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Joe Biden

2025-11-16T21:21:20Z

185.203.219.65:

<blockquote>''"Biden" redirects here. For his son, see [[Hunter Biden]].''</blockquote>{{Infobox politician|name=Joe Biden|image=Biden wearing Trump hat.png|image_size=250|caption=Biden wearing a pro-[[Trump]] hat in 2024|birth_date=November 20, 1942 (age 81)|birth_place=Scranton, [[Pennsylvania]], [[United States of America|United States]]|nationality=Statesian|political_orientation=[[Imperialism]]<br>[[Neoliberalism]]|political_party=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]}}

'''Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.''' (born November 20, 1942), nicknamed '''Genocide Joe''' for his support of the [[Palestinian genocide|genocide against Palestinians]],<ref name ="PhilipWeiss2023">{{Web citation|author=Philip Weiss|newspaper=Mondoweiss|title=Biden became ‘Genocide Joe’ thanks to the Israel lobby|date=2023-11-29|url=https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/biden-became-genocide-joe-thanks-to-the-israel-lobby/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240601000900/https://mondoweiss.net/2023/11/biden-became-genocide-joe-thanks-to-the-israel-lobby/|archive-date=2024-06-01}}</ref> is a [[United States of America|Statesian]] lawyer, [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] politician, and mass murderer who served [[President of the United States]] from 2021 to 2025. Previously, he served as [[Vice President of the United States]] under [[Barack Obama]]. He was also a senator in the [[tax haven]] [[state of Delaware]] from 1973 to 2009.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy|title=Delaware: An Onshore Tax Haven|date=2015-12-10|url=https://itep.org/delaware-an-onshore-tax-haven/|archive-date=2022-05-09}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|author=Joseph N. DiStefano|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|title=Joe Biden’s politics can be explained by Delaware’s shadowy past|date=2019-07-04|url=https://www.inquirer.com/business/joe-biden-delaware-roots-segregation-moderate-democrats-20190704.html|archive-url=https://archive.ph/Z3t5I|archive-date=2022-05-09}}</ref> As a senator, he opposed [[desegregation]], arguing it would create a "racial jungle",<ref>{{Citation|year=1977|title=Busing of Schoolchildren|page=251|quote=Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point.|title-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112104078842&view=1up&seq=255}}</ref> and was the architect of many draconian [[tough on crime]] laws which disproportionately affected [[people of color]].<ref>https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/trump-campaign-press-release-fact-joe-biden-was-the-architect-mass-incarceration</ref> His anti-[[terrorism]] initiative classifies people who oppose [[capitalism]] as "[[Anarchism|anarchist]] violent extremists."<ref>{{News citation|date=2021-03-01|title=Domestic Violent Extremism Poses Heightened Threat in 2021|url=https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21_0301_odni_unclass-summary-of-dve-assessment-17_march-final_508.pdf|newspaper=Office of the Director of National Intelligence}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Biden opposed the 1960s counter-cultural movement. He avoided the [[Vietnam War]] draft for medical reasons and then condemned students protesting against the war.<ref name=":0">{{Web citation|author=[[Jeremy Kuzmarov]]|newspaper=[[CovertAction Magazine]]|title=Exclusive Series: Biden’s Foreign Policy History and What it Portends for his Presidency|date=2021-01-11|url=https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/01/11/exclusive-series-bidens-foreign-policy-history-and-what-it-portends-for-his-presidency/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221005151439/https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/01/11/exclusive-series-bidens-foreign-policy-history-and-what-it-portends-for-his-presidency/|archive-date=2022-10-05|retrieved=2023-01-06}}</ref>

