50 Years Since Viet Nam, the U.S. Preparing for More Wars

Sep 2, 2024

It is just over 50 years ago, in 1973, that the U.S. pulled its last ground troops out of Viet Nam. The 20-year war that was initiated by the U.S. invasion of Viet Nam finally ended in 1975 when Saigon fell to the forces of North Viet Nam.

The groundwork for the U.S. invasion of Viet Nam was laid years before. Viet Nam had been a long-time colony of France, its labor and resources exploited by French capitalists. Viet Nam was then occupied by Japanese forces during World War Two. After the war, the French moved 400,000 troops and their colonial administration back into Viet Nam.

Many Vietnamese resisted their occupation and exploitation. A guerrilla war, resting on the mostly peasant population, fought against the French, against the Japanese and then against the French again. In the period after World War Two, the French occupiers were being bankrolled by the U.S. government, which was secretly paying up to 80% of the costs for the French army as it tried to put down the fight of the Vietnamese people for independence. But despite the U.S. support, the French army was defeated in 1954 and forced to leave the country.

After the defeat and the retreat of the French colonizers, the U.S. stepped in with its own more direct involvement in Viet Nam. For U.S. imperialism, the Vietnamese fight for independence was a threat to the new world order, directed by the U.S., imposed by World War Two. The U.S. capitalist class came out of the war as the world’s main economic and military power. But there was a problem for U.S. imperialism. The end of World War Two also saw an explosion of peoples trying to win some independence from imperialism—in China, India, Korea, Algeria, Cuba, Angola, Mozambique and elsewhere, including Viet Nam.

The success of the independence fight in one country, like Viet Nam, encouraged the fights in other countries. For the U.S. ruling class, the loss of Viet Nam meant that it would be like “dominoes” would fall. That’s what U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower said in 1954, trying to justify U.S. involvement in Viet Nam. U.S. political leaders of both parties also cited the threat of “communism” in Viet Nam and elsewhere, even though these popular rebellions were led by people who were not communists. They were nationalists who wanted to set up their own capitalist government, only trying to gain some independence from the direct domination of imperialism.

To combat this nationalist movement in Viet Nam, the U.S. set up a puppet government in the southern part of Viet Nam and quietly sent in some of their own soldiers who were there supposedly as “advisors”. When the corrupt puppet government couldn’t stop the independence movement, the U.S. continued to send in more troops. Under John F. Kennedy, the number of “advisors” increased from 875 to 12,000 in 1962, 16,000 in 1963. Then it was 23,000. In 1964, the U.S. government and the media fabricated an attack on a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify expanding the war. By the end of 1965, the U.S. had 185,000 troops in Viet Nam. By 1968, there were half a million U.S. troops.

But the Southern Viet Nationalist forces and the North Vietnamese army had the determination of people fighting for independence. They had the support of most of the Vietnamese population. Despite their huge advantage in money and weapons, the U.S. military could not defeat the Vietnamese. In addition, the U.S. faced problems from its own population. First of all, there was a rebellion in the streets of their own cities by the black population. There was also a growing resistance within their own army by U.S. soldiers who were “fragging” their own officers. There was a large antiwar movement on the college campuses and a population that was against the war. So, in 1968, the U.S. government slowly started withdrawing their own troops.

The U.S. ruling class could not defeat the Vietnamese population. But they were determined to make the Vietnamese pay a price for their resistance. So, they began a bombing campaign aimed at destroying the country and the population. U.S. general Curtis LeMay said they would “bomb them into the Stone Age”. The U.S. dropped bombs and fired artillery shells, totaling 14 million tons of munitions, more than three times the number dropped during World War Two and the Korean War combined. One 500-pound bomb for each person in Viet Nam. The U.S. used napalm and Agent Orange to destroy 40% of the farmlands and forests of the country.

The Vietnamese people suffered greatly for this war. Over two million were killed, and future generations were born with birth defects due to the U.S. chemical warfare. Their population and land still has not recovered. U.S. soldiers paid a price, too. Over 50,000 were sent home in body bags and even higher numbers committed suicide after they returned home. This is the price that people paid for U.S. imperialism’s war in Viet Nam. And that was only one of its wars.

The Viet Nam war was a consequence of a capitalist system that produces wars and needs wars to continue its system. The Viet Nam war was a result of the leading capitalist power, the U.S., ready to engage in wars to maintain its domination over the world economy for the benefit of U.S. capitalists.

Since Viet Nam, the U.S. has sent its own troops into Iraq and Afghanistan and into wars in Africa and the Middle East. They have funded many other wars using their proxy fighters.

Today the U.S. government is engaged in wars in Ukraine and Gaza, providing most of the funding and weapons. The U.S. has military “advisors” who are part of these wars, aiding the Ukrainian and Israeli military forces. U.S. warplanes and ships are engaging with Iran and local militias across the region.

Today the U.S. ruling class has its military stationed across most of the world with over 750 bases outside the U.S. They have 173,000 troops stationed in 159 countries outside the U.S. The Viet Nam war showed us what happens next. Whether in Ukraine, the Middle East or elsewhere, the U.S. is poised to directly enter another war. We can learn from Viet Nam what this war will be: it will not be in our interests.