Events - Vietnam War Portal

26Jan

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Battle of Ia Drang

The Battle of Ia Drang (Vietnamese: Trận Ia Đrăng, [iə̯ ɗrăŋ]; in English /ˈiːə dræŋ/) was the first major battle between the United States Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), as part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War, at the eastern foot of the Chu Pong Massif in the central highlands of Vietnam, in 1965. It is notable for being the first large scale helicopter air assault and also the first use of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers in a tactical support role. Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire and close air support, while the PAVN neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range. Ia Drang comprised two main engagements, centered...

23Jan

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Transition period

The battle of the Route Coloniale 4

The Battle of Route Coloniale 4 (RC4), a major defeat for the French Expeditionary Force in Indochina along with Dien Bien Phu. Secret Indochina has been developing programs in the area of the former RC4 between Cao Bang and Ha Giang for some time, and to mark the anniversary we take a look back on this famous battle and the regions of northeastern Vietnam where it took place. The first major offensive of the First Indochina War took place on July 25, 1948 on the RC3 during an attack on the Phu Tong Hoa post. More than 3,000 Viet Minh infantry troops launched a nighttime attack on the post, which was located near Bac Khan at the crossing of the Ba Be Road. At dawn, the Legionnaires were still resisting, and the attackers withdrew. After this attack, French generals decided t...

THE DISASTERS BEFORE DIEN BIEN PHU: IN 1950, THE VIETNAMESE ROUTED THE FRENCH IN CHINESE BORDER BATTLES

23Jan

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Transition period

THE DISASTERS BEFORE DIEN BIEN PHU: IN 1950, THE VIETNAMESE ROUTED THE FRENCH IN CHINESE BORDER BATTLES

When the smoke cleared, the French had suffered their greatest colonial defeat since 1749, wrote French historian Bernard Fall. The young soldiers of Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap’s newly formed 308th Division, freshly trained and equipped by the communist Chinese, showed off their skills in stealth operations against the French in May 1950. Four of Giap’s infantry battalions scaled steep limestone heights surrounding the town of Dong Khe in northeast Tonkin, the northernmost region of Vietnam, without being detected even though they were hauling five American-made 75 mm pack howitzers. At dawn on May 25, they opened fire with a devastating sustained barrage on the French defenses and the 800-man garrison, consisting mostly of Moroccan riflemen under French officers. Giap, commander in chi...

22Jan

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French Vietnam

Tonkin campaign

The Tonkin campaign was an armed conflict fought between June 1883 and April 1886 by the French against, variously, the Vietnamese, Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and the Chinese Guangxi and Yunnan armies to occupy Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and entrench a French protectorate there. The campaign, complicated in August 1884 by the outbreak of the Sino-French War and in July 1885 by the Cần Vương nationalist uprising in Annam (central Vietnam), which required the diversion of large numbers of French troops, was conducted by the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, supported by the gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla. The campaign officially ended in April 1886, when the expeditionary corps was reduced in size to a division of occupation, but Tonkin was not effectively pacified until 1896. Hanoi and Nam...

21Jan

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French Vietnam

French conquest of Vietnam

3GEV54\1 The French conquest of Vietnam(1858–1885) was a long and limited war fought between the Second French Empire, later the French Third Republic and the Vietnamese empire of Đại Nam in the mid-late 19th century. Its end and results were victories for the French as they defeated the Vietnamese and their Chinese allies in 1885, the incorporation of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and finally established French rules over constituent territories of French Indochina over Mainland Southeast Asia in 1887. A joint Franco-Spanish expedition attacked Da Nang in 1858 and then retreated to invade Saigon. King Tu Duc signed a treaty in June 1862 granting the French sovereignty over three provinces in the South. The French annexed the three southwestern provinces in 1867 to form Cochinchina. Hav...