==Senate==
Biden first campaigned for the Senate in 1972.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Brian Naylor|newspaper=NPR|title=Biden's Road to Senate Took Tragic Turn|date=2007-10-08|url=https://www.npr.org/2007/10/08/14999603/bidens-road-to-senate-took-tragic-turn|archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2025-1117-0607-59/https://www.npr.org:443/2007/10/08/14999603/bidens-road-to-senate-took-tragic-turn|archive-date=2025-11-16|retrieved=2025-11-16|quote=In Delaware 35 years ago, a young county councilman named Joe Biden launched his first campaign for the U.S. Senate. Running against a popular incumbent, the 29-year-old Biden pulled off an astounding upset, defeating veteran politician J. Caleb Boggs.}}</ref> Biden supported increasing [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] funding in the 1980s after [[Jimmy Carter]] tried to cut the CIA's staff by one-third.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Jeremy Kuzmarov|newspaper=CounterPunch|title=Joe Biden: Protector of the Deep State|date=2019-07-10|url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/10/joe-biden-protector-of-the-deep-state/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250916133424/https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/10/joe-biden-protector-of-the-deep-state/|archive-date=2025-09-16|retrieved=2025-11-16|quote=By the 1980s, Biden was supporting increases in intelligence and counterintelligence funding after Jimmy Carter had tried to cut the CIA’s staff by a third.}}</ref> Biden supported [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]'s bombing of [[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)|Libya]]<ref>{{Web citation|author=David Kurlander|newspaper=CAFE|title=‘Throwing a Bomb’: Reagan, Libya, and the Politics of Retaliatory Strikes|date=2021-03-11|url=https://cafe.com/article/throwing-a-bomb-reagan-libya-and-the-politics-of-retaliatory-strikes-2/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415143405/https://cafe.com/article/throwing-a-bomb-reagan-libya-and-the-politics-of-retaliatory-strikes-2/|archive-date=2021-04-15|retrieved=2025-11-16|quote=In the Senate, Biden retreated from his criticism of the March incursion, offering support for the strikes.}}</ref> and invasion of [[People's Revolutionary Government (Grenada)|Grenada]].<ref>{{Web citation|author=Jeremy Scahill|newspaper=The Intercept|title=Biden Defended Reagan's Invasion of Grenada|date=2021-04-27|url=https://theintercept.com/2021/04/27/biden-grenada-invasion-reagan/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250119025325/https://theintercept.com/2021/04/27/biden-grenada-invasion-reagan/|archive-date=2025-01-19|retrieved=2025-11-16|quote=In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, Joe Biden emerged as one of the Reagan administration’s strongest defenders among Democrats. After receiving a classified briefing from William Casey, Reagan’s CIA director, Biden said, “I’ve now seen facts sufficient to put me in a position of saying I think the president was right” to invade Grenada. On Day Three of the invasion, Biden voted in favor of invoking the War Powers Act to limit the timeframe that U.S. forces could remain in combat in Grenada without further congressional authorizations.}}</ref>

In the 1990s, Biden supported the U.S. war against [[Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992–2006)|Yugoslavia]]. He also supported [[Bill Clinton]]'s $1.3 billion [[Plan Colombia]], which helped the [[Republic of Colombia|Colombian]] army kill thousands of civilians while targeting supposed guerrillas.<ref name=":0" />

Biden strongly supported the [[Iraq War|U.S. invasion of Iraq]] in 2003.<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=[[Benjamin Norton]]|newspaper=[[Multipolarista]]|title=In mind-blowingly hypocritical UN speech, Biden tries to rewrite history|date=2022-09-22|url=https://multipolarista.com/2022/09/22/un-speech-biden-war/|retrieved=2022-02-24}}</ref>

== Vice presidency ==
As vice president, Biden oversaw the U.S. invasions of [[Afghanistan]], [[Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011)|Libya]], [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], and [[Republic of Yemen|Yemen]] and the bombing of [[Islamic Republic of Pakistan|Pakistan]] and [[Federal Republic of Somalia|Somalia]].<ref name=":1" />

