Key People

Ho Chi Minh (May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969) was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung but was known in his youth as Nguyễn Tất Thành. During his youth, Thành studied in France, adopted a nationalist ideology rooted in Leninism, and worked in Moscow and China. In 1930, he founded the Indochina Communist Party. By the start of 1941, Thành had changed his name to Ho Chi Minh (meaning He Who Enlightens) and in May returned to Vietnam for the first time since 1911. Forming the League for Vietnamese Independence (Việt Nam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội, known as the Viet Minh), he began fighting the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. In August 1945, the Japanese surrender provided the Viet Minh the opportunity to seize power in the city of Hanoi. On September 2, Ho declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In December 1946, as the French moved to reassert control over their colonial empire, conflict with the Viet Minh broke out. After the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the 1954 Geneva Accords granted independence to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, though the latter was split into two nations: a communist north and a democratic South. Ho oversaw the enactment of land reform and the consolidation of communist rule in the North in a bloody campaign. All the while, communist forces in the South were organized against the democratic leadership in Saigon. In 1959, North Vietnam committed to the overthrow and annexation of the South and began expanding the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The National Liberation Front (NLF) was organized in 1960 to provide Hanoi with administrative control over the Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam. Ho remained an important figure within the North and motivated the nation to continue the fight against the South and their American allies, though his health declined throughout the 1960s. In 1965, his condition began to seriously deteriorate, and on September 2, 1969, Ho Chi Minh died in Hanoi. 

General Võ Nguyên Giáp (August 25, 1911 –  October 4, 2013) began as a founder of the Viet Minh, alongside Ho Chi Minh, and organized their military forces against the French in the 1940s. Giáp was the principal commander at the siege of Dien Bien Phu, and organized the stunning victory there which assured Vietnam its independence. During the war with the United States, Giáp would retain his position as one of the chief military commanders in North Vietnam, overseeing the communist insurgency in the South and the activities of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) forces of the North, though these two were admittedly intertwined. Giáp's campaigns were often extremely costly to the North, but were brutally efficient in wearing down American resolve. Giáp is given credit for both the 1968 Tet Offensive and the 1972 Easter Offensive (although his role in each is questioned), both of which ended in tactical failure. Although the Tet Offensive produced an overall strategic victory, the Easter Offensive was a costly venture that only demonstrated South Vietnam’s reliance on American airpower. Giáp was eased from power in 1972, and most reports indicate that he watched from the sidelines as North Vietnamese tanks broke into Saigon in 1975. Nevertheless, he retains a legacy as one of the most important military minds of the war. 

Ngô Đình Diệm (January 3, 1901 – November 2, 1963) served as the President of the Republic of Vietnam from 1955 until his death in 1963. A zealous Catholic, Diệm had studied at Maryknoll seminary in New Jersey and at a Belgian Benedictine monastery. Returning to Vietnam in the wake of the Geneva Accords in 1954, he was appointed Prime Minister under the government of Bảo Đại. With U.S. support, Diệm became President of the Republic of Vietnam in 1955. Diệm served as president for most of the next decade, holding the office as a massive influx of American aid redefined the conflict between the southern Republic of Vietnam and the northern Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Diệm was heavily criticized by his contemporaries in Vietnam and in the United States for his notable corruption. A great deal of the aid sent to Diệm's government was often used for his own personal use, and the development of an effective South Vietnamese military progressed slowly. Additionally, Diệm proved widely unpopular throughout his nation for his nepotism, iron fist, and religious persecution. Diệm promoted members of his family to high government postings, making his brother head of South Vietnam’s infamous secret police force, and often favored policies that benefited the Catholic Vietnamese minority over the Buddhist majority. His de-facto first lady (as Diệm remained a bachelor his whole life) was his brother’s spouse, popularly known as Madame Nhu. Madam Nhu was reviled throughout Vietnam for her elitism and cruel indifference to the Vietnamese people. Her comments on the “barbeque” protests of self-immolating Buddhist monks stained the Diệm presidency. By 1963, as the crisis over the persecution of Buddhism shook the Diệm government, numerous army officers planned and executed a coup against Diệm. Diệm and his brother were killed on November 2, 1963. 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963) was only president for a brief time, but in that time he escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam drastically. Increasing the amount of economic and military aid heading to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), President Kennedy also increased the number of American military advisers training the South Vietnamese. Sending key aides and even Vice-President Johnson to Saigon as signs of support, Kennedy was a firm believer in the need for the U.S. to protect South Vietnam’s democracy. However, his faith in South Vietnam’s President Ngô Đình Diệm was shaken by numerous incidents of domestic opposition to the Diệm administration and by Diệm's corruption. Kennedy gave his tacit approval for a CIA-backed coup d’état carried out by officers of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). President Diệm and his brother were assassinated on November 2, 1963, just twenty days before President Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas. The power vacuum in Vietnam was replaced by an ARVN-led junta that would ineffectually lead the country until 1967. 

