*Reference
*Sources
http://www.psywarrior.com/VietCongAtrocity.html
In this article we will discuss the smaller or “personal” atrocity. This is not a government murdering a population; instead, it is a small group of people, sometimes called “insurgents,” “guerrillas” or “terrorists” murdering civilians in an attempt to topple a government.
I first came across this concept back in the Cold War years when we studied Communism and one of the books considered to be important was The War of the Flea, Robert Taber, Citadel Press, 1970. The author made the point that for insurgents to be successful they need never win a single battle. They simply must survive and continue to kill innocent people, sabotage businesses and in general cause confusion and fear among the population. They cause so many problems for the government that it eventually overreacts, controls the people’s ability to travel, communicate and do business and so antagonizes the general population that it eventually rebels against the government. Author Taber explains:
This fact makes governments extremely vulnerable to a sort of war – guerrilla war with its psychological and economic weapons – that their predecessors could have ignored, had such a war been possible in the past.
They are vulnerable because they must, at all cost, keep the economy functioning and showing a profit or providing the materials and markets on which another, dominant economy depends. Again,
they are vulnerable because they must maintain the appearance of normalcy; they can be embarrassed out of office. And they are triply vulnerable because they cannot be as ruthless as the situation demands. They cannot openly crush the opposition that embarrasses and harasses them. They must be wooers as well as doers.
The counterinsurgent seeks a military solution: to wipe out the guerrillas. He is hampered by a political and economic impediment: he cannot wipe out the populace, or any significant sector of it. The guerrilla, for his part, wishes to wear down his military opponent and will employ suitable tactics to that end, but his primary objective is political. It is to feed and fan the fires of revolution by his struggle, to raise the entire population against the regime, to discredit it, isolate it, wrecks its credit, undermine its economy, overextend its resources, and cause its disintegration.
It becomes clear why insurgents such as the Viet Cong committed atrocities during the Vietnam War. They murdered their own people, bombed shopping centers, and were quite merciless toward their own citizens. By doing so, they disrupted the daily life of the people and caused them to lose all confidence in the Republic of Vietnam’s ability to protect its citizens. In addition, as the government moved the people to protected hamlets or drafted them to fight in their armed forces, they began to actively dislike and fear the authorities. The communists, even though they were doing the killing, promised a peaceful and secure life once the government was overthrown, and this was enough to lead many people to follow them into antigovernment actions. We see the same thing today in Iraq and Afghanistan where insurgents bomb markets and mosques, knowing that eventually the people will turn on the government and the Americans for being unable to protect them.
*Timeline
Bridge Ramp Vietnam Rocket Attack February 1969 - War Dogs
www.wardogs.com/br108.html
Oct 5, 2010 - This is a copy of the memorial service program for the men killed during a rocket attack onBridge Ramp on February 27, 1969. Tom Dye ...
Of the eleven boats built as Skilaks under the YFU-71 Class, one of them, the YFU-78, was completely destroyed in a rocket attack at the DaNang Bridge Ramp in 1969 with the tragic loss of most crew after taking on a cargo of ammo.
Survivor Remembers Vietnam-era Assault on Landing Craft - Navy.mil
www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=37500
May 30, 2008 - The [nearby] barge, YFU-78, was destroyed and eight men killed on it, along with three Sailors on the ramp." Since then, ACU-1 has held a ...
▶ 1:21https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A80NT8MN2TY
Jul 21, 2015 - Uploaded by AP Archive(9 Jun 1969) Forty five North Vietnamese rocket and mortar rounds launched into allied military base at Da ...
Story Number: NNS080530-15Release Date: 5/30/2008 By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Larry Foos, Navy Region Southwest Public Affairs CORONADO, Calif. (NNS) -- Amphibious Base (NAB) Coronado held a memorial service for Landing Craft Utility (LCU) 1500 on May 23. LCU 1500 suffered a rocket attack in Vietnam on Feb 28, 1968. "On February 27, 1969, [LCU 1500] was unloading ammunition and came under attack again. A rocket hit LCU 1500 and destroyed the craft, killing all personnel on board-13 men. The [nearby] barge, YFU-78, was destroyed and eight men killed on it, along with three Sailors on the ramp."
John-Baptiste Nguyễn Bửu Đồng (died January 30, 1968) was a Vietnamese Roman Catholic priest from the city of Huế who was murdered by the Việtcộng during the 1968 Tet Offensive. On the first day of the Tet Offensive, 30 January 1968, Việtcộng troops led Bửu Đồng to a nearby pagoda for questioning. He was later released after a passionate appeal by elders of his parish. Five days later, the Việtcộng returned and searched his rectory. Seizing his binoculars, camera, typewriter and picture of Hồ Chí Minh, the troops led the priest, aged 57, and two seminarians away. His corpse was found on 8 November 1969 at Luong Vien, about 30 kilometers northeast of Huế. The bodies of two other Catholic priests were in the same grave. This location contained a series of graves with a total of 20 bodies.[3][4][5][6]
Year 1967
Đắk Sơn massacre - Wikipedia The Đắk Sơn Massacre was a massacre committed by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, ... On December 5, 1967,massacre committed by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, in the village of Đắk Sơn, Đắk Lắk Province, South Vietnam.
Prior to the attack, earlier battles had occurred between the Viet Cong and the village defence militias.[1] On December 5, 1967, two battalions of Viet Cong attacked Dak Son village, and after a battle with the defence militia[2], were alleged to have killed between 114[3] to 252 civilians in a "vengeance" attack on the hamlet of Đắk Sơn, home to over 2,000 Montagnards. The Viet Cong believed that the hamlet had at one point given aid to refugees fleeing Viet Cong forces.[4]
Over 300 troops marched into the village, about 60 of which used flamethrowers to destroy the shelters and kill the men, women, and children who lived there.[5] As the Viet Cong fired their weapons, people were incinerated inside their own homes, and some who had managed to escape into foxholes in their homes died of smoke inhalation. The homes that were not destroyed by flamethrowers were destroyed with grenades, and on the way out patches of the main town were set afire. Just before they left the village, the Viet Cong shot 60 of the 160 survivors. Most of the remaining villagers were taken hostage.