==Presidency==
Hardly the popular favorite, Biden's victory was secured by backroom deals of ex-president Obama.<ref>{{News citation|author=Glenn Thrush|title=‘Accelerate the endgame’: How Barack Obama nudged Bernie Sanders out of the race|date=2020-04-14|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-nw-nyt-barack-obama-bernie-sanders-democrats-20200414-tdpw52c46vgqjjevu54attf4yu-story.html}}</ref><ref>From @eshaLegal Thread: [https://twitter.com/eshaLegal/status/1369386575176556559?s=20&t=4mb43w-AHpOedR8LyujW2g 1. Obama helps barely coherent Biden clinch the nomination.]</ref>

Biden promised to increase the national [[minimum wage]] to $15 per hour, although he admitted it would not actually happen.<ref>{{News citation|author=Natasha Korecki, Christopher Caledago|newspaper=Politico|title=Biden privately tells governors: Minimum wage hike likely isn’t happening|date=2021-02-18|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/18/biden-governors-minimum-wage-469898|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324114238/https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/18/biden-governors-minimum-wage-469898|archive-date=2022-03-24|retrieved=2022-05-01}}</ref><ref>From @eshaLegal Thread: [https://twitter.com/eshaLegal/status/1369391701509480456?s=20&t=4mb43w-AHpOedR8LyujW2g 7. Fails to raise the minimum wage]</ref> He additionally promised to cancel "a minimum of $10,000" in [[student debt]] per borrower, however this has yet to come to fruition over two years later.<ref>https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1241869418981920769</ref>

Despite Biden claiming to support the [[Amazon.com, Inc.|Amazon]] union movement and unions in general<ref>{{Web citation|date=2019-10-27|author=Joe Biden|title=The Biden Plan for Strengthening Worker Organizing, Collective Bargaining, and Unions|url=https://joebiden.com/empowerworkers/|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/https://joebiden.com/empowerworkers/}}</ref> the [[National Security Agency]] (under the Biden Administration) secretly re-granted Amazon a $10 billion dollar contract<ref>{{News citation|date=2022-5-5|title=Amazon Gets Huge Contract Despite Biden’s Union Pledge|author=Matthew Cunningham-Cook & David Sirota|newspaper=The Lever|url=https://www.levernews.com/amazon-gets-huge-contract-despite-bidens-union-pledge/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.levernews.com/amazon-gets-huge-contract-despite-bidens-union-pledge/}}</ref> that was granted to Amazon in August 2021.<ref>{{Web citation|title=NSA Awards Secret $10 Billion Contract to Amazon|url=https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2021/08/nsa-awards-secret-10-billion-contract-amazon/184390/|date=2021-08-10|author=Frank Konkel|newspaper=Nextgov|archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2021/08/nsa-awards-secret-10-billion-contract-amazon/184390/}}</ref>

In June of 2022, Biden appointed Andrew Briggs, an opponent to social security, to the Social Security Advisory board.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Lorie Konish|newspaper=CNBC|title=Addressing Social Security’s funding woes will take political compromise, Biden nominee to advisory board says|date=2022-08-11|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/11/changes-to-fix-social-security-to-take-compromise-says-biden-nominee.html}}</ref>

=== War crimes ===
On February 25, 2021, Biden ordered airstrikes in [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]], a country that the United States of America is not at war with, killing 22 people.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Dan De Luce, et al.|date=2021-02-25|title=Biden orders airstrikes in Syria, retaliating against Iran-backed militias|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-bombs-facilities-syria-used-iran-backed-militia-n1258912|newspaper=NBC News|retrieved=2022-02-07}}</ref>