Robert McNamara (June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was the Secretary of Defense from 1961 until 1968, serving both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. One of the “whiz kids” who helped restructure Ford Motor Company after World War II, McNamara was serving as president of that company before being chosen to lead the Defense Department by President Kennedy. Sharing a common belief in the necessity of containment and the power of the American military, McNamara worked with President Kennedy and then President Johnson to increase American involvement in Vietnam. Helping to design the escalation of combat in 1965, McNamara was one of the top American officials responsible for the expansion of the Vietnam War. However, as he later stated, he harbored deep-seated fears about the U.S. mission in Vietnam and doubted the policies he helped craft. Despite this, McNamara – along with many other administration officials – maintained a positive view on the war publicly. Tension developed between President Johnson and McNamara over the conduct of the war. Subsequently, McNamara resigned from the Department of Defense on February 29, 1968. 

Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909 – December 20, 1994) was the second longest-serving Secretary of State (tied with William Seward), and held the position from 1961 until 1969 under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Rusk had served as Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs from 1950 until 1952, advocating containment and American support for the French in Vietnam. Chosen as Secretary of State in December 1960 by president-elect Kennedy, Rusk maintained the necessity of upholding the sovereignty of South Vietnam against communist aggression. Fearful that a North Vietnamese victory would bring strategic advantage to Moscow and Beijing, Rusk put aside concerns about the nature of American involvement in favor of maintaining South Vietnam’s independence. A frosty relationship with President Kennedy gave way to a warmer relationship with President Johnson, who admired Rusk’s loyalty and commitment to the war effort. Rusk advised Johnson not to negotiate with the North until the Americans held a position of strength in the conflict. Publicly, Rusk was one of the staunchest defenders of the war as Americana action against Chinese aggression and spoke of the need to oppose communist advances. Secretary Rusk viewed the Vietnam War as ultimately being about more than the Vietnamese people, and described the war as being a global ideological and psychological battle between the East and West. As President Johnson bowed to public pressure and an increasingly disadvantageous strategic position, Rusk was sidelined on the Vietnam issue. In January 1969, Rusk left office as Richard Nixon was inaugurated president. 

President Lyndon Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) oversaw the escalation of the American presence in Vietnam, making the key decisions that would put over 500,000 troops on the ground by 1968. A powerful Senator from Texas, Johnson had supported the containment policies of Truman and Eisenhower. After assuming the presidency on the assassination of President Kennedy, Johnson made clear his commitment to the preservation of the Republic of Vietnam. Although he portrayed his 1964 election opponent Barry Goldwater as a dangerous politician who would escalate the war, Johnson himself oversaw the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing the president to use “all necessary measures” to defend American forces in Vietnam. In March 1965, he deployed Marines to guard the Da Nang airbase where many American bombers were based, while in July approved the deployment of 40,000 American troops, and incrementally expanded the American mission until 1968. The Johnson Administration focused on large domestic programs while fighting an expanding war, often downplayed the war and its growing casualties, with some questions of honesty being raised by the public. Anti-war protestors and the American media soon began to speak of a “credibility gap” between the Johnson Administration and the public as the information released by the White House seemed to contradict conditions on the ground in Vietnam. The 1968 Tet Offensive killed off any notion of a “light at the end of the tunnel” and crippled any lingering public support for the war. On March 31, 1968, in an address to the nation, President Johnson declared his intent not to seek another term in office. 

