations on Avenue Kleber, when my colleagues and I gathered at a table by the open veranda to celebrate the event in Russian. Even though they haven't figured it out yet.

A month ago, at the same table for a can of sprats, a bubble of "Stolichnaya" and pickles from the embassy shop, they gathered for dinner in order to be in time before the night bombing. More often they did not have time and shuddered from a close explosion ...

The gift of the American Santa Claus was the finale of the war: in less than 12 days, one hundred thousand tons of bombs on the cities of North Vietnam - five non-nuclear Hiroshima.

New Year 1972 in Haiphong. "Christmas" bombings touched not only military facilities. Author's photo

Glittering beards of aluminum tinsel hung from the branches of a sprawling ligja in the yard, dropped by escort planes to interfere with air defense radars.

In November, I still "went to war." Vietnam was not bombed north of the 20th parallel so as not to spoil the atmosphere of the Paris talks. Nixon promised the Americans to adequately pull the country out of the Vietnamese swamp, and negotiations seemed to be moving forward.

After 45 years, the world has changed a lot, but the political technologies of war and peace are similar. Hanoi insisted that in the south of Vietnam it was not his regular troops who were fighting against the Americans and the Saigon regime, but rebels and guerrillas (“we are not there”). The Americans and Saigon refused to talk to the "rebels", and Hanoi did not recognize the Republic of Vietnam - "an American puppet". Finally found the form. The negotiations that began in 1969 were quadripartite: the United States, North Vietnam, the pro-American Republic of Vietnam, and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (VRP RSV) created by Hanoi, which was recognized only by the socialist countries. Everyone understood that the war was going on between communist Vietnam and the United States, and the real bargaining went on in parallel between Politburo member Le Duc Tho and presidential adviser Henry Kissinger.

In the autumn of seventy-two, the Americans did not bomb the main part of North Vietnam with the largest cities. But everything south of the 20th parallel, on the way to the south of the movement of North Vietnamese troops, equipment and ammunition, US aircraft - tactical from the Thai Utapao (this is the resort of Pattaya!), Strategic from Guam and "sailors" from aircraft carriers - ironed to the fullest. The ships of the 7th Fleet added their artillery, the silhouettes of which, in good weather, appeared on the horizon. The narrow strip of the coastal plain was like the surface of the moon.

Now from Hanoi to the Hamrong Bridge, the beginning of that former “fourth zone”, the drive is no more than two hours, and then it was better not to meddle on the number one coastal highway, but to trudge south through the mountains and jungle along the dirt roads of the “Ho Chi Minh trail”. Past burned-out fuel trucks and tanks, joker with girls from repair teams on broken crossings.

The word “detente” sounded in the world, which the Vietnamese did not like (what kind of “detente” is there if you have to fight for the unification of the country?). They were morbidly jealous of America of both "elder brothers" who were at enmity with each other.

Nixon became the first US president to come to Beijing and Moscow and talk to Mao and Brezhnev. In mid-December 1972, the American press wrote about the flight to the moon of Apollo 17 with three astronauts and the imminent end of the Vietnam War. In the words of Kissinger, "the world was at arm's length."

On October 8, Kissinger met with Le Duc Tho at a villa near Paris. He surprised the American by proposing a draft nine-point agreement that broke the vicious circle of mutual demands. Hanoi proposed a ceasefire in all of Vietnam a day after the signing of the agreement, two months later the Americans were to withdraw their troops, and a coalition government was created in South Vietnam. That is, Hanoi recognized the Saigon administration as a partner. It was proposed to hold elections under the auspices of the Council of National Reconciliation and Accord.

One can speculate about the reasons for Hanoi's softening of approach. His Easter offensive in the spring of 1972 in the south was not a success. The Americans responded with powerful bombing of major cities and North Vietnamese infrastructure. Detente raised doubts about the reliability of the allies - the USSR and China.

Kissinger and Le Duc Tho met three more times in October. Hanoi agreed to drop the demand to release all political prisoners in South Vietnam in exchange for the release of American prisoners of war. They also set a date for the end of the war - 30 October. Kissinger flew off to consult with Nixon.

What followed was less and less clear news. The head of the Saigon regime, Nguyen Van Thieu, said that he would not make concessions to the communists, no matter what the Americans agreed with them. Washington demanded that the project be amended and made it a precondition for the withdrawal of regular units of North Vietnam from South Vietnam, the entry of a five thousandth international contingent there. On October 26, the State Department said that there would be no signing on the 30th. Hanoi responded by publishing a secret draft agreement. The Americans were indignant, the negotiations stalled. On December 13, Kissinger flew out of Paris, and two days later, Le Duc Tho.

In the liberated areas of South Vietnam. There, Hanoi fought under the flag of the self-proclaimed republic. Author's photo

Saturday, December 16th was cool. In the morning, Hanoi was enveloped in "fun", a winter mixture of rain and fog. In "Nyan Zan" there was a long statement of the GRP RYU. The meaning is clear: if Washington does not withdraw its amendments, the Vietnamese will fight to the bitter end. In other words, expect an offensive in the dry season that has already begun in the south.

From the center of Hanoi to the airport Gyalam only eight kilometers, but the road could take an hour, or two, or more. Two pontoon crossings with one-way traffic across the Red River were either connected or parted, passing barges and scows. And the steel web of the brainchild of the Eiffel - the Long Bien Bridge - was torn. One span, hunched over, buried itself in the red water.