Year 1966
Daily Journal from Fergus Falls, Minnesota · Page 1 The Daily Journal i Location: Fergus Falls, MinnesotaIssue Date: Monday, February 14, 1966Page: Page 1
VIET CONG MINES IN PHU YEN PROVINCE
Viet Cong Mines Kill 54, Including Four Children. (The above photos taken by Vietnamese Information Service Photographer) SAIGON, FEB. 14 -- Fifty-four Vietnamese civilians, including four children, were killed and 18 wounded by three Viet Cong mines buried in a road in Phu Yen province. Mining of the road was in retaliation for an Allied operation guarding harvesting of the rice crop. The area has had to import 600 tons of rice monthly because the Viet Cong controlled the major portion of the crop. The first explosion, with left a three-meter crater in the road and threw the large bus into a canal, killed 27 farmers on their way to work in fields near Tuy Hoa. Eleven others were injured. A three-wheel bus, loaded with men, women, and children, touched off the second mine with killed 20 and wounded seven. Another three-wheel bus set off the third mine, which killed 7. It was the most serious incident involving mines since early 1964 when 22 Vietnamese women and children were killed when their bus struck a mine planted by the Viet Cong. The incident typifies the murder and pillage by which the Viet Cong are terrorizing South Viet Nam. Between 1962 and mid 1965, according to figures released by the International Control Commission, at least 54,235 civilians in the South have been killed, wounded, or kidnapped.
(The VN Center Archive)
Year 1965
Year 1967
Đắk Sơn massacre - Wikipedia The Đắk Sơn Massacre was a massacre committed by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, ... On December 5, 1967,massacre committed by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War, in the village of Đắk Sơn, Đắk Lắk Province, South Vietnam.
Prior to the attack, earlier battles had occurred between the Viet Cong and the village defence militias.[1] On December 5, 1967, two battalions of Viet Cong attacked Dak Son village, and after a battle with the defence militia[2], were alleged to have killed between 114[3] to 252 civilians in a "vengeance" attack on the hamlet of Đắk Sơn, home to over 2,000 Montagnards. The Viet Cong believed that the hamlet had at one point given aid to refugees fleeing Viet Cong forces.[4]
Over 300 troops marched into the village, about 60 of which used flamethrowers to destroy the shelters and kill the men, women, and children who lived there.[5] As the Viet Cong fired their weapons, people were incinerated inside their own homes, and some who had managed to escape into foxholes in their homes died of smoke inhalation. The homes that were not destroyed by flamethrowers were destroyed with grenades, and on the way out patches of the main town were set afire. Just before they left the village, the Viet Cong shot 60 of the 160 survivors. Most of the remaining villagers were taken hostage.
Year 1966
Daily Journal from Fergus Falls, Minnesota · Page 1 The Daily Journal i Location: Fergus Falls, MinnesotaIssue Date: Monday, February 14, 1966Page: Page 1
VIET CONG MINES IN PHU YEN PROVINCE
Viet Cong Mines Kill 54, Including Four Children. (The above photos taken by Vietnamese Information Service Photographer) SAIGON, FEB. 14 -- Fifty-four Vietnamese civilians, including four children, were killed and 18 wounded by three Viet Cong mines buried in a road in Phu Yen province. Mining of the road was in retaliation for an Allied operation guarding harvesting of the rice crop. The area has had to import 600 tons of rice monthly because the Viet Cong controlled the major portion of the crop. The first explosion, with left a three-meter crater in the road and threw the large bus into a canal, killed 27 farmers on their way to work in fields near Tuy Hoa. Eleven others were injured. A three-wheel bus, loaded with men, women, and children, touched off the second mine with killed 20 and wounded seven. Another three-wheel bus set off the third mine, which killed 7. It was the most serious incident involving mines since early 1964 when 22 Vietnamese women and children were killed when their bus struck a mine planted by the Viet Cong. The incident typifies the murder and pillage by which the Viet Cong are terrorizing South Viet Nam. Between 1962 and mid 1965, according to figures released by the International Control Commission, at least 54,235 civilians in the South have been killed, wounded, or kidnapped.
(The VN Center Archive)
Year 1965
1965 Saigon bombing - Wikipedia On June 25, 1965, during the Vietnam War, a series of two bombings took place in Saigon. 42 people were killed in the explosions.
Injured Vietnamese are treated as they lie on the street after a bomb explosion outside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam on 30 March 1965. Two Americans and several Vietnamese were killed in the bombing
Bomb explodes outside U.S. Embassy in Saigon - Mar 30, 1965 ...
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bomb-explodes-outside-u-s-embassy-in-saigon
A bomb explodes in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, 2 Americans, and 1 Filipino; ...
