DId we pull out of VIetnam suddenly?

Question

if so what happeneed

Answer 1

Most of the Marines were out around 1969 and the rest were out around 1972-1973. We were done fighting in 1973 and it was the South Vietnamese that were fighting till they surrendered in 1975. The pictures you see of people jumping on helicopters were civilians trying to leave, get your history straight.

Answer 2

We withdrew over a period of about five years, beginning in 1967 or 1968 when peace talks were started.

As late as 1967 public opinion on the war was fairly evenly split, with supporters of the war still vocal. Brig. Gen. Robin Olds was reputedly asked by President Johnson how America should end the war--his reply was "win it."

The Tet Offensive of 1968 dramatically affected public opinion--the news media largely reported the offensive as a victory for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. In fact, it was a tactical victory for U.S. and South Vietnamese forces, as enemy casualties (dead) numbered well into the thousands for a comparatively small number of casualties on the allied side. Some enemy units never recovered full strength after 1968.

After the presidential election in the U.S. in 1968 the dye was definitely cast for an American withdrawal. The last American regular forces returned in early 1973 and POWs were exchanged. The U.S. continued to provide support to South Vietnam.

But the North Vietnamese continued to attack South Vietnam and the fragile government of the south began to fail. An offensive by the NVA and Viet Cong in 1975 met little resistance. By this time there were no American forces engaged in Vietnam. American military forces did assist in evacuating South Vietnamese as it became apparent that the war was lost. However no offensive operations were carried out at that time.

In short--we didn't pull out suddenly. We gradually withdrew the sword and allowed our allies to bleed to death.

It was not our finest hour.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

No, search "Vietnamization". It took a couple of years. After we left, the Reds built up and smashed the South in a couple of months.

Answer 5

The short version is:

Vietnam is a united country under a communist government. They are now in the longest period of peace that anyone has experienced in living memory - at least that is what my Vietnamese friends say. (Which is really amazing if you think about it!)

Answer 6

Warren D is very well spoken on the subject, however; it is very difficult to summarize such a long struggle in just a few words. Warren did a good job in very few words though.
Answering the question of did we pull out suddenly cannot be adequately answered in even an entire book because one would have to tell much more than the last few years of the conflict.
The countries that are now Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were once known as French Indo-China. It/they were a French colony.
During WWII after the Japanese over ran China and S.E. Asia, they were trying to build a railroad from the coast of what is now Vietnam through to Burma and perhaps to India where I think they wanted to link up with a German built railroad...not quite sure about that link up part though.
To tie up Japanese troops and prevent the completion of the rail road, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS-later CIA) inserted operatives into areas of Burma through Vietnam. Their mission was to recruit, train, equip and advise any nationalist movements in those areas that wanted to resist the Japanese occupation.
The only Vietnamese nationalist movement of any significance at that time was the Viet Mien led by a young man named Ho Chi Mien.
President Roosevelt told the Viets that if they would fight with the OSS and help defeat the Japanese, he would push for Vietnamese autonomy after the war.
The Japanese let the French continue to administer the country because they wanted to concentrate on the war. The French were happy to do that because they would be in position after the war to get their colony back.
After the war, Truman was president and he was very much interested in getting the French to go along with his plans in Europe, so he let the French take control of Indo-China again.
Needless to say, the Viets felt betrayed. They took the training, weapons and their experience and started fighting the French. The U.S. paid 78% of the French war effort.
In 1954, the French and Vietnamese were at the peace table. The Vietnamese were challenging a French outpost named Dien Ben Phu. The Vietnamese finally took the camp with tremendous French casualties.
The French signed a peace treaty to get out of the long war. The French assigned a colonel to work with a Vietnamese colonel and figure out how to implement the treaty. The two colonels decided that a demilitarized zone at the 17th parallel would become a temporary military boundary line to divide the forces in conflict....remember the word temporary.
The demilitarized zone was intended by the two sides NOT be a political boundary.
The U.S. did not like the treaty. They felt the French gave too much away. Later, the Russians would say that in their wildest dreams they did not think the communists would get so much.
The U.S. sent in an OSS team North of the 17th parallel. The team conducted Black Psyops against the North. As an example, they printed leaflets supposedly originated by the communists explaining what the policies would be when they took over. This terrified the population and caused many to flee toward the South.
The U.S. was busy then installing their handpicked leader in the South. He was a Vietnamese man that had not even been in Vietnam for 12 years and was a Catholic.
Then came what is known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Some say it has been proven staged, but either way, it was sold as a Vietnamese boat attacking an American naval craft.
This stirred up many in the U.S. and since so many were fleeing the North, the American government said "Hey, you see, they want democracy!"
In 1954 the first U.S. army Special Forces advisors were sent to South Vietnam. The fight was on...
Fast forward to the Tet offensive of 1968 that Warren D mentioned. There is a phase of guerrilla warfare in which the guerrilla units transition from hit and run tactics to standing toe to toe with the conventional army they are fighting. The timing of this transition is very crucial. If it happens too early, it will cause a guerrilla army that is not prepared to fight a well armed conventional army to take great numbers of casualties and risk the movement.
This is what happened during Tet 1968. As Warren D pointed out, the Viet Cong got their asses kicked. The likes of Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather gave the Viet Cong the victory in spite of the brave young Americans that won the battles. It was indeed bloody.
Due to the 1968 Tet offensive and the Phoenix project, the Viet Cong ceased to exist as a viable military entity. That is when the Communist started moving their conventional forces into South Vietnam and gave up all pretense of it being a popular uprising.
The communists had misread the courage of the young Americans they were up against. They lost badly the tactical endeavor, but the news media at home gave it to them by pointing out how bloody the battles had been and pointed to the Viet Cong's willingness to take on the American army in toe to toe fighting.
Please understand that the rest of my comments are not objective due to the fact that I served 8 years in Special Forces...3 of them in S.E. Asia...and I am very biased.
A combination of things caused the U.S. to loose the war. To mention a few...first the fact that the White House micro-managed the war from the Oval Office. Second...they tied our hands tactically...they refused to let us conduct the war to win...Then came the Soviet sponsored organizations that conducted propaganda in American streets...then came the cowards like John Kerry, Jane Fonda, etc. Traitors all!
The news media seemed to lead the march for American defeat as they are now....while 19 year old American boys died.
I do not agree that we should have been in Vietnam. I am not even sure it was wrong. I do know that the broken promises to the Vietnamese were really wrong. I do know that tying the hands of our forces and requiring them to endure a bloodletting was really wrong.
The American experience in Vietnam after WWII went from 1954 - 1975. It was all withdrawal the way they required us to fight it and the lack of moral leadership at home.
The U.S. military and its allies could have won that war in a few months if they had been allowed to, just as they could win the war in the Middle East if they were allowed to.
In reality, politics and the fear of Russian and Sino (Chinese) intervention played a big factor...it still is!
As far as I'm concerned ,the bottom line is this: Don't go to war unless it can't be avoided. If you go, the president has to go to Congress and get them to approve it. After and if Congress approves it, SHUT UP! Get out of the way, our boys are going to war!

Answer 7

Yes. Check out the videos of people lunging for the American helicopters.