=== Gaza genocide ===
Soon after the [[2023 Israel-Gaza war and genocide|Gaza genocide]] began in October 2023, Biden announced his support for the genocidal Zionist regime,<ref>{{Web citation|author=Andre Damon|newspaper=World Socialist Web Site|title=Biden proclaims unlimited support for Israeli onslaught on Gaza|date=2023-10-11|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/10/11/pers-o11.html}}</ref> even as he was aware that the Zionists were conducting "indiscriminate bombing" of Palestine.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Andre Damon|newspaper=World Socialist Web Site|title=Biden admits Israel is carrying out “indiscriminate bombing”: A confession of complicity in war crimes|date=2023-12-14|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/12/14/lqgq-d14.html}}</ref> For his support for the Gaza genocide, Biden began to be known as "Genocide Joe" by many in the US as early as November 2023.<ref name ="PhilipWeiss2023" /> From October 2023 to June 2024, the Biden administration sent the Zionist regime $6.5 billion in weapons and 14,000 city block-destroying bombs.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Andre Damon|newspaper=World Socialist Web Site|title=White House brags that it has given Israel $6.5 billion in weapons since October 7|date=2024-06-26|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/06/27/omdj-j27.html}}</ref><ref>{{Web citation|author=Andre Damon|newspaper=World Socialist Web Site|title=US has sent Israel 14,000 2,000-pound bombs since October|date=2024-06-28|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/06/29/cqnl-j29.html}}</ref> In September 2024, the Biden administration sent $20 billion in weapons to the Zionists.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Jordan Shilton|newspaper=World Socialist Web Site|title=Washington intensifies preparations for Middle East war with $20 billion arms sale to Israel|date=2024-09-14|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/15/nvin-a15.html}}</ref>

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Former heads of state]]
[[Category:Genocide perpetrators]]
[[Category:Imperialists]]
[[Category:Neoliberals]]
[[Category:Politicians in the United States]]
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Segregationists]]
[[Category:Statesians of English descent]]
[[Category:Statesians of French descent]]
[[Category:Statesians of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Vice Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Zionists]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biden, Joseph}}

Vietnam War

2025-11-16T21:04:34Z

185.203.219.65:

[[File:Liberation of Saigon.png|thumb|The last [[United States of America|U.S.]] occupation forces fleeing Saigon (now [[Ho Chi Minh City]]) in 1975]]
The '''Vietnam War''' (''Chiến tranh Việt Nam''), also known as the '''Second Indochina War''' or the '''Resistance War against the United States''' (''Kháng chiến chống Mỹ''), was a military conflict between the [[United States of America|United States]], [[Republic of Vietnam (1955–1975)|South Vietnam]], and their allies, and [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam (1945–1975)|North Vietnam]] and its allies. The war began shortly after the division of Vietnam in 1954 as per the [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Conference]] and lasted until the [[Liberation of Saigon]] on 30 April 1975.<ref>{{Citation|author=Charles G. Boyd|year=1998|title=The Paris Agreement on Vietnam: Twenty-five Years Later|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=Washington, DC|publisher=The Nixon Center|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/paris.htm|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The United States entered the war directly in 1964 under false pretenses, namely the [[Gulf of Tonkin incident]], a false-flag attack on Statesian ships.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Andrew Glass|date=2016-08-07|title=Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: Aug. 7, 1964|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/congress-approves-gulf-of-tonkin-resolution-aug-7-1964-226732|newspaper=Politico|archive-url=|archive-date=|retrieved=2022-01-05}}</ref> In total, the war killed three million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians<ref>{{Citation|author=Ziad Obermeyer, et al.|year=2008|title=Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=British Medical Journal|isbn=|doi=10.1136/bmj.a137|lg=|mia=|title-url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440905/|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> and cost the USA between 700 billion and 1 trillion USD.<ref name=":1222">{{Citation|author=Nick Turse|year=2013|title=Kill Anything That Moves|isbn=9780805086911|city=[[New York City]]|publisher=Metropolitan Books|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9C38F09ECE21CCBF99DF72C4C1BC04B8|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecxjlu6vjw5bpohintus4ozngphwc2eiqgatjl66f5nzjsnh6sx5a?filename=Nick%20Turse%20-%20Kill%20Anything%20That%20Moves_%20The%20Real%20American%20War%20in%20Vietnam-Picador%20USA%20%282013%29.pdf|chapter=Overkill|page=65–74}}</ref>

