Vietnam War
Military History
American Role
1945-54
 Observer
 Gave French aid against Vietminh
– Part of strategy to fight communism
– By 1954—US pays 80% of cost
 French ask for assistance-US refuses
Geneva Agreement
 1954
 Laos and Cambodia made independent
 Vietnam divided
– Elections in 2 years
– North under control of Ho Chi Minh
– South—Diem
 South refuses to hold elections in 1956
Problems with South
 Never a “true nation”—artificial construct
 Diem sets up dictatorship
– Attacks enemies
– Catholic minority given favored positions
 Never has support of people in South
– Insurgency starts—initially not control by North
 US sends in advisors
Advisor Stage
 Initially advise ARVN to fight “American
style”
 President Kennedy sends LBJ to investigate
situation in Vietnam.
 Sends in more “advisors”
– Up to 16,000 helping the Vietnamese
 Massive influx of technology
– Helicopters, tanks, aircraft
John Paul Vann




Advisor in 1962
Counter-insurgency skills
Becomes frustrated with ARVN
Battle of Ap Bac
– Lack of assertiveness of ARVN
– Reply on artillery and firepower
– Allow enemy to escape
 Vann attempts to report problems
– Ignored—leadership only reports success
– Goes to Press—NY Times
Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964)





US Navy doing surveillance of North
Same time secret CIA missions in North
N. Vietnam does not realize difference
Attack USS Maddox
3 days later—repeat attack
– Many question if attack really happened
American Response
 Turning Point
 Johnson not completely honest with public
 G of T resolution written, waiting for right
moment
 Mistake-- obtain Declaration of War?
Americanization
 Limited War
– Limited manpower
– Limited goals
 Allow S. Vietnam to exist without communist
intervention
 Probably impossible to accomplish
 War of Attrition
– Kill more than enemy can field
– Bodycounts important
 Westmoreland asks for more troops
 American public told that victory is close
Air War
 Rolling Thunder—drop more tonnage than
WWII
– More in South than North
– Gradualism
– Controlled in Washington
– Hanoi, Haiphong harbor, Chinese border off
limits
 Problem-few suitable targets for strategic
bombing
Different Result?
 JCS drew up list of 94 targets in 1965
– Claimed it would knock North out of the war in 2
weeks.
– Most targets were on off-limits list
Change in Air War
 Late in War--Negotiation strategy
– Linebacker I
 Force NV to negotiate
– Linebacker II
 Break negotiations impasse
 Most restraints removed
 Very effective—high losses of B-52s
Naval Role
 Significant Role 1965-68
 Fire support—use of carriers and battleships
 Interdiction of supplies
– Operation Market Time
 Stop coastline resupply of VC
 Riverine Warfare
– Control the rivers—Mekong River
– Generally successful
Tet Offensive
 Turning Point of war
 Seemingly impossible major attack
 Hit urban areas
– Crushed—VC basically destroyed as force
 Politically- US defeat, NV victory
– Role of media-Walter Cronkite
 Johnson begins to have doubts
– Halts bombing, stops troop increases
My Lai Massacre
 Attack by American troops on unarmed
women and children
– Area of known heavy VC activity-”pinkville”
– Charlie Company recently lost popular Srgt.
 Killed over 400 Vietnamese
 Cover-up –revealed by NY Times
 Came to be a symbol of American actions in
Vietnam
– Blow to military credibility
Change in policy
 Westmoreland asks for 200,000 more troops
 Johnson’s advisors start to tell him the war
is unwinnable.
– Recommend disengagement
 Johnson leaves big issues for Nixon to
resolve in 1969
 Nixon claims to have “secret plan”
Failed American Strategy
 Depended heavily on search and destroy
missions
 Depended on sophisticated surveillance and
heavily armed patrols to locate enemy
 Then destroy with airstikes, artillery and air
cavalry
 Need for repeated sweeps
 Hard to identify enemy—high civilian losses
Vietnamization
 US slowly withdraws
– Turns over equipment to ARVN
 Nixon Administration decides to walk away
 Negotiations with North Vietnamese
Secret War in Cambodia
 Nixon began to bomb communist bases in neutral
Cambodia.
 April, 1972 American and Vietnamese forces
invade Cambodia
 Hope to cut North Vietnamese supply lines
 Failed to achieve its goal
– Destabilizes the Cambodian government
 Massive protest in America—appears to be
expansion of war
End is near
 1972-NV launches major offensive
– Smashes SV forces
– US bombs North-nothing else
 Early in 1973, negotiated settlement
reached
– SV government in place
– Allowed VC and NVA in control of parts of South
End
 January 1973-last American combat soldier
leaves South
 March 1975-North launches another
offensive
– US fails to help
– North wins
Cost of War





Military, social and political disaster
58,000 Americans killed
3-4 million Vietnamese
Cost of war estimated at $100 billion
Nonmonetary costs much higher
– Undermined confidence in American institutions