Translations available

Vietnam - Chasing the Dragon in the South China Sea

Once it got light enough to see, the swell was a solid two meters, offshore peaks and absolutely no one surfing or on the beach.

Vietnam has a surfing history dating back to the early 1960’s and the American military presence during the Vietnam War. The Americans initially sent military advisors under the administration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to counsel the South Vietnamese government and later, deployed hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of dollars of airplanes and military equipment of all descriptions in South Vietnam until the end of the war in 1975. 

The conflict with the United States was only one of several episodes of war in the recent history of Vietnam, with many historical conflicts with China to the north and then in the early 1950’s with France, which occupied Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as the colony of French Indochina. 

Indochine Français existed from the 1860’s until the historic defeat of the French army at Dien Bien Phu. The French surrender ended the First Indochina War in 1954 and after a peace conference in Geneva, Cambodia and Laos became independent countries and Vietnam was divided into two countries, the communist north and the democratic south with the demilitarized zone or DMZ to divide the two sides.

Get free access to
all stories.

Enter your email address,
and get an instant sign-in link.

Already have an account? Sign in

Essential cookies only.

We only use cookies that are necessary for signing in and hiding this notification. Nothing more. We do not track you using cookies.