In 1941, the Viet Minh, a communist and nationalist liberation movement, emerged under Ho Chi Minh to seek independence for Vietnam from France as well as to oppose the Japanese occupation. Japanese occupation during World War II caused the Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which caused 2 million deaths, or 10 percent of the population then. Following the military defeat of Japan and the fall of its Empire of Vietnam in August 1945, Viet Minh occupied Hanoi and proclaimed a provisional government, which asserted independence on 2 September.
France-marked USAF C-119 flown by CIA pilots over Dien Bien Phu in 1954. In the same year the Provisional French Republic sent the French Far East Expeditionary Corps, which was originally created to fight the Japanese occupation forces, in order to pacify the liberation movement and to restore French rule. On November 20, 1946, triggered by the Haiphong Incident, the First Indochina War between Viet Minh and the French forces ensued, lasting until July 20, 1954.
Despite fewer losses, Expeditionary Corps suffered one-third of the casualties of the Chinese and Soviet-backed Viet Minh during the course of the war, the French and Vietnamese loyalists eventually suffered a major strategic setback at the Siege of Dien Bien Phu, which allowed Ho Chi Minh to negotiate a ceasefire with a favorable position at the ongoing Geneva conference of 1954. Colonial administration ended as French Indochina was dissolved. According to the Geneva Accords of 1954 the forces of former French supporters and communist nationalists were separated south and north, respectively, with the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone, at the 17th parallel north, between. A 300-day period of free movement was given, during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholic, moved south, fearing persecution by the communists.
A partition of Vietnam, with Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in North Vietnam, and Emperor BαΊ£o ΔαΊ‘i's State of Vietnam in the South Vietnam, was not intended to be permanent by the Geneva Accords, and they expressly forbade the interference of third powers. The State of Vietnam's Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem toppled BαΊ£o ΔαΊ‘i in a fraudulent referendum organized by his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. The Accords mandated nationwide elections by 1956, which Diem refused to hold, despite repeated calls from the North for talks to discuss elections.
The pro-Hanoi Vietcong began a guerrilla campaign in the late 1950's to overthrow Diem's government, which an official Vietcong statement described as a 'disguised colonial regime.' In the North, thousands of landowners were murdered by the communists and famine broke out in the 1950s. In the South, Diem went about crushing all opposition and tens of thousands were jailed or killed; dissidents were routinely labeled as communists even if they were anti-communist. Both Vietnams were police states with totalitarian security systems.
In 1963, Buddhist discontent with Diem's pro-Catholic discrimination erupted following the banning of the Buddhist flag and the Hue Vesak shootings. This resulted in a series of mass demonstrations during what is known as the Buddhist crisis. With Diem unwilling to bend, Nhu orchestrated the Xa Loi Pagoda raids; estimates of the death toll range into the hundreds. As a result, America's relationship with Diem broke down and resulted in the 1963 coup that saw Diem killed.
Diem was followed by a series of military regimes that often lasted only months before being toppled by another. With this instability, the communists began to gain ground. There were more than a dozen governments before the pairing of Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky and General Nguyα» n VΔn Thiα»u took control of a junta in mid-1965. Thieu gradually outmaneuvered Ky and cemented his grip on power in fraudulent elections last year.
To support South Vietnam's struggle against the communist insurgency, the United States began increasing its contribution of military advisers. US forces became embroiled in ground combat operations in 1965 and at their peak they numbered more than 500,000. Communist forces attacked most major targets in South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, and although their campaign failed militarily, it shocked the American establishment, and caused them to think that the communists could not be defeated. Communist forces supplying the Vietcong carried supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail, which passed through Laos and Cambodia. US president Richard Nixon authorized Operation Menu, an SAC bombing campaign in Laos and Cambodia, which he kept secret from the US Congress
Near Bao Loc, Vietnam
December, 1968
Mai Li Trinh, a survivor of many brutal rapes and of the My Lai Massacre of nine months earlier, was running for her life again, this time from the Viet Cong that had kidnapped her yesterday to force her to become a sex slave to the soldiers at an American POW camp. She had escaped after being raped repeatedly by shooting and killing one of her rapists.
