In January 1968, the Communist Têt (New Year) offensive caused the conflict to escalate, plunging into doubt the Americans who had long been confident of ultimate victory. This was followed by a protracted guerrilla war, despite some fruitless attempts at international mediation. In February 1965, the United States began bombing military and industrial targets in North Vietnam. This only led the USSR and China to intensify their assistance to the Communist National Liberation Front (NLF), which they supplied with arms and food however, they did not intervene directly. The Viet Cong Communist rebels, supported by the North Vietnamese Army, were supplied along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which consisted of a network of paths, tunnels and bunkers that the Americans tried in vain to destroy.
Johnson, who was keen to see peace in South-East Asia and to maintain America’s economic and political interests in the region, stepped up his country’s involvement, massively expanding the American presence from 23 000 troops in 1965 to over 540 000 in 1969.
Kennedy, convinced that Communist China was actively supporting North Vietnam, approved a US military campaign in Vietnam to help the nationalist government stave off the Communist rebellion. The aim was to prevent Communist domination of South-East Asia. The US justified its military intervention in Vietnam by the domino theory, which stated that if one country fell under the influence of Communism, the surrounding countries would inevitably follow. It was part of the overall Cold War confrontation and the American struggle against the spread of Communism in the world, but did not involve a direct confrontation between the two superpowers. The most notable of these was the Vietnam War, which hung heavily over the 1960s and early 1970s.
The period of détente was not without localised conflicts, but these did not directly jeopardise relations between the United States and the USSR.
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