When Did the Vietnam War Begin and End?
More Complicated Questions Than You Might Think
The Vietnam War made the news this week. April 30 marked the 50 year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, which is the event Americans use to mark the end of what, at the time, was America’s longest foreign war. But was that the actual end of the war for America? Which also brings up a related question: When DID the war actually begin? When DID the war actually end? America’s involvement in the wars in that region were complicated then, as are the answers to that question today. Let us take a look.
Background to the Vietnam and Indochina Wars
However, while Americans focus on our war in Vietnam itself, other aspects of the larger conflict that was going on then are often overlooked. The Vietnam War (the Vietnamese call it the American War), was part of a larger, regional war called the Second Indochina War. Indochina is the name given to the area that includes Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Thailand is sometimes included in that geographic region. But for the purposes of the Indochina Wars (First, Second, and Third), the three main areas of combat were in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
The First Indochina War was fought when the French returned after World War Two to reclaim the colonies they had lost to the Japanese. An indigenous Vietnamese resistance group, the Viet Minh, had fought the Japanese and were not willing to submit to French rule again. What followed was a major war that lasted from 1946 to 1954. The Viet Minh enjoyed aid from Communist China. Nationalist and Communist guerrilla groups also arose in Laos and Cambodia against the French. As they were fighting against China-backed Communists, France received significant military aid from the United States. The First Indochina War thus became part of the Cold War.
France lost that war, and Laos and Cambodia gained independence. Vietnam was split between two independent states, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (AKA North Vietnam), and the Republic of Vietnam (AKA South Vietnam). The North was ruled by the Communist Viet Minh, while the South became a pro-American non-Communist state. The table was set for a continuation war, as the North sought to unify the nation under Communist rule.
A Communist insurgency against the South Vietnamese government, launched by the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, which was better known as the Viet Cong, began in 1956. American military aid, specifically troops who helped train the South Vietnamese military, arrived in 1955.
In 1962, President Kennedy created the Military Assistance Command - Vietnam (MACV), which accelerated and increased American aid to the Saigon government of South Vietnam to help fight against Communist insurgency, which was supported and directed by the communist government of North Vietnam. In 1962, 53 American military personnel died in Vietnam. The numbers would only grow as American involvement deepened.
Over the next several years, American forces would arrive in greater numbers, and the role of the U.S. forces would change from a support role to heavy combat against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. The war ended 13 years later, when North Vietnamese forces took the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Over 50,000 American troops lost their lives in the Vietnam War.
When Did America’s War in Vietnam Begin?
Historians and citizens still debate when the Vietnam War (the American part) truly began. The U.S. Government states that the American portion of the war officially began May 30, 1962, which is when the first Vietnam Service Ribbon was issued. There are problems with this date, as American troops first entered South Vietnam in 1955. The first American military death was in 1956, with the first combat deaths in action with the Viet Cong came in 1959.
Other dates which could logically be considered for inclusion as "The Start of America's Vietnam War:"
--February 12, 1955: The first U. S. advisors sent to train South Vietnamese troops arrived in country. This follows the withdrawal of French forces.
--June 8, 1956 : The first American military death in Vietnam occurred on June 8, 1956. Air Force Tech Sgt. Richard B Fitzgibbon, Jr. was murdered in Vietnam by another American servicemember. Fitzgibbon is officially recognized by the Department of Defense as the first American to die in what would become known as the Vietnam War.
--July 8, 1959: U.S. Army Master Sgt. Chester Ovnand and Major Dale Buis, members of the U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group assisting the South Vietnamese 7th Infantry Division, died in a Viet Cong attack on the base at Bien Hoa, which is just north of Saigon.
--August 2,1964: The Tonkin Gulf Incident on August 2,1964, in which the USS Maddox engaged in combat with three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. The details of this incident are still murky, with some doubt as to whether the second “attack” on U.S. ships actually occurred.
--March 8, 1965: The first "official" U.S. combat troops arrive at Da Nang, South Vietnam as President Johnson goes all-in on supporting South Vietnam against the Viet Cong and North Vietnam.
As with many aspects of the divisive Vietnam War, nothing is simple or clear; including the date in which the war (for Americans) actually began. Take your pick as to which incident above should count as the “start” of the war. The Defense Department counts the 1956 death of Tech Sgt. Fitzgibbon as the first American casualty of the war.
The DOD lists the last deaths of this war on May 15, 1975, in the Battle of Koh Tang Island in Cambodia. The Cambodian Communist rebels, the Khmer Rouge, had captured an American merchant ship, the SS Mayaguez, prompting President Ford to send in the Marines to rescue them. In a battle involving hundreds of Marines, along with Naval and Air Force assets, American forces suffered losses. American casualties included 18 dead and 50 wounded in the battle. Twenty-three more US Air Force personnel died in a support force helicopter crash in Thailand due to mechanical failure.
While most public attention on April 30, 2025 on the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Communists, which was a very significant event, remember that it was NOT the actual end of America’s combat in the Second Indochina War. The battle on that Cambodian island was the true end of America’s long war in Indochina, on May 15, 1975.
PERSONAL NOTE: I was in 5th or 6th grade when the Mayaguez Incident/Battle of Koh Tang took place. I remember watching these events on the nightly news, (about two weeks after also watching the last American helicopter leave Saigon), and my dad (himself a Navy vet), gave his approval to President Ford’s actions. A day or two later, after the names of the casualties were released, I remember seeing the headline of the local newspaper declaring that one of the dead Marines was a local guy from my hometown. That brought it home a bit more to me. I grew up with a couple kids on my street whose dad’s fighter plane went down over North Vietnam, (he was MIA for a long time, until his remains were found and identified in the late 1980s). While no one in my family served in that war, the conflict was very real to me, and to my neighborhood friends who grew up without their dad.
Remembering all of the Americans who served, especially those who never had the chance to come home, is something all Americans need to do. Whether we focus on April 30 or May 15 as the end of what was then America’s longest war, the point is to think of our history and those who served. Vietnam (or the Second Indochina War-a future post will discuss the three Indochina Wars in a bit more detail), was America’s longest war until the War in Afghanistan. We need to honor all those who served, while understanding why these wars happened in the first place. THAT is the role of history.