Battle of Binh Gia (Vietnamese: Trận Bình Giã), which was part of a larger communist campaign, was conducted by the Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) from December 28, 1964, to January 1, 1965, during the Vietnam War in Bình Giã. The battle took place in Phước Tuy Province (now part of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province), South Vietnam. South Vietnamese and their American allies lost the total of about 201 personnel killed in action, 192 wounded and 68 missing.[1] The 4th Marine Battalion of 426 men lost a total of 117 (1 of 4 25%) soldiers killed, 71 wounded and 13 missing.[16] Among the casualties were 35 officers of the 4th Marine Battalion killed in action, and the four American advisers attached to the unit were also wounded.[16]
December 28, 1964, elements of the Viet Cong 271st Regiment and the 445th Company signaled their main attack on Bình Giã by penetrating the village's eastern perimeter. There, they clashed with members of the South Vietnamese Popular Force militiamen, which numbered about 65 personnel. The militia fighters proved no match for the Viet Cong and their overwhelming firepower, so they quickly retreated into underground bunkers, and called for help.[14] Once the village was captured, Colonel Ta Minh Kham, the Viet Cong regimental commander, established his command post in the main village church and waited for fresh reinforcements, which came in the form of heavy mortars, machine guns and recoilless rifles.[14] To counter South Vietnamese helicopter assaults, Colonel Kham's troops set up a network of defensive fortifications around the village, with trenches and bunkers protected by land mines and barbed wire. The local Catholic priest, who was also the village chief, sent a bicycle messenger out to the Bà Rịa district headquarters to ask for a relief force.[15] In response, the Bà Rịa district chief sent out elements of two Ranger battalions to retake Bình Giã. On December 29, two companies of the ARVN 33rd Ranger Battalion and a company from the 30th Ranger Battalion were airlifted into area located west of Bình Giã, by helicopters from the U.S. 118th Aviation Company to face an enemy force of unknown size.[7] As soon as the soldiers from the 30th and 33rd Ranger Battalions arrived at the landing zone, they were quickly overwhelmed by the Viet Cong in a deadly ambush.[7]
June 25, 1965 THE MY CANH RESTAURANT BOMBING Forty eight (48) are killed as Terrorists Bomb Saigon Restaurant- 18 Americans Among Dead - 100 Wounded.
Terrorist bombs shattered a floating restaurant on the Saigon river here tonight and killed at least 29 persons, including eight Americans.
Two big explosions sounded almost simultaneously from the river bank. Witnesses said they believed that as many as 50 persons may have died in the crowded restaurant, the My Canh, and on the riverside boulevard nearby.
Police said that 17 of the dead were Caucasians, and presumably most of these were Americans. Of six Viet Namese dead in the initial count, most were women. A United States military spokesman said the dead included five U.S. servicemen and three American Civilians. He said 30 persons injured were targeted at American installations. One hundred or more persons were wounded...
The explosions at the My Canh occurred at 8:15 p.m. (7:15 a.m. St Louis time). One was caused by a powerful shaped charge - possibly an American-made Claymore electric mine - planted in the bank of the river. The Claymore explodes in the direction it is pointed.
The restaurant which is moored about 25 feet from the bank, has an entry over a gang-plank leading from the waterfront street. It is patronized mostly by Americans and wealthy Vietnamese.
A second blast, which investigators believed was caused by a bomb mounted on a bicycle went off at a tobacco stall on the bank next to the restaurant. Investigators assumed that the explosions were placed in advance and timed to explode at the peak of the dinner hour on a weekend night. The restaurant was crowded and its glass walls were crushed under the haul of fragments. Victims were carried to a number of Saigon hospitals and authorities had difficulty in compiling casualty lists.
The riverfront normally is thronged with strollers seeking cool breezes in the early part of the night. Women walking with the children were among the casualties. At least one American woman was believed to have been killed. The dead and wounded were scattered in a wide arc...
In sheer power the blasts were exceeded by several others, including the bombing last Christmas eve of an officers hotel and the bombing in March of the United States Embassy. Although Viet Namese police patrol the Saigon waterfront, the My Canh restaurant has not been regarded as a likely prime terrorist target. There were no American military police near the establishment when the blasts occurred. The scene is about 500 yards from the U.S. Embassy, which is heavily guarded since it was damaged March 30 by a terrorist bomb that killed 30 persons.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Friday June 25, 1965)
Bomb explodes outside U.S. Embassy in Saigon - Mar 30, 1965 ...
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bomb-explodes-outside-u-s-embassy-in-saigon
A bomb explodes in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, 2 Americans, and 1 Filipino; ...
Battle of Binh Gia (Vietnamese: Trận Bình Giã), which was part of a larger communist campaign, was conducted by the Viet Cong and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) from December 28, 1964, to January 1, 1965, during the Vietnam War in Bình Giã. The battle took place in Phước Tuy Province (now part of Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu Province), South Vietnam. South Vietnamese and their American allies lost the total of about 201 personnel killed in action, 192 wounded and 68 missing.[1] The 4th Marine Battalion of 426 men lost a total of 117 (1 of 4 25%) soldiers killed, 71 wounded and 13 missing.[16] Among the casualties were 35 officers of the 4th Marine Battalion killed in action, and the four American advisers attached to the unit were also wounded.[16]
December 28, 1964, elements of the Viet Cong 271st Regiment and the 445th Company signaled their main attack on Bình Giã by penetrating the village's eastern perimeter. There, they clashed with members of the South Vietnamese Popular Force militiamen, which numbered about 65 personnel. The militia fighters proved no match for the Viet Cong and their overwhelming firepower, so they quickly retreated into underground bunkers, and called for help.[14] Once the village was captured, Colonel Ta Minh Kham, the Viet Cong regimental commander, established his command post in the main village church and waited for fresh reinforcements, which came in the form of heavy mortars, machine guns and recoilless rifles.[14] To counter South Vietnamese helicopter assaults, Colonel Kham's troops set up a network of defensive fortifications around the village, with trenches and bunkers protected by land mines and barbed wire. The local Catholic priest, who was also the village chief, sent a bicycle messenger out to the Bà Rịa district headquarters to ask for a relief force.[15] In response, the Bà Rịa district chief sent out elements of two Ranger battalions to retake Bình Giã. On December 29, two companies of the ARVN 33rd Ranger Battalion and a company from the 30th Ranger Battalion were airlifted into area located west of Bình Giã, by helicopters from the U.S. 118th Aviation Company to face an enemy force of unknown size.[7] As soon as the soldiers from the 30th and 33rd Ranger Battalions arrived at the landing zone, they were quickly overwhelmed by the Viet Cong in a deadly ambush.[7]
Backed by U.S. Air Force bombers, on January 1 three battalions of ARVN Airborne reinforcements arrived, they were too late as most of the Viet Cong had already withdrawn from the battlefield.[18]
first time the Viet Cong launched a large-scale operation, holding its ground and fighting for four days against government troops equipped with armor, artillery and helicopters, and aided by U.S. air support and military advisers. The Viet Cong demonstrated that, when well-supplied with military supplies from North Vietnam, they had the ability to fight and inflict damage even on the best ARVN units.[1]
The Viet Cong apparently suffered light casualties with only 32 soldiers officially confirmed killed, and they did not leave a single casualty on the battlefield.[19]
1964 Brinks Hotel bombing - Wikipedia The Brinks Hotel in Saigon, also known as the Brink Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ), was bombed by the Viet Cong on the evening of December 24, 1964, during the Vietnam War. Two Viet Cong operatives detonated a car bomb underneath the hotel, which ...