The Viet Nam Cong San (the Vietnamese Communists) were a guerrilla force that, with the support of the North Vietnamese Army, fought against South Vietnam and the United States. These were the men she would learn to hate and hunt. They were ruthless and sadistic. They had begun immediately to round up people who were supports of the south and the Americans. What followed would remain forever burned into her mind, an orgy of rape, murder and senseless destruction. Her father and brother had been shot and her mother and sister dragged screaming to the bedroom by laughing men. Even her tender years did not spare her and she lost her virginity to the first of many rapists that day. The last had been a cold-hearted man who seemed to have more feelings for his prized rifle, an M25 sniper rifle, than for any of the helpless people in her village. He did not even bother to lower his trousers. When he finished and rolled off of her, she had seized the pistol from his belt and shot him once, the bullet entering him under the chin and going through his head, exiting out from the top of his head. She had taken the sniper rifle he had so carefully set by the door, but only for her protection from other Viet Cong, and had escaped into the night, at times dragging herself through the thick underbrush. She had been bleeding badly, and her insides had hurt horribly. Three times she'd thrown up, but she finally reached the small cave where she and her brothers had played as children. She slept then, never sure for exactly how long. When she awakened it was dark and cold outside. It took her a moment to realize where she was and to have the horror of that day wash over her again. She could hear the screams of her mother, of people being machine gunned, the hoarse shouting of the Viet Cong and the grunts of the men taking their turn with her. She cautiously went down to the stream and washed herself, removing caked blood and semen. It was still dark when she cautiously returned to her village. When she got there she found it was gone, a cold pile of ashes and unburied corpses was all that was left.
She now lay still in the dense brush. Her dark green dress almost blended perfectly with the landscape, rendering her nearly invisible in the pale evening light. Now it reminded her of home. Home. Time and horror had so shattered her perception that the very word sounded alien to her.
Suddenly she stopped running. Something was out there. She did not know if it was human or animal. She looked both ways, and when she saw nothing, she hurried along the almost hidden path. The jungle was alive with insects. A noisy chorus of frogs began, loud calls as males searched for females. She caught sight of a large snake, a python making its way from branch to branch. As she moved along the path, a feeling of dread began to grow. She was no longer alone. She was being watched. Stalked. Hunted. She looked around her, paying more attention to the trees above her head, looking for shadows. Suddenly she tripped and rolled to the side.
She saw something moving to her left side. It was a sun bear. When it rushed at her, she stood and ran. When she tripped and fell backward, it bit her and sank its sharp teeth into her ankle, severely wounding her right leg. In intense pain, she grabbed for a branch that lay close by and swung it at the rather small bear's head. It lashed out with a large forepaw, which had long, curved claws, which it uses to tear and dig in its search for insects nests and colonies, especially those of bees and termites. Generally nocturnal, the tree climbing bear, normally shy but quite intelligent, was attacking her. It had raked her calf, gouging out deep wounds that would soon get infected if she didn't get help quickly. Forgetting about her pain for a moment, she swung the branch at the bear's head again. This time it shook its head side to side and ran off into the thick, humid jungle of the Annam Highlands of southern Vietnam.
Panic overwhelmed her, nearly shutting down her brain. Red-hot pain shot through her entire body, the agony taking her breath away. A scream of pain ripped from her throat as she tried to make her way along the trail. A small hut caught her attention. It was almost not visible. How she saw it, she didn't know. In her mind, it was a miracle.
Former American soldier, Daniel Baylor, was out hunting for food in the humid jungle, and was just getting ready to head back to his hidden hut.
He had deserted his platoon during the My Lai massacre, in which he hadn't fired a single shot, but sadly about 500 unarmed villagers were cold-bloodedly machine gunned, even though no Viet Cong were found there. Every elderly man, woman, and child that was found, were killed. It had been in the region of Quang Ngai, an area believed to have been a stronghold of the dreaded Viet Cong soldiers and thus a focus of the U.S. military.
As soon as he entered his hut, he saw something move on his bed.