== Background ==
During the [[Second World War]], the [[Viet Minh]] led an [[Anti-colonialism|anti-colonial]] guerrilla movement against the [[Empire of Japan (1868–1947)|Japanese]] occupation of Vietnam.<ref name=":1" />

Japan was defeated in the fall of 1945 and left Indochina. Vietnamese revolutionaries led by [[Ho Chi Minh]] declared independence from [[French Republic (1870–1940)|France]] and briefly united their country for the first time in modern history.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|author=[[Howard Zinn]]|year=1980|title=A People's History of the United States|title-url=https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/peoples-history/|chapter=The Impossible Victory: Vietnam|page=438–439|pdf=https://files.libcom.org/files/A%20People's%20History%20of%20the%20Unite%20-%20Howard%20Zinn.pdf|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=0060194480}}</ref> The United States supported France against Vietnam and was providing 80% of its funding by 1953. Vietnamese forces led by [[Võ Nguyên Giáp]] defeated France at Điện Biên Phủ in 1954.

The 1954 Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into two states and planned to reunify them in 1956 following a national election. The United States created a [[Corruption|corrupt]], autocratic state in the south led by [[Ngô Đình Diệm]] and thwarted plans for reunification.<ref name=":1" />

== U.S. invasion ==
The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam increased from 800 in early 1961 to 3,000 by the end of the year and 11,000 in 1962. They began as military advisers for the South Vietnamese army but later participated in combat operations against [[National Liberation Front of South Vietnam|guerrillas in the south]]. After [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]]'s assassination in 1963, [[Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson]] escalated the war with bombing raids. He abandoned the guise of military advisers in 1965 and began openly fighting against [[Communism|communist]] forces.

By June 1967, U.S. troops were spending 86% of their time attempting to draw enemy troops out of hiding to fight them. The Vietnamese rarely fell for such traps and instead lured the U.S. into situations that would be advantageous for the revolutionaries.<ref name=":122" />

At the peak of the war in 1969, there were over 540,000 troops in Vietnam in addition to over 100,000 in nearby countries. Soldiers from U.S. satellite states such as [[Commonwealth of Australia|Australia]], [[New Zealand]], the [[Republic of the Philippines|Philippines]], [[Kingdom of Thailand|Thailand]], and [[Republic of Korea|south Korea]] also participated in the war. The [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam|south Vietnamese army]] also grew to a force of nearly a million by the end of the war.<ref name=":1" /> 37% of the U.S. military budget was spent on Vietnam, and 50% of Marines and 33% of the [[United States Navy|Navy]] were fighting against Vietnam.<ref name=":1222" /> The United States retreated from Vietnam in early 1973 but continued to support the southern government until its defeat in 1975.<ref name=":1" />

== U.S. war crimes ==
From 1967 to 1972, the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] helped South Vietnam identify and kill suspected communist guerrillas as part of the [[Phoenix Program]], causing at least 26,000 deaths.<ref>{{Library citation|link=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Killing_Hope|quote=Phoenix was a coordinated effort of the United States and South Vietnam to wipe out this infrastructure. Under the program, Vietnamese citizens were rounded up and jailed, often in tiger cages, often tortured, often killed, either in the process of being arrested or subsequently. By Colby's records, during the period between early 1968 and May 1971, 20,587 alleged Vietcong cadres met their death as a result of the Phoenix Program.}}</ref>