I went to the airport on an official occasion. A Vietnamese party and state delegation was escorted to Moscow on the 55th anniversary of the revolution. The head of the National Assembly of the DRV, Truong Tinh, was flying via Beijing.

Saturday was also the day of meeting and seeing off Aeroflot's Il-18, which once a week flew in from Moscow via India, Burma and Laos. It was a celebration of communication with the outside world. Saturday party at the airport has become a social event. In the small terminal building one could not only see who arrived and who flies away, but also meet the cream of the foreign colony - diplomats, journalists, generals, get some information, just "bargain physiognomy."

We had to stay longer than usual at the airport. Something incomprehensible has happened. After boarding the plane, the passengers again descended the ladder and lined up under the wing with their bags and wallets. Before that, no one paid attention to the noise of an aircraft invisible behind low clouds. When the Il-18 retired towards Vientiane, we learned that the cause of the commotion was an American drone.

On Sunday, the 17th, I received a call from Haiphong from a representative of the USSR Ministry of the Navy. He saw how in the morning, for the first time after a two-month break, American planes mined the port fairway and fired several missiles at the city. The port of Haiphong was blocked by minefields for several months. Soviet supplies, primarily military supplies, went to Vietnam in a delicate way: first to the ports of South China, from there by rail to the Vietnamese border and then on their own or by trucks.

On Monday, the eighteenth, a cold "fung" drizzled again. From the water sprayed in the air, the leaves on the trees gleamed, moisture penetrated the houses, settling in a slippery film on the stone floor tiles, and soaked into clothes. In Gyalam, they met the plane of the Chinese airline, on which Le Duc Tho arrived. He looked tired, depressed, did not make statements. On his way from Paris, he met in Moscow with Politburo member Andrei Kirilenko and Central Committee Secretary Konstantin Katushev. In Beijing, he was received by Premier Zhou Enlai. Moscow and Beijing knew that this chance for peace in Vietnam had been missed.

It had already been decided in Washington to bomb Hanoi and Haiphong in order to force the Vietnamese into peace. With Operation Linebaker II approved, Nixon sent a secret telegram to Hanoi demanding that they accept US terms. She came on Monday evening.

That evening at the Hanoi International Club there was a reception and a film screening on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the establishment of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Seated in the front row were Foreign Minister Nguyen Duy Trinh and Hanoi Mayor Tran Duy Hyng. They already knew that the B-52s were flying from Guam to Hanoi. Later, the mayor will tell me that during the official part he received a call from the air defense headquarters.

They showed a chronicle in which the cannonade rumbled. When the session was interrupted, the roar did not stop, because it also came from the street. I went out into the square - the glow covered the northern half of the horizon.

The first raid lasted about forty minutes, and the siren at the National Assembly monotonously howled the all-clear. But minutes later, heart-rendingly intermittently warned of a new alarm. I did not wait for the lights out when the street lamps were lit, and in the dark I went home. Fortunately, it's close: three blocks. The horizon was on fire, roosters were crowing in the yards, mistaking it for dawn...

He was not a military expert, but he guessed from the running chains of fountains of fire that these were carpet bombings from the B-52. In my work, I had a competitive advantage over AFP colleague Jean Thoraval, the only Western reporter in Hanoi: I didn't have to get a censorship stamp before the text was sent. Therefore, he was the first. A few hours later, the start of the operation was confirmed from Washington.

The next morning, at the International Club, the Vietnamese organized a press conference with American pilots shot down at night. They brought the survivors and not badly crippled. Then, until the new year, such press conferences were held almost daily, and each time they brought "fresh" prisoners. Most are still in mud-splattered flight suits, and some, in bandages or casts, are already in striped pajamas.

They were different people - from the twenty-five-year-old Bachelor of Arts Lieutenant Robert Hudson to the forty-three-year-old "Latinos", Korean War veteran Major Fernando Alexander, from the unfired Paul Granger to the commander of the flying "superfortress" Lieutenant Colonel John Yuinn, who has twenty years of service behind him, one hundred and forty sorties to South Vietnam and twenty-two to the "fourth zone" of the DRV. By their last names it was possible to judge where their ancestors came to America from: Brown and Gelonek, Martini and Nagakhira, Bernaskoni and Leblanc, Camerota and Vavroch...

In the light of the searchlights, they entered one by one into a cramped hall filled with people and tobacco smoke. Before the public, among which there were few foreigners, and there were not so many journalists, they behaved differently: confusion with a shadow of fear, a detached look into the void, arrogance and contempt ... Some simply remained silent until the little Vietnamese officer, disfiguring names and surnames, read out personal data, ranks, service numbers, types of aircraft, place of captivity. Others identified themselves and asked to tell their relatives that "they are alive and treated humanely."

The first press conference was dominated by the silent ones. Probably, they thought that this was an unfortunate accident and tomorrow Hanoi would capitulate under blows from the sky. But each subsequent group became more talkative. By Christmas, almost everyone congratulated relatives on the holiday and expressed the hope that "this war will end soon." But they also said that they were fulfilling military duty, they bombed military facilities, although they did not rule out “collateral losses” (perhaps they touched housing a little).

