o Dinh Diem was esta-
blished in the South. After a brief hiatus (1954-1958), North
Vietnam ordered, aided and controlled an insurrection in the
South which in the late 50s and early 60s succeeded to the
point "...where security in the countryside had become a serious
problem and the government was in trouble" (Shaplen 140).
Throughout the 60s and early 70s, North Vietnam unwaveringly
pursued unification in a disciplined manner by using military and
poliitical subversive tactics, including large scale infiltration
of its cadres and assistance to the Viet Cong and eventually the
commitment of its regular forces to the struggle. In 1975, the
NVA crushed resistance in the South. With a population of áonly
21 million, North Vietnam had prevailed over the slightly less
populous South and the world's greatest super power. At its peak,
the U.S. had in country an army of 550,000 which had overwhelming ì
superiority in modern weaponry. It also possessed air and naval
supremacy. In North Vietnam alone, the U. S. dropped more than
three times the tonnage of bombs it expended in World in World
War II. The North displayed awesome staying power.
The U. S. supported financially the French military effort
in Vietnam and later more expensively the Diem regime and its
successors. Pursuant to the Domino Theory, which was first ad-
vanced in the early 50s and to which four U.S. Presidents ad-
hered, the loss of South Vietnam would lead to "...the relative-
ly swift submission or alignment with communism of..." other
countries in the area (Pentagon Papers 29). The principal
èburden of the war passed to the U.S. in the mid-60s. After it
suffered 358,000 casualties (58,000 missing or dead) and spent
over $150 billion, the U.S. tired of the war and shifted its ob-
jective to achieving under Nixon "peace with honor" which led to
American escal...