William Westmoreland (March 26, 1914 – July 18, 2005) served as the commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Compound, Vietnam (MACV) from 1964 until 1968, overseeing all American forces in Vietnam during the escalation period of the conflict. The principal commander on the ground, Westmoreland was one of the principal architects of U.S. tactics of air mobility and attrition warfare. His plan for Vietnam often relied on fast, highly mobile airborne troops supported by heavy artillery (air, land, or sea-based), operating with a goal of creating mass enemy casualties. Orchestrating “search and destroy” operations, Westmoreland utilized technology and firepower to seek out the enemy with the hopes of engaging in a battle where the Americans’ overwhelming advantages in firepower could be brought to bear. Westmoreland sent constant requests for reinforcements off to Washington, eventually increasing the American presence in Vietnam to around 530,000 troops. Touting the high enemy casualty rates as success – while ignoring the clear stalemate – Westmoreland became a highly divisive figure in the American media. The 1968 Tet Offensive proved beyond all doubt that Westmoreland’s claims that the U.S. “had turned the corner” were false. In the wake of the Tet Offensive, Westmoreland’s request for tens of thousands of reinforcements was highly derided in the press. General Westmoreland was made the Chief of Staff of the Army in July 1968 before retiring from the military in 1972. He was succeeded as commander of MACV by General Creighton Abrams. 

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (April 5, 1923 – September 29, 2001) served as President of the Republic of Vietnam from 1967 until 1975. Thiệu was a western officer, having served with the French during the First Indochina War, trained in the U.S., and converted to Catholicism. Thiệu took part in the 1963 coup against President Diệm, and was a member of the military junta which led the nation after his death. In 1965, Thiệu became the figurehead for the junta government, developing a system of power shared with Nguyen Cao Kỳ, the head of the South Vietnamese air force.  A bitter rivalry between the two men resulted in their competition for the presidency in 1967. Thiệu won the office, though the election was far from fair. Thiệu made a few attempts at removing corrupt officials and initiating reform, but was also quick to crush dissent and amassed a vast personal fortune through illicit means. He was re-elected president in 1971 after running un-opposed and led the Republic of Vietnam through the American withdrawal. Thiệu rejected the Paris Peace Accords when they were first presented to him, unhappy with the power given to the NLF. However, American pressure forced him to sign the accords in January 1973. Thiệu was president when the North Vietnamese launched their final attack against the South. After withdrawing his forces from the Central Highlands – beginning what would become a complete rout – and witnessing the collapse of his military, Thiệu denounced the United States for abandoning his government. Resigning his position, he boarded a transport plane for Taiwan on April 21, 1975. He would live the rest of his life in exile from Vietnam, detested by many of his countrymen. 

Lê Duẩn (April 7, 1907 – July 10, 1986) was the main leader of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) for much of the Vietnam War, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. As Ho Chi Minh declined physically and suffered failing health, Lê Duẩn assumed much of the executive power within North Vietnam. Surprisingly little is known about his early life, and even during the height of the Vietnam War, Lê Duẩn remained an unknown figure to the American public. Lê Duẩn had been a founding member of what would become the Communist Party of Vietnam, and was arrested several times during the 1930s, ultimately spending much of the Second World War in prison. On his release, he reassumed a place of leadership in the party. He was a strong advocate for action against South Vietnam, and continually pushed for reunification after the 1954 Geneva Accords. By 1960, Lê Duẩn had assumed most executive decision-making responsibilities within the DRV as Ho Chi Minh’s health failed. With Ho’s death in 1969, Lê Duẩn ruled as the effective leader of North Vietnam, overseeing eventual victory over the Republic of Vietnam in 1975. Lê Duẩn continued to rule as leader through Vietnam’s war with Cambodia in the late 1970s and 1980s, ruling until his death in 1986. 