A Christmas Bombing in Saigon During The Vietnam War. | Peter Alan ... [similar to bombing US Marines at ]
peteralanlloyd.com/a-christmas-bombing-in-saigon-during-the-vietnam-war/
Feb 2, 2018 - On December 24 1964, two Viet Cong guerillas detonated a car bomb underneath the Brink Hotel in Saigon, which then housed scores of US explosion killed two American soldiers and injured 60 others, including military personnel and Vietnamese civilians.
On December 9, 1964, the 272nd Regiment destroyed an entire ARVN mechanised rifle company along Inter-provincial Road No. 2, destroying 16 M-113 APCs. On December 17, the 272nd Regiment destroyed another six armoured vehicles on Inter-provincial Road No. 15.[11]
Mortar Attack - 118th AHC It was not Tet, yet the Viet Cong mortar attack on Bien Hoa Air base just after mid-night on 1 Nov 1964 created many large headlines back home in the United ...
VC mortar attack on Bien Hoa 1 Nov 1964 | A Viet Cong mortar… | Flickr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/38329305756Nov 13, 2017 - A Viet Cong mortar attack on Bien Hoa Air Base in November 1964 marked a major escalation in hostilities. Four Americans died and 72 were ...wounded
http://www.vietnamwar.net/BienHoaBattle.htm
Early in the war, the United States constructed a large airfield and military headquarters just outside Bien Hoa, and on November 1, 1964, the Vietcong attacked the installation. Since the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 and the subsequent bombing of North Vietnam, the Indochinese struggle had been consuming increasing amounts of time and resources in Washington, as well as in the public mind. Vietcong sappers attacked the base, destroying five B-57 aircraft, and killing four American soldiers. Although the administration did not respond at once to the attack, it was becoming more and more clear that if the United States was going to conduct an air war over North and South Vietnam, with aircraft and personnel stationed in the south, regular ground troops would be required to defend those installations. Escalation of the conflict became one indirect consequence of the attack on Bien Hoa in 1964.
Between August and September 1964, Viet Cong regiments executed deep thrusts into Bình Dương and Châu Thành to apply additional pressure on South Vietnamese outposts situated on Route 14. During the second phase of their campaign, the Viet Cong ambushed two ARVN infantry companies and destroyed five armoured vehicles, which consisted of M24 Chaffee light tanks and M113 armored personnel carriers. The Viet Cong defeated regular ARVN units at the strategic hamlets of Bình Mỹ and Bình Co.[10]
Battle of Nam Đông took place from July 5–6 1964, when the Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam(PAVN) attacked the Nam Đông CIDG camp in an attempt to overrun it. Nam Đông is situated 32 miles (51 km) west of Da Nang in a valley near the Laotian border; it was manned by South Vietnamese personnel with American and Australian advisers, and served as a major thorn in the side of local VC militants. The PAVN/VC struck at the camp at 02:30 on 5 July to achieve the element of surprise, and reached the outer perimeter where CIDG forces managed to hold out.
Bar killings[edit]
As part of the violence against the Ngo Dinh Diem government, on July 11, 1957 anti-Diem insurgents stormed a bar in Châu Đốc and killed 17 people who were drinking inside.[1][2] The victims were tied up and then machine gunned.[4] American papers reported that the killings were a result of propaganda spread by communist forces and that the killing of 20 people would allow the person to fly and that anyone who killed 100 would "become an angel".[4][5] The killings were blamed on communist insurgents and fighters of the banned Hòa Hảo sect.[5] While urban Vietnamese did not take these claims seriously, the more rural a person was the more superstitious they were and the more likely they would believe that the murders would grant special powers.[5]
30 April 1957 CIA National Intelligence Estimate said that the Viet Cong in South Vietnam numbered 5,000 to 8,000 and along with about 2,000 armed members of the Cao Đàiand Hòa Hảo sects were "widely dispersed and probably not capable of more than local harassment of government forces and local populations."[6]
Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr. (June 21, 1920 – June 8, 1956), USAF, was the first American to lose his life in the conflict that would later be known as the Vietnam War. He was murdered by another airman and died of his wounds later on June 8, 1956. Through the efforts of his sister and former selectwoman Stoneham, Massachusetts, Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999.