On December 19, in the Pacific Ocean south of Samoa, a cabin with American officers Cernan, Schmitt and Evans descended by parachute. It was the descent vehicle of Apollo 17 returning from the Moon. The astronaut heroes were welcomed aboard the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga. At the same time, Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Nakagawa's plane took off from another aircraft carrier, the Enterprise. His parachute opened over Haiphong, and the Vietnamese met him in a flooded rice field not at all cordially. A little earlier, the navigator-instructor of the B-52 squadron, Major Richard Johnson, was captured. He and Captain Richard Simpson managed to eject. The remaining four crew members were killed. Their "superfortress" opened the scoring shot down over Hanoi.

The Christmas bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong, and this is almost continuously twelve days, have become a test of strength for both sides. American aviation losses were serious. According to American information, fifteen B-52s were lost - the same number as in the entire previous war in Vietnam. According to the Soviet military, 34 of these eight-engine vehicles were shot down in the December air battle. In addition, 11 other aircraft were destroyed.

The picture of giants burning in the night sky and falling apart was enchanting. At least thirty American pilots were killed, more than twenty were missing, dozens were captured.

The Paris Agreement freed Americans from captivity, many of whom spent more than one year in North Vietnamese camps and prisons. Author's photo

I did not see air battles, although the Vietnamese later reported the loss of six MiG-21s. But towards the planes, a mass of metal rose into the air from below, including bullets from the rifle of the barmaid Min from the roof of the Hanoi Metropol and from the Makarov of a police officer near our house. Anti-aircraft guns worked in every quarter. But all B-52s were shot down by Soviet-made S-75 air defense systems. The Soviet military did not directly participate in this, they were only advisers and instructors at that time, but Soviet technology played an obvious role.

According to Vietnamese data, 1,624 people died on the ground in the pre-New Year air war. Civil. The Vietnamese did not report on the military.

The hope of completely suppressing the will of the population did not materialize. There was no panic, but it was felt that people were on edge. This was told to me by the classic of Vietnamese literature Nguyen Kong Hoan, who we had known for a long time.

During the Christmas peace break, our company went to Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph. Not even Makhlouf, the Egyptian chargé d'affaires. Prayed for peace. And in the lobby of the Metropol, the role of Santa Claus at the Christmas tree was played by American pastor Michael Allen, who flew in before the bombing as part of a pacifist delegation led by the former US prosecutor in Nuremberg, Telford Taylor. It also included singer Joan Baez. She sang Christmas songs, and when she found out that I was Russian, she suddenly hugged me and sang “Dark Eyes” ... After Christmas, they bombed again.

The New Year was celebrated in tense silence, expecting bombings. But when Le Duc Tho flew to Paris, it became somehow more cheerful. Negotiations resumed, and the agreement was signed in much the same form as the draft published in October. The December air war over Hanoi and Haiphong changed nothing.

The main results of the agreement were the complete withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam (March 29, 1973) and the exchange of prisoners, which was carried out in several stages. It was a solemn event. American Hercules from Saigon and Da Nang and ambulance C-141s from Clark Field in the Philippines flew to the Zyalam airfield. In the presence of a commission of officers from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the United States, the PRG of the Republic of South Ossetia, the Saigon regime, Indonesia, Hungary, Poland and Canada, the Vietnamese authorities handed over the liberated prisoners to the American general. Some were simply pale and exhausted, others left on crutches, others were carried on stretchers. Among them was John McCain, whom I did not pay attention to then. But then, at a meeting in Brussels, he reminded him of that day.

From the Hanoi airport, the Americans released from captivity returned to their homeland. Author's photo

It was worse with other articles of the agreement. The ceasefire between the troops of the Vietnamese communists and the Saigon army in the south was unsteady, the parties constantly accused each other of violating the Paris Agreement. The letter of the agreement, which each side read in its own way, itself became an argument for war. The fate of the Geneva Agreement of 1954, which put an end to the French war for the former colony, was repeated. The communists accused the Saigons of holding separate elections in the south and proclaiming their own anti-communist state. The Saigonians accused the communists of starting terrorist actions against the authorities in the south and organizing military penetration from North Vietnam to South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia. Hanoi assured that his troops were not there anywhere, and the VRP of the South Vietnam was fighting for the creation of an independent and neutral country in the south.

Hanoi airport: the exit from the war and the release of prisoners was a joy for the Americans too. Author's photo

Le Duc Tho, unlike Kissinger, did not go to receive the Nobel Prize because he knew that the agreement would not last long. For two years, the Communists were convinced that America had left Vietnam and was not going to return. The spring offensive of 1975 buried the Paris Agreement with all its decorative republics and mechanisms of control. Guarantees from the USSR, France, Great Britain and China did not interfere with the course of events. Vietnam was unified by military means.

After the 1973 Paris Agreement. Officers from North Vietnam, the Saigon regime, and the Viet Cong sit peacefully on the same commission. Saigon will fall in two years. Author's photo

State thought is characterized by inertia. The French began to fight for Indochina when the era of territories ended and other mechanisms for using resources came to the place of military-political control over the territories. The Americans got involved in Vietnam when the main thing was the confrontation between the two systems. The communists denied the principles of free trade and capital movement sacred to America, interfered with transnational business. Eastern Europe is already closed, and Southeast Asia is under threat. Maoist China influenced the region. On September 30, 1965, an attempted communist coup in Indonesia was thwarted at the cost of great bloodshed. The rebels fought guerrilla wars in Thailand, Burma, and the Philippines. In Vietnam, the Communists controlled half of the country and had a chance to take over the other... In Washington, they seriously considered the "domino theory", in which Vietnam was the critical bone.