Many commanders did not understand the [[Geneva Convention]] and believed they could legally kill or torture POWs. 60% of officers surveyed in 1969 said they would use or threaten torture, and 25% of lieutenants and warrant officers believed they could legally execute civilians for spying.<ref name=":12">{{Citation|author=Nick Turse|year=2013|title=Kill Anything That Moves|isbn=9780805086911|city=[[New York City]]|publisher=Metropolitan Books|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9C38F09ECE21CCBF99DF72C4C1BC04B8|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecxjlu6vjw5bpohintus4ozngphwc2eiqgatjl66f5nzjsnh6sx5a?filename=Nick%20Turse%20-%20Kill%20Anything%20That%20Moves_%20The%20Real%20American%20War%20in%20Vietnam-Picador%20USA%20%282013%29.pdf|chapter=The Massacre at Trieu Ai|page=25–36}}</ref> A postwar survey of U.S. generals found that only 19% believed the [[rules of engagement]] were carefully followed.<ref name=":122" />

U.S. officers rewarded soldiers for killing Vietnamese people, and soldiers with high kill counts received rest and recreation passes, extra food and beer, medals, badges, and light duty at base camp. In order to increase their kill count, soldiers often killed prisoners. However, in the event of large massacres, they often reported lower numbers or planted weapons on bodies to avoid suspicion.<ref name=":122">{{Citation|author=Nick Turse|year=2013|title=Kill Anything That Moves|isbn=9780805086911|city=[[New York City]]|publisher=Metropolitan Books|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9C38F09ECE21CCBF99DF72C4C1BC04B8|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecxjlu6vjw5bpohintus4ozngphwc2eiqgatjl66f5nzjsnh6sx5a?filename=Nick%20Turse%20-%20Kill%20Anything%20That%20Moves_%20The%20Real%20American%20War%20in%20Vietnam-Picador%20USA%20%282013%29.pdf|chapter=A System of Suffering|page=40–60}}</ref>

A 1970 study of refugees in Quảng Nam Province found that 80% of refugees blamed the U.S. and its allies for destroying their villages, 18% blamed firefights between both sides, and only 2% blamed revolutionary forces.<ref name=":122" />

=== Massacres of civilians ===
On 9 July 1965, U.S. forces killed 100 civilians and burned 185 houses on Kỳ Hòa island off the coast Quảng Tín Province.<ref name=":122" />

On 21 October 1967, Lieutenant [[Robert Maynard]] ordered [[United States Marine Corps|Marines]] to kill the entire population of Triệu Ái village in Quảng Trị Province following the death of a marine from a trap. Soldiers threw grenades into bomb shelters, burned houses, and killed a total of 12 civilians. Maynard was eventually court-martialed, but only for failing to properly report the incident.<ref name=":12" />

The U.S. Army killed almost 20 women and children in a village in Quảng Nam Province on 6 February 1968.<ref name=":1" />

In March 1968, US soldiers [[Mỹ Lai massacre|killed at least 347 unarmed civilians in Sơn Mỹ village]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Susan Brownmiller|year=1975|title=Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape|chapter=|section=|page=103–05|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=9780671220624|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The soldiers who tried to stop the massacre were considered traitors by the other soldiers and U.S. congressmen.<ref>{{Citation|author=Hugh Thompson|year=2003|title=Moral Courage In Combat: The My Lai Story|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=http://www.usna.edu/Ethics/_files/documents/ThompsonPg1-28_Final.pdf|city=|publisher=Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics, United States Naval Academy|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>

In March 1969, helicopters from the 1st Cavalry Division fired tear gas at nine woodcutters in Bình Long Province and started a fire in the truck. Soldiers fired on them after they ran away, killing all except one.<ref name=":122" />

In 1970, near the Minh Thanh rubber plantation in Bình Long Province, U.S. soldiers killed 10 civilians. They reported them as enemy soldiers, but investigators later discovered the victims' bodies with civilian identification cards and without military uniforms. Supposed weapons that they had been carrying ended up being bamboo shoots and agricultural tools. No soldiers were ever prosecuted for this massacre.<ref name=":1" />

U.S. soldiers killed 63 civilians at Truong Khanh. They reported 13 as enemy KIAs and claimed that 18 more died from airstrikes.<ref name=":122" />

=== Bombing ===
In 1962, US planes launched 12,000 sorties<ref group="lower-alpha">One sortie is one mission flown by one plane</ref> in South Vietnam. The [[United States Air Force|U.S.]] and [[South Vietnam Air Force|South Vietnam Air Forces]] flew 3.4 million sorties across Southeast Asia between 1965 and 1972, with the majority in South Vietnam. B-52 bombers flew 126,615 sorties between 1965 and 1973, often bombing civilian areas.