September 30, 1956. The FLN attempts to draw international attention to the conflict by targeting urban areas. The Battle of Algiers begins when three women plant bombs in public venues. Algiers erupts into violence. Atlantic
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent11.htm
the North Vietnamese regime had been suffering from food scarcity, and low public morale stemming from inept imitation of Chinese Communism-including a harsh agrarian program that reportedly led to the killing of over 50,000 small-scale "landlords." The North Vietnamese themselves furnished damning descriptions of conditions within the DRV in 1955 and 1956. Vo Nguyen Giap, in a public statement to his communist party colleagues, admitted in autumn, 1956, that:
Jan 10, 1952 Rebel Bombs Rock Heart Of Saigon (Today they would be called terrorists) SAIGON (A.A.P.-Reuter).--Two 100 lb. exploding plastic bombs yesterday rocked the heart of Saigon, killing three persons and injuring 35, T'HEY were the biggest Sai- gon bomb blasts in the six-year war against the Indo-China Vietminh rebels. French press reports said three people were killed and
11 cars destroyed or dam- aged in the explosions, which occurred in two car parks, one outside the Saigon Opera House and the other outside the Saigon Town Hall. Police detained two Viet-
namese in connection with the incident. Vietnam police reported that the terrorists had driven
two cars with faked number plates to parking zones, started the time fuses and fled.
General Trình Minh Thế
Trình Minh Thế (1920[1] – 3 May 1955) was a Vietnamese nationalist and military leader during the end of the First Indochina Warand the beginning of the Vietnam War.[2][3]
Thế's forces were implicated in a series of terrorist bombings in Saigon from 1951 to 1953—which were blamed on communists at the time—and may also have been responsible for the assassination of the French General Chanson at Sa Đéc in 1951.
Lieutenant Colonel Albert Peter Dewey was mistakenly shot during an ambush by Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945. He was the first known American fatality in Vietnam, killed in the early aftermath of World War II.[10] American OSS chief, Major Peter Dewey, attacked and killed in Saigon after being mistaken for a Frenchman
Bình Xuyên 24 September 1945, Lê Văn Khôi (a.k.a. "Bà Nho"), one of Ba Dương's lieutenants allegedly organized the massacre of 150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children, in Saigon without order from its leader.[7] While this decision would have been of little consequence in Tonkin or central Vietnam, where the Communist-dominated Việt Minh was strong enough to stand alone, in Cochin China, where the Bình Xuyên support was crucial, Ba Nho's action led to suppression from the returning French troops.
Between August and September 1964, Viet Cong regiments executed deep thrusts into Bình Dương and Châu Thành to apply additional pressure on South Vietnamese outposts situated on Route 14. During the second phase of their campaign, the Viet Cong ambushed two ARVN infantry companies and destroyed five armoured vehicles, which consisted of M24 Chaffee light tanks and M113 armored personnel carriers. The Viet Cong defeated regular ARVN units at the strategic hamlets of Bình Mỹ and Bình Co.[10]
Battle of Nam Đông took place from July 5–6 1964, when the Viet Cong (VC) and People's Army of Vietnam(PAVN) attacked the Nam Đông CIDG camp in an attempt to overrun it. Nam Đông is situated 32 miles (51 km) west of Da Nang in a valley near the Laotian border; it was manned by South Vietnamese personnel with American and Australian advisers, and served as a major thorn in the side of local VC militants. The PAVN/VC struck at the camp at 02:30 on 5 July to achieve the element of surprise, and reached the outer perimeter where CIDG forces managed to hold out.
Similar to 1983 Beirut barracks bombings The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing was a suicide attack that occurred on October 23, 1983, in Beirut,Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War. Two truck bombs struck buildings housing Multinational Force in Lebanon ... This attack occurred just minutes after the attack on the American marines. Non-fatal injuries: 75 Perpetrator: Islamic Jihad Organization Date: October 23, 1983; 06:22
bodies of 2 boys and a man lie in the street following a Viet Cong grenade attack that killed 7 persons and wounded 47. The grenade was tossed into a helicopter on display at Saigon City Hall on Republic Day, Oct. 26, 1962
President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared in a speech that Army Security Agency technician Spec/4 James T. Davis, who died in a Viet Cong ambush near the village of Cau Xang on 22 December 1961, was "The first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam."
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/76140/mike_davis_on_the_history_of_the_car_bomb
Vehicle bombs thereafter were used sporadically -- producing notable massacres in Saigon (1952), Algiers (1962), and Palermo (1963) -- but the gates of hell were only truly opened in 1972, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) accidentally, so the legend goes, improvised the first ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) car bomb.
End of 1959: In the last four months of 1959, the Viet Cong assassinated 110 local government leaders, mostly in rural areas.[24] Between 1956 and the end of 1959, four American soldiers were killed in Vietnam.[25]
26 September 1959 In the Mekong Delta near the Cambodian border, approximately 100 guerrillas identified only as the "2nd Liberation Battalion" ambushed 360 soldiers of the South Vietnamese army. The army units lost 12 killed, 14 wounded, 9 missing or captured, and most of their weapons. This was the largest military engagement between the Viet Cong and the army up until then. Two weeks later, in the same province, 45 South Vietnamese surrendered to a smaller number of Viet Cong.[22]
20 August 1959 The first arms shipment from North Vietnam to the Viet Cong arrived in South Vietnam. Three hundred and eight men carried 4 rifles and 44 pounds (20 kg) of ammunition each, departing June 10 and making their way through the demilitarized zone to the upper end of the A Shau Valley where the arms and ammunition were turned over to the Viet Cong. The trek was carried out during the rainy season.[19]
U.S. Army Major Dale Richard Buis (August 29, 1921 – July 8, 1959) was formerly the first name listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. was part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group sent in 1955 to train South Vietnam troops. He and US Army Master Sergeant Chester M. "Charles" Ovnand were killed at Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The Vietcong ambushed the mess hall while the American officers were watching the film The Tattered Dress. 8 July Six Viet Cong guerrillas attacked a MAAG compound in Biên Hòa, a town about 20 miles (32 km) north of Saigon. Two American soldiers and three Vietnamese were killed by the guerrillas. Security for 2,000 American military and civilian officials working in South Vietnam was increased and MAAG personnel began carrying weapons.[15]
bodies of 2 boys and a man lie in the street following a Viet Cong grenade attack that killed 7 persons and wounded 47. The grenade was tossed into a helicopter on display at Saigon City Hall on Republic Day, Oct. 26, 1962
President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared in a speech that Army Security Agency technician Spec/4 James T. Davis, who died in a Viet Cong ambush near the village of Cau Xang on 22 December 1961, was "The first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam."