What was this war for, in which more than 58,000 Americans died, millions of Vietnamese were killed, millions were crippled physically and mentally, not to mention the economic costs and environmental damage?

The goal of the Vietnamese communists was a nation-state under the rigid rule of the party, with an independent, bordering on autarky economy, without private property and foreign capital. For this they made sacrifices.

The dreams of those who fought against American imperialism did not come true, the fears that pushed the Americans into one of the bloodiest wars of the century did not come true. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines did not become communist, but rushed forward along the capitalist path in the economy, joined in globalization. In Vietnam, an attempt at "socialist transformation" in the south led in 1979 to the collapse of the economy, the monstrous problem of refugees ("people on boats") and war with China. Actually, China by that time had already abandoned classical socialism. The Soviet Union collapsed.

From the veranda of the once “journalistic” bar on the roof of the Caravel Hotel, a panorama of Ho Chi Minh City opens up, on the futuristic skyscrapers of which are the brands of world banks and corporations. Down in Lam Son Square, a Japanese firm is building one of the most modern subways in the world. Nearby on a red banner there is a slogan: "Hot greetings to the delegates of the city party conference." And state television talks about America's solidarity with Vietnam against Beijing's attempts to take away its islands in the South China Sea...

A photo taken by an amateur camera "Zenith"

Stages of the Vietnam War.

• Guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam (1957-1965).
• US military intervention (1965-1973).
• The final stage of the war (1973-1975).

We will consider precisely the military intervention of the United States.

Causes of the Vietnam War.

It all started with the fact that the US plans were to surround the USSR with "their" countries, that is, countries that would be puppets in the hands of the United States and perform all necessary actions against the USSR. At that time, South Korea and Pakistan were already among such countries. It remained the case for northern Vietnam.

The southern part of Vietnam asked for help from the United States, due to its weakness in front of the northern part, since at that time there was an active struggle between the two halves of one country. And northern Vietnam enlisted the support of the USSR in the form of a visiting head of the Councils of Ministers, but the USSR did not openly get involved in the war.

Vietnam: War with America. How did she go?

In the north of Vietnam, Soviet centers of air defense missile forces were established, but under the guise of strict secrecy. Thus, air security was ensured, and at the same time, Vietnamese soldiers were trained as missilemen.

Vietnam has become a test site for weapons and military installations of the United States and the Soviet Union. Our specialists have tested the principles of "ambush" shooting. First, the enemy plane was shot down, and then in the blink of an eye the person moved to a pre-prepared place, carefully hidden from prying eyes. In order to catch the anti-aircraft installations of the USSR, the United States used the Shrike homing missile. The struggle was daily, the losses of American aircraft were huge.

In northern Vietnam, about 70% of the weapons were Soviet-made, it can be said that the Vietnamese army was Soviet. The weapons were unofficially shipped through China. The Americans, despite their impotence, did not want to give up, although during the years of the war they lost thousands of people and more than 4,500 units of fighters and other military equipment, which accounted for almost 50% of the entire air force. The public demanded the withdrawal of the troops, but President Nixon did not want to lose face and lose the dignity of America.

Let's sum up the Vietnam War.

After America lost a lot of money, suffered huge human losses, in the form of killed and maimed soldiers, the withdrawal of American troops began. This event was facilitated by the signing of a peace treaty between Hanoi and Washington in Paris. January 27, 1973.

Vietnam War 1957-1975

The war began as a civil war in South Vietnam. Later, North Vietnam was drawn into the war - later supported by the PRC and the USSR - as well as the United States and its allies, who acted on the side of the friendly South Vietnamese regime. As events unfolded, the war became intertwined with the parallel civil wars in Laos and Cambodia. All fighting in Southeast Asia from the late 1950s to 1975 is known as the Second Indochina War.

Prerequisites
Since the second half of the 19th century, Vietnam has been part of the colonial empire of France. After the end of the First World War, the country began to grow national consciousness, underground circles began to appear that advocated the independence of Vietnam, and several armed uprisings took place. In 1941, the League for the Independence of Vietnam was created in China - a military-political organization that initially united all opponents of the French colonial administration. In the future, the main role in it was played by supporters of communist views, led by Ho Chi Minh.

During World War II, the French administration agreed with Japan that the Japanese would have access to Vietnam's strategic resources while maintaining France's colonial administrative apparatus. This agreement was valid until 1944, when Japan established full control over the French possessions by force of arms. In September 1945, Japan capitulated. On September 2, 1945, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the creation of an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) throughout Vietnamese territory.

However, France refused to recognize the loss of its colony, and despite the agreements reached on the mechanism for granting independence to the DRV, in December 1946, France began a colonial war in Vietnam. However, the French army could not cope with the partisan movement. Since 1950, the United States began to provide military assistance to French troops in Vietnam. Over the next 4 years (1950-1954), US military aid amounted to $3 billion. However, in the same 1950 and the Viet Minh began to receive military aid from the People's Republic of China. By 1954, the situation for the French forces was almost hopeless. The war against Vietnam was extremely unpopular in France. By this time, the US was already paying 80% of the cost of this war. The final blow to French colonial ambitions in Indochina was a heavy defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. In July 1954, the Geneva Accords were concluded, ending the eight-year war.

