Advertisement
April 30, 2025 will mark 50 years since the Fall of Saigon. In remembrance of that fateful date, we will explore the history of the Vietnam War from French colonization through American involvement and withdrawal. Around 36,578 West Virginians served in the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1958 to 1975. Vietnamization: 1968–1972
This lecture will examine the period of 1968–1972, an era known as Vietnamization. In the aftermath of the 1968 Tết Offensive, the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) launched a comprehensive mobilization of South Vietnamese society to counter North Vietnamese incursions. This “General Mobilization,” implemented by RVN President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and the South Vietnamese legislature, expanded the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to over one million soldiers. The lecture will explore the military strategies employed by the ARVN and the United States to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines, including the invasions of Cambodia in 1970 and Laos in 1971 and their controversial “Phoenix program” to target and eradicate the Communist Party infrastructure in South Vietnam.
The discussion will also focus on the diplomatic landscape during this pivotal period. President Richard Nixon’s so-called “Nixon Doctrine” sought to reduce US involvement in conflicts by empowering allied nations to take greater responsibility for their own defense. This doctrine shaped American strategy at the Paris Peace Negotiations. To bolster their position at these talks, the Vietnamese Communist Party created the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRGSVN) in 1969, challenging the legitimacy of the RVN on the global stage. Meanwhile, Nixon’s landmark rapprochement with China aimed to drive a wedge within the Communist bloc and facilitate US disengagement from Vietnam. These moves heightened tensions between Hanoi and Beijing and further complicated the Democratic Republic of Vietnam’s (DRVN) already fraught relationships with its socialist patrons.
Unlike older scholarship that centers on the United States and heavily relies on English-language sources, this lecture adopts a “Vietnam-centric” approach. By focusing on the actions and agency of the RVN and the DRVN, this lecture provides a comprehensive understanding of this critical era in the Vietnam War.
INSTRUCTOR Cody J. Billock is a doctoral candidate at Ohio University specializing in the history of the Vietnam War. His dissertation tentatively entitled “Cold War Citadel: Huế & the Global Vietnamese Civil War,” employs the central Vietnamese city of Huế to argue that the three decades of war between 1945-1975 was one defined by one continuous conflict between communist and anti-communist groups. Billock has proficiency in the French, Chinese, and Vietnamese languages and has conducted extensive archival research in Vietnam, France, and the US.
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
People's University at the Ohio County Public Library, Wheeling, United States