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/76140/mike_davis_on_the_history_of_the_car_bomb
Vehicle bombs thereafter were used sporadically -- producing notable massacres in Saigon (1952), Algiers (1962), and Palermo (1963) -- but the gates of hell were only truly opened in 1972, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) accidentally, so the legend goes, improvised the first ammonium nitrate-fuel oil (ANFO) car bomb.
End of 1959: In the last four months of 1959, the Viet Cong assassinated 110 local government leaders, mostly in rural areas.[24] Between 1956 and the end of 1959, four American soldiers were killed in Vietnam.[25]
26 September 1959 In the Mekong Delta near the Cambodian border, approximately 100 guerrillas identified only as the "2nd Liberation Battalion" ambushed 360 soldiers of the South Vietnamese army. The army units lost 12 killed, 14 wounded, 9 missing or captured, and most of their weapons. This was the largest military engagement between the Viet Cong and the army up until then. Two weeks later, in the same province, 45 South Vietnamese surrendered to a smaller number of Viet Cong.[22]
20 August 1959 The first arms shipment from North Vietnam to the Viet Cong arrived in South Vietnam. Three hundred and eight men carried 4 rifles and 44 pounds (20 kg) of ammunition each, departing June 10 and making their way through the demilitarized zone to the upper end of the A Shau Valley where the arms and ammunition were turned over to the Viet Cong. The trek was carried out during the rainy season.[19]
U.S. Army Major Dale Richard Buis (August 29, 1921 – July 8, 1959) was formerly the first name listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. was part of the Military Assistance Advisory Group sent in 1955 to train South Vietnam troops. He and US Army Master Sergeant Chester M. "Charles" Ovnand were killed at Bien Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The Vietcong ambushed the mess hall while the American officers were watching the film The Tattered Dress. 8 July Six Viet Cong guerrillas attacked a MAAG compound in Biên Hòa, a town about 20 miles (32 km) north of Saigon. Two American soldiers and three Vietnamese were killed by the guerrillas. Security for 2,000 American military and civilian officials working in South Vietnam was increased and MAAG personnel began carrying weapons.[15]
Time: was a quiet evening in the sleepy little town of Bien Hoa 20 miles north of Saigon, base camp for the South Vietnamese crack 7th Infantry Division and its eight-man U.S. Military Assistance Advisory Group. The presence of the Americans symbolized one of the main reasons why South Viet Nam, five years ago a new nation with little life expectancy, is still independent and free and getting stronger all the time—to the growing chagrin of Communists in neighboring North Viet Nam. Since the beginning of 1959,Communist infiltrators have stepped up their campaign of terrorism, assassinating an average of one...
End of 1958 The Diem government of South Vietnam, by the end of 1958, had killed 12,000 persons and arrested 40,000 in its campaign to repress the communists and other opposition in South Vietnam.[22]
10 August 1958 insurgent force of 400 men raided the Michelin Rubber Plantation north of Saigon. The plantation was defended by a company security force and 200 South Vietnamese soldiers. The defenders were taken by surprise and lost more than 100 weapons and $143,000 in cash. The raid was led by a Bình Xuyên commander with Viet Cong advisers. President Diem had visited the rubber plantation only a week earlier.[13]
March 6, 1958 saigon newspaper "our people are fleeing the villages and returning to the cities for fear of communist guerrillas"
28 February Three hundred Bình Xuyên insurgents attacked the Minh Thanh Rubber Plantation north of Saigon. The Government sent two divisions of army troops to attempt to hunt down the insurgents. Most of the incidents of violence in South Vietnam were committed by the remnants of the Binh Xuyen criminal gang and the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo religious sects which had been suppressed by the Diem government in 1955 and 1956. Viet Cong "political advisers" were often attached to the insurgents.[6]
Vietnam War quotations Feb 12, 1958 Vietnamese army truck ambushed near Saigon by insurgents and all occupants were killed. This was one of several attacks in February on government and military personnel in the Mekong Delta region of southernmost South Vietnam.[5]
End 1957 The rising tide of guerrilla activity in South Vietnam reached an estimated 30 terrorist incidents by the end of the year and at least 75 local officials were assassinated or kidnapped in the last quarter of 1957. wikip During the last three months of 1957, 190 terrorist attacks and clashes between government security forces and insurgents were reported in South Vietnam. Seventy-four people were killed including 20 government officials and 31 police and military personnel.[26]
In 1957, the anti-communist campaigns of the Diệm government decimated the communists in South Vietnam. 2,000 suspected communist party members and sympathizers were killed and 65,000 were arrested. Communist party membership in South Vietnam was 5,000 in mid-1957 and had been reduced to one-third that by the end of the year. According to a North Vietnamese historian, 1957 was "the darkest period" for the communist movement in South Vietnam.[29]
1957 in the Vietnam War term "Viet Cong" for the communist cadres in South Vietnam began to replace the older term "Viet Minh" in common usage.