The main points of the agreement on Vietnam provided:
1) temporary division of the country into two parts approximately along the 17th parallel and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between them;
2) holding on July 20, 1956, general elections to the parliament of a united Vietnam.

After the French left, the Ho Chi Minh government quickly consolidated its hold on North Vietnam. In South Vietnam, the French were replaced by the United States, which viewed South Vietnam as the main link in the security system in the region. The American doctrine of "dominoes" assumed that if South Vietnam became communist, then all the neighboring states of Southeast Asia would fall under the control of the communists. Ngo Dinh Diem became Prime Minister of South Vietnam, a well-known nationalist figure who had a high reputation in
USA. In 1956, Ngo Dinh Diem, with the tacit support of the United States, refused to hold a national referendum on the question of the reunification of the country. Convinced that the peaceful unification of the country had no prospects, the Vietnamese nationalist and communist forces launched an insurgency in rural areas of South Vietnam.

The war can be divided into several periods:

1. Guerrilla warfare in South Vietnam (1957-1964).
2. Full-scale US military intervention (1965-1973).
3. The final stage of the war (1973-1975).

In December 1960, when it became apparent that Ngo Dinh Diem's ​​regime was gradually losing control over rural areas. The US decides to intervene in the war. On August 2, 1964, the US Navy destroyer Maddox, patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin, approached the coast of North Vietnam and, as claimed, was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Two days later, under unclear circumstances, another attack was carried out. As a response, President L. Johnson ordered the American air force to strike at the naval facilities of North Vietnam. Johnson used these attacks as a pretext to get Congress to pass a resolution in support of his actions, which later served as a mandate for undeclared war.

The course of the war in 1964-1968.

Initially, the bombing was intended to stop the penetration of North Vietnamese forces into South Vietnam, to force North Vietnam to refuse assistance to the rebels, and also to boost the morale of the South Vietnamese. Over time, two more reasons appeared - to force Hanoi (North Vietnam) to sit down at the negotiating table and use the bombing as a trump card in concluding an agreement. By March 1965, American bombing of North Vietnam had become a regular occurrence.

Air operations in South Vietnam also intensified. Helicopters were widely used to increase the mobility of South Vietnamese and American troops in rough terrain. New types of weapons and combat methods were developed. For example, defoliants were sprayed, "liquid" mines were used, penetrating under the surface of the earth and retaining the ability to explode for several days, as well as infrared detectors that made it possible to detect the enemy under the dense canopy of the forest.

Air operations against the guerrillas changed the nature of the war; now the peasants were forced to leave their houses and fields, destroyed by intense bombing and napalm. By the end of 1965, 700,000 inhabitants had left rural areas of South Vietnam and became refugees. Another new element was the involvement of other countries in the war. In addition to the United States, the South Vietnamese government came to the aid of South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, later Philippines and Thailand. In 1965, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin promised to send Soviet anti-aircraft guns, MIG jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles to North Vietnam.

The United States began bombing supply bases and gas depots in North Vietnam, as well as targets in the demilitarized zone. The first bombardment of Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and the port city of Haiphong was carried out on June 29, 1966. Despite this, the number of North Korean troops infiltrating South Vietnam steadily increased. Soviet supplies to North Vietnam were carried out through the port of Haiphong, from the bombing and mining of which the United States refrained, fearing the consequences of the destruction of Soviet ships.

In North Vietnam, American bombing also resulted in numerous civilian casualties and the destruction of many civilian objects. Civilian casualties were relatively low due to the construction of thousands of one-person concrete shelters and the evacuation of much of the urban population, especially children, to rural areas. Industrial enterprises were also taken out of the cities and placed in rural areas. One of the tasks assigned was the destruction of villages controlled by the Viet Cong. Residents of suspicious villages were evicted from their houses, which were then burned or bulldozed, and the peasants were relocated to other areas.

Beginning Since 1965, the USSR has been supplying equipment and ammunition for air defense, while China has sent auxiliary troops numbering from 30,000 to 50,000 troops to North Vietnam. to assist in the restoration of transport communications and strengthening air defense. Throughout the 1960s, China insisted that North Vietnam continue the armed struggle until complete and final victory. The USSR, fearful of border conflicts, was apparently inclined to open peace negotiations, but because of the rivalry with China for the leadership of the communist bloc, did not put serious pressure on the North Vietnamese.

Peace negotiations. End of the war
From 1965 to 1968, repeated attempts were made to start peace negotiations, but they turned out to be fruitless, as were the efforts of international mediators. : “Hanoi understands the principle of reciprocity as follows: there is a civil war in South Vietnam, Hanoi supports one side, the US the other. If the US stops its aid, then Hanoi is ready to do the same.” The United States, on the other hand, claimed that it was protecting South Vietnam from external aggression.
Three major obstacles stood in the way of the peace talks:
1) Hanoi's demand that the US finally and unconditionally stop the bombing of North Vietnam;
2) the refusal of the United States to go for it without concessions from North Vietnam;
3) the unwillingness of the South Vietnamese government to enter into negotiations with the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.

