Vietnam War
Vietnam War
Indochina
France controls
Indochina since late
19th Century
Japan took control
during WWII.
After the war, France
tries to recolonize it
with help from the
USA.
Ho Chi Minh
Leads the struggle for Vietnamese
independence. Had already led
resistance groups against the
Japanese.
• Leader of the Vietminh and a communist.
• Defeats the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu
in 1954. How?
• Guerilla tactics, more troops and aid from Mao.
Geneva Agreement 1954
• Independence for Laos and Cambodia
• Vietnam temporarily divided at the 17th parallel.
• Ho Chi Minh controls the nationalist forces in the
North.
• Ngo Dinh Diem, a French-educated, Roman
Catholic who is backed by the USA, controls the
South.
• Elections to be held in 1956 and then
reunification. However the elections are never
held.
Why did the USA back Diem?
Diem refuses to hold the elections and the USA
doesn’t press him. Why?
• Fear a communist victory.
Diem’s rule is repressive and corrupt. Buddhist
majority is persecuted. Peasants demand land
reform like what the communists had done in
the North. Yet, Eisenhower sends financial and
military aid. Why?
• There is no other alternative leader and…
…the Domino Theory
If one country falls to communism, the
neighboring countries would also fall.
Reasons for American involvement
• Primarily, the Vietminh and its successor, the
National Liberation Front (NLF); and the
government of North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi
Minh were agents of global communism and
therefore the enemy.
• In 1949, when the Communist Party came to
power in China, Washington feared that Vietnam
would become the next Asian domino. That was
one reason for Truman's 1950 decision to give aid
to the French who were fighting the Vietminh.
4 Different Presidents
between 1950 - 1965
• US enters the war in steps between 1950 –
1965
• None of the presidents wanted to lose a
country to communism.
• The US had promised assistance to the South
Vietnamese. US credibility was at stake
In 1950, Truman approved economic and
military aid to the French to retain control
of Indochina.
• It reassured the British,
whose postwar recovery was
linked the rubber and tin
industries in their colony of
Malaya.
• It would help the
development of nonCommunist nations of
Southeast Asia.
• Free trade in the region would
provide markets for Japan,
recovering with American
help after World War 2.
• With U.S. aid, the French
could concentrate on
economic recovery at home,
and hopefully oversee the
rearmament of West
Germany, a Cold War measure
deemed essential by the
Americans.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953-1961
• Attempts to build a nation and gov’t in South
Vietnam. Takes over control from the French,
dispatching military advisers to train a South
Vietnamese army.
• Does not want loss of North Korea to be in
vain.
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
Escalation
In 1961 he secretly sent 400
Special Operations Forces to teach the
South Vietnamese how to fight a counterinsurgency
war against Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam.
When Kennedy was assassinated in November
1963, there were more than 16,000 U.S. military
advisers in South Vietnam.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-69)
The US is now at war.
Johnson committed the US most
fully to the war. In August 1964, he
secured from Congress a functional (not actual)
declaration of war: the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
In February and March 1965, he authorized the
bombing of targets north of the 17th parallel, and
on 8 March dispatched 3,500 Marines to South
Vietnam. “Operation Rolling Thunder”
Operation Rolling Thunder
• US bombing raids to destroy the North
Vietnamese economy and force her to stop
helping the guerilla fighters in the south.
Bombing was also directed at NLF territory in
South Vietnam.
• It was suppposed to last 8 weeks but went on for
3 years. ( 1 million tons of bombs were dropped
on Vietnam more than what was dropped on
Germany, Japan and Italy during WW 2.)
NLF’s response to the bombing
• The response of the NLF was to attack US
airbases in the south. The US was unable to
defend them and more soldiers are requested.
• The first official US combat troops arrived
later that year (’65). The use of napalm is also
authorized by President Johnson.
• Soldiers from the S. Vietnamese army begin to
desert and 50% of the countryside in the
south are under the control of the Vietcong.
Tactics of the NLF: Guerilla Warfare
•
•
•
•
Organized into small cells of 3 – 10 soldiers.
Knowledge of each other kept to bare minimum.
Involve the enemy in a long, drawn-out war.
Gain support of peasants and take control of villages. Had
strict code of behavior.
• In exchange for land, the villages helped to feed and hide
the NLF.
• The peasants were motivated by fear of the US marines or
ARVN and gratitude to the NLF.
( South Vietnam / US ”Strategic hamlets” eroded peasant
support )
Tunnels and Trails
In the villages they controlled, the NLF
• built tunnels which led out into the jungle
• often contained caverns to store equipment
The Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Complex web of different jungle paths from
North Vietnam to areas close to Saigon.
• Impossible to identify from the air.
• Estimated 60 tons of aid per day reached the NLF.
”Too hot!
Too hot!”
The iconic photo taken on June 8, 1972 in Trang Bang by AP photographer Nick
Ut shows Phan Thị Kim Phúc at about nine years of age running naked on a road
after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc)
US public opinion turns
After the Tet Offensive 1968
• Although a Hanoi failure, General Westmoreland requests 200,000
more soldiers.
• Johnson is advised against further increases in number of ground
troops.
• He would restrict the bombing of North Vietnam and pursue a
negotiated settlement with Hanoi.
• Anti-war movement begins 1964, but now gains momentum as
casualties and costs rise.
• Over 14,000 Americans are killed in action this year – the highest
annual death toll of the war.
• TV coverage brings the war into ”the living room”.
Anti-war demonstrations
Draft from age 18. College students were exempt. 3 million served,
most from working class homes. Minorities were more likely to serve.
Song My or My Lai Massacre
March 16, 1968
The worst US war crime of the conflict.
Mass murder of 500 unarmed civilians.
Sparks global outrage when made public in
1969.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:My_Lai_massacre.jpg
Beginning of the end
Richard Nixon elected in 1968.
National security advisor
Henry Kissinger states 3 options:
• escalation
• withdrawal
• status quo
The policy chosen is gradual withdrawal and
Vietnamization. US would prepare the South
Vietnamese to gradually take over the military and political
control of South Vietnam
.
Aerial bombardment and troop
reductions
• In 1969 Nixon secretly began to bomb neutral
Cambodia which had provided a sanctuary for
Vietcong and NVA forces.
• Ground war continues even as troops withdraw.
The morale and discipline of the soldiers declines.
Futile endeavor!
• To support Vietnamization, in 1970 – 71 Nixon
sends ground units into Cambodia and approves
heavy air attacks on communist supply lines in
Laos and Cambodia.
Nixon’s diplomatic initiatives in 1972
With Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
USSR provided material support to North
Vietnam
With Chairman
Mao.
China helped to
transport Soviet
materials into
North Vietnam.
Peace talks 1969-1973
By April 1, 1973
• US forces were out of Vietnam.
• 587 POWs returned. 2500 still MIA.
• Congress cuts off funds and air war ends in Cambodia.
In November 1973 a new law is passed to limit presidential
power: War Powers Resolution.
• It states that the President can send U.S. armed forces into
action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if the
United States is already under attack or serious threat.
The Paris Peace Accord of 1973
The agreement:
• US to end its military involvement in Vietnam.
• North and South Vietnam agree to a ceasefire.
• South Vietnam to hold free elections. Any unification
to occur peacefully.
The reality:
• South Vietnam’s future is unsolved. Its military forces
deteriorate.
• In Spring 1975: NVA and the Vietcong take Saigon.
• South Vietnam falls and is reunited under a communist
government.