End of 1958 The Diem government of South Vietnam, by the end of 1958, had killed 12,000 persons and arrested 40,000 in its campaign to repress the communists and other opposition in South Vietnam.[22]
10 August 1958 insurgent force of 400 men raided the Michelin Rubber Plantation north of Saigon. The plantation was defended by a company security force and 200 South Vietnamese soldiers. The defenders were taken by surprise and lost more than 100 weapons and $143,000 in cash. The raid was led by a Bình Xuyên commander with Viet Cong advisers. President Diem had visited the rubber plantation only a week earlier.[13]
March 6, 1958 saigon newspaper "our people are fleeing the villages and returning to the cities for fear of communist guerrillas"
28 February Three hundred Bình Xuyên insurgents attacked the Minh Thanh Rubber Plantation north of Saigon. The Government sent two divisions of army troops to attempt to hunt down the insurgents. Most of the incidents of violence in South Vietnam were committed by the remnants of the Binh Xuyen criminal gang and the Cao Đài and Hòa Hảo religious sects which had been suppressed by the Diem government in 1955 and 1956. Viet Cong "political advisers" were often attached to the insurgents.[6]
Vietnam War quotations Feb 12, 1958 Vietnamese army truck ambushed near Saigon by insurgents and all occupants were killed. This was one of several attacks in February on government and military personnel in the Mekong Delta region of southernmost South Vietnam.[5]
End 1957 The rising tide of guerrilla activity in South Vietnam reached an estimated 30 terrorist incidents by the end of the year and at least 75 local officials were assassinated or kidnapped in the last quarter of 1957. wikip During the last three months of 1957, 190 terrorist attacks and clashes between government security forces and insurgents were reported in South Vietnam. Seventy-four people were killed including 20 government officials and 31 police and military personnel.[26]
In 1957, the anti-communist campaigns of the Diệm government decimated the communists in South Vietnam. 2,000 suspected communist party members and sympathizers were killed and 65,000 were arrested. Communist party membership in South Vietnam was 5,000 in mid-1957 and had been reduced to one-third that by the end of the year. According to a North Vietnamese historian, 1957 was "the darkest period" for the communist movement in South Vietnam.[29]
Dec 17 A Saigon newspaper highlighted the growing violence in the countryside of South Vietnam: "Today the menace is greater than ever, with the terrorists no longer limiting themselves to the notables in charge of security. Everything suits them, village chiefs, chairmen of liaison committees, simple guards, even former notables...In certain areas the village chiefs spend their nights in the security posts, while the inhabitants organize watches."[28]
Vietnam War quotations Oct 22, 1957 13 American servicemen injured in 3 bombings Saigon military installations
American forces suffer first casualties in Vietnam - Oct 22, 1957 ... history.com U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties in the war when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon. Thirteen American soldiers were injured in three attacks aimed at MAAG and United States Information Service installations in Saigon.[22]
21 October Major Harry Griffith Cramer, Jr. an American army officer, was killed by a bomb near Nha Trang, South Vietnam. It is unclear whether or not the bomb explosion was purposeful.[23]
10 October A terrorist bomb was thrown into a Saigon restaurant and injured 13 people.[22]
Vietnam War quotations Oct 22, 1957 13 American servicemen injured in 3 bombings Saigon military installations
American forces suffer first casualties in Vietnam - Oct 22, 1957 ... history.com U.S. military personnel suffer their first casualties in the war when 13 Americans are wounded in three terrorist bombings of Military Assistance Advisory Group and U.S. Information Service installations in Saigon. Thirteen American soldiers were injured in three attacks aimed at MAAG and United States Information Service installations in Saigon.[22]
21 October Major Harry Griffith Cramer, Jr. an American army officer, was killed by a bomb near Nha Trang, South Vietnam. It is unclear whether or not the bomb explosion was purposeful.[23]
10 October A terrorist bomb was thrown into a Saigon restaurant and injured 13 people.[22]
Thirteen American soldiers were injured in three attacks aimed at MAAG and United States Information Service installations in Saigon.[22]
Vietnam War quotations Sept 14 district chief of My-Tho and whole family stopped in broad daylight on a highway and killed in cold blood. The District Chief of Mỹ Tho Province and his family were assassinated.[22] Logevall, Frederik Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam New York: Random House, 2012, p. 679 p. 686; Spector, p. 316
Vietnam War quotations July 11, 1957 armed men machine gunned (mass shooting) 17 occupants of a bar in Chau-Doc South Vietnam.
Chau Doc massacre was the July 11, 1957 killing of 17 people in the small town of Châu Đốc in An Giang Province, near the border with Cambodia, in what was then known as South Vietnam. The killings were part of a low-level campaign targeting South Vietnamese officials. The massacre was attributed to remnants of the Hòa Hảo religious sect which had been repressed by Diệm in 1955 and 1956.[17] The killings were the beginning of a low level campaign targeting government officials, school teachers, and village chief's families.[18][19]
North Vietnamese government maintained that a referendum on unification in line with the Geneva Accords would go ahead. As such they forbade the southern Viet Minh cadres from anything but low-level insurgency actions, like the assassination of South Vietnamese Diệm officials instead of large scale military engagements.[3] They were joined by other anti-government elements who escaped Diệm's crackdown on opposition groups like the Hòa Hảoand Cao Đài sects.
Vietnam War quotations Sept 14 district chief of My-Tho and whole family stopped in broad daylight on a highway and killed in cold blood. The District Chief of Mỹ Tho Province and his family were assassinated.[22] Logevall, Frederik Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam New York: Random House, 2012, p. 679 p. 686; Spector, p. 316
Vietnam War quotations July 11, 1957 armed men machine gunned (mass shooting) 17 occupants of a bar in Chau-Doc South Vietnam.
| Châu Đốc massacre | July 11, 1957 | Châu Đốc in An Giang Province, South Vietnam | 17 | Anti-government insurgents |
North Vietnamese government maintained that a referendum on unification in line with the Geneva Accords would go ahead. As such they forbade the southern Viet Minh cadres from anything but low-level insurgency actions, like the assassination of South Vietnamese Diệm officials instead of large scale military engagements.[3] They were joined by other anti-government elements who escaped Diệm's crackdown on opposition groups like the Hòa Hảoand Cao Đài sects.