In the late 1960s, the United States was swept by an unprecedented wave of public discontent over the undeclared war in Vietnam. Apparently, this was not only due to the huge costs of the war and heavy losses (during 1961-1967 almost 16,000 American troops were killed and 100,000 wounded; total losses from 1961 to 1972 amounted to 46,000 killed and more than 300,000 wounded) , but also by televised demonstrations of the devastation caused by US troops in Vietnam. The Vietnam War had a very significant impact on the worldview of the people of the United States. A new movement, the hippies, emerged from the youth protesting against this war. The movement culminated in the so-called "Pentagon Campaign", when up to 100,000 young people gathered in Washington in October 1967 to protest against the war, as well as protests during the US Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in August 1968.
Desertion during the Vietnam campaign was a fairly widespread phenomenon. Many deserters from the Vietnam era left units tormented by the fears and horrors of war. This is especially true of those who were drafted into the army against the will of the recruits themselves. However, many of the future deserters went to war of their own free will. The American authorities tried to solve the problem of their legalization immediately after the end of the war. President Gerald Ford in 1974 offered a pardon to all draft evaders and deserters. More than 27,000 people came to confession. Later, in 1977, the next head of the White House, Jimmy Carter, pardoned those who fled the United States so as not to be drafted.

"Vietnam Syndrome"
One of the consequences of US participation in the Vietnam War is the emergence of the "Vietnam Syndrome". The essence of the "Vietnam Syndrome" is the refusal of the Americans to support the participation of the United States in military campaigns that are long in nature, do not have clear military and political goals, and are accompanied by significant losses among American military personnel. Separate manifestations of the "Vietnamese syndrome" are observed at the level of the mass consciousness of Americans. Anti-interventionist sentiments became a concrete expression of the “Vietnam Syndrome”, when the increased desire of the American people for the non-participation of their country in hostilities abroad was often accompanied by a demand to exclude war from the arsenal of means of the government’s national policy as a method of resolving foreign policy crises. The attitude to avoid situations fraught with a "second Vietnam" took shape in the form of a slogan "No more Vietnams!".

On March 31, 1968, US President Johnson gave in to demands to limit the scale of American participation in the war and announced a reduction in the bombing of the North and called for an end to the war on the terms of the Geneva Accords. Immediately before the 1968 presidential election, Johnson ordered an end to American bombing of North Vietnam on November 1. The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Saigon government were invited to take part in the talks in Paris. R. Nixon, who replaced Johnson as president in January 1969, announced a transition to the "Vietnamization" of the war, which provided for the phased withdrawal of American ground forces from Vietnam, the use of the remaining military personnel mainly as advisers, instructors, as well as to provide technical assistance and air support for the South Vietnamese armed forces, which meant shifting the main burden of hostilities onto the shoulders of the South Vietnamese army. The direct participation of American troops in hostilities ceased from August 1972. At the same time, the United States significantly increased the bombing of Vietnam, first in the south, and then in the north, and soon hostilities and bombing engulfed almost the entire Indochina. The expansion of the scale of the air war led to an increase in the number of downed American aircraft (8500 by 1972).

Late October 1972, after secret talks in Paris between President Nixon's national security adviser H. Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, a nine-point tentative agreement was reached. However, the United States hesitated to sign it, and after the Saigon government raised objections on a number of points, they tried to change the content of the agreements already reached. In mid-December, negotiations broke down, and the United States launched the most intense bombing of North Vietnam of the entire war. American B-52 strategic bombers carried out "carpet" bombing of the areas of Hanoi and Haiphong, covering an area 0.8 km wide and 2.4 km long in one bombing.

In April 1973, the last American military units left Vietnam, and in August the US Congress passed a law prohibiting any use of American military forces in Indochina.

The political clauses of the ceasefire agreement were not implemented and the fighting never stopped. In 1973 and early 1974, the Saigon government managed to achieve significant successes, but at the end of 1974 the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam struck back and in 1975, together with the North Vietnamese troops, launched a general offensive. In March, they occupied the city of Methuot, and the Saigon troops were forced to leave the entire territory of the Central Plateau. Their retreat soon turned into a rout, and by mid-April the Communists had captured two-thirds of the country. Saigon was surrounded, and on April 30, 1975, the South Vietnamese troops laid down their arms.

The Vietnam War is over. From 1961 to 1975, 56,555 American servicemen died and 303,654 were injured. The Vietnamese lost at least 200,000 Saigon soldiers, an estimated one million soldiers of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the North Vietnamese army, and half a million civilians. Several million more people were injured, about ten million were left homeless.

Consequences of the use of chemical weapons in Vietnam

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After World War II, the USSR participated in many local military conflicts. This participation was unofficial and even secret. The exploits of the Soviet soldiers in these wars will forever remain unknown.

Chinese Civil War 1946-1950

By the end of World War II, two governments had formed in China, and the country's territory was divided into two parts. One of them was controlled by the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, the second by the communist government led by Mao Zedong. The US supported the Kuomintang, and the USSR supported the Communist Party of China.
The trigger for the war was released in March 1946, when a group of 310,000 Kuomintang troops, with the direct support of the United States, launched an offensive against the positions of the CCP. They captured almost all of southern Manchuria, pushing the communists across the Sungari River. At the same time, the deterioration of relations with the USSR begins - the Kuomintang, under various pretexts, does not fulfill the conditions of the Soviet-Chinese treaty "on friendship and alliance": the property of the CER is plundered, Soviet media are closed, and anti-Soviet organizations are created.

In 1947, Soviet pilots, tankers, and artillerymen arrived in the United Democratic Army (later the People's Liberation Army of China). A decisive role in the subsequent victory of the CPC was also played by the weapons supplied to the Chinese Communists from the USSR. According to some reports, only in the autumn of 1945, the PLA received from the USSR 327,877 rifles and carbines, 5,207 machine guns, 5,219 artillery pieces, 743 tanks and armored vehicles, 612 aircraft, as well as ships of the Sungarian flotilla.