Văn Tiến Dũng (May 2, 1917 to March 17, 2002) was one of the chief military officers in the People's Army of Vietnam. Although popular perceptions of the war largely mention only General Giáp, Dũng played a major role as Giáp’s successor. Dũng had begun his military career like most Vietnamese communists, fighting against the Japanese during their occupation of Vietnam and then the French during the First Indochina War. He led a division at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu under General Giáp, and steadily progressed through the ranks of the North Vietnamese army during the war against the Americans. As Ho Chi Minh’s health faded and General Giáp increasingly fell out of favor with the new leadership under Lê Duẩn, General Dũng rose. After the failed 1972 Easter Offensive, General Giáp was replaced as the overall commander of the People’s Army of Vietnam by General Dũng. Under Dũng, the North Vietnamese would make their final push on the Republic of Vietnam, marching on the South in the spring of 1975. When Saigon fell in April, it was General Dũng, not General Giáp, who led the offensive. After the war, Dũng would lead Vietnamese forces in their invasion against Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, and in the 1979 war with China. He would serve as defense minister throughout most of the 1980s before retiring from office.

Richard Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was known for his strong anti-communist feelings, yet would be the president most responsible for ending the war in Vietnam (although he was unable to see its end from the White House). From his early career in the House of Representatives and then the Senate, Nixon built a reputation as a hardline anti-communist. Campaigning on a promise of “peace with honor,” Nixon won the presidency in 1968. Working closely (and often secretively) with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, Nixon moved to bring about an end to the war in Vietnam. Initially displaying bravado and strength, Nixon tried to intimidate the North Vietnamese into a peace agreement. To that end, he initiated Operation Menu, a series of secret bombings of supply depots and bases in Cambodia. Gaining no ground, Nixon then initiated a policy called “Vietnamization,” wherein U.S. combat troops were continually withdrawn while military and economic aid for South Vietnam was increased, all while maintaining heavy American airpower in Vietnam. Beginning secret negotiations with North Vietnam made little progress, and in 1972 the North launched its Easter Offensive. Mindful of the coming election, Nixon responded with massive aerial campaigns while also relaxing American demands at the negotiations in Paris. In October, a tentative peace agreement was leaked by the White House. Nixon won the 1968 election in a landslide, though it would take months – and intense bombing – to finally have all sides agree to the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973. Declaring “peace with honor” and completing the withdrawal of American forces, the United States had left the Vietnam War. 

Henry Alfred Kissinger (born May 27, 1923) remains one of the most well-known figures associated with the Vietnam War. Serving as a consultant adviser to the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, Kissinger is best remembered for his service under President Nixon. In 1968, Kissinger was appointed Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs by the incoming Nixon. Kissinger supported President Nixon’s “peace with honor” policy, and backed the secret bombings in Cambodia along with incursions into Cambodia by American forces and Laos by South Vietnamese forces. Kissinger also helped establish Nixon’s détente policy. As Nixon met with Chinese leaders in Beijing in February 1972 and Soviet leaders in May, both Kissinger and Nixon hoped that they could put pressure on the North Vietnamese through their main allies. Meanwhile, Kissinger had been serving as the main American delegate in the Paris Peace Talks. Kissinger worked to establish dialogue with Lê Đức Thọ, a senior communist party official. In August 1969, secret talks began between the Americans and the North Vietnamese, with Thọ and Kissinger meeting without the knowledge of the main peace delegations in Paris. With the failure of the North’s 1972 Easter Offensive, North Vietnam and the United States were able to come to an agreement in October 1972. Kissinger presented the agreement and – despite public opposition from President Thiệu – declared that “peace is at hand,” just in time for the 1972 presidential election. Negotiations broke down that autumn, but after further talks (and the completion of Operation Linebacker II, the heavy bombing of North Vietnam), the Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973. In September 1973, Kissinger was appointed Secretary of State and a month later was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His negotiations counterpart, Lê Đức Thọ, did not accept his prize.