When was the Vietnam War?
American involvement in the Vietnam War lasted from 1955 to 1975, with major combat operations from 1965 to 1973. The broader conflict began in 1946 when Vietnam fought for independence from France. The war ended on April 30, 1975, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon, reunifying Vietnam under communist rule after three decades of continuous warfare.
The Vietnam War's dating depends on perspective — for the Vietnamese, the conflict began in 1946; for Americans, it lasted from 1955 to 1975. Both framings reveal important truths about a war that consumed three decades and multiple nations.
The First Indochina War (1946–1954) was Vietnam's war of independence against France. Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces, combining nationalist and communist ideology, fought French colonial forces with increasing effectiveness. The decisive French defeat at Dien Bien Phu (May 1954) ended French colonial rule. The Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel, with elections planned for 1956 to reunify the country.
American involvement began when the United States backed the creation of South Vietnam under Ngo Dinh Diem, fearing that elections would produce a communist victory. Eisenhower sent military advisors in 1955. Kennedy increased the commitment to 16,000 advisors by 1963 and tacitly approved the coup that overthrew and killed Diem. The Gulf of Tonkin incident (August 1964) provided the pretext for Johnson to escalate: the first combat troops arrived in March 1965, and by 1968, over 500,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam.
The Tet Offensive (January 1968) was the war's psychological turning point. Although a military defeat for the Viet Cong, it shattered American confidence that victory was achievable, turned public opinion decisively against the war, and led to Johnson's decision not to seek re-election. Nixon's 'Vietnamization' policy (1969–1973) gradually withdrew American troops while expanding the air war — including the massive Christmas bombing of Hanoi in December 1972. The Paris Peace Accords (January 1973) ended direct American involvement.
Fighting continued between North and South Vietnam. Without American military support, the South Vietnamese government proved unable to resist the North's final offensive. On April 30, 1975, North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon. The chaotic evacuation of the American embassy — helicopters lifting off the roof as desperate South Vietnamese allies clamored to escape — became an enduring image of American defeat.
The war killed an estimated 2–3 million Vietnamese (both North and South), 58,220 Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Laotians and Cambodians (where the war had spilled over). It remains the defining trauma of American foreign policy — a cautionary tale about the limits of military power, the dangers of ideological rigidity, and the human costs of geopolitical abstraction.