In addition, Soviet military experts developed a plan for managing strategic defense and counteroffensive. All this contributed to the success of the NAO and the establishment of the communist regime of Mao Zedong. During the war, about a thousand Soviet soldiers died in China.

Korean War (1950-1953).

Information about the participation of the USSR armed forces in the Korean War was classified for a long time. At the beginning of the conflict, the Kremlin did not plan the participation of Soviet military personnel in it, however, the large-scale involvement of the United States in the confrontation between the two Koreas changed the position of the Soviet Union. In addition, the provocations of the Americans also influenced the Kremlin’s decision to enter the conflict: for example, on October 8, 1950, two American attack aircraft even bombed the Pacific Fleet Air Force base in the Dry River area.

The military support of the DPRK by the Soviet Union was aimed mainly at repelling US aggression and was carried out through gratuitous deliveries of weapons. Specialists from the USSR prepared command, staff and engineering personnel.

The main military assistance was provided by aviation: Soviet pilots made sorties on MiG-15s repainted in the colors of the Chinese Air Force. At the same time, the pilots were forbidden to operate over the Yellow Sea and pursue enemy aircraft south of the Pyongyang-Wonsan line.

Military advisers from the USSR were present at the headquarters of the front only in civilian clothes, under the guise of correspondents for the newspaper Pravda. This special "camouflage" is mentioned in Stalin's telegram to General Shtykov, an employee of the Far Eastern Department of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

It is still unclear how many Soviet soldiers actually were in Korea. According to official figures, during the conflict, the USSR lost 315 people and 335 MiG-15 fighters. By comparison, the Korean War claimed the lives of 54,246,000 Americans and over 103,000 were wounded.

Vietnam War (1965-1975)

In 1945, the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed, power in the country passed to the communist leader Ho Chi Minh. But the West was in no hurry to give up its former colonial possessions. Soon, French troops landed on the territory of Vietnam in order to restore their influence in the region. In 1954, a document was signed in Geneva, according to which the independence of Laos, Vietnam Cambodia was recognized, and the country was divided into two parts: North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam, led by Ngo Dinh Diem. The latter quickly lost popularity among the people, and a guerrilla war broke out in South Vietnam, especially since the impenetrable jungle provided it with high efficiency.

On March 2, 1965, the US began regular bombing of North Vietnam, accusing the country of expanding the guerrilla movement in the south. The reaction of the USSR was immediate. Since 1965, large-scale deliveries of military equipment, specialists and soldiers to Vietnam began. Everything happened in the strictest secrecy.

According to the recollections of veterans, before the flight, the soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes, their letters home were subjected to such strict censorship that if they fell into the hands of an outsider, the latter could understand only one thing: the authors are resting somewhere in the south and enjoying their serene vacation.

The participation of the USSR in the Vietnam War was so classified that it is still not clear what role the Soviet military personnel played in this conflict. There are numerous legends about Soviet aces pilots fighting "phantoms", whose collective image was embodied in the pilot Li-Si-Tsyn from a famous folk song. However, according to the recollections of participants in the events, our pilots were strictly forbidden to engage in combat with American aircraft. The exact number and names of Soviet soldiers who participated in the conflict are still unknown.

War in Algeria (1954-1964)

The national liberation movement in Algeria, which gained momentum after the Second World War, in 1954 grew into a real war against French colonial rule. The USSR took the side of the rebels in the conflict. Khrushchev noted that the struggle of the Algerians against the French organizers was in the nature of a war of liberation, and therefore, it should be supported by the UN.

However, the Soviet Union provided the Algerians not only with diplomatic support: the Kremlin supplied the Algerian army with weapons and military personnel.

The Soviet military contributed to the organizational strengthening of the Algerian army, participated in the planning of operations against the French troops, as a result of which the latter had to negotiate.

The parties entered into an agreement according to which hostilities ceased, and Algeria was granted independence.

After the signing of the agreement, Soviet sappers carried out the largest demining operation in the country. During the war, French battalions of sappers on the border of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia mined a strip from 3 to 15 km, where there were up to 20 thousand “surprises” per kilometer. Soviet sappers cleared 1350 sq. km of territory, destroying 2 million anti-personnel mines.

Prior to World War II, Vietnam was part of the French colonial empire. During the war years, a national liberation movement was formed on its territory, led by the leader of the Communist Party, Ho Chi Minh.

Fearing the loss of the colony, France sent an expeditionary force to Vietnam, which at the end of the war managed to partially regain control over the southern part of the country.

However, France was unable to suppress the movement of partisans, who put up stubborn resistance, and in 1950 turned to the United States for material support. By that time, an independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam, ruled by Ho Chi Minh, had formed in the north of the country.

Nevertheless, even US financial assistance did not help the Fourth Republic: in 1954, after the defeat of France in the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the First Indochina War was completed. As a result, the Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed in the south of the country with its capital in Saigon, while the north remained with Ho Chi Minh. Fearing the strengthening of the socialists and realizing the precariousness of the South Vietnamese regime, the United States began to actively help its leadership.

