August 11

It was certainly a long time coming but on the 11th in 1972, the last American combat unit finally left South Vietnam. There is a rather complex story behind this departure. I don’t think it necessary to rehash here that portion of the history of Vietnam because I am reasonably certain that everyone knows, or should know, that particular story. Less is known however about how the State of South Vietnam came to even be.
The State of South Vietnam came into being on June 14th in 1949, during the First Indochina War. On that date, the Emperor Bao Dai was chosen by the French to be Chief of State of South Vietnam, a country that had not existed before. The country’s formation was a cooperative effort by anti-communist Vietnamese forces and the French government. The entire Southeast Asian region has for years, perhaps centuries, been the focus of heated military actions by most governments who have happened upon this choice piece of real estate. The French motive for the formation of this new state was to insure their control over the area and save it from the dreaded communist hordes waiting to pour across the Chinese border into Vietnam. The Chinese view was quite different from that held by the French. They just wanted their colony of Cochin-China back. The American role, minor at first grew to an impressive level. Americans’ opposition to the war grew both in numbers and in the number, and aggressive nature of protests, at a rate that kept pace with the deployment of American forces sent to the killing fields that Vietnam came to be.