Between 1965 and 1968, the U.S. dropped an average of 32 tons of bombs per hour on North Vietnam. The total explosive power of the U.S. bombs in all of Southeast Asia was equivalent to 640 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs, but most of the bombs were used on the south. The most heavily bombed province was Quảng Trị, whose capital district had 3,000 bombs per km<sup>2</sup>. Only 11 of the province's 3,500 villages avoided bombings.

Between 1964 and 1971, the USA ordered 37 million BLU-3 bomblets, each with 250 steel pellets, and 285 million CBU-24 bombs, each with over 600 smaller cluster bombs inside them, between 1966 and 1971. A single CBU-24 bomb could release 200,000 steel fragments.<ref name=":1222" />

==== Villages destroyed ====

* On 17 March 1965, a U.S. air strike killed 45 civilians, including 37 children, in Mân Quang.
* The bombing of Làng Vây on 2 March 1967 killed at least 100 civilians and wounded 175 more.
* In April 1967, a U.S. F-100 Supersabre bombed the town of Trúc Giang and a nearby village, killing 14 people and wounding 25.
* In February 1968, a B-52 bomber destroyed the village of Nhị Bình in Gia Định Province, killing 200 civilians and wounding 70.
* On 8 August 1968, the USA destroyed the village of Cái Răng, killing 72 people and injuring over 200.
* On 26 February 1969, U.S. and RVA planes, helicopters, and artillery bombed the village of Tân Hiệp in Biên Hòa Province, killing 10 civilians and wiping out the village's livestock.<ref name=":1222" />

=== Chemical weapons ===
The USA, as part of [[Operation Ranch Hand]], used [[Agent Orange]], a chemical weapon, over vast areas of jungle in Vietnam.<ref>{{Citation|author=Anuva Goel|year=2022|title=Agent Orange Reviewed: Potential Role in Peripheral Neuropathy and Neurodegeneration|title-url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9920643/|chapter=Agent Orange-The Back Story|chapter-url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9920643/#S1|quote=In 1962, the U.S. Air Force initiated the Rainbow Herbicide (green, pink, purple, blue, white orange) spraying missions in South Vietnam. Agent Orange was introduced in 1965 and its use increased between 1966 and 1969. However, reports linking Agent Orange to birth defects (1) halted its use by April, 1970. C-123 aircraft were used for Agent Orange spraying missions because they achieved rapid, broad and intense coverage, i. e. 3 gallons per acre over 340 acres within just a few minutes (1). It is estimated that over eleven million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed via Operation Ranch Hand, accounting for over 60% of the total recorded herbicide applications during the Vietnam War (1). Between 1965 and 1971, when most of the spraying occurred, 10% of South Vietnam was sprayed once, while 30% or more of the region was sprayed repeatedly (1). After the spraying program was terminated, the nearly 2.2 million remaining gallons of Agent Orange were either incinerated at sea or deposited on Johnston Island, an atoll in the Pacific Ocean.|pdf=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9920643/pdf/nihms-1869478.pdf}}</ref> The government of Vietnam states that 4 million people were exposed to the agent most of whom suffered life long illnesses and some of whom suffered birth defects.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Ben Stocking|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Agent Orange Still Haunts Vietnam, US|date=2007-06-14|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401077.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423062058/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401077.html|archive-date=2017-04-23|retrieved=2025-11-16|quote=Vietnam says up to 3 million of its 84 million people have birth defects or other health problems related to dioxin.}}</ref> The USA used millions of gallons of chemical defoliants and millions of pounds of chemical gases.<ref name=":1222" />