In addition to financial support, United States President John F. Kennedy decided to send the first regular units of the US Armed Forces to the country (before that, only military advisers served there). In 1964, when it became clear that these efforts were not enough, America, under the leadership of President Lyndon Johnson, began full-scale military operations in Vietnam.

On the anti-communist wave

One of the main reasons for the US involvement in the Vietnam War was to stop the spread of communism in Asia. After the establishment of the communist regime in China, the American government wanted to put an end to the "red threat" by any means.

On this anti-communist wave, Kennedy won the 1960 presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. It was he who introduced the most decisive plan of action to destroy this threat, sending the first American troops to South Vietnam and by the end of 1963 spending a record $3 billion on the war.

“Through this war there was a clash at the global level between the USA and the USSR. All the military power that was opposed to the United States is Soviet modern weapons. During the war, the leading powers of the capitalist and socialist worlds clashed. The Saigon army and regime were on the side of the United States. There was a confrontation between the communist north and south in the face of the Saigon regime, ”explained RT Doctor of Economics Vladimir Mazyrin, head of the Center for the Study of Vietnam and ASEAN.

Americanization of war

With the help of the bombing of the North and the actions of American troops in the south of the country, Washington hoped to deplete the economy of North Vietnam. Indeed, during the course of this war, the heaviest aerial bombardments in the history of mankind took place. From 1964 to 1973, the US Air Force dropped about 7.7 million tons of bombs and other munitions into Indochina.

Such decisive actions, according to the calculations of the Americans, should have forced the North Vietnamese leaders to conclude a peace treaty beneficial to the United States and lead to Washington's victory.

• Destroyed American helicopter in Vietnam
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“In 1968, the Americans, on the one hand, agreed to negotiate in Paris, but, on the other hand, they accepted the doctrine of the Americanization of the war, which resulted in an increase in the number of American troops in Vietnam,” Mazyrin said. - Thus, 1969 was the peak of the number of the American army, which ended up in Vietnam, which reached half a million people. But even this number of military did not help the United States win this war.

A huge role in the victory of Vietnam was played by the economic assistance of China and the USSR, which provided Vietnam with the most advanced weapons. To fight the American troops, the Soviet Union allocated about 95 Dvina anti-aircraft missile systems and more than 7.5 thousand missiles for them.

The USSR also provided MiG aircraft, which were superior in maneuverability to the American Phantoms. In general, the USSR daily allocated 1.5 million rubles for the conduct of military operations in Vietnam.

The leadership of Hanoi, led by the Communist Party of North Vietnam, also contributed to the victory of the national liberation movement in the south. He managed to quite skillfully organize a system of defense and resistance, competently build an economic system. In addition, the local population supported the partisans in everything.

“After the Geneva Accords, the country was divided into two parts. But the Vietnamese people really wanted to unite. Therefore, the Saigon regime, which was created to counteract this unity and create a single pro-American regime in the south, opposed the aspirations of the entire population. Attempts to achieve their goal solely with the help of American weapons and the army created at its expense contradicted the real aspirations of the population, ”said Mazyrin.

American fiasco in Vietnam

At the same time, a massive anti-war movement was expanding in America itself, culminating in the so-called Campaign on the Pentagon in October 1967. During this protest, up to 100,000 young people came to Washington to campaign for an end to the war.

In the army, soldiers and officers deserted more and more often. Many veterans suffered from mental disorders - the so-called Vietnamese syndrome. Unable to overcome mental stress, former officers committed suicide. Very soon, the senselessness of this war became clear to everyone.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson announced the end of the bombing of North Vietnam and his intention to begin peace negotiations.

Richard Nixon, who succeeded Johnson as President of the United States, began his election campaign under the popular slogan of "ending the war with an honorable peace." In the summer of 1969, he announced the gradual withdrawal of some parts of American troops from South Vietnam. At the same time, the new president actively participated in the Paris talks to end the war.

In December 1972, a North Vietnamese delegation left Paris unexpectedly, refusing to discuss further. To force the northerners back to the negotiating table and hasten the outcome of the war, Nixon ordered an operation codenamed Linebacker II.

• American B-52 strikes Hanoi, December 26, 1972

On December 18, 1972, more than a hundred American B-52 bombers with dozens of tons of explosives on board appeared in the skies over North Vietnam. Within a few days, 20 thousand tons of explosives were dropped on the main centers of the state. American carpet bombing claimed the lives of more than 1,500 Vietnamese.

Operation Linebacker II ended on 29 December, and negotiations resumed in Paris ten days later. As a result, on January 27, 1973, a peace agreement was signed. Thus began the massive withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

According to the expert, the Saigon regime was not accidentally called a puppet regime, since a very narrow military-bureaucratic elite was in power. “The crisis of the internal regime gradually intensified, and by 1973 it was greatly weakened from within. Therefore, when the United States withdrew its last units in January 1973, everything crumbled like a house of cards, ”said Mazyrin.

Two years later, in February 1975, the army of North Vietnam, together with the national liberation movement, launched an active offensive and in just three months liberated the entire southern part of the country.

• Communist resistance during the war
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“No one imagined that the collapse would happen so quickly. This suggests that everything there really rested on bayonets and money. There was no internal support. The United States, together with its supporters and proteges, lost,” concluded Vladimir Mazyrin.

The unification of Vietnam in 1975 was a major victory for the Soviet Union. At the same time, the military defeat of the United States in that country temporarily helped the American leadership realize the need to take into account the interests of other states.