Bar killings[edit]
As part of the violence against the Ngo Dinh Diem government, on July 11, 1957 anti-Diem insurgents stormed a bar in Châu Đốc and killed 17 people who were drinking inside.[1][2] The victims were tied up and then machine gunned.[4] American papers reported that the killings were a result of propaganda spread by communist forces and that the killing of 20 people would allow the person to fly and that anyone who killed 100 would "become an angel".[4][5] The killings were blamed on communist insurgents and fighters of the banned Hòa Hảo sect.[5] While urban Vietnamese did not take these claims seriously, the more rural a person was the more superstitious they were and the more likely they would believe that the murders would grant special powers.[5]
Nonetheless, the Viet Minh "stay-behinds" were not directed originally to structure an insurgency, and there is no coherent picture of the extent or effectiveness of communist activities in the period 1956-1959. From all indications, this was a period of reorganization and recruiting by the communist party. No direct links have been established between Hanoi and perpetrators of rural violence. Statements have been found in captured party histories that the communists plotted and controlled the entire insurgency, but these are difficult to take at face value. Bernard Fall ingeniously correlated DRV complaints to the ICC of incidents in South Vietnam in 1957 with GVN reports of the same incidents, and found Hanoi suspiciously well informed. He also perceived a pattern in the terrorism of 1957-1959, deducing that a broad, centrally directed strategy was being implemented. However, there is little other corroborative evidence that Hanoi instigated the incidents, much less orchestrated them.
30 April 1957 CIA National Intelligence Estimate said that the Viet Cong in South Vietnam numbered 5,000 to 8,000 and along with about 2,000 armed members of the Cao Đàiand Hòa Hảo sects were "widely dispersed and probably not capable of more than local harassment of government forces and local populations."[6]
Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr. (June 21, 1920 – June 8, 1956), USAF, was the first American to lose his life in the conflict that would later be known as the Vietnam War. He was murdered by another airman and died of his wounds later on June 8, 1956. Through the efforts of his sister and former selectwoman Stoneham, Massachusetts, Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999.
September 30, 1956. The FLN attempts to draw international attention to the conflict by targeting urban areas. The Battle of Algiers begins when three women plant bombs in public venues. Algiers erupts into violence. Atlantic
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent11.htm
the North Vietnamese regime had been suffering from food scarcity, and low public morale stemming from inept imitation of Chinese Communism-including a harsh agrarian program that reportedly led to the killing of over 50,000 small-scale "landlords." The North Vietnamese themselves furnished damning descriptions of conditions within the DRV in 1955 and 1956. Vo Nguyen Giap, in a public statement to his communist party colleagues, admitted in autumn, 1956, that:
We made too many deviations and executed too many honest people. We attacked on too large a front and, seeing enemies everywhere, resorted to terror, which became far too widespread. . . . Whilst carrying out our land reform program we failed to respect the principles of freedom of faith and worship in many areas . . . in regions inhabited by minority tribes we have attacked tribal chiefs too strongly, thus injuring, instead of respecting, local customs and manners. . . . When reorganizing the party, we paid too much importance to the notion of social class instead of adhering firmly to political qualifications alone. Instead of recognizing education to be the first essential, we resorted exclusively to organizational measures such as disciplinary punishments, expulsion from the party, executions, dissolution of party branches and calls. Worse still, torture came to be regarded as a normal practice during party reorganization. (Pentagon Papers)
Jan 10, 1952 Rebel Bombs Rock Heart Of Saigon (Today they would be called terrorists) SAIGON (A.A.P.-Reuter).--Two 100 lb. exploding plastic bombs yesterday rocked the heart of Saigon, killing three persons and injuring 35, T'HEY were the biggest Sai- gon bomb blasts in the six-year war against the Indo-China Vietminh rebels. French press reports said three people were killed and
11 cars destroyed or dam- aged in the explosions, which occurred in two car parks, one outside the Saigon Opera House and the other outside the Saigon Town Hall. Police detained two Viet-
namese in connection with the incident. Vietnam police reported that the terrorists had driven
two cars with faked number plates to parking zones, started the time fuses and fled.
General Trình Minh Thế
Trình Minh Thế (1920[1] – 3 May 1955) was a Vietnamese nationalist and military leader during the end of the First Indochina Warand the beginning of the Vietnam War.[2][3]
Thế's forces were implicated in a series of terrorist bombings in Saigon from 1951 to 1953—which were blamed on communists at the time—and may also have been responsible for the assassination of the French General Chanson at Sa Đéc in 1951.
Lieutenant Colonel Albert Peter Dewey was mistakenly shot during an ambush by Viet Minh troops on September 26, 1945. He was the first known American fatality in Vietnam, killed in the early aftermath of World War II.[10] American OSS chief, Major Peter Dewey, attacked and killed in Saigon after being mistaken for a Frenchman
Bình Xuyên 24 September 1945, Lê Văn Khôi (a.k.a. "Bà Nho"), one of Ba Dương's lieutenants allegedly organized the massacre of 150 French and Eurasian civilians, including children, in Saigon without order from its leader.[7] While this decision would have been of little consequence in Tonkin or central Vietnam, where the Communist-dominated Việt Minh was strong enough to stand alone, in Cochin China, where the Bình Xuyên support was crucial, Ba Nho's action led to suppression from the returning French troops.
| Sài Gòn massacre(Cité Héraud massacre) | September 24–26, 1945 | Đa Kao of Sài Gòn Province, Vietnam | 300–400 | Việt Minh |
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