Agent Orange was produced by the [[Dow Chemical|Dow Chemical Company]] and the [[Monsanto|Monsanto Company,]] as well as others.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Agent Orange Record|title=Manufacturing Sites|url=https://agentorangerecord.com/manufacturing-sites/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921161821/https://agentorangerecord.com/manufacturing-sites/|archive-date=2020-09-21|retrieved=2025-11-16|quote=For the war effort, the US military procured over 20 million gallons of Agent Orange (a roughly fifty-fifty mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T), primarily from nine different companies:

* Dow Chemical, in Midland MI
* Monsanto, in Nitro, WV
* Diamond Alkali/Shamrock, in Newark, NJ
* Hercules, in Jacksonville, AR
* Thompson-Hayward Chemical, in Kansas City, KS
* US Rubber Company/Uniroyal, in Elmira, Ontario
* Thomson Chemical Corporation, in St Louis, MO
* Hoffman-Taff Inc, in Verona, MO
* Agrisect}}</ref>

==== Napalm ====
The USA used 400,000 tons of [[napalm]] in Southeast Asia. It killed most of its victims, including 35% within 15–20 minutes. 62% died before their wounds had time to heal.<ref name=":1222" />

==== White phosphorus ====
White phosphorus spontaneously combusts when exposed to air and burns until its oxygen supply runs out. The U.S. Air Force used over three million white phosphorus rockets throughout the war, and the U.S. military bought 379 white phosphorus grenades in 1969 alone.<ref name=":1222" />

=== Operation Sunrise ===
During the 1960s, the U.S. burned many villages (including over a dozen in one week in 1962) and forced their inhabitants into concentration camps. Villagers only received a 24-hour notice, and almost a quarter lost all their possessions. 95% of refugees said their new houses were less comfortable and 87% said their overall lives were worse than in the war zone. Within months, thousands of refugees were starving. The U.S. only spent 0.25% of its war budget on supporting these refugees by 1967, and it continued to drop afterwards.<ref name=":122" />

== South Korean war crimes ==
South Korean soldiers massacred civilians at An Truong near the city of Hội An on 9 January 1968.<ref name=":1" />

== Casualties ==
Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington estimated a total of 3.8 million deaths including both civilians and soldiers.<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=Nick Turse|year=2013|title=Kill Anything That Moves|isbn=9780805086911|city=[[New York City]]|publisher=Metropolitan Books|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=9C38F09ECE21CCBF99DF72C4C1BC04B8|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacecxjlu6vjw5bpohintus4ozngphwc2eiqgatjl66f5nzjsnh6sx5a?filename=Nick%20Turse%20-%20Kill%20Anything%20That%20Moves_%20The%20Real%20American%20War%20in%20Vietnam-Picador%20USA%20%282013%29.pdf|chapter=Introduction|page=11–22}}</ref>

=== Imperialist forces ===
The USA lost 58,000 soldiers in Southeast Asia and 75,000 more became severely disabled. 254,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died and 783,000 were wounded.<ref name=":1" />

=== Revolutionary forces ===
Revolutionary forces lost 1.7 million troops, including one million in battle. 300,000 more went missing.<ref name=":1" />

=== Civilians ===
The USA killed at least 65,000 civilians in North Vietnam, mostly through air raids. In the south, 8,000 to 16,000 people were paralyzed, 30,000 to 60,000 became blind, and 83,000 to 166,000 became amputees. A quarter of wounded civilians were children under 13 years old.<ref name=":1" />

== Legacy ==
In the USA, the Vietnam War was correctly considered a U.S. defeat until [[Ronald Reagan]] rebranded it as a "[[Historical revisionism|noble cause]]." Historians continue to deny or ignore U.S. war crimes.<ref name=":1" />

== Notes ==
<references group="lower-alpha" />

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:History of Vietnam]]
[[Category:Wars started by the USA]]